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A new piece by the European essayist Wolfgang Bruno:
I have stated before that we in the West need to face down our internal enemies, the twin trolls of Denial and Defeatism, before we can have any chance of dealing with Islam. Yes, the Islamic threat is very real and could lead to a cataclysmic world war unless stopped. No, it's not too late to win this. Not yet. Writer Mark Steyn does a good job at devouring the former troll, but insists on feeding the latter. As Lawrence Auster demonstrates, Steyn continues to claim that we have in fact already lost, and must settle for "a Muslim majority world." He talks as if he is the Churchill of our age, yet displays a resigned defeatism that would have made even Neville Chamberlain blush.Contrary to the views expressed by many, the madness of the Muhammad cartoons issue can in hindsight turn out to have been a blessing in disguise. Eurabia's legions of spin doctors were quite successful in placing the blame for 9/11, the Madrid and the London bombings on US and Israeli foreign policies. These attacks may actually have strengthened Eurabia. Not so this time. The first cracks in this wall came with the murder of Theo van Gogh. With the Danish cartoon case, these cracks have now grown into a chasm.
The Phony War was a phase in early WW2 marked by few military operations in Continental Europe, in the months following the German invasion of Poland. What we have witnessed during these past few months is the end of the Phony War against Islamic Jihad. The election of hard-line president Ahmadinejad in Iran and of Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, the Muslim riots in France and the international unrest triggered by the Muhammad cartoons case mark a watershed in this battle. After having carefully, and one must admit skilfully, built up the mythology of Islamic tolerance for decades, Muslims now blew their own cover. This is end of taqiyya, and from the Muslim point of view, it probably came too soon. It is indeed possible for Muslims to win this, but it would have made more sense for them to lay low for another couple of decades, and quietly continue the demographic Jihad through migration conquest. Of course, being Muslims, they have to boast and brag all the time, and haven't got the patience to wait that long. This critical character flaw, more than infidel strength, is why they will most likely lose. Just like the Japanese during WW2, who hailed the attack on Pearl Harbor as a great victory, the sheer arrogance of their creed blinds them from realizing when they make huge mistakes that could eventually cost them victory.
There is now a critical mass of Europeans who see clearly that Islam and Muslim immigration constitute a mortal danger to their freedom and their civilization. They feel confused and scared, but first of all angry. If this is the true face of Islam, doesn't that mean that our academic elites, our media and our political leaders have lied to us systematically for decades? Muslims misunderstand the mentality and potential response from the infidels because they see mainly the appeasement of the political class. What they don't see is the simmering defiance that is growing at the grassroots level.What we need now is not another column by Mark Steyn telling us that all is lost and we might as well surrender pre-emptively. What we need now is anger. Anger gives you energy, instead of the resigned passivity bred by defeatism. However, we should be careful not direct this anger towards that favorite Eurabian boogeyman, the USA and Israel, nor should we resort to the time-tested European tradition of targeting random "foreigners." It wasn't the Americans or the Israelis who brought us into this mess, and it certainly wasn't the Indian dentist or the Chinese shopkeeper down the corner. It was in fact our very own EU elites.
Americans tend to consider the EU as a joke. It's not, because it's not funny. Apart from a few vague statements, the EU has largely abandoned Denmark during the cartoon incident. "European unity" only exists whenever Brussels wants to subvert the democratic process in individual member states and force more Islam down our throats, selling us out behind our backs through the intricate networks of the Euro-Arab Dialogue. The Danish embassies had hardly burnt down before Javier Solana, the "Foreign Minister" of the European Union, promised his real masters the Saudis that the EU would henceforth work to limit freedom of speech for half a billion people. And he can't be held responsible for this by the European public, since he doesn't answer to any democratically elected government. The EU is not a joke, the EU is evil, destroying freedom across an entire continent and spreading instability far beyond the borders of Europe. The Cold War was won when Ronal Reagan publicly labelled the Soviet Union "the Evil Empire." A generation later, we are witnessing the rise of another Evil Empire. Not the Soviet Union, but the European Union. It's time to bring this one down, too. The European Union, not the USA and definitely not Israel, is the greatest threat to world peace today. It is appeasement by the EU that has emboldened the Islamic Jihad, and not just in the West. The EU is an increasingly totalitarian entity that is post-democratic and neo-feudalist. The buildings of the European Commission should be turned into a museum of the history of dhimmitude and Jihad across the world. Parts of it could be torn down and displayed next to pieces of the Berlin Wall, symbols of past tyranny and oppression and the ultimate triumph of freedom. Javier Solana, Chris Patten and their ilk should be tried for treason in public trials to reveal the full scale of the Eurabian project.
There is a growing estrangement between the peoples of Europe and their elites. People sense that they are not being told the truth, and feel betrayed. Somebody needs to show them just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Publish Bat Ye'or's book Eurabia online, both in the full version and in abridged versions of 50 and 5 pages. Pay the author whatever she wants for the copyrights, and encourage the translation of the book into multiple European languages. Store it online on websites such as Faith Freedom International and Jihad Watch, as well as major blogs based outside of Eurabian jurisdiction, and encourage visitors to download the text or display it on their own websites.
This principle could be repeated with a number of books critical of Islam, creating a flood of information bypassing politically correct media and official censorship. Such an operation could receive clandestine support of the Bush administration. It would cost a fraction of the war in Iraq, and achieve a lot more, both in the West and in the world in general.
Perhaps instead of pinning our hopes on an Islamic Reformation that will probably never materialize, Westerners should rather focus on an Enlightenment and a new Renaissance. Not in the Islamic world, but in Europe and the West. Wishful thinking, you say? Well, although the situation is now very serious, it is in fact not impossible to imagine such an outcome. Moreover, it is important that somebody formulates an alternative, positive vision to rival that of Islam and Eurabia, or the only alternatives ordinary Europeans will be stuck with are extremist political movements. And then we will end up with a Clash of Fascisms and the death of European democracy. Hope is important. Without formulating a positive vision of hope we can never win this.
Muslims always claim that the West owes much to Islam, and that Islamic influences triggered the Renaissance. That's not true. But maybe it will be this time. It is true that the West in general and Europe in particular has lost its way at the beginning of the 21st century. Perhaps this life-and-death struggle with Islam is precisely the slap in the face that we need to regroup and revitalize our civilization. Europe will now be forced to rethink her culture and the entire basis of Western civilization, if she is going to cure the weaknesses that are currently making her vulnerable to Islamic infiltration. We need to rebuild a stronger sense of Western unity, much fractured by the Eurabian Union and the anti-Western, pre-Enlightenment ideology of Multiculturalism. If so, Islam would indeed be responsible for triggering a Western Renaissance, the Second Renaissance. Ironically, Islam itself would be critically, perhaps mortally wounded by this struggle, and Bernard Lewis would be proved wrong. Europe, or at least most of Europe, will not be Islamic by the end of his century. It is more likely that Islam itself will have ceased to be a global force of any significance by that point. But it is important to realize that such a result will not come by itself. It will require Europeans, Westerners and infidels in general to grow some backbone, end appeasement and openly confront the very real Islamic threat we are now facing. If we do so, I remain confident that we will prevail. We just have to listen a bit less to the defeatist siren song of Mark Steyn.
Posted by Robert at March 3, 2006 5:19 AM
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"Contrary to the views expressed by many, the madness of the Muhammad cartoons issue can in hindsight turn out to have been a blessing in disguise."
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If more people like this very brave arab-american emerge, something good might happend. She says "it is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship."
And she continues: "Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don't throw them at me. You are free to worship whoever you want, but other people's beliefs are not your concern, whether they believe that the Messiah is God, son of Mary, or that Satan is God, son of Mary. Let people have their beliefs."
Its a MUST SEE video.
I admire her for her courage to confront islam LIVE on arabian TV.
http://sugiero.blogspot.com/2006/03/caricatures-cartoons-and-muhammed.html
Posted by: sugero![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 3, 2006 6:29 AM
Mr. Bruno, I'm not quite ready to write off the EU. It must govern a continent with democratic processes in many places, and those could be used to overthrow the "rational" bureaucratism of Brussels (as capital of the EU raher than of Belgium per se).
However, it would be better far for Europe to be re-Christianized. After all, in the 16th and 17th centuries, a host of Jesuit and Reformed writers put forth an ideal of rule of law and limited government, while the bilicism of the latter group allowed these to flourish. In contrast, it seems enlightenment secularism has morphed into something that would batter down all mediating structures between the individual and state in order to create its centralized, bureaucratic, neo-imperial order.
Posted by: Kepha at March 3, 2006 7:28 AM
Hahaha! Bruno and Auster have Steyn all wrong. In addition to being a great writer -- employing the twin talents of rhetoric and humor -- Steyn is actually something of a master agent provocateur shaking his readers out of their multicultural slumber and fomenting precisely the type of anger directed at Islamofascism and European plutocrats that Bruno wishes for.
When I read Steyn, I am jolted into recognising how much our liberty and security have already been sacrificed -- bartered away in exchange for lucrative oil and trade deals with the Arabs. When a lucid writer demonstrates to me that I have been deceived, betrayed, exploited, slapped in the face, and am at risk of losing everything I hold dear, I get VERY ANGRY! And more importantly, I am moved to action, particularly if I feel time is short to reverse the outcome.
Bruno writes well and understands the threat but we need more writers like Steyn who can reach and connect with the hoi polloi.
Posted by: Charles Martel at March 3, 2006 7:41 AM
KEPHA: "After all, in the 16th and 17th centuries, a host of Jesuit and Reformed writers put forth an ideal of rule of law and limited government, while the bilicism of the latter group allowed these to flourish."
Not to appear deliberately contrarian, but the 15th and 16th centuries also witnessed the bloodiest religious wars in Christian history. The Huegenots were visciously persecuted in France, the 30-years War ravaged Germany, and the British Isles were racked by religious strife until King James was defeated at the turn of the 18th century.
I think it a mistake to attribute the enlightenment and all the subsequent material and intellectual accomplishments to our Christian traditions. In some cases, the Christian ethos for tolerance indeed facilitated a "hundred flowers" of thought, i.e., the pluralism that made the West what it is. In many other cases, the Christian world had to be dragged kicking and screaming into modernity.
Posted by: Cornelius at March 3, 2006 8:00 AM
Should be 16th and 17th centuries...
at March 3, 2006 8:01 AM
Cornelius: The Huguenots sure were persecuted, and there sure were bloody religious wars in those days. But, the Huguenots Francois Hotman, Philippe DuPlessis-Mornay, Hubert Languet, and Theodore de Beze were among our pioneers of the ideal of limited government. In Britain, Puritans such as Rutherford and Goodman placed the ruler below the law a generation before Locke.
And I'm not so sure "modernity" per se is a good thing. Our relativism masquerading as pluralism is "modernity", as is Marxist brutality. Re the former, is it not the case that the Islamicists are able to advance their assault on the West precisely because being "tolerant" and lacking in conviction to defend oneself is precisely the "modern" thing to do?
Re the enlightenment, someone once observed that the "natural law" of Kant bore an uncanny similarity to Lutheran ethics; that of Hume bore a kinship to Calvinist ethics; and that of Diderot smacked of Catholicism. Draw your own conclusions.
BTW, Cornelius, I accept a warts-an-all portrait of my religion and people(s). Your comments were welcome.
Posted by: Kepha at March 3, 2006 10:39 AM
This is bracing, encouraging stuff. It would be good to see a debate between Bruno and Steyn.
Kepha, is "bilicism" a word?
Posted by: Cato the Elder at March 3, 2006 10:40 AM
Of course Herr Bruno is absolutely correct. If the Ummah is to be reduced it will be because of a resurgent nationalism that sweeps the pessimism aside. The EU represents the worst of all possible political worlds in this struggle; under the EU nothing will be ventured and nothing will be gained.
Emerson
Posted by: Emerson Twain at March 3, 2006 12:58 PM
Kepha
Add to that illustrious list George Buchanan with his De Jure Regni. Proud Scots hold him to be more influential than Shakespeare (the nerve!--just kidding)
at March 3, 2006 3:01 PM
I don't know who Wolfgang Bruno is but I very much enjoyed his essay. From this American, I say "Go Wolfgang, go!" We in the West need to wake up to this serious, growing threat of Islamic Jihad. The West has suffered many attacks large and small since about the 1970's. In the end, much of it comes back to immigration. The West must reduce Muslim immigration and procreate more. Enough said.
Posted by: Nessus at March 3, 2006 3:04 PM
Catone:
I'm not so sure the two would have anything substantive to debate. I see Steyn's "defeatism" as a rhetorical ploy, like a poster above says, rather than an attitude. At least in his pieces of journalism.
at March 3, 2006 3:09 PM
From above:
Muslims always claim that the West owes much to Islam, and that Islamic influences triggered the Renaissance. That's not true.
In a way it is true. As the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, Constantinople was the cultural and knowldege center of the Mediterranean world. When it fell to Islam, by the sword in Islam's ever peaceful expansion, the cultural and knowledge elites of Constantinople were able to relocate back to the remnants of the Western Empire and the rest, according to Gibbons, is history.
Posted by: Lisa at March 3, 2006 3:20 PM
Cornelius--Oops. My Bad. the word is "Biblicism".
Ovidius: Thanks for the reminder. I devoted a chapter of my Ph.D. dissertation to George Buchanan--and I think his political contribution to Western civilization is one of the great unsung matters with which our history is littered.
Scotophile Kepha
Posted by: Kepha at March 3, 2006 8:38 PM
I want to read much more in the vein of this Bruno's writing. Yes, the tactics of pointing out the problem in all its horror are important, but once the non-muslim is convinced of the threat (which doesn't take long once one starts getting informed), the next step is 'what to do??'
I'm ready to read thoughtful peoples' ideas on effective action to protect us all from sharia, basically.
Posted by: Lilith at March 3, 2006 10:01 PM
An alien agenda of War is found in this EU, US, Israel et al, philosophy of political correctness, a coined Marxism Product of Lennin, Moscow 1923.
Obfuscation and intimidation is found in Gyrating judgement of leaders looking for the enemy, Islam! and Looking for War Map to an uncompromising Victory! Liberal allegiance is to nothing but "The Search"! For sure, it's for an all illusive *commonsense* and it's *not* found in dogma of political correct choices "to circumvent Victory"! For sure, these Liberals,Pacifest, merchants have a plan, they have traded government and brought a prayer rug! Liberals don't "do" War & Victory they compromise & capitulate!
at March 6, 2006 2:04 PM
REPLICATING THE CARTOON INCIDENT'S EFFECT
That the cartoon incident should have strengthened European will to resist Islamicization is a result fervently to be wished. However, insofar as the cartoon incident may prove insufficient to produce that result, or may require occasional reinforcement, similar incidents might readily be manufactured so often as may be required.
For example, one might stage, with due publicity, Voltaire’s "Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le prophète," written in 1740, and first staged in Lille in 1741. The original French text may be found online at http://www.areopage.net/Textes/Mahomet.htm . Translations into English and German are also readily available. See: "Mahomet the prophet: Or, Fanaticism: a tragedy in five acts," trans. Robert L. Myers (New York: F. Ungar, 1964); and "Mahomet: Trauerspiel in fuenf Aufzuegen," translated by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Tuebingen: Cotta, 1802). At least the French and German versions are so old that copyrights may have expired, so that they might be produced without either royalty payments or the permission of author's or translator’s estate.
Voltaire’s drama seems an apt choice because:
-- (a) it might prove difficult for Western advocates of appeasement to cast on Voltaire the aspersions that they have cast on the Danish cartoonists and the Danish newspaper that solicited them, and
-- (b) Voltaire is famous for his advocacy of freedom of speech ("I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.")
However, other instruments well-suited to revealing the extent of Islamic intolerance surely abound. Perhaps other Dhimmiwatch readers might care to suggest a few?
(Wolfgang: This message duplicates a comment I posted in response to your "Defeating Defeatism" article on another website, as you know. I take the liberty of sharing it comment with Dhimmiwatch readers, who may find it useful.)
at March 8, 2006 10:14 PM
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