Jihad Watch Board Vice President Hugh Fitzgerald offers some advice to the Secretary of State:
Condoleeza Rice, for various reasons, is deemed untouchable. She is The One Who Must Be Obeyed and Never Criticized. Nonsense. Her bullying of Israel is only part of it. But because it is so obviously based on an almost willful incomprehension of Islam, and of why the Arabs and Muslims have been engaged in a relentless campaign against that state, it is worth emphasizing.
Not understanding that no Infidel nation-state can possibly be contemplated by Arab Muslims, and particularly not one that is under the control of the much-despised yahudim (Jews), and that the size of Israel does not matter in the least, Rice keeps promoting, or parroting the idea of, the “two-state solution” (and we know it must be a “solution” because otherwise they would not have called it a “solution,” now would they?). She does not understand that the divisions among “Palestinians” are only about means, and tactics, not about ultimate ends.
Rice’s ignorance is matched only by her incomprehension. She still thinks that territorial “compromise” is the path to peace – “compromise” in this case meaning continued Israeli surrender of territory to which it has a legal, historic and moral claim (including the claims under the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine, which she really should take the time to read and study. She should then also to read and study about the history of the non-Arabs and non-Muslims in what she seems to think is “the Arab world”).
And because Rice does not understand what Islam is all about, she also does not understand that its menace will not be diminished in any way by the creation of a viable nation-state called Iraq. Such a state will not be a “Light Unto the Muslim Nations” and will do nothing to diminish the power of the Islamic jihad imperative. The Administration shows no signs of recognizing that Iraq presents a much more realistic and much more valuable opportunity to weaken that jihad imperative by letting the natural resentments of Kurds for Arabs, and of Shi’a for Sunnis (which we see so much of in today’s headlines), to play out — without the Americans standing in the middle to take casualties and to hand out money to be pocked by the most fantastically corrupt group of people with whom the Americans have ever had to deal. How much of American taxpayers’ money has already been spirited out of Iraq to pay for Arab Muslims living in luxury, while many of those same taxpayers suffer at home, is a fascinating question.
Rice doesn’t get Islam, so of course she doesn’t get how to divide, demoralize, and throw into disarray the forces of jihad — by withdrawing from, rather than remaining in, Iraq. In fact, Rice’s comments on Israel, while they reveal the depth of her ignorant self-assurance, are matched by her lecturing the Kurds. This should not be forgotten. For a free Kurdistan should be supported. The Turks should be told that they will have to accept it. They may even come to see a free Kurdistan incorporating northern Iraq and other territories taken from Iran and Syria, as not a step on the way to the loss of what is presently Turkish territory, but rather to a less compelling moral case for the Kurds of Turkey to demand greater autonomy, or even independence, if there is now at least one place where the Kurdish desire for national self-expression exists.
The kidglove treatment of her by the press is not warranted. Has everyone forgotten how she failed to meet with Richard Clarke? Bright Young Conservatives and other lockstep supporters of Bush were simply too busy vilifying Clarke, and too busy defending anyone and everyone in the Bush Administration, that they could not see that she was responsible for a good deal and was getting away with fudging the matter. Two to three years ago Condoleeza Rice, a great resume-artist (isn’t everyone these days?), was sending her resume off so that she might be considered for the presidency of the University of Pennsylvania. She didn’t get the job. Her consolation prize, showing what a swell guy Bush is, was the job of Secretary of State.
No one – not Rice or anyone else — should be in a position of authority in Washington who has not bothered to acquaint himself with the teachings of Islam. If Robert Spencer’s books are not enough, supplement them with the studies of the dhimmi by Bat Ye’or, the testimonies of ex-Muslims (Ibn Warraq’s “Why I Am Not a Muslim” and “Leaving Islam”), and all the websites of the many former Muslims or former residents of countries where, as non-Muslims, they were subject to the oppression, in little ways and big, that all non-Muslims must endure in Muslim societies.
Ali Sina (a one-man whirlwind)…Brigitte Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, Anwar Shaikh, Azam Kamguian, Irfan Khawaja. All were born into Islam, or if non-Muslims, born into Islamic societies or societies heavily influenced by Islam (as in the case of Brigitte Gabriel). All are now living in the West. There are enough such people, just like the refugees and defectors from Communism, to tell us the truth of what Islam teaches, and what attitudes and atmospherics arise naturally from it.
Rice is not stupid. She can study. She can learn about Islam. But she has to decide to make the effort, and to stop repeating cliches and nonsense about it. These not only mislead the public but get in the way of the fashioning of policies that make sense.
Start making sense.