• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Fitzgerald: Sweetly sinister apologetics

Feb 17, 2007 10:23 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

“Reverend Patrick Gaffney of the University of Notre Dame blamed associations of Islam with violence on a history of anti-Islamic prejudice, insisting “there are parallel behaviours in every tradition.” Gaffney maintained there was little point looking for “distinct features” within Islamic theology that might have bearing on the wave of cartoon-related violence.” — from this article

How does the Reverend Patrick Gaffney know that there is “little point” looking for “distinct features” within “Islamic theology that might have bearing on the wave of cartoon-related violence”? Has he looked into that “Islamic theology” to see if in fact there are some “distinct features”? If he has not looked into “Islamic theology” at all, then he has no right to tell us that there is “little point” in doing so, because he has no basis for offering that assurance.

If he has looked into “Islamic theology” and wishes to claim that there is nothing in it that might have bearing on the wave of cartoon-related violence, then evidently he is asserting that there is nothing in it about the inculcated views of Infidels, nothing about the duty of Jihad, collective or at times individual, nothing about the loyalty owed the umma al-islamiyya, nothing about how Muhammad is the Model of Conduct, uswa hasana, and the Perfect Man, al-insan al-kamil, nothing about how Muhamamd dealt with those who mocked him, nothing about how Muslims, in following Muhammad’s clear example (assassination, either ordered or approved, by Muhammad himself), deal with what they regard as acts of “blasphemy.”
Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, dared to exercise, for its Danish readers in Denmark, Danish rights guaranteed by the Danish legal and political system. Those same rights are in fact guaranteed to individuals in all the most advanced Western countries. They are also enshrined in such documents as the American Bill of Rights (the first ten, or more exactly, the first eight amendments). For this act of daring to exercise those rights, the newspaper’s editors were threatened with death, Danes everywhere in the Muslim lands were threatened with death, economic boycotts were declared, ambassadors were recalled, and imams in Denmark (not “Danish imams,” which would be a different thing), went on tours to whip up easily whipped-up hysteria in the Middle East against all Danes everywhere.

Reverend Patrick Gaffney needs to study Islam. Not Islam as he would have it be. Islam as it is, and Islam as it has been acted upon by Muslims over the past 1350 years. He should study both the years of Jihad-conquest and then the centuries of subsequent subjugation of non-Muslims, leading in many cases to the almost complete disappearance of Christians and Jews and Zoroastrians in the lands where they were once not only the majority but made up the entire populations. The Jihad also helped to wipe Buddhism out in India and to destroy 60-70 million Hindus, and thousands of temple complexes, and to forcibly convert other tens of millions of Hindus to Islam. Their descendants are the Muslims of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh whom we see today, and who are determinedly uninterested in the conditions that caused their Hindu ancestors to convert.

Reverend Patrick Gaffney is exploiting his clerical collar to be one more recruit in the army of apologists for Islam. Even though his evident motive is not cupidity, he is effective joining the ranks of many who have found this path enriching — so many former ambassadors, journalists, empire-building academics (Esposito with his “Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding”), businessmen eager for Saudi contracts, even ex-C.I.A. agents (see the last three decades in the life of Raymond Close, formerly C.I.A. station chief in Riyadh, from 1970-1977).

He shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it. Collar or no collar, he should not be allowed to be a front man or apologist for things that must be studied and their full, menacing nature understood.

Father Coughlin didn’t get away with it, not after Pearl Harbor. We had our Pearl Harbor, or rather the Infidels everywhere have had a rolling series of Pearl Harbors, but not enough Infidels have had the wit to properly identify them as such. But they are there. And Father Gaffney, like Father Coughlin, will ultimately have to stop his sweetly sinister apologetics.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • William Garrison on The Fantasy Islam of Rice University’s Craig Considine (Part 3)
  • Vladimir on Islamic Republic of Iran: Turkey’s Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests
  • John on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Vladimir on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.