And the Left responded with ridicule and smears. But now they’re scrambling to shore up their ridiculously counter-factual position. “Thank You, ISIS,” by David Horowitz, October 9, 2014 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
Beheadings of innocent human beings are unspeakable acts reflecting the barbaric savagery of the Islamic “holy war” against the West — against us. Yet despite the intentions of their perpetrators, they have had an unexpected utility. Their gruesome images have entered the living rooms and consciousness of ordinary Americans and waked them up.
The barbarity of the Islamic movement for world domination has actually been evident for decades: in the suicide bombing of the Marine compound in Lebanon in 1982, in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, in the suicide attacks on Jews — men, women, and children — during the second Palestinian Intifada in 2000, in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, and in the beheadings perpetrated in Iraq by al-Qaeda’s Abu al-Zarqawi and the Salafist group known as Ansar al-Islam during the Iraq War.
Unfortunately, the response to these barbarities on the part of the Democratic party and the liberal elites has been to condemn and marginalize anyone who called them barbarous. In their eyes, it is racist to use the word “barbarism” to describe the acts of any Third World people. To associate Islam with the Islamists was Islamophobic. President Obama is still trapped in this time warp, denying in so many words that the Islamic State is Islamic. For America’s commander-in-chief to make such an obviously moronic statement about his country’s enemy in wartime reflects how deeply settled is the ideology of protecting the Islamists (and jeopardizing the innocent). Even Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, could not bring himself to describe the enemy as Islamic. Settling on “War on Terror” as a descriptive term was a way of eliding the fact that the savagery was motivated by not by nihilism but by Islamic faith. The Obama Democrats have gone even deeper into denial, eliminating “War on Terror” from the government vocabulary and replacing it with “overseas contingency operations.”
For more than a decade, a handful of conservatives, of whom I was one, tried to sound the alarm about the Islamist threat. For our efforts, we were ridiculed, smeared as bigots, and marginalized as Islamophobes. In 2004 I published a book called Unholy Alliance about the Islamist movement and the support it was receiving from the American Left. For my concern, Harvard professor and Islam expert Noah Feldman dismissed me as a “relic” in the New York Times Book Review. It was the last time the Times mentioned one of my books.
In 2006 and 2007, I organized nearly 200 “teach-ins” on American campuses, which I called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness” weeks. The idea was to legitimize the term “Islamo-fascist” as a description of the enemy confronting us. These demonstrations were attacked by the Muslim Students Association, which is a recruiting organization for the Muslim Brotherhood, and by Students for Justice in Palestine, a front for the terrorist party Hamas. They also inspired the contempt of the liberal Left. Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo devoted two YouTube videos to ridiculing me for holding the demonstrations. Campus leftists called the students who organized them racists, bigots, and Islamophobes.
Resolutions denouncing critics of Islamic misogyny and terror as “Islamophobes” were unanimously passed by leftist-run student councils at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and a dozen other elite schools. Lengthy reports on the menace of Islamophobia targeted me and other speakers at our campus demonstrations, including Robert Spencer and Daniel Pipes. These reports, costing tens of thousands of dollars to produce, were published by FAIR, CAIR, the egregious Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Center for American Progress — the brain trust of the Democratic party.
And then came ISIS. The horrific images of the beheadings, the reports of mass slaughters, and the threats to the American homeland have accomplished what our small contingent of beleaguered conservatives could never have achieved by ourselves. They brought images of these Islamic fanatics and savages into the living rooms of the American public, and suddenly the acceptable language for describing the enemy began to change. “Savages” and “barbarians” began to roll off the tongues of evening-news anchors and commentators who never would have dreamed of crossing that line before, for fear of offending the politically correct….
Always On Watch says
We who have been sounding the alarm were Cassandras — still are, to some extent.
Only an idiot wouldn’t be able to see the truth now!
Wellington says
Unfortunately, idiots still abound in the West. There’s one in the Oval Office, another at 10 Downing Street and yet a third one presently in charge at the Vatican. And many, many more besides these three idiots.
Neil JENNISON says
Sad but 100% accurate.
Elisheva14 says
I still don’t think Americans are waking up: even after the beheading in Oklahoma. Most Israelis know and talk openly and honestly about the enemy, but Americans are still asleep for the most part. They think that the US is a large country and where they live it is still safe. I would have thought that Americans would have woken up after 9/11. The US Denial is very strong together with not wanting to be labeling a Islamaphobe or Racist.
Shane says
The left is still in denial as proved by the recent Affeck versus Maher debate where Affleck said that it was “racist” to say that Islam was full of bad ideas. I guess that Affleck must approve of the death penalty for adultery, apostasy, blasphemy, and for male homosexuals then, as Islamic sharia law mandates.
Shane says
I forgot to mention that the liberal audience overwhelmingly favored the clueless twit Affleck over Maher.
Bob Smith says
Obama is not an idiot. He is a Manchurian candidate Muslim.
He is playing the liberals for the fools they are. At the same time he is doing his own jihad – helping the spread of Islam.
Inka Hutz says
I appreciate your analogy,Bob Smith, most people simply bash Obama as a clueless moron, which is simply not true.There is something far more evil and sinister going on here. The real enemy of Muslims,which includes Obama is Israel. You can draw your own conclusions.
SpiritOf1683 says
Unfortunately idiots still make up 95% of non-Muslims in the West, even after 1,400 years of beheadings, rapes, conquests and the like – sometimes on our own street. There’s still a long way to go despite the events of the last 14 years or more, and we don’t have much time.
Ben says
OFF-TOPIC:
Look what Reza Aslan wrote as a reply to Bill Maher, he even uses christian Verses of the bible to refute Mahers claims on Islam:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/comments/2014/10/09/opinion/bill-maher-isnt-the-only-one-who-misunderstands-religion.html
Ben says
Here the right link without the comments:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/opinion/bill-maher-isnt-the-only-one-who-misunderstands-religion.html
Reza Aslan should stick to his moon-god-Religion and leave christianity alone!!!
Tommy Guns says
Reza Aslan is a waste of skin. Condescending, arrogant prick!!!
LaDonna says
I am not even going to look. How does one use the Bible to refute what people say about the Koran? One is a religious text used by many different religions, the other is a sick, demented, murderous political philosophy.
jsteves2000 says
YES….Talk show people and many good writers have been sounding this for years and a few of us “good old boys and red necks” too
Beagle says
I assume National Review editors decided to saddle this piece with which I otherwise agree with the “Thank You, ISIS” headline. Hard to get past that.
When I would speculate on a future caliphate I did not foresee it having so much early success. Nor did I think the Shia forces opposing it would be totally incompetent and surrender or run in groups of several hundred at a time. Worst of all perhaps I figured the West might give the threat the respect it deserves. Three strikes.
I envisoned more internecine warfare, not a nascent state stretching from the NW Syria-Turkey border to NE of Baghdad. I tend to think I must be overly pessimistic, but then reality in the form of Obama and the Middle East shows one can rarely be pessimistic enough.
I just saw Kerry downplaying the upcoming human suffering about to be unleashed on the thousands of Kurds and other refugees left in Kobani. I have never been less proud of or less confident in US national leadership.
Send the Kurds TOW missiles, AT-4s, RPGs from that CIA warehouse, something. How can a human being let IS rampage over another town when only your inaction is allowing it to happen?
Gallows humor:
When IS has Kobani they finally will be the Lakers.
Jack Holan says
I hope Israel is watching very closely and drawing the appropriate conclusions given some new political thinking in DC.
John C. Barile says
That, Beagle, is what the self-governing Kurds and Syriac Christians ask for–arms, not Recip Erdogan’s fraternal assistance at the point of Turkish bayonets.
Brian Hoff says
Turkey is allowing these touble maker to enter Turkey where they will be safe from the IS.
jihad3tracker says
Hello Beagle — This is not gallows humor, but my ancient noggin sometimes needs a bit of escape to avoid going nuts coping with the idiocy of clueless Americans :
For those of us here who recall Don Knotts as Deputy Fife in Mayberry, can you conjure up him finding a jihadist in Floyd’s barber shop getting a beard trim ? Cognitive dissonance & Cultural clash !
I will leave it to other JW commenters here for dialogue in such an encounter. BTW — Aunt Bee is OK to include in the episode, if you permit her to join the slugfest.
John C. Barile says
Mayberry was very keen in its day to embrace Detente. Hosting Soviet summiteers to down-home American folksiness and big-heartedness melted away the misunderstandings and mistrust of those bad old Cold War era. Today’s Mayberry would be all warm fuzziness toward the new imam and his newly settled congregants.
John C. Barile says
But then, maybe you didn’t see that episode.
Salah says
Indeed, thank you, ISIS.
Thank you for showing the true face of Islam. Thank you for emulating Muhammad to the letter. And, most of all, thank you for the soon total destruction of Islam. You’re doing a great service to humanity.
Yet, you’re gonna pay for the innocent blood you’re shedding.
A special “thank you” from Alia al Mahdy:
Egyptian woman sitting on ISIS black flag!!! (nudity)
http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.ca/2014/09/photo-action-against-isis.html
Davegreybeard says
Most excellent Salah.
I would title the photo “Bush vs. ISIS.”
Deus Vult!
Liam1304 says
Thank you for this Mr Horowitz. Hopefully it reaches Ben Affleck’s inbox…
Still disappointed with you & Mr Radosh’s ungentlemanly & unscholarly handling of the Diana West “American Betrayal” fiasco though.
Ready to heal that lost opportunity yet?
All the best
duh_swami says
What’s happening is the evidence is getting so deep that even the most calcified can’t help but notice it. Even if most of them are talking about it wrong, at least they are talking about it.
The chains of ignorance are loosening a little. Hannity, one of the most confused, even had Spencer on and gave him a little uninterrupted time…Not enough though. But ignorance survives, I heard Alan Colmes spouting off insanity last night and and I yelled at him so loud it scared the birds out of the tree’s…I shut the bugger off by changing channels…
R Davis says
WE THE PEOPLE OF THIS PLANET ARE NOT 1/2 WIT’S.
PRACTICAL SCIENCE TELLS US THAT THE KNIFE IN THE PICTURE IS NOT SUFFICIENTLY BIG ENOUGH TO SEVER A HUMANS NECK.
WITH THAT KNIFE NO ONE WAS BEHEADED.
DO YOU THINK THAT PEOPLE FEEL INSULTED AT ALL –
WHEN THEY ARE PRESENTED WITH A RIDICULOUS STORY & ARE EXPECTED TO BELIEVE IT (?)
DO YOU THINK THAT IF A PICTURE IS SHOWN AGAIN & AGAIN & PEOPLE ARE TOLD WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO SEE – THAT THEY WILL.
OR ARE YOU SEEN AS INSULTING THE INTELLIGENCE OF YOUR READERSHIP.
AT SUCH A POINT PEOPLE REALIZE THAT THEY CANNOT RELY ON YOU FOR TRUTH – & YOU LOSE YOUR CREDIBILITY.
THEY ALSO REALIZE THAT THERE IS NO RESPECT ON YOUR PART & THEY LEAVE YOU.
IN THIS WORLD BUILT ON LIE UPON LIE
WE DESPERATELY NEED PEOPLE WHO ARE REAL & HONEST THAT WE CAN LOOK UP TO & RELY ON.
REAL PEOPLE THAT WE RESPECT.
Jen says
You could behead someone with that knife. Perhaps not in one hit and where the head immediately drops off like in some public executions, but it’s still feasible. There have been murder cases in the past where the individual had their throat cut to the point of near decapitation and it was all done with a regular knife. The blade on that knife is probably very sharp.
Brian Hoff says
Like the gold plate butter knife OJ brought for 400 dollar, in theory if can behead his ex-wife but it would be badly nicks and bend out of sphape when two special master appiont by the court got the knife from OJ home the gold plate butter knife was in perfect shape like it was never use.
Champ says
Hmm …yet you fail to recognize that prophet moohamhead (perdition be upon him) was probably the most evil criminal and murderer that ever lived. Again, I state, hmm …
SpiritOf1683 says
Get back to Pakistan, semi-literate baboon.
Brian Hoff says
Spiritof1683 I was born in america so that make than america citzen. That gold plate butter knife hase than softh iron core it wasnot make to beheading someone. That why that knife was never given in as evident by the DA.
Know Thy Enemy says
R Davis is indulging in a very sophisticated Taqiyya. What he is really saying is this- The knife doesn’t look big enough so the ‘beheading’ is a CIA-Zionist propaganda and no ISIL or anyone in the ME did it!
R Davis is killing two birds with one stone- 1) He is protecting ISIL, and 2) He is hoping people will turn their suspicions, hatred, and distrust towards CIA and Israel.
I have come across such deception many times before, the most popular one being the ‘9/11 was an inside job’ conspiracy. Both the Left and the Islamists practice such deception, and they are very good at it. A big chunk of Americans now actually believe in the 9/11-a-inside-job conspiracy.
SpiritOf1683 says
That knife is big enough to behead with a circular movement. You are a brainless waste of skin.
Kat says
There are plenty of ISIS videos online which show actual beheadings with some pretty dull knives, that’s the point, to torture the victims more, those ISIS thugs don’t care for a fast beheading :(.
Foley video doesn’t show any actual beheading but he was killed anyway, I hope it was fast at least :(.
Derward says
I still speak to people who have no idea what a muslim is or what is going on in the world.
Donovan Nuera says
I cringe every time people like Howard Zinn-devotee Affleck keep emphasizing that we cannot even criticize the most blatant of islam’s falsehoods because “There are 1.2 billion muslims in the World!”. So what he is saying that islam, like GM and AIG, is a religion that is “Too Big to Fail??!”. Well,.. when did size of a cult’s membership bequeath it legitimacy and protection from critical observations?? Ironically, liberals have always railed against high birth rates and over-population; but not in muslim-dominant countries, just Christian ones (ie. Latin America). (Hey, Affleck…what race are Christians and why don’t you call Maher out as a ‘racist’ for insulting Christians while you are at it?)