A Contempt for Danger
by Michael Devolin
“Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.”
-Seneca
I’ve always been offended by the term “Islamophobia,” an asseveration adopted by Western journalists to calumniate anyone expressing second thoughts about what has now become Islam’s contrary and uncongenial presence in the Western hemisphere. My doubts about the compatibility of Islam with a democratic society are not based solely on fear but rather on my observations of the manifest failures of many of its adherents to adapt and accept Western mores. If anything, I feel distrustful of a religion whose esteemed apologists are seemingly incapable of admitting to Islam’s darker side, even when it seems impossible for them not to anticipate that this darker side might someday have adverse effects on the freedoms we in the Western world hold dear.
However, I also reflect that, should Islam become the preponderant religion in my country as it is in countries like Pakistan, or Syria, or Afghanistan, the patterns there of internecine violence and outright terrorism I can today observe from afar will tomorrow become an immediate reality in my world. If this reflection is a fear of Islam and Muslims, then I am not ashamed of such fear. I have found very little about Islam and the Muslim world that does not cause me to feel afraid. “A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice” wrote Edgar Watson Howe, and I believe the same. Anything that causes ordinary citizens of a democratic country to feel afraid cannot be good. And the greater part of this fear is the trepidation about leaving our children to such a dark future as the present nightmarish circumstances Islamist have bequeathed to the children of the Middle East.
Who can deny that, regardless how many million good Muslims inhabit the earth, their silent existence is rendered ineffectual by the comparatively smaller—and far more boisterous—number of Muslims we generally associate with religious intolerance and shameless barbarism. When I see a burka clad women sitting on a park bench in the middle of rural Ontario, Canada, I do not think of all the good things I’m told Islam has done for humankind. But rather I immediately recall to mind all the bad things about Islamists I read in the papers every day, about terrorism and the fact that every act of terrorism seems to be committed by Muslims. Do I blame myself for this uncomfortable knee jerk reaction? No. I blame Islam and the Muslim women wearing the burka. She makes me uncomfortable. “Only one Saudi Arabian is known to almost every adult on the planet, and regrettably he is neither a statesman, nor a scientist, nor a business tycoon, an author, or a scholar. He is a mass murderer…” wrote Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac.
The dictionary defines a phobia as “an anxiety disorder characterized by extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations.” So, according to Islam’s stalwart defenders, “every adult on the planet” has an anxiety disorder because we are cognizant of the fact that Osama bin Laden was a citizen of Saudi Arabia and a mass murderer and a Muslim. Likewise, in their opinion, those of us who feel discomposed about a mosque being built in our neighborhood are exhibiting “extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations.” I don’t think so. I think our collective mindset is the dire result not only of Islam’s failure to adjust to the modern world, but also a consequence of our witnessing, day after day, those revoltingly bloody images emanating from the bedlam this so-called “religion of peace” has created beyond our shores.
I do fear Islam and Muslims and their presence in my country. That fear, I believe, is justified and should be my right in a truly democratic country. This is not “extreme and irrational fear” but prudence: I am looking ahead. I want to save my country from being destroyed by a religion whose violent minority is even today in the process of destroying most of Europe. And the more I’m told it is wrong to be afraid of Islam and its violent minority, the more contempt I feel for them.
Michael Devolin has been a member of JDL Canada since the 1980s, and has served as the personal bodyguard to Meir Weinstein, National Director of JDL Canada, at several high-profile trials, including the Jim Keegstra hate crimes trial and the Imra Finta war crimes trial.
Hokken says
Know islam, no peace.
No islam, know peace.
mortimer says
Question for these wiseacres:
“Are you ready to publish ONE humorous drawing about Mohammed with your name and city on it?”
somehistory says
I believe this is the way a lot of us feel. It is not irrational. It is not bigoted. It is not hateful. It is sensible in a world where those who keep claiming islam means us no harm are enabling those of islam who are doing harm in horrible ways to countless people all over the world.The enablers are making life dangerous for any who believe what they claim and making life harder for those who try to shine a light of truth on the beast that is masquerading as a religion of peace.
As far as numbers go, a gun can kill if it only holds one bullet. It there are millions of muslims who are not actively engaging in murder,…the five unloaded chambers… there does not have to be as many who are engaging in murder to make islam dangerous to others. And those muslims who call those who warn about islam *names* to shame us into silence are loading and keeping bullets in the gun.
PatnCats says
I agree with you MIchael. The thought of a new mosque being built in Virginia Beach, VA is distressing to me also. I’m over an hour away, but ‘build it and they will come.” And the only dissenting vote by a councilman – and he was chastised by the newspapers by “bigot, racist and ISLAMOPHOBE!” THE LOCAL PEOPLE ALSO PROTESTED the mosque – and once again the newspapers howled their disdain of the local’s wishes NOT to have the Center of Terrorism and Intolerance built in their little farming area. The mosque builders were seeking funding – from probable the SAUDI ARABIA TERRORIST BANNED GROUP CAIR among others. AWFUL. AWFUL AWFUL
Oh, go to amazon and check out the latest bio on Moham by F.W. Burleigh, “It’s All About Mohammed; the World’s Most NOTORIOUS PROPHET.” The truth about Moham using islamic sources – it is much much worse than we think…
Michael Copeland says
ISLAMOREALISM: a useful word from Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller.
mortimer says
ISLAMOREALISM means I know why I cannot publish an book critical of Mohammed and his child marriage without hiring fulltime armed guards.
Dave J says
These crouching monkeys in their black masks, with their clutched weapons and their pledged ambitions to kill us all – who would not be fearful? And more so for their smiling sycophants, their apologists and defenders?
To call this reaction a “phobia” is to lie to my face with insult, contempt and insouciance.
Evil and Satanism, thy face is Islam.
alyn21 says
I keep reading that the majority of muslims are peaceful people. Does that include the majorities that support sharia law, death to apostates, female genital mutilation suicide bombings??? All the polls I hear about say that large majorities of peaceful muslims support these things, Does that not make them part of the problem??
Lee says
Use of the term “Islamophobia” is simply the attempt to smear anyone who criticizes Islam as having a mental illness. Stalin did this with his critics, and most other fascists do too – enabling them to send dissenters to concentration camps/re-education camps/insane asylums.
The Islamofascists’ tactic is used with the hope that you’ll waste your time trying to prove you’re not insane, and you’ll be diverted from focusing on and criticizing their murderous fascist cult. Don’t fall for it. Call “diversion” on their b/s ad hominem, and continue to point out the savage obscenity of Islam, until they’re shamed into oblivion at the disgraced margins of society.