Bruce Bawer’s The Alhambra will open eyes. My latest in PJ Media:
Many people have called attention to the plight of gays in the Islamic world, and the death penalty that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, mandates for them. But it is one thing to provide facts, and quite another, much more compelling thing to tell a story. In his new novel The Alhambra, Bruce Bawer tells a story of the reality of Islam in Europe, for gays and everyone else, that should open a great many eyes that have until now remained resolutely closed.
Bawer is the author of the 1997 book Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity — an eloquent, impassioned rebuke to the judgmental fundamentalism in which, Bawer contended, all too many Christians place adherence to dogma, in particular that of the sinfulness of homosexual activity, above the demands of Christian charity. The following year he moved to Europe, where he thought he would find prevailing more tolerant attitudes toward gay rights, which he did — until Europe’s rapidly increasing Muslim population began to change that.
In 2006, Bawer published While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, and in 2009 its follow-up, Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom. In them, he warned of how official appeasement of Europe’s Muslims was impinging upon the freedoms that Europeans had hitherto enjoyed, and would continue to do so. Islamic law has a vision of women’s rights, gay rights, and more that is diametrically opposed to Western principles of human rights, and these two radically contrasting visions would inevitably come into ever-greater conflict.
Nothing changed, of course. The immigration rates grew, and the appeasement accelerated. Now Bawer has written a novel, illustrating in a thriller exactly what he has been sounding the alarm about.
Steve Disch is an American playwright who relocates to Amsterdam, where he expresses his relief to finally be away from the influence of the religious right, which he says is all-pervasive, even in Hollywood.
But in Amsterdam, even with the religious right far away, all is not well. He has several unpleasant encounters with Muslims, including being mugged by one, and one of his Dutch friends advises him: “Get a Koran. Read it.” After he learns a bit more, he asks a Dutch friend: “I mean, is this a good thing? These ideas coming here?” The Dutchman answers: “It’s their culture.”
Steve is incredulous: “But what about your culture? What about the liberal Netherlands? And gay rights? Doesn’t this represent a threat to everything you believe in? And have worked for?”
His friend tells him: “It’s very hard to talk about it. … You can almost say it’s verboden to talk about it. … The reigning idea is that it’s racist even to contemplate it critically.”
The situation deteriorates from there. Steve unwittingly discovers a jihad plot to murder a gay anti-Islam politician (reminiscent of the real-life Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered in 2002 by a Leftist who said he was doing it for Dutch Muslims). But Steve soon discovers that in contemporary Europe, the path to justice is not straight or level. From there, the novel takes a dizzying number of surprising twists and turns, as Bawer rivals le Carré or Chandler in spinning a taut tale of suspense, surprise, and intrigue.
One of Steve’s numerous harrowing encounters takes place when his search for one of the jihad plotters leads him to a gay sauna in Munich. There he encounters a young Frenchman who works at the sauna, and yet who turns out to be an Algerian Muslim — the plotter he is looking for. Steve is once again incredulous. After battling the young man and subduing him with a gunshot to the thigh (drowned out by the pounding music in the club), he asks him if he is aware of what the people he is working with think of gays. The young man answers: “Of course I do! It’s because I’m gay that I have to do this! Allah would send me to hell for what I’ve done in these cabines, but he’ll send me to heaven for what I’m doing for him now!”
In that and in many other passages, The Alhambra is a first: a novel written with a full awareness of the jihadi belief system and mindset, as well as with a clear-eyed understanding of what is happening in Europe today. European authorities are selling the future of the continent in pursuit of a vision of multicultural harmony that is at increasing odds with the reality on the ground….
Read the rest here.
Simon says
Isn’t it astounding, after Christianity oppressing gays for so long they may well lead our defense against Islam. (I am thinking of Douglas Murray here too).
But then again, this illustrates Christianity’s suppleness and truth.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: When a Gay Playwright Discovers Islamic Jihad
………………………..
Bruce Bawer’s The Alhambra sounds grimly fascinating. I will read it soon.
You can find it here on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Alhambra-Novel-Bruce-Bawer/dp/1537471112
mortimer says
LGBTs need to join the COUNTERJIHAD now ! While there is still time.
Kay says
Thanks for the references. I hope many read his book.
I salute Bawer’s courage.
JAR says
Robert’s review makes me want to read the book. At least Bawer, unlike so many others, was able to acknowledge the threat staring him right in the face. O that others would do likewise.
notmoron says
Wow! I will purchase those books soon.
Thanks Robert
Benedict says
Unfortunately gays, feminists and transgender nonsense are phenomena helping “Radical Islam” destroy the West from within. Demographically it’s quite obvious although it is not PC to mention it.
gravenimage says
Bruce Bawer is a brave Anti-Jihadist and a colleague of Robert Spencer’s. He is not helping “radical” Islam.
Benedict says
He certainly isn’t. But that doesn’t alter the fact that the gay, feminist and transgender culture in the West is profitable for Islam in a demographic perspective.
Mark Steyn has some pointed things to say about demographics, BTW.
gravenimage says
OK.
Nonie Darwish says
Excellent article! thank you Robert!
gravenimage says
Great to see you posting here!
Boston Tea Party says
Agreed! We appreciate your efforts, Nonie.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
It is a bold literary move on the part of the author to tell the story through an unreliable protagonist. Is this character Steve Disch to be trusted in what he says about Islamic Europe if he is so deluded as to think that in America “the religious right is all-pervasive, even in Hollywood”?
simpleton1 says
“A conservative is a liberal mugged by reality.”
It does seem that in the novel, as Bruce Bawer being liberal, as noted in his first book then the awakening of where the real threats lie..
The important thing is how he relates the beliefs of islam, like that one can achieve paradise, despite being a “gay sinner”;- by the redemption of kaffir’s blood, when intermingled with yours, and so become a shaheed.
The exposure of the thoughts and of what power and ideals used in islam to a ‘market’ of gay people be will be revealing.
It sounds like there is much in his approach about giving all of us a greater insightful understanding of facts of islam, that rule muslim lives, which gives another view point and facts in explaining the terror, horror and hold that islam has over muslims to be supremacists, that deserve paradise.
Mo says
“Bawer is the author of the 1997 book Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity — an eloquent, impassioned rebuke to the judgmental fundamentalism in which, Bawer contended, all too many Christians place adherence to dogma, in particular that of the sinfulness of homosexual activity, above the demands of Christian charity.”
Side note: I don’t even know what that means. The Bible is crystal clear in its teachings on homosexuality. It condemns it as sin.
I’ll have to look for this new book, though. Fiction can often be more powerful than nonfiction in getting a point across. I think this is an avenue that’s been neglected in the counter jihad movement. (I wish I had the talent for it!)
Johan Elzinga says
You are mistaken, Mo. The bible as such does not. There is this passage of prophet Paul critisizing Sodom and Gomorrah, but mostly he condemns the citizens of this city for prostitution.
But I believe what is there in the bible about gay people is immaterial.
A religion as yours is a believe system. Believe as such can be manipulated, and I refuse to get along with anything you think to get from this pre medieval book to be used for your manipulations of what you think is right for someone else. I do not believe that things that are written in a book of thousands of years ago, by some author that we do not know, that relates to opinions from people who are people from thousands of years ago, should be used to oppress gay people today. As you are doing, mr gay basher.
You could just as well quote from the red book of Mao. It makes no sense to me.
Johan Elzinga says
I read your comment again and I believe that I misread it. You do not seem to be an advocate of the way the bible might condemn the gay lifestyle (which it mostly doesn’t, anyway, but this is immaterial).
Wyldeirishman says
It is only genuine Christian concern that compels me to point out that fundamentalism is merely an ugly, contorted mask of legalism. Islam is rife with such unbearable crosses. Ironic and tragic, that those who likewise claim to be steeped in grace by the blood of Christ are themselves unwilling to extend that to those outside their circle.
If we cannot simultaneously remain particular to our sincerely held convictions and painfully inclusive regarding our relationships- love for our fellow men & women, unconditionally, even with those with whom we find ourselves in disagreement about things both benign as well as eternally significant – then we are carrying water for the Mujahideen. Period.
Lord, have mercy!
Christ, have mercy!
Lord, have mercy!
Boston Tea Party says
Very well said.
Mockingjay says
“The young man answers: “Of course I do! It’s because I’m gay that I have to do this! Allah would send me to hell for what I’ve done in these cabines, but he’ll send me to heaven for what I’m doing for him now!””
– Wow – it’s quite an interesting possibility that maybe a LOT of the jihadist muslims (male/female), – and maybe PARTICULARELY the suicide terrorists – are (secretly) gay.
– Maybe even the ones who are doing the most raping in IS territory are gays who are trying to kill their demons by brutalizing and killing girls and women…
gravenimage says
Raping and slaughtering Infidels is mainstream Islam. There is no reason to think that every devout Muslim is secretly homosexual.
Mockingjay says
Never said they are ALL gay – or even that ALL gay muslims become jihadists.
– I just think that islam’s inhumane beliefsystem is VERY likely to create tremendous turmoil in its homosexual followers, and that this then could quite easily lead to the violently acting out of this inner conflict – as described in this scene from Bruce Bawer’s book.
Eric says
At least the author Bawer has woken up and is seeing things as they are; not they way he may prefer them to be. For too many years lately people see things through the lens of their ideology. For me facts out weigh ideology.
Eric
R Cole says
Recently found an article of Bruce Bawer. Written for the New York Times believe it or not, back in 2003 when they were not so confined by political correctness.
In the article, he goes to the heart of how these problems with Islam in Europe arose and allowed to persist. He nails it when he talks about the perpetual immigration through cousin marriages, called fetching marriages.
Arranged marriages prevent integration : A trap for Muslim women in Europe
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/27/opinion/arranged-marriages-prevent-integration-a-trap-for-muslim-women-in.html
What kid brought up in western schools will want to marry a relative they don’t know, often from a remote village in their parents’ old country? To get a partially westernized kid to marry under this extreme custom, Muslims families have to erect their own barriers to integration.
When you hear talk of Muslim immigration into Europe, on US TV, this is the part they are not getting. Even if a Muslim immigrant is second or third generation, they are very likely to have a parent who was born in the Islamic world and the changes are good that when they marry they’ll marry someone from the Islamic world. The Europeans are faced with integrating Muslims, within the same family unit, with every generation.
Now integration, which used to mean helping the newcomer, learn how to take the bus, find the local shops or enrol in school, has taken on a whole new significance because governments believe that where Muslims are not integrated they’re more likely to turn to terrorism.
More, with every fetching arranged marriage, a Muslim family effectively doubles the number of children they have. Not from giving birth as every other mother would do, but through the exploitation of the family reunification laws. A study in the UK found that with town planning, an area with 1000 graduating high school students, would become approximately 500 households, but with the fetching marriages, now some 800 dwellings are needed. And in this way towns in France, the UK and across Europe, Muslims are displacing all other groups.
Danish study: How 145 migrant workers turned into 2813 in 30 years:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S82uCi93hg0C&pg=PA181&lpg=PA181&dq=fetching+marriages&source=bl&ots=cLq5V04dTp&sig=TAqHuh8ocBuuStIGZLa3DjJ-r-I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM8Yiio-TUAhUOPFAKHVmyBksQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q=fetching%20marriages&f=false
What’s even more shocking about the numbers is that between 60-80% of Muslims across the EU live on state welfare. [In France a whopping 24-33% of tax revenue, goes to support immigrants and their descendants. It’s unsustainable!]
Revealing France immigration figures [Why they’re broke!]:
https://www.polemia.com/84-milliards-cout-budgetaire-de-limmigration-selon-le-rapport-posokhow/
Given the increasing threat of terrorism, escalating assaults on women, incessant demands for Islamic law, and the politicians’ reluctance to halt Islamic immigration, [or even sufficiently stand up for western values], the situation can best be described as a slow moving war – a powder keg.
::
Europe’s going to be like Southern Thailand, while the Muslim youth attack and behead Buddhist monks, school teachers and bomb the police, when interviewed, the local imams swear, they are all about peace and know nothing about the cause of violence.
France is already under a state of emergency and the UK has had the troops on the streets. Think what’s standing between this and common sense and acting in our own self-interests, is a Leftwinger calling you a racist!!
TheBuffster says
I just went over to Amazon and bought Bawer’s book. I’ve read all his non-fiction books. 🙂
I’d also like to recommend a novel I’ve already enjoyed that is also full of surprises, on the theme of worldwide jihad. The main characters are a young apostate woman whose mission in life is to rescue teenage girls from being sold to ISIS and a university professor who starts out believing all the politically correct rubbish about Islam. It’s very exciting and full of unexpectedness. And intelligence.
It’s called “A Sharia London” by Vinay Kolhatkar.
https://www.amazon.com/Sharia-London-Vinay-Kolhatkar-ebook/dp/B01EYLFF5A
So that makes at least *two* novels on this topic.
Let’s publicise them with our friends and acquaintances and see if we can make these books big successes.
Fiction can reach people in ways that non-fiction can’t.
Boston Tea Party says
Thanks Buffster–I’ll check those out. I completely agree with you that “Fiction can reach people in ways that non-fiction can’t.”
Boston Tea Party says
As a Christian, I don’t exactly share all the same values as Bawer, but I’ve followed his work for years–he’s a brave man, and he knows the score when it comes to Islam.
To me, his position is simply one that ANY rational liberal who believes in freedom of expression, individual liberties and rights of minorities would adopt. As someone who was a liberal in my college days, I eventually rejected modern liberalism because I saw that it had been poisoned and taken over by those who simply hated Western civilization. Bawer, however, is an an old-school liberal who doesn’t hate the West. I have respect for men like him, even if I don’t share all his views.
During WWII, the bulk of American liberals and conservatives came together to stand against fascism. We SHOULD have the same unity today against Islam, largely for all the same reasons—but instead, large swaths of the left, because of their warped postmodern religion of cultural relativism and Multiculturalism, have jumped ship and have sided with the illiberal enemy against their fellow Americans and Westerners.
gravenimage says
Great post, Boston Tea Party.
Boston Tea Party says
Thanks, gravenimage. You know, I really feel like we’re living in strange times.
I certainly don’t mean to insult Robert Spencer, because I think he’s an amazing man who’s doing great work, and doing it under threats that I personally wouldn’t have the courage to face.
But realistically, 50 years ago, what he writes wouldn’t be controversial in any way. The things he’s saying would just be regarded as common sense and normal, reputable scholarship.
I always keep going back to the quote from Wellington here on this site: “This is the “Age of Nonsense.”
gravenimage says
Agree, Boston Tea Party.
mortimer says
BRUCE BAWER HAS REALLY GOT IT!
But will his gay audience listen to him? Will they fight back against jihad before they come to kill the gays?
MY MESSAGE TO LGBTs : Martin Niemöller wrote :
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
HEY, LGBTs ! If you don’t help the counterjihad now, who will protect you later? Certainly, the Muslims will NOT protect you.
Frank Anderson says
MANY people refuse to learn. (“There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.’)
When the facts, history and reality of the situation contradict their delusions, the comfort of the delusion wins. Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning. “The delusion of reprieve”. This was a common day-to-day survival mechanism for death camp inmates, of which Frankl was one. We are allowing these deluded people to turn our countries in to death camps by controlling us and our rights with their delusions.
Johan Elzinga says
Dear mr Mortimer, I am part of gay audience and yes, I listen to mr Bawer. I believe time has well past that gay interests are served by the political Left. I’m living in the Netherlands, and things are very much the same here. The left and socialist parties have betrayed their pledge to society to safeguard equality and democratic values, instead they refuse to critizise the medieval ideas of muslim leaders in this country. One of our left wing parties, D66, was about to have ties with the islamist “Denk” party, this is a political party that consists of muslims that support mr dictator Erdogan, and preferred to do so above having a coalition with right wing Christian parties.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Johan.
politicalqrm says
It doesn’t matter is Mr. Bawer is gay.. The gay community will take their heads out of the sand long enough to condemn him, call him racist, traitor to gays, etc, etc. Then they’ll show kindness, love and acceptance to Muslims who would like nothing better than to throw them off a building, all the while condemning Christians and Jews…
Johan Elzinga says
Not all gays in the gay community. Is there such a thing as a single gay community? I believe not. I think there is a leftish movement that loves to be called the single representative of gay people, and that leftish movement is very vocal.
gravenimage says
🙂
solange silverman says
The way is being paved for the great clamoring, one that has been fastidiously contrived, the great clamor for the fascist EU to “do somethings about it” ( the Muslim invasion). “Gladly,” answer the globalists, who, then, will take the reigns, establish martial law and implement their brand of fascism, eventually, under a one world government with no elected officials and no accountability. The EU is the prototype for this. They will tie up the blocks of nations like the EU around the world under a NWO, one under their control. Meanwhile, they are using Islam to do their dirty work for them, destroying entire nations in the process, bringing them to their knees for the final takeover. What better tool!?! Then, when their use is done, they also will be brought under control. Obummer was placed into office to begin the process in the U.S. During his “reign,” other operatives were put into place here by the likes of George Soros and his globalist pals. They are now more obvious than ever. And, in the beginning, the grateful plebeians will accept this seemingly “benevolent” global rule and sigh a collective sigh of relief. Perhaps, after a while, they will wake up, but, by then, it will probably be way too late.
Kepha says
Too little, too late, Mr. Bawer. Organized perversion has made it clear that it’s first hate is Christianity, and Islam is organized perversion’s ally against it.
I’m also sick of the ritual condemnations of –UGH!fundamentalism! , as if some secret tunnel connects Lynchburg, Virginia with Qom, Iran. People raised to take the Bible seriously are the ones who open rescue missions and can be tempted by big-P pacifism. People raised to take the Koran and Hadith seriously blow up things and people. If our Western cultural and political leaders refuse to understand that , or notice it, they need to be cast aside.
revereridesagain says
Has it ever occurred to anyone that basing your entire moral code on whether an imaginary god will take you up to any never-ending party in an imaginary heaven or condemn you to never-ending agony in an imaginary hell is the root of all evil?
You might try thinking about it. Unless you imagine that would imperil your eternal soul, of course.