Willful ignorance is never likely to bear good fruit. My latest in FrontPage:
The United Kingdom’s former Home Secretary Sajid Javid has just published an op-ed The Sun in which he appears to be calling for a new realism in response to the Islamic jihad threat, but a closer look reveals that he is just indulging in the same old wishful thinking and willful ignorance that we have heard thousands of times from politicians all over Europe and North America.
To be sure, Javid does go much farther than most politicians in Britain and anywhere else in discussing the reality of the situation, and gets much closer to the truth. “This is not a battle of borders, bombs or bullets,” he declares. “Nor even one primarily of counter-terrorism powers and resources. It’s fundamentally a battle of ideas.”
That is true, and it is a point that most counterterror “experts” ignore or obfuscate. Javid is also much more forthright and honest than most when he adds: “The virus, in this case, is Islamist ideology. An ideology that is antithetical to our way of life in a Western liberal democracy, and that has inspired countless attacks against innocent people.”
That also is true, and it needs to be said. But Javid gets himself entangled in illogic and inaccuracy when he continues: “It claims to speak for the Muslim community yet is a twisted version of the great religion of Islam that billions follow around the world.” He states: “Islamist extremism is a grotesque mutation of the Islam I grew up with, know and love, and Muslims are its biggest victims. As experienced former diplomat Sir John Jenkins explains in a persuasive paper to mark the launch of the Policy Exchange project, Islamism ‘clothes itself in the language of religion’ but is really ‘an activist, socially divisive and supremacist ideology, which seeks to reorder individual lives, societies and states.’”
Javid would have been helpful if he had explained how this “an activist, socially divisive and supremacist ideology, which seeks to reorder individual lives, societies and states” is not rooted in Islamic texts and teachings, texts and teachings that Islamic jihadis use to justify violence and make recruits among peaceful Muslims, but he doesn’t.
Javid also notes that “there are well-meaning officials who worry that Islamism, a term with credible and established meaning, could be seen as implicating the entire religion of Islam and all its diverse and peaceful adherents.”
Yet it is largely due to a phenomenon that Javid also points out, the fact that “there are woke activists who are quick to victim-blame the West and cry Islamophobia at all attempts to deal with the issue,” that Javid is worried about “implicating the entire religion of Islam and all its diverse and peaceful adherents” by speaking about the motivating ideology behind jihad terrorism. No one disputes that there are peaceful Muslims, but that doesn’t change the fact that the ideological wellsprings of what Javid calls “Islamism” are found in Islam itself. It is a shame that some people will call that “Islamophobia,” but their doing so doesn’t change the ideological wellsprings of “Islamism.” Can Sajid Javid explain exactly how “Islamist ideology” twists the religion of Islam? This point is asserted thousands of times by all the learned analysts and politicians in the West, yet it is never substantiated or explained.
Javid also indulges in Britain’s fashionable moral equivalence when he claims that “Islamist extremists have an almost symbiotic relationship with extreme right-wing groups, both feeding off each other’s grievances.” In reality, there is a minuscule “right-wing” threat, at best, and the British government tends to classify those who speak honestly about the motivating ideology behind jihad terror as “right-wing extremists,” trying to portray them as a threat equivalent to that of jihadis.
In that vein, former British Prime Minister Theresa May likened me, who have never called for, approved of, or justified any violence, to Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada, who are jihad terrorists who exhorted Muslims to commit acts of violence and engaged in jihad plots. While May’s slander has been damaging to me, what is far more important is that it illustrates the willful ignorance and moral blindness of the British government, and its abject fear of offending its Muslim population, which fear leads to its supine response to jihad terror, as well as to Muslim rape gangs.
Javid talks tough about confronting “Islamist ideology,” but as long as he remains in denial about its connections to traditional Islam, it will keep popping up and blindsiding him despite his best efforts to eradicate it. The fact that violence against unbelievers is among the teachings of normative Islam has never been adequately confronted in the West. While it is true that the vast majority of Muslims will never commit atrocities in the name of their faith, most of these peaceful Muslims are reluctant to come out openly and denounce the jihadis. This is because they recognize that warfare against disbelievers is a tenet of the Qur’an and Sunnah, and that consequently they themselves could be targeted for standing against the jihadis.
When Javid breezily asserts that “Islamist ideology” is a “twisted” version of Islam, he is claiming something that all too many Muslims in Britain don’t believe to be true. And that will doom his efforts to failure.
CogitoErgoSum says
Maybe he can explain how so many people have gotten Islam so wrong for so many centuries. I’ve been trying to figure that one out ever since 2001. My only conclusion so far is that guys like Sajid David are the ones who have twisted Islam into something it is not. If they want it to be like Christianity so bad why don’t they just become Christians? Muhammad was nothing like Jesus Christ and in fact was more like the exact opposite. I’m sure some people like that but at least be honest about it.
Michael Copeland says
We are left to conclude from Javid’s argument that, even after nearly 1400 years, Islam is the worst-taught subject, with the worst most hopeless students, who have for years persistently misunderstood their ideology and warped, twisted and perverted it. What other conclusion can there be?
CogitoErgoSum says
I think a lot of these Muslims who think Islam has been twisted by Islamists are the descendants of Christians who converted to Islam and then tried to make Muhammad into Christ so they could continue thinking their religion was one of peace and love just the same as the one they had rejected.
LB says
Anyone who uses the term “islamist” instead of “islamic” is either a lying whitewasher of islam (usually a muslim) or is simply ignorant on islam and just regurgitates the leftist propaganda about it (usually a non-muslim useful idiot). In both cases, those people are not even worth listening to and are instantly discredited in my mind.
Roger Woodhouse says
Javids just another muslim appologist.Hes banking on the ignorance of the British to fall for his lies.That old slogan ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ no longer resonates.More and more people are wiseing up the truth about that false religion.
mortimer says
RW is correct: it no longer resonates with the public to say that Islam is benign. Islam is intrinsically a warrior cult and it is increasingly seen to be so.
Kathleen Quinlan says
The definition of peace in Islam is when ALL peoples are Muslim. Ergo the killing is all in the service of peace.
juleonly says
So the Qur’an is a twisted version of Islam. It reads like a warlord manual for conquest and complete control over members to do the dirty work for the warlords (Allah) I get so frustrated at nonMuslim people making statements about Islam when they never read the Qur’an/Hadits and never had aMidEast sermon translated for them. (Or even Canadian,Texas USA,Franceandreallallmosques. These same people agree with me that nazigroup speeches or their Supremacist existance is abominable but then call me prejudice concerning Supremacist Islam.(all Islam is Supremacist-that it the core of the ‘way of life’) They are the same except for the color issue vs religion and both are apartheid at best…..genocidal at worst (or some Muslims say at best)
Rob Porter says
CogitoErgoSum, Well said. Robert Spencer has done a good job in exposing Sajid David’s nonsense. Sajid David has indeed ‘twisted Islam into something it is not”.
How after reading the Qur’an he still ‘loves’ Islam defies logic and to those who know something about the Qur’an and its horrible teachings makes Sajid David look not just foolish, but downright stupid, dishonest, and suffering a mental block in respect of Islam.
Sadly, many readers in Britain and elsewhere will swallow his nonsense about the goodness of the ‘real’ Islam. The ‘real’ Islam has shown its ugly face for the last 1,400 years. That is the truth and the harsh reality, and it reveals itself in every violent Muslim attack whether in France, Britain or Nigeria.
Michael Copeland says
IT’S – ALL OF IT – JUST ISLAM
No, no, no, Mr. Javid,
It’s – all of it – just Islam.
Not “warped, twisted, perverted, fanatical,
misunderstood, extreme”,
not “hi-jacked, Islamist, terrorist, violent” –
But ordinary normal Islam,
Plain, old, basic, predictable,
True-to-Koran Islam,
“Strike-at-their-necks” Islam,
“Kill-them-wherever-you-find-them” Islam.
It’s – all of it – just Islam.
(lines originally directed at David Cameron)
Michael Copeland says
“the Islam I grew up with” is an important feature here. Imams routinely lie to their listeners, giving a false picture of Mohammed, how he was “the first feminist, defending women’s rights”, how he encouraged the liberation of slaves and so on. They systematically lie about the Koran, how it has been miraculously preserved, right down to the last letter, when they know their sources record that it has undergone a number of losses and changes.
The Islam that Sajid Javid grew up with is likely to be a very sanitised version. He is Pakistani: they do not speak Arabic there, though taught how to read it. He wouldn’t claim to be an Islamic scholar.
CogitoErgoSum says
Ask guys like Sajd to explain abrogation and they will ignore you or call you a “so called scholar” for thinking that you know what it is. Also, like Rod, who often comments here, they will just say it’s of no interest to them and not worth getting into. It’s like trying to discuss algebra with a dog in a park full of squirrels.
Wellington says
What BS by Javid. For starters, he should be grilled as to why anyone should respect a religion whose founder said, “I have been made victorious with terror” {Bukhari Hadith 4.52.220}.
And what about Sura 4:89 that calls for death to those who leave Islam? Hold this turkey to account for this passage in the Koran. Still valid, Javid? If not, why not, and how come every major school of Islamic theology to this day, for instance the four main Sunni schools—the Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi and Maliki—still uphold death for a Muslim who wants to become a Muslim no more?
And how about Suras 4, 23, 33 and 70 which actually sanction rape? And why should anyone respect a religion whose chief holy book is more than 60% wrapped up with despising non-believers?
Then, there is the matter of freedom of speech. Why can’t, Javid, a person denigrate Mohammed, the Koran, or for that matter Buddha, Jesus, the Bible, et al. without fear of being killed?
Javid, you are either an ignoramus or a deceiver. Either way, you are useless to the best that the Western tradition has created—and which tradition the Islamic tradition by comparison remains beyond woeful. You make me sick, you parasite.
Walter Sieruk says
Two of the many things wrong with what Sajid Javid, said ,who is a a former United Kingdom Home Secretary he said following. “Islamist ideology is a twisted version of …Islam. ”
First, there is not real ,genuine word as “Islamist.” That is a fake word the that was make up after September 11, 2001 in order not to offend peaceful non-violent Muslims. If a person looks up the bogue word and any reference book printed before 9/11 ,he or she will not find that false word.
Let’s keep within reality and call dangerous followers of Islam for who and what they actually are being “jihadists”, or “a Muslim who is also a jihadist” or better yet “Muslim terrorist.”
Second, this violent jihadist ideology in not really a twisted version of Islam but instead it’s a ideology that has its root foundation in Qu ‘ran based theology of engaging in violence and killing in the jihad for the advancement of Islam.
Examples of this are found in the Qu ‘ran in such places as Surah 2:191. 4:48. 5:33. 9:5,111,112.123. 47:4.
In other words, Muslim terrorism is based on non-watered -down ,hard-core Qu ‘ran based Islam. Which many Westerners view as “radical Islam.”
By contrast there is a mild watered down no-violent Islam which many Westerners see as “moderate Islam.”
Of course, he might be a devout Muslim using Islamic deception , Taqyyia, in an attempt to deceive uninformed and naive Westerner about the true violent essence of Islam.
revereridesagain says
Never trust a man who looks like one of those bald pointy-eared “benevolent” galactic emperor-cum-sages from some second rate sci-fi movie. Especially one huckstering Islam as a misrepresented Great Religion.
JohnTheRevelator says
As Goebbels said, create a big lie and repeat it often and people will believe you. This is the taqiyya that “respectable” Muslims like Javid are pushing. They’ll keep lying until Muslims as a group become powerful enough to take over the country and establish Islamic rule, then their tune will change to “convert or die.”
He needs to be called out and citizens need to demand that he’s removed from office, the same goes for every single Muslim mole that’s infiltrated the gov’t military and other important institutions.
No Muslim can be trusted to tell the truth about Islam. A few of the more low-IQ arrogant ones like Anjem Choudary dare to tell the truth because they think Allah has assured their victory over us. To an extent it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more we cower and submit, the more they think they’re winning.
We need strong leaders who are willing to fight Islam until it is removed from western nations. Anything less means in the long run we will lose and western nations will be turned into Islamic hellholes like Iran, Somalia, Pakistan and so on.
mortimer says
Sajid Javid refuses to accept that Islamism is merely the full flower and fruit of Islam when it grows to its maturity and has followers who push Islam to its ultimate conclusions.
underbed cat says
No surprise Sajid Javid’s name illuminates his position, muslims can never expose Islam’s jihad doctrine found in the Quran, nor reveal the words of the writer of the Quranic Concept of War book, doctrine. Add to that the laws of sharia that require muslims to lie or fib to protect the Quran and the body of Islamic doctrine from lots of sunlight. There is the danger, islam drives the message harder that the Democrats Russian or clueless media’s Russian collusion” to remove Trump, but can’t compete with the complete saturation and mind controlling defense of Islam as non violence since this unusual religion has nasty laws, unlike normal religion for the “wrongdoers” who speak and can prove the connections. A French teacher would still walk this earth if it was not part of the doctrine they follow and are taught. So lets hope Americans can get a truthful courage and protect our country with no entry signs. Fantasy Islam or like political science never stays peaceful.
Lauren Hermann says
Underbed Cat,
I couldn’t agree with you more, but it looks like our incoming president is chomping at the bit to, as he put it, have muslims in every level of government. Wow, that really reassures me–NOT!
Oren says
The entire majority of the western political class seems to be sucked into this strategy of simply misrepresenting islam, in the hopes that muslims will be deceived from what their religion teaches, and instead adopt A more diversity friendly belief system.
It has been tried for A very long time, it will not work, because it does not address the radical divergence of perception of the average muslim, that inequality with Jews and white European Christians is radically unjust, and should be fought by any means possible. The adherence to this perception, and the admissibility of radically violent acts against others, is codified by the very founder of islam, supported by all of its founding fathers, and often repeated in text.
Combined with the western opposition to criticizing muslims, and the fear from any angry and loud voices expressed by muslims at having their strategy of conquest exposed, create A believable path to victory for large percentages of muslims, further increasing their commitment to their religions cause, implying the truthfulness of their ideas.
I further suspect that western politicians do not believe in the people of the west, and instead negotiate for their conquest, believing that only later, when the survival of the western people comes into question, will their freedom to express their opinions be revoked, and they will be declared incompetent, and the ruling classes will force them to implement whatever policies are necessary in order to defeat the Islamic threat.
These politicians believe in tyranny for the western peoples, as such they support whatever policies cause the collapse of the western system of free thoughts, free markets and justice for all. They believe these institutions are farcical, flawed and when they are revealed as such, and the people are given an opportunity to demand truth and justice, they will fail to rise to the occasion and instead will allow themselves to be conquered, impoverished, abused by the muslims, to build up A sufficient uproar among the elite and the people to demand that someone do something, despite public opinion not supporting confrontation, which would be necessary to resolve the conflict. Then A dictator can be installed with the consent of the people and the elites. And freedom would be known no more.
I am concerned that this might apply to the Jewish people of Israel. There is far less of A dynamic debate happening in Israel. There is no alex Jones or Rush Limbaugh. Our Torah points to the need for A King. We are not afraid to criticize the muslims though. In G-d I trust.
The vast majority of Jewish and white gentile women are not raped, not harassed, they willingly date and submit themselves to the abuse of muslim men, despite mountains of evidence criticizing their character, their upbringing, their beliefs, their inclinations to crime, to scholastic failure, to violence, ignorance and stupidity. The arab muslims have grown very confident that the defeat of the west is imminent, and with it the Jewish people as well. Considering the losses to assimilation it is not surprising for them to think so.
There are levels of persuasion that begin to deliver us victories among our women, no matter what behaviors need to be altered. Us Jews are in A position where we know that we always survive these civilizational collapses, but that is not good enough for me, or for us I am sure. We want to save as many Jews as we can and then some more. The slavery of our women and people is heartbreaking and cruel.
There are levels of knowledge that will deliver us to Israel, and deliver us to proper policies for interacting with gentiles. May G-d bless us with the knowledge and words to complete this work, may He bless me with the knowledge and words to progress and complete this work, as He prefers. In G-d I trust.
I don’t know if Israel qualifies or merits salvation according to our societies commitment to fighting evil. I will fight for us regardless.
Jayell says
To judge by a quote from him a year or two ago when he was Home Secretary, Javid seemed to think that he was in line to become the UK’s first ethnic minority Prime Minister. Then. one gets the impression, he may have presumed his promotion a little bit too soon, because he was rather abruptly demoted out of the Cabinet and back onto the back benches. No doubt still convinced that he is destined for Great Things, Javid probably senses (along with a lot of other hopefuls) that Boris Johnson’s days in No.10 are now numbered, so it’s likely that he is starting to promote himself in readiness for the forthcoming Night of the Long Knives, which means spreading appropriate propaganda to clear the ground for his elevation to stardom. For Javid, this means removing a major obstacle to his progress by neutralising rampant ‘islamophobia’ in the UK in order to ‘sanitise’ islam, since Javid’s religious predilections are well known. Unfortunately, Javid’s fellow-muslims have long had a habit of publicly committing inconvenient atrocities and outrages, often with the UK Government’s transparent collusion, and disastrous specimens like London’s ‘mayor’ Khan have only added to the poisonous mix – but Javid apparently still persists in pedelling his self-righteous fabrications in the mistaken belief that UK citizens are going to swallow the claptrap and ignore all the evidence to the contrary that’s been mounting up by the day. Being optimistic and looking forward to your ‘big day’ is nice; not realising that the ‘big day’ has already been and gone is rather pathetic.
mortimer says
Islam is a warrior cult, and Mohammed is its warlord prophet.
BegrensEuropa! says
As always, Spencer hits the nail right on the head: islamism is “an activist, socially divisive and supremacist ideology, which seeks to reorder individual lives, societies and states” in the most horrific ways imaginable. It has many “connections to traditional Islam,” both in the main texts and in hundreds of millions of muslim minds. Reform is impossible, because the interpretation of the texts is based on the real or imaginary life of Mohammed, which turns islam into the unalterably cruel, backward, and anti-modern Arab world of the early 7th century AD.
terry sullivan says
no moslems should be in hoc/hol
E T says
We little people should just listen to the politicians, follow them, do what we are told, they know best. Baa baa. The Corrections Services of Canada recommended Mohammad Shareef Abdelhaleem be denied parole.
He is the architect of the Toronto 18 plan to bomb many places in Toronto and cut off the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s head.
After serving 14 years of his life sentence, and against the Corrections Service Canada recommendations, the parole board has granted the terrorist parole.
Now Canadians must wait and see if Justine will reward this terrorist with millions. Baa baa baa
Simone says
If you scroll to the bottom of The Sun article and click on Policy Exchange.Org there is a PDF which makes for a very interesting read. Lots of truthful facts, I am quite impressed!
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Just another politician feathering his own nest. He’s cynically bolstering his chances of a reelection via the Muslim constituency vote. Before 9/11, I used to look at the women in their hijabs and think how quaint. They remind me of selfless nuns. Now the sight of them infuriates me. Their hijabs are an in your face political statement. Similar to how I feel when that deceitful illegal alien, Ilhan Omar, presents herself to the cameras with her vial contemptuous tone of voice that screams hatred for the West.
Ade Fegan says
TRUTH : Moderate unicorn islam is ‘Twisted Version of Islam’
Savvy Kafir says
I still find it shocking that the U.K. had a Muslim Home Secretary! That’s like appointing a Nazi Home Secretary in 1940.
There just seems to be no limit to the willful ignorance and stupidity of the politically correct “leaders” and voters of Western societies. And the basic instinct to survive? Not a trace of it!
E T says
Baa baa baa baa translation yes, not a trace.
gravenimage says
UK: Former Home Secretary Says ‘Islamist Ideology’ is ‘Twisted Version of Islam’
…………..
Ah…right. The canonical diktats of Islam are–somehow–not actually Islam. More Taqiyya, please!
tgusa says
I challenge this elf to tour the middle east stating that islamist ideology is a twisted version of islam. He should first put all of his affairs in order and make sure he has made funeral arrangements.
Infidel says
So the billion+ jihadists follow a fake islam, and only he follows the real islam?
He should establish his own sect and declare a taqfeer against sunnis and shi’a