Currently, the most-persecuted religious group in the world is the Christian church. A new low was reached the day after Christmas with the release of a horrible video allegedly showing members of ISIS in Nigeria brutally murdering eleven Christian men. The point is not that persecution of Christians is especially evil or repellent, but rather that any religious persecution, physical or otherwise, ought never to be tolerated: anywhere, at any time.
Of course, honest students of history recognize that violent religious persecution has occurred in virtually every era. Jews, especially, have every right to remind us of the pogroms in Europe and, of course, the Holocaust. Armenians have their own story to tell. And, inter-religious warfare has occurred before, during and since the establishment of the “secular” Indian state. These are just a few notorious examples of a world-wide problem.
So, today, an important question is: where is the public outrage among influential Muslims to this genocide? Or, even more critically, where is the international manhunt by members of the Islamic community to bring the perpetrators of such unspeakable crime to swift justice? How much time, talent and treasure have the super-rich rulers of the Gulf states devoted to the eradication of murderous Islamic terrorists? To quote my Lord, they are indeed known by their fruits[1]: their actions.
In my experience, military service branches and law enforcement agencies are generally (though not always) zealous in punishing crimes committed by their own, if only to maintain the honor and reputation of their group. Surely the honor and reputation of a world-wide religion is a far more critical issue!
The Nigerian government has made stern pronouncements that urge Nigerians to simply get along for the sake of their common humanity. The effect of such statements is predictable. However, unless these murderers are declared to be criminals, and vigorously pursued by the global Islamic community (perhaps beginning with a vigorous boost from the core Islamic state of Saudi Arabia) there is little hope for justice, peace, or even calm.
Or, is terrorism working?
[1] Matthew 7:16-20
Muslims have and will always have a “One world under Islam” goal. They will either do, or tolerate anything it takes to achieve it. Whether the rest of the world wants to believe it or not, they are at war with every living breathing “infidel” and they will not stop until every one of us is dead or converted. “Tolerance” is sheer stupidity.
Complex problem. I think we need to be careful of stereotyping an entire religious sect, though I do believe culture as much as religion undoubtedly drives the confusing, unexpected results that we observe. Saying that all Muslims will do this or that is a lot like saying all Christians will do this or that. People are individually driven by lots of different things–certainly religion, but also economy, culture politics and other personal needs.
I know next to nothing about the Quran really, except I do see different Muslims interpreting it differently and there seem to have been periods of peace between Muslims and Christians (even during the Crusades), implying to me, at least, that their religion is not too different than any other in the respect that there will always be people that interpret it to their own advantage. I.e., it must be an interpretation rather than a hard tenet that drives some Muslims to terrorize the “infidels.”
There was certainly a period in Christian history when many viewed Muslims as the infidel and led crusades to take away what had been as important to Muslims and Jews as it was to Christians. Crusades were directed at the liberation of sacred land considered rightfully Christian, whereas Jihad seemed to be primarily about rescuing souls, but both were/are religiously sanctioned aggression and resulted and still result in unacceptably killing people for religious reasons.
But of course, the truth is, crusaders and Muslims fought/fight for their own goals, not necessarily for the ones that we might exxpect, and these are and always will be religious, political, economic and cultural.
Thanks for recognizing that Don. I should have made it clear. I was rambling but only because you gave me an opening to get that off of my chest.
In response to your question, in the global sense, I don’t believe terrorism is working. Rather, I see Muslims not protecting their culture and religion from the radical element because this kind of response has typically been from the governmental level, yet most Muslim countries are still functioning on a tribal level, more likely to hunker down and protect their own than to step out in a leadership role where they are likely to take criticism and possibly attack. I had hoped the Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia might break them out of this mold, but it does not seem to have had any effect, further reinforcing my views of their tight tribal attitudes.
I suggest that that Reading “American Jihad” by Steve Emerson might add more focus to an admittedly complex and fuzzy issue. It was an eye opener for me, well researched and documented without being long winded or tedious. Islam is our mortal enemy.
For our consideration, Below, Bridgette Gabriel points out the dangers of “peaceful” majorities. I think terrorism is succeeding as it encourages the “peaceful “ to keep their heads down.
Islam has exported its primitive, age-old and endless Sunni vs Shiite war of religious violence around the world, expanding it with jihad, the violent conquest of non-believers. The uninformed rubbish many Western politicians and commentators spout – that the cause of terrorism is anti-Muslim Western actions – is happily harnessed by Muslims who overtly or covertly wish to see the dawn of the Caliphate. To the radicals, the peaceful majority of Muslims are irrelevant.
Yes, of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, the majority are peaceful, as we all recognise and repeat ad nauseam. But that has little relevance to or impact on the day to day reality of Muslim terrorism.
As American journalist, author and anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel so powerfully put it (at a forum on June 18, 2014, see YouTube), the peaceful majority are irrelevant in this context. When a determined few set out to execute a deadly agenda, the majority have not stood in their way.
Look at history, she says. ‘Most Germans were peaceful; the Nazis drew up an agenda and as a result 60 million people died, 14 million in concentration camps, 6 million of them Jews.
‘The peaceful majority were irrelevant. Look at Russia – most Russians were peaceful as well. Yet the Russians were able to kill 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. Look at China; most Chinese were peaceful as well. Yet the Chinese were able to kill 70 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. Look at Japan prior to World War II; most Japanese were peaceful too. Yet the Japanese were able to butcher their way across Asia, killing 12 million people – most were killed with bayonets and shovels. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.’
‘On September 11, 2001, we had 2.3 million Arabs living in the US; it took 19 radicals to bring America down to its knees: destroy the World Trade Centre, attack the Pentagon and kill almost 3,000 Americans that day. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.’
It’s a sobering observation that has immediate relevance. Her concerns are shared by some notable Muslims, too. In an open letter to the Muslim world (in the same year, 2014), French Muslim philosopher Abdennour Bidar wrote that Islam ‘has given birth to monsters’ and needs reform – from within. That sentiment has been echoed by Egyptian President Sisi and, most recently, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Islam’s most eloquent apostate, whose book The Challenge of Dawa, spells out the threat posed by the ceaseless, world-wide ideological campaign waged by Islamists as a complement to jihad – and how to counter it: by fighting political Islam, the ideology, not only terrorism.
She is urging the West to look at Islam with open eyes. She says ‘It is assimilation versus dawa. There is a notion of “cocooning”, by which Islamists tell Muslim families to cocoon their children from Western society. This can’t be allowed to happen.’ She also suggests subjecting immigrants and refugees to ideological scrutiny.
You’d think this message would have got through to our leaders by now. Even those who should know better label Pauline Hanson a xenophobe when she calls for a halt to Muslim migration; they are practicing their moral bankruptcy, and inept and blind political correctness. It isn’t a call to religious intolerance, it’s the right to not tolerate the intolerant, as argued (back in 1945) by Karl Popper, the great Austrian-British philosopher who wrote of ‘the paradox of tolerance’ and said: ‘if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.’
Political leaders around the world have continued to urge tolerance, to blather and be concerned on camera, mourn the dead – and do nothing.
The peaceful majority have also had to endure the green/Left which collectively sympathises with the Koran-quoting terrorists, painting them as victims of the West. This leads us logically to a shocking conclusion: our destiny is in the hands of a virulent, threatening minority whose interests and ambitions are antithetical to those of the peaceful majority.
Ideological weeds are sprouting amongst us; the mislabelling and derisory name-calling (racist, Islamophobe, mysogynist, bigot), started long ago, now it’s the shutting down of political opponents on public platforms with threats (eg Ayaan Hirsi Ali), and often violent activism behind anonymous masks, all manifestations of this suicidal stupidity. The peaceful majority have not stopped the abuse of democracy by elements harmful to it. Not in history, not now.
When the Australian Human Rights Commission hounded those innocent QUT students and the late cartoonist Bill Leak, the peaceful majority were irrelevant. Neither of those travesties of justice were shut down by the peaceful majority, even though many did raise their voice in protest. No, the peaceful majority need a leader or leaders who are not just parliamentary place holders but active champions of our freedoms.
Islam will have to reform itself internally; that may take a long while, even if the West tackles dawa as Hirsi Ali urges us to. In the meantime, Australians must be protected from the violence of Islamic terrorists.
If our politicians and security agencies don’t have the gumption, an informed public can certainly propose a menu of actions, to be undertaken simultaneously, with laws specifically designed to address terrorism, perhaps along the following lines:
a) mandatory life sentences for any and all terrorism-related offences, including returning Isis or Al-Qaeda fighters and those previously convicted, even if no longer in jail – and no parole, no bail.
b) random (covert, frequent) anti-radicalisation checks on all Muslim schools, mosques, imams and communities.
c) detention and interrogation of all those (currently 420) under ASIO investigation.
d) immediately cancel funding of Muslim organisations which do not have 100 per cent transparent distribution processes.
e) curtail and control Muslim immigration.
And most importantly, invite the Muslim community to participate in a comprehensive anti-jihad campaign involving advertising, social media and live events, led by speakers from the Muslim community – including reformed jihadists.
What sort of leader will it