"There are no Muslim Terrorists" Posted by: Dale Franks
on Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Islam, as the president of the United States constantly reminds us, is the "religion of peace". Still, Mark Steyn doesn't seem convinced.
Terrorism ends when the broader culture refuses to tolerate it. There would be few if any suicide bombers in the Middle East if "martyrdom" were not glorified by imams and politicians, if pictures of local "martyrs" were not proudly displayed in West Bank grocery stores, if Muslim banks did not offer special "martyrdom" accounts to the relicts thereof, if schools did not run essay competitions on "Why I want to grow up to be a martyr".
At this point, many readers will be indignantly protesting that this is all the fault of Israeli "occupation", but how does that explain suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where there's not a Zionist oppressor for hundreds of miles? Islam has become the world's pre-eminent incubator of terrorism at its most depraved. Indeed, so far London has experienced only the lighter items on the bill of fare - random bombing of public transport rather than decapitation, child sacrifice and schoolhouse massacres.
Most of us instinctively understand that when a senior Metropolitan Police figure says bullishly that "Islam and terrorism don't go together", he's talking drivel.
There is a reason why, when something blows up, we immediately assume that, if it wasn't "Muslim terrorists" who did it, it was at least terrorists who claim that they are Muslim. There must, after all, be some reason why the Radical Lutheran Liberation Front isn't blowing things up. Indeed, there must be some reason why there isn't an RLLF in the first place. Or the Soldiers of Buddha, while we're on the subject. Conversely, there are Hamases and Hezbollahs by the dozen.
Why is that exactly? Why is it when a suicide bomber blows up families in a pizzeria, we don't start rounding up Swedes? There must be some reason for it.
If only I could figure out what it is.
Naturally, one is constrained by the niceties of the day to point out that terror is confined to a small subset of Muslims. But compared the the subset of, say, Methodist terror organizations, the Muslim subset of terror supporters seems...rather larger.
It's not unreasonable to wonder why that might be.
Perhaps because most Lutherans live in Western democracies that, thanks to the Enlightenment and all of the deist intellectuals who propelled it, have stable civic societies, religious and political freedom, and functional market economies.
It certainly isn’t due to the doctrinal content of Protestantism, whose wars raged across Europe for many generations, if that’s what you were driving at.
So where are all the Hindu terrorists? How about the African terrorists? Why don’t we see outbreaks from communities who do have rather similar backgrounds as the average Muslim, yet somehow they manage to live their lives without resorting to terrorism?
As for the doctrinal content of Protestantism, I haven’t been to a church for anything but a funeral or a wedding for sometime, but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the number of ministers/priests/rabbis running around preaching violence is lower than the number of imams in that business by at least an order of magnitude. Arguing that all religions are the same may be wonderfully politically correct, but it flies in the face of the facts on the ground.
It certainly isn’t due to the doctrinal content of Protestantism, whose wars raged across Europe for many generations, if that’s what you were driving at.
Whaddya think?
I think you must be functionally illiterate about the Protestant Reformation and the 100 Years War, since the conflicts were fought by nation-states using standing armies. Some might consider that to be a fundamental difference in the types of tactics used.
One also notes that when Martin Luther kicked off the whole Protestant deal, he did so by nailing a letter to the door of a cathdral, instead of blowing up a carriage full of nuns.
Actually it seemed just a few years ago that right-wing religious cult white supremicist militias were considered —in the media, at least—the most dangerous threat to our civilisation.
Randy Weaver flying jets into skyscrapers, David Koresh leading sniper and kidnappers into schools in Houston, Theodore Kaczynski’s Gaia-Liberation-Army cluster bombing Ivy League universities...
Instead of saying that Islam is a religion of peace and that most Muslims do not endorse terrorism, it would have been interesting if Tony Blair (and Dubya as well) said something like .... "We believe that the vast majority of Muslims do not endorse terrorism, and we expect the leaders of the Muslim community to confirm this belief by (1) condemning these terrorist acts without qualification, (2) confirming that, under Islamic doctrine, those committing such acts against innocents shall never be admitted to heaven (no virgins, etc.) and can never be considered ’martyrs’ entitled to respect, (3) issuing a fatwah that instructs all Muslims to report to the police (a) the names of anyone that they believe may be responsible for the acts themselves or for providing support to those committing terrorist acts, both past and future, and (b) any suspicious conduct that may be related to future terrorist acts, and (4) banning from all mosques, madrassas, etc. any ’teacher’ that promotes hatred of those who are not Muslim. These pronouncements should be given the widest circulation, and should receive regular reinforcement at Friday services. By so doing, the Muslim community will demonstrate to its fellow citizens that it stands with them against those who preach and practice the killing of innocents. By taking these actions, the Muslim community will invalidate, once and for all, any excuse that those seeking retribution against Muslims might otherwise employ."
All the rhetoric about the openness of British society is false. Other than government mandated largess Brits remain insular and extremely race and class conscious if not outright bigoted. Muslims in Britain live largely in racial and religious isolation. Add to this 85-90 years of anti-west and anti-Jewish propaganda from the kleptocracies of Southwest Asia, an insular but fervently evangelical religion that glorifies death, and psychotic Wahhabi Imans and we have all the ingredients of a perfect storm of barbarism.
All it took was a little unintended atmospheric pressure change in 1947 for this perfect storm to start forming. We’re now experiencing tornados in the feeder bands. I fear the eyewall of this cyclone is yet to be experienced.
Unfortunately, unlike this weather allegory, we can’t heave to and let the storm pass or run off before it. We have to set sail and lay a course to weather at general quarters with the hatches battened down.
A few prayers to a Norse Thor, a Greek Zeus, and maybe a Roman Neptune probably wouldn’t hurt either.
It is very difficult to kill a breeze. A hurricane is made up of lots of breezes. It is impossible to stop a hurricane.
To kill a human is not so hard. Your "perfect storm" is just a bunch of guys who have decided to change the world. It is possible to stop a bunch of guys.
I agree and disagree with the piece on Muslims and tolerance of terrorism. There are several major sects in Islam, several ideological perspectives.
The Salafi sect of Islam is the one that has given rise to the current movement of Islamic extremism that has given rise to the many terrorist attacks we have come to see. Go through the list of scholars and clerics who advocate the use of offensive violence, they are all either Salafis or certain Iranian Shias (a movement that has only been emboldened by the Salafi movement). "Moderate" Islam doesn’t include the teachings of people like Ibn Taimiyyah and Shaikh Bin Baz and other such thinkers who suscribed to the use of violence against ’non-believers’ as a means of spreading Islam or protecting Muslim lands. In fact Islam explicitly forbid the killing of women and children and the elderly for any purpose whatsoever. It’s the addition of the ideologies of some extremist political thinkers in the past 200 years, mostly from Iraq and Saudi Arabia (what is now Saudi Arabia)that has created this movement for forced Islamic expansionism. The Deobandi sect which is what’s followed by the Taliban has its own founder, but ideologically shares the same principles as the Salafis.
I bring this up because I’m a Muslim myself, and to my knowlege no other sect has been so forceful in superimposing their mindset on unwilling societies (Muslim or otherwise) than these Salafi groups. They are the ones demanding the application of Shariah law and Hudud punishment. They are the ones trying to subjugate women and religious minorities in Muslim countries. The Saudis are in fact Salafis ("Wahabi" is a misnomer which most do not identify themselves with)..And to my knowlege, all the major terrorist organizations currently active seem to have leaders who follow this strain of Islam.
Excellent info. Question: Give that all you say is true, why don’t we hear more condemnation of the Salafi sect by the leaders of the more mainstream Moslem sects? And why is it that mainstream Moslem clerics haven’t condemned Osama bin Laden?
It seems to me this would actually be to their benefit as it would separate and distince the vast majority of Islam from this violent sect.
It is true that vast majority of Muslims are NOT terrorists.....but it is ALSO true that the vast majority of terrorists are indeed Muslim.
It is quite right that the peace-loving Muslim communities in Western countries should indeed feel uneasy about the future.
I agree with the British Government (as well as that of the USA), that stricter immigration laws are in order, and also that expulsion laws be stepped up. It is high time that the old and stupid "excuses" of "USA policy", etc., etc.)are rejected with the utter contempt they deserve. (The same goes for the outdated African mantra of "colonialism at fault" to justify their familiar patterns of corruption and nepotism).
What’s wrong with cartoons made of an imaginary prophet of God? muhammad is a false prophet, for Jesus Christ is the one and Only True God. No one is above the Holy Lamb of God. allaha is not Jesus. Jesus is God. If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him form the dead, you will be saved. Only Christ can save you. Renounce your false god, ala, and repent of your sins and give your life to Jesus. God says to hate what is evil, and allah and Muhammad are evil. Don’t you know that Christians, true followers of Christ know that Jesus is the Only Way, The Only Truth and The Only Life? Christians know that Islam is a lie. Christians know that all other so called gods such as allah and false prophets like Muhammad are not counterfeits, fakes and pawns of satan. We are all sinners and Christ Jesus is our Only Salvation. Turn from your ways of sin and bow down to Jesus Christ, God All Mighty, the Savior of the world. If you don’t know anything about the True God, Jesus, read the Word of God.
