France, the
West and the Islamist Challenge
by Amir Taheri
• April 7, 2015 at 5:00 am
Even in
poor countries that become breeding grounds for Islamic terror, the funds
needed always come from richer Muslim nations. What we are facing is not a
revolt of the poor.
What
matters is what you are taught, where and by whom and for what purpose. Many
jihadists are taught a vision of the world and the place of Islam in it that
is bound to lead to conflict, violence, terror and ultimately war.
Non-Western
cultures have no doubt that they are the best... it is only Western
civilization that regards self-criticism as an almost sacred duty. In a
civilization built on critical, and self-critical, thinking, we are invited
to practice censorship and self-censorship. If danger there is, it comes from
those who wish to silence such voices in the name of multiculturalism and
"respect for the other."
The
adepts of political correctness in the West measure everyone's worth with the
degree of his or her victimhood.
The
problem was misguided Islamophilia not bigoted Islamophobia. Islamophilia is
often mixed with anti-Americanism, blaming America for whatever goes wrong
under the sun.
The
Imperialism of guilt blames the West, especially America, for everything, and
denies "the other" any credit, even for his own mistakes. Every
year a group of Americans travels to Jerusalem to meet Arabs and apologize to
them for "the Crusades." The fact that at the time of the Crusades
the U.S. did not even exist is conveniently forgotten, as is that Arabs at
best played second fiddle in the Crusades, which was mostly the affair of Turks,
Kurds and Mamelukes.
That
ideology [Islam] is aimed at world conquest. Islam seldom tried to convert
people by force, but always insisted on control of territory and imposing its
values and its rule. The next step is to cleanse the area of "pockets of
kufr [infidels]," such as cinemas, cafes serving alcohol, and
book and music shops offering non-Islamic material. This is what the
"brethren" do in the suburbs of Paris.
Jihadist
movements did not come into being in reaction to American
"imperialism" or Zionism.
There are
those who insist that Islam is a religion of peace. There is no word for
peace in Arabic. There is "silm," which means submission.
They ignore the fact that Islam will be a religion of peace only after
it has seized control of the entire world.
The sad
fact is that Islam cannot be reformed, if only because it lacks a recognized
authority capable of proposing, let alone imposing, reform. Today, the bulk
of Islamic energies are devoted to political issues, with theological work
not even getting a stool at the high table.
What
France and the West in general face today is a war waged by part of Islam
against the democratic world. The silly slogan, "this has no military
solution," is based on a denial of the reality that Western democracies
are being attacked in a multifaceted war. The only question that really
matters in a state of war is: Are you with us or against us? The
unwillingness of Western democracies to agree on an analysis of the situation
enables opportunist Muslim powers by tolerating the terrorists.
Three months after the Islamic terror attacks in Paris, France is still
grappling with the diagnosis of what happened and remains uncertain on how to
cope with what everyone agrees could be a long-term threat to French freedom
and security.
There is disagreement, even at the highest levels of state, on the
designation of the terrorists who carried out the attacks.
While France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has spoken of Islamic fascism
and announced that France was at war with "terrorism, jihadism and
Islamist radicalism," its President, François Hollande, has insisted
that "the events had nothing to do with Islam." Paris Mayor Anne
Hidalgo has gone even further by claiming that the men responsible for the
carnage belonged to no religion at all. They were simply "men without
faith."
The phrase "this had nothing to do with Islam" is found
everywhere, a mantra for those who say they are concerned about pouring oil
on fire.
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Tuesday, April 7, 2015
France, the West and the Islamist Challenge
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