The Problem Lies in Islamism -- Not Us
by Rabbi Aryeh Spero
Many in
the West are shocked and horrified by the aggressive and wild outbursts coming
from members of the Islamic communities on the streets of Europe and elsewhere.
They see beheadings, shootings in Holland, rampaging young men burning down
French streets, trains blown up in Spain and England, and Islamic women holding
up signs in European public squares announcing the imminent takeover of Western
cities and countries under the banner of Islamic supremacy and jihad. Churches
in Asia are being burned and nuns shot dead in the street.
One American
campus has already witnessed Christian students run down by an angry Islamic
student while at other American campuses "Death to the Jews" is chanted by Arabs
as the Israeli flag is burned. And, of course, there was the shooting of an
innocent woman by a Moslem in Seattle because she was working at a Hebrew
institution.
Westerners are not accustomed to seeing such barbarism on
their streets and in venerated places. After all, we are civilized. We vent our
grievances in ways far less fatal. Because many in the West know they can not
reason with those behind these outbursts, they are blaming not the Islamic
perpetrators but those of us in the West for somehow provoking these outbursts.
It is easier and safer to lean on us in the West than it is to change the
aggressor who will not listen. Blame the victim.
If we simply demur and
mollify, appease and “understand,” this whole nightmare will simply go away,
they contend, and we can go back to our business of having fun.
But such
is not reality, rather a collective denial born of fright. We have chosen denial
because, for too many, there seems to be no stomach to do, already, what is
necessary to stop this barbarism. We can, if we want. But, instead, our timid
elites find excuses and justifications for the militant activity. They opine: It
is not Islam but we who are at fault.
Excuses: If only the Pope would
stop talking theology. If only film makers would stop making films about
humanitarian concerns. If only political cartoonists would stop drawing
satirical cartoons. If only newspapers would stop printing editorials. If only
speakers would stop speaking. In other words, if only the West would forfeit all
of its centuries’ earned rights and bow to Islam’s judgment as to what is
allowable speech and activity in our own countries. If only we would, out of
“sensitivity,” first consult with the local imam or his Wahhabi superior back
home in Arabia. In other words, if only we would take orders!
The very
liberals who justify every form of art, expression and discussion -- even when
it undermines the very foundations of our beliefs and society -- suddenly intone
the need for self-censorship if it offends the Arab street or Moslem mob. And
does it not seem that any truthful, non-flattering observation of current Islam
is somehow parlayed by the mob as a direct assault on the Islamic god himself,
thereby justifying immediate rampaging, torching and killing?
This
inverted double standard against itself by Western liberals is not only a
sociological historic first but bespeaks the utter fear now gripping those in
denial. It is they, liberals, who are denying the true nature of current
Islamism.
If only America would change its policy and if only George Bush
would morph into John Kerry or Jimmy Carter – peace and tranquility would be at
hand. Are the Muslims in Kashmir and India fighting the Hindus because of George
Bush? Are the Moslems in vast parts of Asia and the Philippines rampaging
because of American foreign policy? If only the Palestinian Arabs had their own
state. Are Muslims killing, raping and enslaving all over the African continent,
and in Darfur, because there are Jewish families living in Hebron and
Jerusalem?
The over 100 wars across the globe involving Islam are,
according to the professional bureaucrats, always the fault of those defending
themselves against Moslem aggression, never the fault of those engineering the
world-wide push for dar Islam and revived Islamic messianism. “If only” … is the
mouthing of those in denial about what is steadily chipping away at Western
sovereignty: Islam on the move. To acknowledge the reality means that something
must be done now to stop it. But because they are too emotionally weak or
self-hating of their own civilization, they choose to deny while submitting,
eunuch-like, to this self-abasing sensitivity nonsense.
But not all
Muslims are radicals, insist the “if onlys.” Absolutely true. But neither were
all Germans Nazis. What counts are not those who are passive and uninvolved but
those in the driver’s seat, those who can intimidate entire populations. The
silence of virtually all of Islam’s world wide population, including America’s,
regarding these barbaric outbursts and beheadings, demonstrates how the Islamic
masses are acquiescing to the jihadists -- or worse.
Is the barbarism and
terrorism we are witnessing today the fault of the West? Absolutely not. Here is
proof. In reality, the Moslem Palestinians have been in charge and control of
their own Palestinian state for almost two years. During this time different
Islamic factions have been warring against each other, Fatah against Hamas.
Carolyn Glick, a correspondent in the region, describes what is routinely
happening there.
She writes how in the Moslem State of Palestine, two
year-olds are killed by rival Islamic groups. Children are woken up in the
middle of night and murdered in front of their parents. Worshippers in mosques
are gunned down by terrorists who attend competing mosques.
In the State
of Palestine, women are stripped naked and forced to march in the streets to
humiliate their husbands. By whom? Rival Moslem groups. Ambulances are stopped
on the way to hospitals and the wounded are shot in cold blood. Islamic
terrorists enter operating rooms and unplug patients of rival groups from
life-support machines. People are kidnapped in broad day light and paraded in
front of television cameras to instill fear among the population.
Moslems
eviscerating other Moslems in a Moslem state. Is this, too, the fault of the
West? Is this due to some one not having provided proper respect and sensitivity
to Islamic religious ideas or because the prophet was miscast in a political
cartoon? Is it the Pope’s fault? Or, more accurately, is this simply the modus
operandi of current Islamic hot heads, barbarism for whatever reason they
choose.
In the Moslem State of Palestine, Christians are persecuted,
robbed, humiliated and beaten in what can only be viewed as a systematic
campaign to end the millennia-old Christian presence in Bethlehem. “If only”
those insensitive Christians had not built that Church there! Surely, they
“provoked” the Islamic terror squads. Verily, the problem lies not in us but in
Islam.
