GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Trouble with Islam...

Terrific article in the Wall Street Journal from an ex-member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamic terrorist group in Asia.
Politicians and scholars in the West have taken up the chant that Islamic extremism is caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict. This analysis cannot convince any rational person that the Islamist murder of over 150,000 innocent people in Algeria--which happened in the last few decades--or their slaying of hundreds of Buddhists in Thailand, or the brutal violence between Sunni and Shia in Iraq could have anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.

Progressives need to realize that radical Islam is based on an antiliberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism spells the death of liberal values. And they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and indeed, the West, today.

Well-meaning interfaith dialogues with Muslims have largely been fruitless. Participants must demand--but so far haven't--that Muslim organizations and scholars specifically and unambiguously denounce violent Salafi components in their mosques and in the media. Muslims who do not vocally oppose brutal Shariah decrees should not be considered "moderates."

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very good points. It is astounding how 'liberals' in Western countries not only fail to denounce gross human rights violations but that they actually feel some kind of kinship with the violators.

2:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is astounding how 'liberals' in Western countries not only fail to denounce gross human rights violations but that they actually feel some kind of kinship with the violators.

What a lie. Why do you rightwingers lie all the time? You never stop lying. Lie in the morning, lie in the afternoon, lie in the evening.

Lie. Lying liars. Fucking liars.

5:55 AM  
Blogger Jesse said...

All of you need to stop generalizing.

8:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree that there is too much generalizing going on here. A lot of you are also thinking about the issues in very dichotomous terms. One can be "left-wing" and be a moral objectivist, just as one can be right-wing and be a moral subjectivist or a cultural moral relativist. Moreover, there will always be intellectually dishonest people on the left and the right who lie about everything just to futher their ideology. Lets all open up our minds and expand our conception of politics. Things should be looked at on an issue-by-issue basis and assessed on the merit of the argument, not on the poltical orientation of the arguer.

10:08 PM  

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