Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom
Literary Spotlight
By Thom Nickels, The Bulletin
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2009
2009 marks the eighth anniversary of September eleventh. While most Americans can recount where they were when the twin towers in New York went down, the passage of time--and the fact that there have been no terrorist attacks on American soil since 2001—has a tendency to lull many of us into a sense that everything is okay--for now.
The men and women who had to jump from the upper floors of the towers to avoid being burned alive--the falling executives, their neckties whirling in the wind, the dozens of co-workers who jumped holding hands, the constant shocking "thump" sound of bodies hitting the ground so that the news media eventually had to "black out" the audio-- did not know what was happening to them. They may have known of a hit by a "random airplane" but they knew nothing of an organized terrorist attack. They went to their deaths unaware that this first major attack on American soil also had a side component: the slow buildup of a radical Islamic powerbase throughout Western Europe.
This buildup began in the 1970s when Europe agreed to trade crude oil with Arab countries in exchange for promises of unchecked immigration (Strasbourg Resolution 492, 1971). As Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci noted in her book, "The Rage and the Pride," after the agreement the streets of her native Florence were flooded with immigrants selling pencils and chewing gum. Likewise, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Netherlands also permitted free-for-all immigration of Muslims from Morocco, North Africa and the Middle East. This was not immigration on a case by case basis, but a careless open door policy that led to the creation of radical Muslim enclaves in what had always been progressive, modern democracies. Unlike other immigrant groups, the new citizens avoided assimilation into the culture of the host country. In time they began to opt for Sharia-style Law within their own communities.
Women who refused to wear the burka, went to the hairdresser's, or were discovered to be in adulterous relationships were (and are) judged according to Sharia Law, while the secular laws of the host nations are conveniently put aside. Stoning and honor killings are common, as European politicians and government officials often turn a blind eye. Fallaci and author Bruce Bawer both contend that the "blind eye" in question is the result of an undue emphasis on political correctness and multiculturism.
The men and women who had to jump from the upper floors of the towers to avoid being burned alive--the falling executives, their neckties whirling in the wind, the dozens of co-workers who jumped holding hands, the constant shocking "thump" sound of bodies hitting the ground so that the news media eventually had to "black out" the audio-- did not know what was happening to them. They may have known of a hit by a "random airplane" but they knew nothing of an organized terrorist attack. They went to their deaths unaware that this first major attack on American soil also had a side component: the slow buildup of a radical Islamic powerbase throughout Western Europe.
This buildup began in the 1970s when Europe agreed to trade crude oil with Arab countries in exchange for promises of unchecked immigration (Strasbourg Resolution 492, 1971). As Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci noted in her book, "The Rage and the Pride," after the agreement the streets of her native Florence were flooded with immigrants selling pencils and chewing gum. Likewise, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Netherlands also permitted free-for-all immigration of Muslims from Morocco, North Africa and the Middle East. This was not immigration on a case by case basis, but a careless open door policy that led to the creation of radical Muslim enclaves in what had always been progressive, modern democracies. Unlike other immigrant groups, the new citizens avoided assimilation into the culture of the host country. In time they began to opt for Sharia-style Law within their own communities.
Women who refused to wear the burka, went to the hairdresser's, or were discovered to be in adulterous relationships were (and are) judged according to Sharia Law, while the secular laws of the host nations are conveniently put aside. Stoning and honor killings are common, as European politicians and government officials often turn a blind eye. Fallaci and author Bruce Bawer both contend that the "blind eye" in question is the result of an undue emphasis on political correctness and multiculturism.
"Do Muslims stone adulteresses?" Bawer asks, playing the part of the multiculturist politician. "Well, we execute murderers. Does Iran imprison, torture, and execute gays? Well, what about Guantanamo? Indeed, in recent years the politically correct response to every criticism of Islam could be summed up in those three words: 'What about Guantanamo?'—the point being that until the West itself is morally without blemish, no one has any right to criticize even the most heinous crimes against humanity by any non-Western individual, movement, group, or power."
Once more, Bawer writes that these "PC" progressive governments have turned its major cities into houses divided against themselves.
"In those cities, all you had to do to travel from a modern, post-Enlightenment democracy to a strict patriarchy out of seventh century Arabia was to walk a few blocks," he states, adding that this transformation "went almost entirely unmentioned in the American and European media." The change, however, was first spotted in the Netherlands by Pim Fortuyn, author of "Against the Islamization of Our Culture," and a candidate for the Dutch parliament. Fortuyn's contention was that fundamentalist Islam was irreconcilable with Western democracy. He warned his countrymen to rethink government subsidization of Muslim schools, mosques and community centers. For this he was called a fascist and compared to Hitler. Fortuyn was later murdered by an extremist who didn't like his views on immigration.
Left wing progressives and the European media explained that Fortuyn had it coming because he criticized Islam. Similarly, filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had made a television film which featured a Muslim woman discussing how women were treated under Islam, was shot and killed (his throat slit) while riding a bicycle in downtown Amsterdam. Although van Gogh's film was just revealing a well known truth, Dutch politicians, in the name of multiculturism, "were inclined to deplore van Gogh's alleged 'insensitivity' to Muslim feelings."
Van Gogh's murder, Bawer says, "was proof not that Western Muslims needed to adjust to the realities of free speech but that Westerners needed to assimilate traditional Muslim limitations on speech."
Bawer, an American who moved to Norway to be with his partner, says that the PC multiculturist mindset has so infected American journalism that "a moderate Muslim now denotes someone who might not stone an adulteress to death himself, but who would defend to the death another Muslim's right to do so." He cites several examples of The New York Times refusing to review books that attempt to explain or criticize the slow transformation of Europe into Eurabia. In one instance, he cites a New York Times profile of a famous American Inman that went out of its way to be fluffy and soft. (The Inman, Sheik Reda Shata, believes in suicide bombers if they target Israeli soldiers; he also refuses to shake the hand of any woman and thinks that music should be forbidden if it 'encourages sexual desire'). "One could not easily imagine the Times running a profile of James Dobson or Pat Robertson that started out in quite this way," he writes, referring to the Times profile that was more PR fluff piece than objective journalism. "No reporter would try to get away with it; no editor would accept it; readers would flood the Times with outraged e-mails asking why the liberal Times was apparently trying to get them to warm up to a fundamentalist."
Bawer believes that "The pretentious, abstraction-ridden multicultural rhetoric" in today's politically correct world of journalism "succeeds in whitewashing the execution of gays, apostates, adulterers, and rape victims, and in entirely removing from the picture of the Islamic world the victims of these abominations."
He gives examples of how the Egyptian-based organization, The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood, seeks "to conquer the West not through terrorism but 'through gradual and peaceful Islamization,'" the proof of that being the current state of Western Europe.
Not surprisingly, Bawer's book has been criticized as "shrill" and "over reactive" by much of PC press, though that seems far from the truth when the author lays out the frightening, verifiable facts.Thom Nickels can be reached at ThomNickels1@aol.com.
Once more, Bawer writes that these "PC" progressive governments have turned its major cities into houses divided against themselves.
"In those cities, all you had to do to travel from a modern, post-Enlightenment democracy to a strict patriarchy out of seventh century Arabia was to walk a few blocks," he states, adding that this transformation "went almost entirely unmentioned in the American and European media." The change, however, was first spotted in the Netherlands by Pim Fortuyn, author of "Against the Islamization of Our Culture," and a candidate for the Dutch parliament. Fortuyn's contention was that fundamentalist Islam was irreconcilable with Western democracy. He warned his countrymen to rethink government subsidization of Muslim schools, mosques and community centers. For this he was called a fascist and compared to Hitler. Fortuyn was later murdered by an extremist who didn't like his views on immigration.
Left wing progressives and the European media explained that Fortuyn had it coming because he criticized Islam. Similarly, filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who had made a television film which featured a Muslim woman discussing how women were treated under Islam, was shot and killed (his throat slit) while riding a bicycle in downtown Amsterdam. Although van Gogh's film was just revealing a well known truth, Dutch politicians, in the name of multiculturism, "were inclined to deplore van Gogh's alleged 'insensitivity' to Muslim feelings."
Van Gogh's murder, Bawer says, "was proof not that Western Muslims needed to adjust to the realities of free speech but that Westerners needed to assimilate traditional Muslim limitations on speech."
Bawer, an American who moved to Norway to be with his partner, says that the PC multiculturist mindset has so infected American journalism that "a moderate Muslim now denotes someone who might not stone an adulteress to death himself, but who would defend to the death another Muslim's right to do so." He cites several examples of The New York Times refusing to review books that attempt to explain or criticize the slow transformation of Europe into Eurabia. In one instance, he cites a New York Times profile of a famous American Inman that went out of its way to be fluffy and soft. (The Inman, Sheik Reda Shata, believes in suicide bombers if they target Israeli soldiers; he also refuses to shake the hand of any woman and thinks that music should be forbidden if it 'encourages sexual desire'). "One could not easily imagine the Times running a profile of James Dobson or Pat Robertson that started out in quite this way," he writes, referring to the Times profile that was more PR fluff piece than objective journalism. "No reporter would try to get away with it; no editor would accept it; readers would flood the Times with outraged e-mails asking why the liberal Times was apparently trying to get them to warm up to a fundamentalist."
Bawer believes that "The pretentious, abstraction-ridden multicultural rhetoric" in today's politically correct world of journalism "succeeds in whitewashing the execution of gays, apostates, adulterers, and rape victims, and in entirely removing from the picture of the Islamic world the victims of these abominations."
He gives examples of how the Egyptian-based organization, The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood, seeks "to conquer the West not through terrorism but 'through gradual and peaceful Islamization,'" the proof of that being the current state of Western Europe.
Not surprisingly, Bawer's book has been criticized as "shrill" and "over reactive" by much of PC press, though that seems far from the truth when the author lays out the frightening, verifiable facts.Thom Nickels can be reached at ThomNickels1@aol.com.
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