A Core Delusion

Filed under:It's the Jihad,Language Barrier — posted by Anwyn on January 26, 2008 @ 9:36 am

That using words to define something as other than its inherent characteristics will make it other.

So, henceforth, any terrorism perpetrated by persons of an Islamic persuasion will be designated “anti-Islamic activity” Britain’s home secretary, Jacqui Smith, unveiled the new brand name in a speech a few days ago. “There is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorize, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief,” she told her audience. “Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic.”

Well, yes, one sort of sees what she means. Killing thousands of people in Manhattan skyscrapers in the name of Islam does, among a certain narrow-minded type of person, give Islam a bad name, and thus could be said to be “anti-Islamic” — in the same way that the Luftwaffe raining down death and destruction on Londoners during the Blitz was an “anti-German activity.”

This is not even the position of Humpty Dumpty that one can make words mean whatever one chooses. It is worse–it is the attempt to change the nature of a thing by the words one calls it.

What the people who choose to engage in this inverse name-calling apparently refuse to realize is that as with Germany and its WWII “German” actions, acts of jihadist terrorism are only “Islamic” as long as nothing rises up to take away either a) the right or b) the power to carry them out. And ironically, the delusion that the English government can alter the facts by their choice of words contains a single grain of glittering truth: Muslims could take away the right by engaging in a little inverse naming themselves. If enough Muslims would rise and alter their governments and radically reform their mosques so as not to permit or encourage this activity in the name of Allah–i.e. take away the jihadists’ right to call their actions righteous or Islamic–it would indeed cease to be Islamic terrorism and turn into something anti-Islamic. If enough of the governments of the nations from which the jihadists spring would be more aggressive in detecting and rooting them out, they would lose much of their power.

In the absence of either of these courses, nations that must defend themselves from the outrage can only engage in taking away the power–because until and unless the religion being represented declares itself opposed without reservation to the tactics being used by these jihadists, no amount of inverse name-calling or kow-towing by Western nations will bring about the desired result. Ever. Steyn:

If the Three Little Pigs are verboten when Muslims do not yet comprise ten percent of the British population, what else will be on the blacklist by the time they’re, say, 20 percent?

You remember the Three Little Pigs? One builds a house of straw, and another of sticks, and both get blown down by the Big Bad Wolf. Western civilization is a mighty house of bricks, but who needs a Big Bad Wolf when the pig’s so eager to demolish it himself?

(H/t: Hot Air headlines.)

PS: Imagine a black leader referring to Klan violence as “anti-white activity.”

More “Aberrations”

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on August 8, 2007 @ 1:46 pm

“Who would bother” with those who have left Islam and become rallying points for others who do so or wish to?

The attackers, “not of Dutch origin,” of Ehsan Jami, a Dutch politician who leads a group for those who have left the faith, that’s who. Jami has been attacked three times. He’s 22.

According to the Dutch news agency ANP, Mr Jami recently described the Prophet Muhammad in an interview as a “terrible man”.

The Committee for Ex-Muslims, which Mr Jami leads, aims to support former Muslims and lift taboos on domestic violence and violation of rights within Muslim communities. Similar organisations exist in Britain, Germany and Scandinavia.

H/t thelmajoy, who has also taken to fishing in Allah’s Barrel.

Listen to the Big A

Filed under:9/11,It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on July 16, 2007 @ 11:32 pm

“Exit question: How much of [$750 million in U.S. aid to Pakistan] is going to end up buying weapons for Osama?”

Whither the Muslim Mothers?

Filed under:It's the Jihad,Mothering,Priorities,Religion,Sad — posted by Anwyn on July 7, 2007 @ 3:01 pm

One line from this Telegraph article that Allah linked in his round-up of coverage about the Glasgow/London bombing attempts really jumped out at me, emphasis mine:

By the time he had graduated from medical school in the Iraqi capital in 2004 his views – already so hardline that reportedly his mother would not dare remove her headscarf in his presence when he was a schoolboy – had become positively toxic because of the US and British invasion.

“He” refers to Bilal Talal Abdulla, 27, being held by the police after the failed attack.

Why aren’t these boys taught from an early age that they’d better fear their mothers more than Allah? Why is it that she feared his reaction even as a schoolboy so much that she did not “dare” remove her headscarf? Surely he was not strong enough, as a schoolboy, to harm her. We know one answer–in a culture that murders women for being raped or for breaking their marriage vows, we can assume that most of them cannot stand up to their husbands and thus will not to their sons, either. Thus the sons are raised as the ultimate expression of the spoiled brat–“Don’t offend me or I will throw a tantrum that will result in your death.” Even in a more moderate form it involves riot violence defended as a natural consequence and a mistaken notion that they have the right to control the speech and behavior of others.

Obviously, also, there are many hardline mothers, or grandmothers, out there who believe in the cause as much as their sons do. But why don’t the more reasonable mothers care enough about their sons’ lives to do everything in their power to halt their progress down this deadly path, possibly to end in suicide bombing? Maybe it’s because they’ve spent years thinking their sons will kill them if they get out of line while the boys’ hardline education at the hands of religious extremists teaches them to do so. What a horrible cycle.

Mothers and feminists should be making common cause to break it. But it’s hard to expect that out of feminists who don’t view motherhood as important in the first place and who spend much of their time, like the hardline Muslims, working to control the behavior and speech of others who offend them. Muslim mothers need to be able not only to speak up but to consistently raise their sons in such a way as to prevent their sons’ departure down the path that will end in their deaths and the deaths of innocents. Western women need to find ways to support them in doing so.

Been Camping

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on July 2, 2007 @ 10:51 pm

And just like last year’s camping, while I was gone some terrorists got frisky, but even though this time Scotland Yard wasn’t able to bust all of it beforehand, the plot still failed.

Why do they keep going after airports? Surely there are easier targets.

Here Comes the Judge

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on February 20, 2007 @ 6:32 pm

It happened last year but deserves to be known. Guts on the bench: telling CAIR to stay out of it as well as schooling them on Islamic law. Mike Lief has the full text of the judge’s letter to CAIR, which says in part:

Frankly, I cannot understand why you have framed this as a religious rights issue, when both Islamic law and American jurisprudence recognize that witnesses have to be seen, as well as heard, in court. Even those conservative Islamic scholars who hold that women are obliged to cover their faces make exceptions for business and legal dealings, and state that considerations of fairness require a woman to remove her veil when she is giving testimony in court or when others testify against her. In keeping with this principle, other women who have come to my court wearing the niqab have removed it to testify.

Quote of the Day

Filed under:Authors,It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on January 26, 2007 @ 10:46 am

But the notion that this war is about our moral failings is comfort fantasy, pure and simple. It soothes us with the false idea that, if we but mend ourselves, the scary people will leave us alone. … our enemies were not created by the peccadilloes of free people and will not melt away before a moral perfection that we, in any case, can never achieve.

Via Hot Air.

What Goes Unreported?

Filed under:It's My Life,It's the Jihad,Priorities — posted by Anwyn on December 6, 2006 @ 9:52 pm

In the wake of the Flying Imams, SeeDubya is concerned about similar incidents going unreported. He quotes Brent Bozell on an airline arrest he witnessed and describes his own harrowing experience on a plane that had an engine fire on takeoff. Though obviously SeeDub’s right that the airline has no incentive to report a fire in the engine to the media, I think they’re in something of a cleft stick regarding incidents like the one Bozell saw: they fear lawsuits, but at the same time, knowing that they’re playing it safe would reassure a lot of average travellers that the airlines and law enforcment won’t allow anybody, imams or no, to get away with the equivalent of screaming “WORLD TRADE CENTER!” on a crowded jetliner. In addition, I think the public deserves to know the outcome of these cases–are the people arrested? Imprisoned? For how long? Do they lead to potential terrorist networks? Are they joyriders looking to see how far they can push?

More than a month ago, my first cousin, a sturdy North Carolina boy, was on his way home from basic training with the U.S. Air Force. He was wearing his uniform. In the Atlanta airport, he was accosted and attacked by a man of unidentified foreign origin, screaming at him in a language my cousin didn’t recognize. The man grabbed for my cousin’s uniform ribbons and threw them on the floor as well as assaulting him physically. Cousin–did I mention he was returning from basic training?–put attacker on the floor fairly quickly; security appeared and accepted at face value cousin’s account of the attack (possibly with assistance from witnesses). They collected the attacker and left. And that was it. They didn’t take my cousin’s name or ask him for a statement; to my knowledge there was no follow-up. I called the Atlanta airport and Atlanta PD to see if I could find out anything, but I’m a rank novice at acting like press; I left a message in the airport’s PR office that wasn’t returned and got a bit of a runaround from the PD. I let it drop. I didn’t blog it at the time because I hadn’t spoken to anybody in Atlanta.

I’d sure like to know what happened to that person who attacked a U.S. serviceman in a public airport for no other reason than that he is a serviceman. Perhaps our friend the prosecutor can tell us if charges can be pressed without a statement from the victim or from witnesses. I know where I’d bet my money.

Update: In the interest of strict accuracy, I should note I was mistaken about my cousin’s point of origin–he was not returning from basic training, but from specialist training. Sorry for the error.

Freed

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on August 27, 2006 @ 7:43 am

After converting to Islam at gunpoint. That smacks of a sop to the Palestinian “constituents;” it’s not like the kidnappers could expect that to have a lasting effect.

But the point is, Centanni and Wiig are free, dropped off at a Gaza hotel by “Palestinian security officials.” Allah has the videos.

Release Near?

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on August 26, 2006 @ 9:42 pm

Allah at Hot Air has the round-up of links to the Palestinian government’s remarks on the Centanni/Wiig kidnapping. He has speculated that if Hamas plays the big hero in getting them released, doesn’t that point to some involvement in the first place?

I would think so. Mainly because of their big “this is your fault too, Our Leaders” manifesto–if they really had that big an ax to grind, if they were trying to make a name for themselves, would they then roll over when Hamas said “Give it up”? It doesn’t make sense. In any case, from this point forward if this group does anything like this again, it won’t matter whether Hamas actually ordered it or not–we’ll know they could have stopped it.

Whatever the case, I hope they are rolling over and that the two men will be returned swiftly and safely. Godspeed.

Update: Freed, after converting to Islam at gunpoint.

Kidnapped Journalists Still Missing

Filed under:It's the Jihad,Priorities,Sad — posted by Anwyn on August 22, 2006 @ 10:30 pm

Michelle Malkin asks that we keep Fox News reporter Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig in our thoughts and at the forefront of the blogosphere.

The spirit exhibited by a TV critic in San Diego is appalling. As Malkin quotes:

… the Fox sales pitch has been to deride other media, to declare itself the one source of the real truth, the sole source of ‘fair and accurate’ news reporting. As a result, there’s not a reservoir of kinship or good will with Fox on the part of the rest of the news media. You can’t keep insulting people and then expect friendship when you need it. They’ve made it a policy to keep a distance between themselves and the rest of the media, far beyond the usual competitive spirit, so that’s where they are: at a distance.

The insinuation of “Play with us on our terms or witness our indifference as you’re left to the mercy of terrorists” is despicable. The point is, do people, in their ordinary or professional lives, have enemies so hated that they wish these enemies would be kidnapped by murderers, or at least, once kidnapped, write them off as jerks who thus deserve to go down to their fate unnoticed?

No. Nobody does. Except debacles of human beings like Bob Laurence.

Update: A group calling itself Holy Jihad Brigades is demanding the release of “Muslim prisoners” in the United States within 72 hours and has released a video of the captives. It doesn’t seem effective to kidnap two journalists and then put out a leaflet introducing your terrorist group to the world and targeted at Arab leaders:

“Muslims have been oppressed around the world. The Arab world is doing what the American government would like them to do. The Arab world has sold out the Palestinian cause. All non-believers should become believers. You raped us. You raped our nation.”

I suppose it’s to the group’s bona fides that they kidnapped infidel journalists, but other Palestinian groups have up till now, they say, considered Western journalists off-limits. It’s going to irritate them, to say the least, that this upstart group considers itself more knowing about what must be done to coerce the West than the older, established groups. Infight?

Pravda remarks on the PR effects of the move for Palestinians, in an article notable for its circular equivalence reasoning: Israel’s as bad or worse than Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, but gee whiz, now one of those groups has captured journalists! Suddenly the terrorist guys are down by a run. I guess kidnapped soldiers and blown-apart Israelis really just can’t stack up to fellow journalists in the “leverage” column.

Two RomComs Make a Right

Filed under:It's the Jihad,Movies,Reviews — posted by Anwyn on August 19, 2006 @ 3:47 pm

Though I’m depressed as hell to find out the Lebanese army isn’t just cowed, but will be actively assisting the Hezbollah jihad, there isn’t much I can do about that, or even say, except that when the “legitimate” Lebanese army fires on the Israelis, we will officially have arrived at WWIII.

So for a little weekend escapism, let’s review two of this year’s romantic dramadies, The Break-Up and The Lake House.

The title of this post and the description “dramadies” are somewhat misleading, since Break-Up isn’t romantic and Lake House isn’t a comedy. The former is a depressing real-life “comedy” starring real-life couple (long may they last) Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston, while the latter is a redemptive escapist romance/fantasy drama starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. As something of a disclaimer, I would see a movie starring Reeves and Bullock as romantic leads if it consisted of them reading the newspaper to each other for two hours … which, let’s face it, is a lot like what they do in Lake House. But their chemistry remains right on throughout; has been since Speed.

I saw these two in back-to-back weeks. Break-Up left my jaw on the floor because–**SPOILER**– (more…)

New and Improved Attack

Filed under:It's the Jihad — posted by Anwyn on August 10, 2006 @ 10:47 am

What’s a better attack? One that’s prevented.

Quote that should have been thought through: London police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson: “Put simply, this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.”

Wrong. Your friends across the water can imagine the scale very well.


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image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace