Islam on the March, the West in Decline
Political and ideological vacuums are just as real and just as potentially dangerous as those found in nature. When you have a resurgent, revitalised and hyper-confident Islam pitted against a moribund, comatose and purposeless West, guess who is going to come out on top?
When you have a hyper-spiritual political ideology known as Islam pitted against a secular, hedonistic and apathetic West, there is simply no contest. This is the iceberg versus the Titanic all over again. Or for sporting fans, this is a replay of the crushing 6-0 6-0 1988 French Open final victory of Steffi Graf over Natasha Zvereva (Natasha who?).
A demoralised, secularised, entertainment-mad and utterly aimless culture such as the West has not the slightest ability to take on the purpose-driven life of the devout Muslim who believes history is going somewhere, he is on the winning side, and Allah approves of all his blood-letting.
No wonder people keep on being “shocked” at every new Islamic outrage. They are utterly clueless as to how dead they are and how alive the jihadists are. The other side is on a mission, while all we can do is try to keep up with the Kardashians.
Sorry, but we are all toast in such a scenario. And the Islamists know it. That is why they are winning all over the place. And that is why we are losing all over the place. A culture full of self-absorbed zombies is simply no match for a diabolically energised political and religious ideology bent on world conquest.
Let me speak to each in turn, utilising two important articles which have just appeared. Australian expert on Islam, Dr Mark Durie, has penned a very significant piece, alerting us to what we are really up against, and dismantling the confused thinking of most Western commentators.
He focuses on a particularly bad – but thoroughly representative – piece by Australian commentator Janet Daley. She manages to regurgitate most of the myths about Islam and terrorism, so Durie offers a much-needed corrective. Let me offer some choice cuts from his invaluable piece:
The first step in understanding a cultural system alien to one’s own, is to describe it in its own terms. ISIS does not subscribe to the Geneva Convention. Its actions and strategies are based upon medieval Islamic laws of jihad, which make no use of the modern Western concept of ‘civilian’.
They do, however, refer to the category of disbelievers (mushrik or kafir). ISIS believes that killing disbelievers is a moral act, in accordance, for example, with Sura 9:5 of the Qur’an, which states :‘Fight and kill the idolators (mushrik) wherever you find them’.
[There are] a series of verses in the Qur’an in which Jews are criticised for desiring life (Sura 2:94-96, 62:6-8). According to the Qur’an, loving life is a characteristic of infidels (Sura 3:14; 14:3; 75:20; 76:27) because it causes them to disregard the importance of the next life. The taunt much used by jihadis, ‘We love death like you love life’, implies that jihadis are bound for paradise while their enemies are hell-bound.
The point of these statements is that Muslims are willing to fight to the death, while their infidel enemies will turn back in battle. This is not about reverence for life, but about who has the will to win. This has nothing to do with nihilism, which is a belief that there are no values, nothing to be loyal to, and no purpose in living. In fact ISIS fighters have strong and clear loyalties and values, alien though they may be to those of Europe.
He continues:
ISIS is not playing by a Western-style negotiating rule book. It is following Muhammad’s instructions to his followers to offer three choices to infidels: conversion, surrender, or the sword. Bin Ladin has explained that the West’s rejection of this framework is the whole reason for its conflict with what he calls ‘the authority of Islam’:
“Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them ultimately revolve around one issue; one that demands our total support, with power and determination, with one voice, and it is: Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam: [1] either willing submission [conversion]; or [2] payment of the jizya, through physical, though not spiritual, submission to the authority of Islam; or [3] the sword, for it is not right to let him [an infidel] live. The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die.” (The Al Qaeda Reader)
It may seem unimaginable to European elites that ISIS is fighting for the goal of the surrender or conversion of Europe, but ISIS is thinking in time frames which extend to centuries, and their forebears conquered vast territories using such tactics. A final act of conquest can be preceded by decades, or even centuries, of military raids.
While killing is currently the main mode of ISIS’ attacks inside the West, if they could they would use other tactics as well, such as taking booty and slaves or destroying infrastructure, as they have been doing in Syria and Iraq.
So what should be done?
Like so many other revivalist Islamic groups, ISIS believes that it will be successful if it stays faithful to its divinely-mandated goals and tactics. It believes the nations of Europe are morally corrupt, weak infidels who love life too much to fight a battle to the death with stern Muslim soldiers who have set their hearts on paradise. It believes Europe stands on the wrong side of history.
To combat this ideology it is necessary for Europe to prove ISIS wrong on all counts. It must show strength, not weakness. It must have confidence in its cultural and spiritual identity. It must be willing to fight for its survival. It must show that it believes in itself enough to fight for its future. It must defend its borders. It must act like someone who intends to win an interminably long war against an implacable foe.
There is a great deal Europe could have done to avert this catastrophe. It could, long ago, have challenged the Islamic view of history which idolised jihad and its intended outcome, the dhimma. It could have demanded that Islam renounce its love affair with conquest and dominance. It could have encouraged Muslims to follow a path of self-criticism leading to peace. This lost opportunity is what Bat Ye’or referred to in a prescient 1993 interview as the ‘relativization of religion, a self-critical view of the history of Islamic imperialism’. Instead the elites of Europe embarked on decades of religiously illiterate appeasement and denialism.
American commentator Doug Wilson has also just penned a terrific, well-written piece, highlighting the impotency of the West and the danger of Islam. He too is well worth quoting from:
Suicidal ennui: when the best lack all conviction, and are therefore no match for the invading hordes of those who are full of passionate intensity. “What’s that tiresome noise at the gates? Somebody send Sadie to go see.”
The massacre in Paris has brought two things, already obvious, into high relief once again. We are observing, in slow motion, a collision between two very diseased cultures. The diseases are quite different but seem, in some respects, to be made for each other. One disease is listless and the other aggressive. One has no organizing principle, no arche, and the other has the wrong organizing principle. One is idolatrous and polytheistic and the other is idolatrous and monotheistic. One believes that no gods should be honored in the public square while the other believes that only one should be, but that is a false one. One used to be Christian, and must become Christian again, while the other must become Christian.
A demoralised, self-loathing and trivial pursuit mad West is no match for all this of course:
Our elites are not defending the West, but they are defending their notions of what the West ought to be. They are defending their ideals about the West, which is actually a hollow shell of what the West once was. Not only are they doing so, they are doing so against overwhelming odds. Their ideal, a cosmopolitan and multicultural secular state, is in fact under siege, and they are defending that “diversity ideal” against the forces arrayed against it. This is tough because what is arrayed against their secularism is God’s Grand Reductio.
For those who are committed to the naked public square God has raised up a rod of chastisement — radical jihadis who insist that Allah is god of the public square, and in that very same square, Muhammad is his prophet. These jihadis believe in Allah all day every day. They believe in him whether they pick up a knife and fork, or whether they pick up a rifle. If you tell me they shouldn’t believe in Allah that way, I quite agree with you. But if you think that such hard idolaters are going to be fought off by a civilization of lotus eaters, then you want something that has not yet happened in this world.
The secularists meanwhile are certainly refusing to stand up against this Islamist threat in any effective way, but they are trying to stand up to the threat posed to their precious system. This is why Islamists can go on a killing spree in Paris, and the tolerance police come out in force . . . to make sure nobody says anything rude about Islam on the Internet.
He concludes:
So what we are seeing is a collision between two diseased cultures. The disease of Islam is a fanatical desire to impose dhimmitude onto the West. The disease of the West is an impotent and lame desire to include everybody in a group hug photo without having a clue how many suicide bombers are crowding into their happy picture.
There are certainly practical things to do on a practical level in response to this attack. Some of them would be lawful and some of them not. Some of the responses are obligatory, some prudent, and others just stupid. But whatever is done, all the responses will be utterly and completely ineffectual apart from an invocation of Jesus Christ, Lord of the nations. We do not just need a revival in the church — although we do need that, as faithful Christians have long known. We also need a revival in the West, and by this I do not mean a generic revival of some vague spirituality gas. I mean a self-conscious abandonment of our moribund secularism, and a sincere and heartfelt confession of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
http://www.lapidomedia.com/not-incoherent-nihilism-but-sacred-strategy
https://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/the-suicide-of-the-west.html
[1802 words]
A vacuum is no defence against anything.
Thank you Bill for another well written, informative piece. I wish all non Muslims understood the substance of this post.
Dear Bill
I wrote to my MP yesterday (a supposed Christian but I doubt it) here in the UK and he returned with the usual intimidation and insult which is typical when the “establishment is called to account”.
“Naomi, [not even Dear Naomi take note]
I am saddened by what you have sent me. I am highly doubtful whether going down the route of Isolationism and demonising Muslims or making casual and clumsy associations between the perpetrators of the Parisian atrocities and peace loving Muslims will not serve us well [its not even grammatical, a cut and paste job I believe !].
Best regards
John
John Glen MP
Member of Parliament for Salisbury
PPS to Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills”
[see the minister he is working for, a muslim who is tipped to be the first Muslim Prime Minister, so there we have it !]
I replied
“Dear John
I don’t think my associations are either casual or clumsy but then it is after all a matter of opinion. Time and history will tell who had the better analysis.
warmest regards
Naomi”
The issue of the governing elite’s denial of the INVASION we have suffered at their hands and their complete failure to protect their citizens by giving over the citadel to the heathen, and why the events in Paris will change very little except make our lives as individuals even more constrained by SECURITY, are very well described in these two excellent articles.
Why the Paris Massacre Will Have Limited Impact
http://www.danielpipes.org/16272/why-the-paris-massacre-will-have-limited-impact
Denying Islam’s Role in Terror: Explaining the Denial
http://www.danielpipes.org/12604/islam-role-terror
The first article shows why the political elite will move towards even more appeasement of Islam and the second article explains the denial that lies behind this irrationality. This is exactly what my Cambridge educated MP is evidencing ! To acknowledge the TRUTH and consequences of that truth is far too painful.
Last night I went to visit a friend who says that SECRETLY our UK government is flying in to the country at least 50,000 Syrians (the number publicly given was 20,000) they are being flown in by the RAF to SECRET locations so there can be no protests and they are being housed in local government run properties. My friend is on the reception party. So we have Government lying as well to add to the mix !
Bill
Great post and quote, but I do not see this happening anywhere in the West, on todays ninemsn for example I see a picture of Kyle and Kendall Jenner in a mock up kiss for their selfies, then we have the endless Kardashian show and MKR on prime time TV, our whole culture is wrapped up in self worship and promotion of narcissism, it has come to the point for me that like looking down a long straight dirt road on a hot day one can make out something moving in the far distance, too far to tell what it is, but you know its bad…..you feel it in your bones….I feel in my bones and stirring in my soul….many people feel it too, that feeling of darkness and evil is coming, true Christians know it, sense it, feel it, the LORD himself warned us of this day and this ‘thing in the far off distance’, this evil will sort out many who are weak, many will turn away because they do not believe Jesus words or his promises.
Hiding will be futile soon, so best get your heart right with God before that bus you don’t want to see comes for you.
blessings
Chris
When the French and other western commentators spoke of defending ‘their’ way of life without acknowledging this way of life comes from obeying God’s laws which, are in themselves being eroded away in the west but nevertheless, form the basis of all that they hold dear. They have to their own peril denied the Maker of all that is good and lovely in this life. Nothing less than acknowledging Him as Lord, and returning to the Source of all that is True and Good, will conquer this evil foe. I was intrigued to hear Malcolm Turnbull call ISIS the Devil…half the churches don’t even believe in the devil any more. But sadly I believe when Malcolm contrasted ISIS (the devil) to God, he was referring to Allah, not God Almighty and he was only trying to dissociate the Terrorists from other Moslems. However Islam is of the devil and at war with God so he was closer to the truth than he possibly realized.
And then you have a President like this – https://www.youtube.com/embed/UXodRLLkth4
Wonderful clip Jo, thank you. My son and I laughed and laughed. Except it is so serious, Muslims in Egypt, who know the REAL Deal acknowledging Obama’s real agenda.
Too true Bill.
Until I did the research, I knew very little about Islam. Once my eyes were opened, it all makes perfect sense. The tragic events in Paris were no surprise to me, or anyone who has even a basic understanding of Islam.
I can barely watch the news and see all the well meaning group hugging solidarity, with our political leaders banging on about the war against “terror”. What hope have we got when they don’t even know who the enemy is?
I would have thought that the time for mushy, wishy-washy talk is long over, and it is time to “offend” a few people with a bit of straight talking. A reality check is badly needed.
It’s an understatement to say that the West needs to go back to their roots by once again accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their destinies. Without the rebirth of Christianity in the West, the West has no future. It’s just a matter of time and the whole wide West will be under Islamic control as developments in the West unfolds year by year. The enemy is already in their camp but unfortunately can’t be identified by politicians.
I’ve been involved in evangelism with Muslims for 30 years. This is a brilliant summation of the current situation. The one thing that struck me as so true was the idea that Muslims see ‘Christians’ (or what now passes for Christians) as so weak and spineless. Muslims are such robust defenders of their faith that they admire and respect someone, who knows their Bible, is prepared to apply and use it and is prepared to take a stand for their faith.
Well apparently with flowers and love the guns of ISIS will be stopped, no I am not joking.
‘They have guns but we have flowers’
http://www.9news.com.au/world/2015/11/18/04/15/they-have-guns-but-we-have-flowers
Must be my Homer Simpson moment (slaps forehead multiple times!!!!) Duoh!!!!
One of the fundamental realities of the West’s worsening mailaise is being ignored by both the “conservative” and “liberal” wings of the mass media in Australia and other Western democracies, namely that the inherently Anti-Wesern nature of Islamic ideology itself clearly means that we are creating a growing mass of “fifth columnists in waiting” among the large and growing Islamic populations in these countries. The utopian fairy tales which have driven immigration policy in the West for the better part of 50 years now, have brought us to this precipice. Until our ruling elites acknowledge that the fundamental reality that we are not merely engaged against one or two “extremist” groups, but rather against a toxic, 14th century world view which now has millions of potential Trojan Horse recruits among Muslim communities in our own countries, we have no hope of maintaining our own integrity as a civilization.
France is probably too far gone now, the best that country can do is to build brick walls to seal off the Islamicist populations into “quarantined” districts of Paris and Marseilles, but Australia still has the option of imposing a moratorium on any further Koranic immigration, so that we don’t finish up with an Islamic population in the millions, which has now been the ruination of Europe.
Dear Bill
I think you would be familiar with the Sam Solomon “Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding”.
What do you think of it?
Thanks Arnold. I know Sam and have a high regard for his work. All the intentions of the document are of course something I affirm. The only question is, is it realistic? That is, can Muslims in good faith simply renounce and reject all the violent suras, etc., without rejecting Islam itself? A non-violent, non-coercive Koran and Islam would be wonderful, but is it possible? According to Islam itself, both the faith and the book are perfect as is, and not capable of being reformed or altered. It is considered blasphemous to even try. Nor is it a matter of simply rejecting “extremist interpretations” of the Koran and core documents. Sam would know this of course. Indeed, as he has stated elsewhere:
“Islam is not simply a religion. Islam is a socio-political system. It is a socio-political, socio-religious, socio-economic, socio-educational, socio-judicial, legalistic, militaristic system cloaked in, garbed in religious terminology. Islam has always been about conversion by force. When Islam came out from Arabia, it did not go out with missionaries peacefully talking to their neighbors and saying ‘here is what our prophet Mohamed has come with’ and so on and so forth. No. There were hordes of assassins who marched into the surrounding world and subjugated them by force. Islam is a system. And wherever there is a Muslim community there will be a sharia. And wherever there is a sharia there is an Islamification of the territory and ultimately of that nation.”
But I have written elsewhere on how Islam as it stands is not meant to be reformed, but affirmed and promoted:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/11/30/on-reforming-islam/
As I wrote there:
To remove all the violent, anti-women, anti-Semitic, anti-freedom, anti-democracy and anti-pluralistic elements of Islam would be to destroy Islam itself. It would no longer exist. So genuine reform of Islam to make it compatible with Western freedoms, pluralism and democracy seems to be simply impossible.
Indeed, Islam is considered to be a “perfect” religion. How can you reform that which is perfect? To argue for reform means you consider it to be less than perfect, something the Koran clearly warns against. So it is really difficult for a true Muslim to even consider reform. Reforming Islam is a contradiction in terms according to devout Muslims.
I refer to Arnold’s comment and Bill’s reply;
The Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr. Mohamed’s comment about the Paris terror attack was I believe, rightly attacked by many as being inadequate. The “clarification” is no better. “There is no justification for the taking of innocent lives. The sanctity of human life is guaranteed in Islam”.
In my understanding of Islam there are no “innocents” except faithful Muslims.
The “sanctity of human life” comment is absolutely unbelievable! Perhaps non-Muslims are non-human!
How can we explain it any other way?.
UNLESS – The Mufti and the ANIC are saying that the Koran has been revised.
As PH says “please explain?”
Just another example of taqqiya.
Do we have any hope that the MSM with pick this up?
Well said Bill
Have a look at this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MKYvFdkOMM
Blessings
Naomi
Certainly the West sets an appalling example of a culture in terminal decline. The vacuum created gives an opportunity for ISIS terrorists to pile in and claim the moral high ground and make the West submit to Islam and sharia law.
The suicide bombers and political murderers slaughter the unsuspecting infidel in revenge attacks for a war somewhere else. They act as judge and executioner and words in the Koran speak of a reward in paradise involving about 70 virgins. What are these virgins going to think about engaging with such bloodthirsty warriers, who take justice into their own hands, slaughtering people in the street – or does their opinion not matter? In real time and real life, Islamic women are covered in veils sometimes with only their eyes visible. Islam presents a culture of death; an oppressive distopia. Jesus Christ taught those who believe in Him how to find eternal life so that our names may be written in the book of Life.
So many enemies arrayed against us nowadays it is hard to keep up. But still do your best.
I think this petition is best suited for Americans but do try to sign it and pass it on, particularly to any Americans:
https://actright.com/petition/181
Also for Victorian residents:
http://www.saltshakers.org.au/107-fp-articles/fp-2015/1535-vic-safe-access-zones-please-contact-your-5-mlcs-now
Dear Bill,
What a difference in the basic message! Conversion to Islam at the point of a sword or conversion to Christianity by our God given free will! I am not sure exactly where in the New Testament it is so perhaps you would be good enough to enlighten me but I know Christ told his followers what to do if people would not accept his Message.He said his followers travelling in twos should shake the dust from their sandals and move on to the next village if they were not made welcome.He also said that those who lived by the sword would die by it
more PC correctness this time from the Australian Army of the top brass deny it……..disgusting .
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3327983/Army-chaplains-conquer-removed-badges-push-greater-religious-diversity-s-associated-crusades.html
one more reason the Australian Army has lost the plot.
Australian Army chaplains may see ‘conquer’ removed from badges in push for greater diversity
As a person who proudly put the Australian Army uniform, they are a disgrace the Generals who currently serve the ADF, the old ANZAC spirit is gone, traitors the lot of them.