If one says that the tsunami of extremist, fundamentalist Islam, the clash of cultures in which we are all caught up, is nothing to do with Islam per se, that is akin to saying that the Crusades nine hundred years ago had nothing to do with Christianity and that the Spanish Inquisition had nothing to do with the Catholic faith/religion.
Thinking about it as I am, I’m sure that there were lots of good Christians in the 1100s but that doesn’t mean that the Crusades were not dangers rooted in Christianity (sorry about the double negative). I’m sure that at the time of the Inquisition, there were lots of big hearted Catholics but no one would/could deny that the Spanish Inquisition was a problem rooted in the Catholic religion. Similarly, can we say that whilst there are millions of wonderful, kind Muslims in the world, we are currently experiencing a threat to our civilisation, an attack on our civilisation, which is rooted in Islam?
To my mind, the most effective defence against what is, in essence, an expansionist ideology which has as its raison d’être the overthrow of everything we hold dear, freedom, democracy, human rights, equality, the best defence would be an uprising by what we are told is the mainstream of the Islamic faith, moderate Islam, an uprising against those who have gone to war against us in the name of Islam. If there are so few ‘extremists’ relative to the ‘moderates’, it should be possible to swamp the enemy. If the moderates do not, in massive numbers, protest against the terror carried out in the name of Islam, if they do not publicly distance themselves from the extremism, the world will not make that differentiation, the world will not see an extremist Islam and a moderate Islam, it will only see Islam and the ‘war’ will expand to fight Islam just as there have been wars against fascism and communism.
Moreover, we are at war – this is WWIII. The West must stop pussy footing around. The enemy has been clever. The enemy has disguised its ideology in the cloak of religion so as to make it untouchable. Although there were religious elements to Nazism, to al intents and purposes it was seen by the Allies as an ideology, not a religion, so it was gloves off, no problem with religious sensitivities. Same with Communism. If our Western governments do not address the real issues and fears of the electorate, those electorates will turn to Far Right parties for help, for effective action and that we do not want!!
Fact: the West is afraid of Islam, more precisely, the West is afraid, frightened, of upsetting those of the Islamic faith. Even referring to ‘Islamic extremism’ frightens politicians because one of the two words is ‘Islamic’. That fear must be dispensed with now. One thing is for absolute sure, if terrorists were marauding across the planet killing people in the name of Judaism, politicians would have no problem, or rather they would enjoy, referring to the Jewish ‘problem’ (I’ve heard that term before!).
We must face up to reality. Extremist Islam has declared war on the West. It has nothing to do with religion per se (religion is the instrument which the war lords use to amass and control their armies). The enemy wants to spread its ideology over the whole world, to undermine and destroy our way of life – to deny that this is a clash of cultures is madness and dangerous.
If the West, ‘liberal’ governments and Muslims do not acknowledge the problem and call a spade a spade, we’ll witness a lurch to the political right because the electorate will lose faith in ‘centrist’ politicians. We can already see Marine Le Pen flexing her vocal muscle. Western leaders must get comfortable using the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’. If our current crop of leaders do not, there are plenty of odious characters who, currently chomping at the bit, are happy to oblige.
We need strong leaders in the West and a good start would be a good, intelligent, courageous President in The White House. The problem is that we need him/her NOW but the new incumbent isn’t going to move in until 20 January 2017.
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