What Are You Worried About?

Thursday

SOMEONE ASKED me this question the other day, and an answer didn't come to mind immediately. So many things went through my head at one time, nothing actually came out of my mouth. So I decided this ought to be something we articulate. I will write out my answers here, and I hope you will add to this list in the comments below. I'm committed to the counterjihad movement. Why? What is my motivation? What am I worried about? What do I think others ought to be worried about? Here are my top seven concerns: 1. Actual terrorism. On 9/11, I first became worried. But really I should have begun to worry long before this. Maybe in 1972 when Palestinian terrorists killed the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, or when Salman Rushdie was given the death penalty by the Ayatollah Khomeini, or maybe in 1993 when the World Trade Center was first bombed, or when the USS Cole was bombed in 2000. I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if enough non-Muslims had known something about Islam. This kind of knowledge would lead to new kinds of precautions, which would save lives. And I believe horrific, unjust deaths can be prevented in the future if more non-Muslims learn about Islam. How? How can understanding Islam prevent deaths? The Fort Hood shootings are a good example. Even in the military, so few people understand even the basics about Islam, and so many people were bending over backwards to give this Muslim the benefit of the doubt, they completely overlooked indications of his potential violence staring them in the face. The result: The lives of 13 innocent people were tragically and brutally cut short. Those people would still be alive today if more non-Muslims knew more about Islam. They would have seen the signs, and would have been willing to speak up. Even the few who understand Islam don't want to speak up because they will be ostracized, ridiculed, silenced, demoted, and even fired because nobody else knows about Islam, but think they know Islam is a peaceful religion that has been hijacked by a few crazy extremists. This ignorance is so commonplace, it dominates the scene and silences or marginalized those who know better. 2. I'm worried about the Islamic indoctrination of young people in this country, and because of this indoctrination, I'm worried they will hand over their freedoms to the march of the relentless Islamic political aggression. Muslim organizations have set themselves up as arbiters of what is written in school textbooks about Islam, and what these arbiters have inserted often goes way beyond merely hiding the horrors of Islamic history. They add a negative slant to non-Muslim history while they're at it. The result is that many young people graduate from high school and college hating their own country and having sympathy for the "unfairly persecuted" Muslims of the world. This motivates them to become aiders and abettors of their own demise. They are who the Muslim Brotherhood refers to when they say, "by their hands" in their strategic goal:

The Ikhwan (Muslim Brothers) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.
3. I'm worried about the same stealthy, biased influence the Muslim Brotherhood's fronts have on mainstream media. Anytime Islam is mentioned in the media, the news organizations always repeat the same message: Islam is peaceful, the majority of Muslims are normal citizens who just want to live normal lives, and Muslims are unfairly criticized by prejudiced, bigoted, racist people. This message is repeated from so many different sources, it gives the message a great deal of apparent authority in non-Muslims' heads, and this makes it very difficult for accurate information about Islam to get through to them. There is a classic Zen story of someone who comes to a Zen priest to learn about Zen. The priest is pouring the visitor a cup of tea, but after he fills the visitor's cup, he keeps pouring. The visitor says, "Stop! The cup is already full." The Zen master says, "Like this cup, your mind is already full and no more will go in." You can't teach someone who "already knows." The stealth jihadists understand this principle well and are exploiting it to the hilt. With their influence over mainstream media and textbooks, they have filled non-Muslims in Western democracies with "knowledge" about Islam, filling their minds to the brim. Then when you come along and try to tell them anything about Islam, even quotes from the Quran, they will immediately disregard it or find some way to disbelieve it because they "already know" about Islam, and what they "know" doesn't match what you're saying. Right under the noses of the brainwashed non-Muslims, and often with their help, Muslims with a political agenda are working their way into government positions, getting hired in national security positions, wielding influence over law-enforcement officials, and even advising presidents, and almost all of us go along with it. They've done their job well. This is something to worry about. Worry isn't even a strong enough word. For people who learn about the "infiltrating" network, panic seems much more appropriate. 4. Muslims following Islam's prime directive are also wielding their influence over Hollywood movies. This may seem innocuous, but this greatly helps reinforce the indoctrination of the textbooks and news media. So you will almost always see the Crusades depicted as an unwarranted aggression of the Western world over the innocent Islamic world, as it was depicted, for example, in the movie, Kingdom of Heaven. Even Russell Crowe's latest version of Robin Hood gives this distinct impression as if it is a foregone conclusion, and in most viewers' minds, it is. When "terrorists" are depicted in movies, the Islamic groups try to get moviemakers to depict anything except Islamic terrorists, giving the subtle but unmistakable impression to millions of viewers that terrorism is just as common with other groups as it is with Muslims. Most people are surprised to discover that most of the world's violence involves Muslims, who make up only 20 percent of the world's population, demonstrating the truth of Samuel Huntington's comment that "Islam has bloody borders." 5. I'm worried about the Islamization of Europe. They have had unrelenting Muslim immigration for many years and the larger the Muslim population, the more they assert their supremacist political agenda, and the more they get away with (source). They are out-reproducing their fellow Europeans by a wide margin. They are marrying non-Muslims to make them Muslim. And they are bringing in as many of their fellow Muslims into Europe as they can. There could very well be Muslim majorities in several European countries in ten or twenty years. This unchecked Muslim immigration isn't being stopped. Why? Too few people know anything about Islam but think they do. What will happen to the world if Europe becomes a union of Muslim countries? 6. I'm worried about the great numbers of non-Muslims in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK, Europeans countries, and India who are actually helping orthodox Muslims carry out their political plans, and fighting against those of us who know Islam's prime directive and wish to curtail it. Our efforts are being undermined by great numbers of our own countrymen, vehemently and aggressively. I thought at first it was only here in the United States that this was happening, but I have heard from people all over the world over the last nine years, and the exact same thing is happening in free countries everywhere, from India to Germany. It is not just ignorance we are up against. That would be an easily-solvable problem. You could simply teach people about Islam. You could get everyone read the Quran, or teach its primary precepts in schools or on television. Problem solved. Ignorance is a vacuum, and it can be filled. That's not what we're up against. There is no vacuum. The space is already filled. The category in everyone's brain called "Islam" is already full of misleading and outright false information, deliberately planted there by orthodox Muslims who know full well what they're doing, and who have not only sowed the information, but have carefully set up a memetic immune system of sorts to protect the indoctrination from being replaced by real information. 7. I'm worried that we won't educate enough people before it's too late. Right now, Muslims are a minority in the world and in free countries. They are far outnumbered by non-Muslims. If enough non-Muslims learn about Islam, Islam's political expansion can be contained and even pushed back. But Muslims are increasing their population much more rapidly than non-Muslims, and at some point, the game will be over. This is a race against time. Will we educate enough non-Muslims while we are still the majority of the world? Or will too few non-Muslims be educated by the time Islam has gained a numerically dominant proportion of the world's population, at which point, any further education of non-Muslims about the true nature of Islam will be shut down permanently? Is this paranoia? Is this some future dire, alarmist vision? It is already happening. Turkey was the shining example of a Muslim-majority country that was climbing out of its own Islamification. It is now being consumed and converted back to an orthodox Muslim country. Same with Egypt. Lebanon, in our lifetimes, has been converted from a primarily Christian country to a violent Islamic country. Malaysia is becoming Islamic. Indonesia has become a Muslim country. Islam is a ratchet. It apparently only goes one way. And now Muslims are moving into free nations in droves, and agitating for exactly those accommodations that will help them achieve Islam's political plan. The first step is to shut down freedom to speak about Islam. This will greatly impede resistance to the further Islamification of Western democracies, allowing greater immigration and allowing more and more accommodations and concessions to Islam, allowing more and more precedents to be set that makes the already-existing laws of the land to give way to Islamic law. At some point, there is no going back. Only one country in the world has been Muslim and became non-Muslim again: Spain. And it was done from the outside. Not one country in the history of Islam has been able to get itself out of its own Islamification once it was achieved. Even Afghanistan and Iraq — two countries which had the possibility of moving away from its own Islamification — has succumbed to Islam and is heading back toward fully Islamic countries. They both wrote into their constitutions the precedence of Islamic law over any other laws it might make. As soon as that was allowed, the end of freedom was inevitable. The ratchet of Islam must be reversed. Its gears must be forcibly stripped. This can only be done by people who understand what Islam is and how it works. My biggest worry is that this understanding won't become commonplace quickly enough, and then it will be too late. More non-Muslims know about Islam than at any time in history. In the nine years since 9/11, nine percent of non-Muslims in America have become informed enough about Islam to dislike it, so the trend is going in the right direction. But Islam has also gained in many areas. The Muslim population has grown. Many countries have grown more Islamic and none have become less Islamic. So it's a race against time, and this is my biggest worry. You can help, of course. I'll bet you are already helping (thank you very much). If you'd like to do more, go to WhatYouCanDoAboutIslam.com.

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Stealth Jihad

THOSE WHO are working to advance the subjugation of non-Muslims are not doing it solely by violent means. The common distinction between "radical" and "moderate" Muslims has generally been made between those who are engaged in blowing things up or are plotting to do so, and those who are not. However, the evidence presented in this book shows that the distinction ought to be placed elsewhere: between those Muslims who believe that Islamic law is the perfect system for human society and who are working by whatever means to impose that Islamic law, and those Muslims who support Western pluralistic governments and seek to live with non-Muslims as equals, under secular rule, on an indefinite basis.

Those who are working to advance the hegemony of Islamic law do so in innumerable ways, including by introducing it, bit by bit, into American society and demanding that Americans accommodate it; by shouting down any and all who dare to discuss the supremacist impulse within traditional and mainstream Islam; and by engaging in efforts to transform and control Western economies...

The stealth jihadists have already made significant inroads into American life. They are well-funded, well-organized, and persistent. They will not be pacified by negotiations, compromises, or concessions; they cannot be bought off. And every day, they are advancing their agenda — while most Americans don't even know they exist.

- The above is an excerpt from the excellent book, Stealth Jihad, by Robert Spencer.

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How to Stay Calm When Talking About Islam

Tuesday

YOU KNOW what it's like. You're in a discussion, and even though you're making some good points, you don't feel satisfied with your conversation because you're getting too worked up. You can feel your own upsetting feelings take away from your message. You want to do better.
Below are a few things that will help you feel more relaxed during these conversations. This will help get your message to penetrate.
1. Don't try to "win the argument." Ideally, don't even think of it as an argument. Think of your role as one of telling someone something surprising and interesting that they didn't know. But the goal of "winning the argument" will make you too high strung.
Scale down your goal and you will instantly feel calmer. Aim for something more reasonable and attainable: Aim to get a little solid information across, so the other person is a little more informed about Islam after the conversation. Think in terms of small bits and long campaigns. This will help keep you calm and increase your ability to persuade. Oddly enough, people are more persuaded by calm understatement than intensity.
2. If the other person makes a surprising argument or asks a surprising question that throws you off, think of that as something useful. Think of it as something to pursue — either to find out more about it so you are better informed for the next conversation, or think more about it so you will have a good response next time.
You can help others in the same boat if you will send me whatever stumped you (and your response if you came up with one). I like to publish things like that. It helps us all in this difficult task.
Also, whenever you have a difficult conversation, please tell us about it at Talk About Islam Among Non-Muslims. We would love to help you deal with difficult conversations.
If you go into a conversation with this attitide — the attitude that you'll learn the most from the most difficult conversations — you will be less flappable. You'll stay genuinely calmer.
3. Know a lot. This really helps you stay calm. If you know you have much more knowledge about Islam than the other person — if you are well-versed in Islam, if you've read the Quran, if you've listened to audio material many times, if you've studied the answers to objections — it's fairly easy to stay calm, no matter what they say to you. It will all be "old hat" and you'll easily be able to answer anything they come up with.
4. Be clear ahead of time about what are the three most important points to get across. Do the same kind of preparation people do for television interviews. That is, keep your primary message in mind, and use whatever the other person says as a jumping off point to get your message accross.
In the article, The Least You Need to Know (now made into a blockbuster motion picture), I shared with you the three points I think are most important to get across, but in the comments you'll see some alternatives readers offered. The important thing is for you to figure out what are the three points you think are most important, and really work on them. Become knowledgable about those points. Figure out a good way to present those points. And then when a conversation on Islam comes up, try to transition your conversation to a place where you can make those points.
There's nothing magical about the number three. In a conversation, you may not be able to get all three across. Maybe just two or one, depending on how much time you have. But the point is to have a few points, a very few points, already decided and prepared ahead of time.
5. Aim to be calmer and more reasonable than the person you're talking to. Be the better person. Make no personal jabs, don't use sarcasm, don't raise your voice, don't raise the pitch of your voice or sound hysterical, etc. Make them admire the way you're handling yourself. You can do this if you aim for it.
6. Don't overgeneralize about the person you're talking to. Their overgeneralizing about you is one of the things that gets you so upset in conversations. The second you open your mouth to express your point of view — as soon as they know what you're point of view is — they've put you in a box that you may not actually fit into, and that box sometimes prevents you from getting through, and it's frustrating.
Be better than that. Don't do this to people. If you can restrain yourself from overgeneralizing, it will make your conversation easier. Don't set yourselves up as two opposing viewpoints if you can help it. There is a lot you two agree about.
Don't put the other person in a box, even if they've done it to you. The person may not be as one sided as you assume or as unreasonable as you expect.
7. Take time off from the fight. Relax and take care of yourself. Take care of your relationships. You've got to be in this for the long haul and not burn yourself out.
8. Stay in good communication with several people who support what you're doing, who understand how important it is, and who believe and admire your willingness to fight. It is a psychological boost to hang out with people like this. Find people of like mind on Facebook and friend them. Gather together a posse. Join your local Act For America chapter and go to the meetings. It is so encouraging to see and talk to people who understand what's going on.
Use these eight principles to help you stay calm and relaxed during your conversations about Islam. Remember this article, bookmark it or print it out, and refer to it right before you're going to have a conversation about Islam, or right after. Learn to make these eight principles your natural way of dealing with conversations. If you do, I think you'll find you can really enjoy these conversations, and if you're enjoying them, you will be remarkably persuasive without even trying.

Learn more about influencing your friends:

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Does Niceness Work With Everybody?

Monday

"If we are nice to them, they will be nice to us." This is the assumption behind the basic human principle of reciprocity, one of the foundational cornerstones of almost all cultures. If you cooperate with me, it almost compels me to cooperate with you. This is a sound principle of human relations, used to good effect in business and all other spheres of human interaction.

But reciprocity isn't inborn. It is taught. Reciprocity is intentionally and painstakingly hammered into the heads of our children until it is instinctive.

But unless you're very young, you have found out, probably painfully, that some people do not follow this principle. There are a small percentage of people who will accept your generosity and cooperation and do nothing for you in return, and have no feeling of guilt about it. They do not reciprocate. They are either sociopaths, or they never had this basic principle pounded into them at an early age.

Once you recognize someone like this, how do you treat such people? Do you keep being nice? Do you keep giving? Do you allow them to continue to take advantage of you? Maybe for awhile, but eventually, what will you do? You will stop giving. You will stop being nice.

I'm sure you have figured out why I'm bringing this up. Some ideologies are not reciprocal. Islam is one of those. It divides the world sharply into us and them. In Islamic ideology, reciprocity between Muslims is instilled. But reciprocity is sharply discouraged with non-Muslims.

Islam is a ratchet. It only goes one way.

Just as there are some people in this world who will only take advantage of your kindness and generosity, and will not reciprocate, there are some ideologies that only take advantage of fairness and accommodation, and will not reciprocate.

What shall we do with the people following such an ideology? What's the appropriate, sane, intelligent response? Tit for tat. That is, you begin with cooperation, but at the first sign of a deliberate lack of cooperation, you cut your losses and respond to a lack of goodwill with an equal lack of goodwill.

It is foolish, self-defeating, and counterproductive to do otherwise. Niceness doesn't work with everybody.

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"Mosques and Synagogues and Churches Have Stood Side-By-Side in Peace in the Middle East for a Thousand Years"

Sunday

THIS IS ANOTHER in our series, Answers to Objections. You hear this objection from people who know a little about the Middle East: "Haven't mosques and churches and synagogues sat side-by-side in the Middle East for a thousand years?" The implication is, of course, that if all you're saying about Islam is true, then all Christians and Jews who live in Islamic lands would have been wiped out or converted centuries ago. But they're still there, and not only are they still there, they have their houses of worship still standing there, proving Islam's tolerance, right? The answer is, "Yes, mosques and churches and synagogues sit side-by-side in the Middle East (except Saudi Arabia)." But the missing piece of information is the dhimma laws. So the rest of the answer is, "Islam allows for Jews and Christians (but not Buddhists, Hindus or atheists) to continue practicing their religions as long as they keep the contract of the dhimma." Then, of course, you can explain what dhimmitude is and how it works. Dhimmis must pay a tax, usually 25 percent to 50 percent of their income. Muslims do not pay this tax. It is "protection money," which is not a slander — that's how the Muslims themselves think of it. As long as dhimmis pay this money and accept the other stipulations and humiliations required of dhimmis, they are allowed to live. If they break the dhimma contract, their lives are forfeit. Other stipulations are many. Dhimmis are not allowed to repair their churches or synagogues, nor are their religious buildings allowed to be taller than the mosques. Jews and Christians are not allowed to display any symbols of their religion where a Muslim may see it. They are not allowed to make any religiously-oriented sounds (like singing a hymn, for example, or praying aloud) where a Muslim might hear it. They are not allowed to talk to a Muslim about their religion. The list goes on and on. If a dhimmi violates any of these rules, the penalty is death. If they keep these rules, then yes, they can have their churches and synagogues, and so we see them throughout the Middle East and North Africa, since prior to the Muslims conquering what we now know as the Middle East, it was primarily Christians and Jews that populated those lands. Their numbers have dwindled down over the last 1400 years as they fled or were converted or killed, but there are still some remnants of the Christians and Jews left in those areas. Islamic law covers every aspect of life, and when it is applied, Islam essentially eliminates other cultures until there is nothing left except Islam (read more about that here). The numbers of Jews and Christians in Muslim countries continues to dwindle. When you are done explaining how and why synagogues and churches can be found in Muslim countries, explain that this is basic Sharia law, and recommend the book, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims. This slim volume gives a great overview of this fascinating topic, and can be a real eye-opener for people. If you have more you'd like to add to the answer to this objection, we'd love to hear it. Either leave it as a comment, or email it to me, and I'll post it for you. Bonus: During an interview on Bill Maher's show, Ayaan Hirsi Ali answers this objection beautifully. Check it out: The Truth About Islam (seven and a half minutes long).

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Facebook Allies

Saturday

MANY PEOPLE use Facebook to educate their friends and family about Islam, but what happens? They often post information and are met with...complete silence. Or with hostile responses. Often several of their friends or family join in to criticize them for posting such "racist" or "bigoted" articles.

Do you have this experience? It's very discouraging and upsetting. It can make you feel isolated and alone in your commitment. You can feel ostracized by your own inner circle.

But you know you are in a key position to educate your fellow non-Muslims about Islam, so you don't want to stop trying. You know that if you don't reach these people, probably nobody will. They won't get any good information from the news sources they read or watch (because people tend to seek information that resonates with their own beliefs), and they won't get any opposing opinions from any of their friends (because people tend to choose friends who agree with them). You may be the one last hope we have of reaching these people with genuine information about Islam's prime directive.

This article has some suggestions to help you fulfill your commitment effectively.

First, it will really help to gain some allies. Join a counterjihad group or two or more on Facebook, and when you see intelligent comments on posts there, visit the person's page, and if they seem like a good person, "friend" those people. Include a message to them that tells them you would like an ally.

Let's be allies for each other.

And when you see your new friend post something good on their personal page, give it a thumbs up or a positive comment, and they can do the same for you. Let your family and friends see that not everyone thinks as they do.

And if someone criticizes a post of yours, your new Facebook friends will probably add their own comments on your side of the argument, helping you feel less alone. This has a tremendously positive impact on your own psychology, and it has a positive influence on the person who made the negative comment (because of the principle of social proof). It will help change minds.

Another thing that will help is to add something to every link. Don't just post a link as-is. Use these tips to make a good-looking post, but also add a comment at the top that helps your family and friends understand what the implications are or why it's important to read it. Be simple and clear. Be calm and informed. Don't rant. Go out of your way not to give the impression you are an angry, hating person. It is an easy impression to give when your family and friends are multiculturalists who vehemently despise criticisms about Islam. So make a strong effort to understate your case and be as reasonable as humanly possible.

Post facts. Post specific examples. Post local stories. And don't do too many. No more than once a day. Be extremely selective. You don't want people to hide you because you dominate the postings too much. So be highly selective and only post the very best items. Don't post anything that's only "okay." Let's be smart about this, not just committed and enthusiastic.

You're trying to reach people who don't already believe as you do. If you post a lot, you may gather a lot of friends but they all already know enough about Islam. Those aren't the ones who most urgently need to be educated. So be selective about what you post.

And don't only post about Islam. They will think you are obsessed. Post other things that are interesting.

And use good timing. The best times to post something are Saturday and Sunday mornings. Post your very best things on those days — one per day, but make it a very good one. Save up your best things for the weekend. More people will see what you post on the weekend mornings, and they're more likely to have the time to read them.

The second best time to post something is in the early evening on week nights.

Let's use Facebook to advance the cause. And return the favor to your friends by not only posting, but checking your "home" page and seeing what your friends are posting and respond, support, help them argue too. Let's use the power of social proof to help change minds.

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"You're Cherry-Picking Verses Out of the Quran"

THIS IS ANOTHER in our series, Answers to Objections. I've never actually heard anyone say this in a conversation, but I've heard this said in writing many times. The person saying it usually thinks they know a lot about Islam, but they don't, and the objection is a great opportunity to give some really good information about Islam. Here is how I would answer it:

The Quran is considered by Muslims as Islam's most holy book.
Sixty-one percent of the Quran is about non-Muslims. Writings about what Muslims should do is religious. Writings about what non-Muslims should do or how Muslims should deal with non-Muslims is political (read more about this distinction). Therefore, based on Islam's most holy book, Islam is more political (61%) than religious (39%).
There are 245 verses in the Quran that could be considered "positive verses" about non-Muslims. Every single one of those verses have been abrogated by later, negative verses about non-Muslims. Not one positive verse about non-Muslims is left.
In contrast, there are 527 verses of intolerance toward non-Muslims, and 109 verses specifically advocating violence towards non-Muslims. Not one of these verses has been abrogated.
Even if you completely ignore the Quran and only look at what Muslims actually do in the Muslim world, the conclusion is the same. Whenever Muslims get a large enough minority to seize the reigns of power and impose their will, they treat non-Muslims horribly, and eventually drive out non-Muslims or subjugate them, or set up conditions that cause non-Muslims to convert to Islam just to relieve the burden of dhimmitude.

The end result is 56 countries in the world that consider themselves Islamic (members of the OIC, the largest voting block in the U.N.) and that have ever-decreasing percentages of non-Muslims in their countries because non-Muslims flee, are killed, or convert to relieve the dhimmi burden.

So if I am "cherry-picking" verses out of the Quran, apparently Muslims around the world today, and Muslims throughout Islamic history, have cherry-picked in exactly the same way.

The fact is, every Muslim is commanded by Allah to follow the example of Mohammad, an example that was written down in great detail. The Hadith is an enormous written record of what Mohammad said and did. There are two versions of the Hadith, which are very similar, that are considered to be the most authentic by Islamic scholars and the Muslim world throughout its history, one by Sahih Bukhari and the other by Sahih Muslim.

If you count up all references to jihad in
Bukhari's voluminous record of Mohammad's life, 97 percent of the passages refer to jihad as bloodshed and warfare against non-Muslims. Three percent of the references are about jihad as an inner struggle. So even if Muslims ignore the Quran completely and simply follow Mohammad's example, they would still be violent, aggressive, and intolerant, following the same course as would be described by "cherry-picking verses" out of the Quran.

But if this is all true, why are there millions of Muslims in this country who are not blowing things up? That answer can be found here: Objection Number 14.

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Muslim Whining Doesn't Work With Non-Muslims Who Have Read the Quran

Friday

THE CHRISTIAN Science Monitor has the reputation of being an unbiased publication, but in a recent article, Why 'Islamophobia' is Less Thinly Veiled in Europe, I felt compelled to respond to many of Robert Marquand's (the author's) points.
Marquand begins by trying to show that Muslims in Europe are just normal Europeans — except that they are the target of unfair prejudice by non-Muslim Europeans. In other words, Marquand seems to unquestioningly accept the Muslims' standard position as the unfairly persecuted underdog.
The article quotes a Muslim apologist, Edward Mortimer, vice president of the Satzburg Seminar in Austria which helped launch the Muslim professionals network: "Values of national identity and patriotism are starting to take shape over an older argument in Europe about tolerance, plurality, freedom of expression."
This is an absurd and deceptive statement. The values of national identity and patriotism are not in conflict with tolerance, plurality, or freedom of expression, and to imply that they are is a verbal slight-of-hand. The principles for which Islam stands are intolerance, supremacism (anti-plurality), and total submission to Islamic law (anti-freedom of expression). And it is largely for this reason Europeans are asserting their desire to run their own countries and hold onto their Western values in the face of the relentless onslaught from orthodox Muslims pushing for "reverse integration" — the attempt to coerce Europeans to integrate into Islam.
Marquand doesn't know these are the principles for which Islam stands. A simple reading of the Quran would clear it all up.
"Social politeness and taboos on talking about Islam are eroding," Marquand writes, "at a time when Europeans aren't exactly sure what they think about Islam." That struck me as good news, although I'm sure Marquand didn't mean it that way. I hope it will stop being a taboo to talk about Islam. We need to talk about it.
Marquand writes, "The ground zero debate in Europe, for example, has brought a small geyser of anti-Muslim invective, even on websites like Le Monde's. They included an often articulate though sometimes churlish depiction of Islam as a single monolithic form of faith, inherently violent and extreme, and of Muslims as incapable of being moderate."
Muslims can be anything they want to be, but Islam itself is a single monolithic ideology, regardless of the local customs or ethnic origins of the Muslims of the world. All the schools of Islamic jurisprudence have a wide range of Islamic principles upon which they agree. Most doctrinal issues in Islam were worked out long ago and are almost universally considered "settled." And all are based on a single, unchanging collection of books, which is, in fact, inherently violent and intolerant.
Are Muslims capable of being moderate? That depends on two things: What we mean by moderate, and do we mean "even when they have the political clout to do otherwise?" For Marquand to understand this would require a couple of hours of Islam 101.
His readers probably don't know much about Islam, either, so they probably read the paragraph without a second thought, with the feeling that it all sounds perfectly reasonable.
Marquand and his readers might assume I'm prejudiced against all Muslims, but I'm not. For any particular Muslim, I don't know how much they accept or reject of Islamic doctrine. But I am definitely prejudiced against the doctrine. What is there for a non-Muslim to like about 527 unabrogated verses advocating intolerance or violence against non-Muslims?
Marquand writes, "They [Muslims] resent the fact that Islam is a subject of derision and reject the stereotype of Muslims as being one uniform, slightly sinister group."
And yet they don't resent it enough to openly reject what non-Muslims understandably object to! Muslims are welcome anytime they wish to speak honestly — to say, "Yes, that stuff is in our doctrine, and we reject it completely." I've never heard a Muslim say this. I've read a couple of people online do it, but of all the Muslims I've heard from and talked to, I've never heard a Muslim speak honestly about the objectionable material in the Quran and Sunna.
So here's the problem: Many non-Muslims have read the Islamic doctrines and we don't like what it teaches about us or about Islam's prime directive. Any idiot could see why a non-Muslim wouldn't like it. And yet, Muslims tend to focus on this "unfair" suspicion as if it's coming out of nowhere. This is hogwash. I don't believe such a large percentage of Muslims could be so dense as to be unable to see what non-Muslims don't like, and they could easily put us at ease to acknowledge it and reject it. But almost unanimously, they don't. Instead they are "resentful" at the "stereotyping."
Marquand writes, "Young second-generation Muslims have high expectations but often feel excluded."
But are they trying to discover why they are excluded? Are they explicitly rejecting the supremacism in Islamic doctrine? No? Then we should emphatically ridicule and dismiss their whining. We need to hold them to higher expectations and quit the coddling. Welcome them to the new era in non-Muslim-Muslim relations.
Marquand writes, "Some come to escape orthodox Islam while still being devout."
When I read that line, I actually laughed out loud! The Christian Science Monitor is considered a serious magazine. It has a good reputation. How did such a completely moronic sentence get past the editors? Orthodox means "Adhering to the accepted or traditional and established faith, especially in religion." That's pretty much the same as devout: "Devoted to religion or to the fulfillment of religious obligations."
We're talking about jihad. The thing non-Muslims object to most about Islamic doctrine is jihad — the deliberate, merciless intolerance against non-Muslims, the effort to impose their supremacist dominance wherever possible, and the relentless drive to bring all people under the rule of Islamic law. If a Muslim is orthodox, his religious devotion will be applied to this goal. If he is devout, he will be devoted to this goal.
So how is someone going to "escape orthodox Islam while still being devout?"
This is the problem. People like Marquand are completely missing the point and unaware of it. The article was accompanied by a video that equally misses the point, profiling three American Muslims all presenting themselves as normal as can be, all baffled as to why non-Muslims might look at them suspiciously, all equally self-righteous about how silly and misguided that is, and none of them mentioning the supremacism and intolerance at the core of their doctrines.
One of the women in the video even pointed out that believers of other religions don't get this kind of scrutiny or prejudice. I wanted to tell her, "That's right. It's been a long time since anyone worried about the Amish rioting, beheading people, infiltrating governments, threatening violence to silence their critics, or blowing up buses. Ideology actually counts."
We don't have a situation where all these religions are the same but one is being picked on unfairly. We have a situation where most religions share many principles about universal love and kindness, but Islam does not. According to Islamic doctrine, Muslims are the best of people and non-Muslims are the worst of people and deserve to suffer in this life and burn in the afterlife.
One man in the video implied that if only people could get to know him and his family, their suspicions would disappear. I wanted to tell him, "Dude, how you treat your family is the least of their worries. They wonder whether you are a believer in jihad in any form. They wonder if you pay your zakat and thus potentially fund suicide bombers. They wonder if you participate in CAIR or ISNA or any of the other Muslim organizations under the umbrella of the Muslim Brotherhood and if you've aligned yourself with its goal to sabotage our government. They wonder if you believe in reverse integration and if you're striving in the way of Allah to Islamize America. They wonder if you follow the Quranic teachings to never make friends with non-Muslims — to go ahead and fake it, but never actually befriend them or like them."
If he is actively working toward Islam's prime directive, no amount of "getting to know him and his family" will matter. What might matter is if he acknowledged those teachings and rejected them. And told us he rejected them. That would at least be a start. But in this video, which would make any PR hack proud, you hear nothing of the sort.
Marquand writes, "Muslims agree that some younger adherents get radicalized."
In a recent study in Britain, they found second-generation Muslims are more "radical" than their parents. That is, they hold more orthodox views. In other words, they believe in Islam's prime directive. They are more committed to jihad than their first-generation parents.
Why would this be? Because of what I'm harping on: All these perfectly nice Muslims in the PR video are raising their children without ever telling them that supremacist and intolerant teachings are strewn throughout the Quran and Sunna, and without saying, "but we completely reject those teachings." No, they say nothing of the sort. They do just the opposite. They tell them being a Muslim is great, that the Quran is the word of the Almighty, that they are being unfairly persecuted by non-Muslims around the world, and they must band together and "defend" Islam.
So our young Muslim grows up and gets easily recruited by a devout Muslim who simply tells the kid to read the Quran and discover his obligations as a Muslim.
Marquand writes, "In university settings and among some Muslim moderates, frank reappraisals of the Koran are under way, which includes a tougher look at its calls for militancy."
Some Muslims are taking a tougher look? Big deal. These doctrines are clear and easy to find. They don't need to be looked at; they need to be vociferously repudiated, clearly and forcefully. These teachings are imbeded deep in Islam throughout its doctrine and throughout its history. And Muslims are acting on these passages all over the world, killing people, destroying property, and wrecking lives. They're doing that right now, today. Someone will die today because of these doctrines. The situation is urgent. A "tougher look" doesn't cut it. Not even close. Does Marquand really believe that we can all relax now because some Muslims are taking a tougher look? Give me a break.
Marquand quotes Ahmet Mahamat, an immigrant from Chad who lives in France. Mahamat said, "Immigrants are linked to criminality or delinquency or fanaticism." He meant "linked in peoples' prejudiced minds." Wah wah wah. I wanted to tell him to suck it up and prove people wrong, just like every immigrant group before him has had to do. Everywhere immigrants arrive on foreign shores, they face prejudice. And if they work hard and prove themselves loyal members of that society, they are eventually accepted and embraced. That's how it goes. You want to be on our team? You had better prove yourself worthy. We don't owe you anything. We've already let you move here — the rest is up to you. If anything, you owe us.
But Mahamat is pursuing the example of Mohammad the Whiner. "I look in the eyes of so many people," he says, "and what I see does not correspond to who I am. They see another me."
I want to tell him, "Look, man, they know the ideology you supposedly believe in. You say you're a Muslim. We naturally assume you believe in Islam. We assume you are an adherent of Islamic doctrine. We assume you believe in the supremacism and intolerance inherent in your ideology. Either stop calling yourself a Muslim or explicitly say, 'I reject jihad, I reject Mohammad's political, supremacist model, and I embrace Western values of freedom, women's rights, religious equality, etc.' It took me all of twenty seconds to say that, so what's the problem? If you can't honestly say those things, then our suspicions of you are correct, so quit your whining and get used to permanent rejection because you do not belong in this society."
When you know something about an ideology, you treat the person differently. And you should. You don't feed a Jain a steak dinner when they come to your house (Jains believe you should not kill any living creature). You don't invite a Buddhist with you on a deer hunt (Buddhists believe in trying to avoid harming living beings).
If you know about someone's ideology, you usually will (and definitely should) treat them differently.
And in the same way, if someone's ideology calls for unrelenting jihad against non-Muslims until the whole world submits to Islamic law, generally speaking, you don't invite them to come live in your country and bring their wives! And if they are already in your country, you usually will (and definitely should) be wary of them until they prove their devotion and loyalty to your country and the principles your society is founded on. In this case, until they forthrightly reject the objectionable precepts of their religious ideology.
This should be common sense. If it doesn't make sense to you, your first step should be to read the Quran. Start here: Take the Pledge to read the Quran.

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Write Letters in Support of Geert Wilders

Thursday

SEVERAL PEOPLE wrote to us saying they want to put pressure on the people involved in Geert Wilders' trial (read the latest on the trial here), but the links are difficult to decipher on the SITA page. And that is true.

The problem is, in Europe you can't publish an address of a public person. So SITA has to provide links that contain the address, and since most of those web sites are in Dutch, it is a little confusing.

Luckily, Citizen Warrior is based in the United States, and we can publish what we damn well please.


So below you will find the names and addresses you need.

If you would like the people involved in prosecuting Geert Wilders to feel the international pressure and to know that we are all watching and judging what they decide about Geert's case,
the most important people to write to are the three judges on the court of appeal.

The judges' names are Mr. Tom Schalken, Mr. J.P Splint, and Mr F.A. Hartsuiker. Write to all three of them at this address:


Postbus 1312
1000 BH Amsterdam
the Netherlands

Write to each one separately. Write to Schalken, for example, by addressing your envelope like this:

Mr. Tom Schalken
Postbus 1312
1000 BH Amsterdam
the Netherlands

The judges' office has an email address: info@gerechtshof-amsterdam.nl. Email may not be as effective as snail mail, but email is definitely better than nothing.

Here's some interesting information about the judges
.

The second most important person to write to is:

Gerard Spong
P.O. box 15812
1001 NH Amsterdam
the Netherlands

He is the lawyer who initiated the legal action. He has an email address also: spong@spongadvocaten.com.

Thank you for taking action. And please urge everyone you know to send some letters too.

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One More Push to Support Geert Wilders

GEERT WILDERS' TRIAL begins in a week and a half. This is it. This is the showdown we've been waiting for. And we have one final battle in support of Geert — one last exertion to put pressure on the people involved in the trial, and to put more pressure on them than the Islamic and dhimmi pressure they're getting from other side. Here's the timeline for the trial: Monday October 4: The trial resumes with substantive handling criminal proceedings against Geert, which continues Wednesday October 6, and Friday October 8. Tuesday October 12: Indictment by the prosecutors. Friday October 15: Plea of the defense by Geert. Tuesday October 19: Rejoinder and reply. Tuesday November 2: Ruling in prosecution by the court (verdict). The trial was delayed as long as possible in the hopes that the huge national and international support of Geert Wilders would die down. The court is trying to make Geert lose. They refused fifteen of the eighteen witnesses Geert wanted to invite, and the three witnesses selected will only be heard off camera. And more significantly, the government refused to provide Geert with protection, something they provided to the murderer of Theo Van Gogh during his trial. The international establishment, subverted by a variety of Islamic organizations including the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference, the largest voting block in the U.N.) is applying a great deal of pressure on the Dutch establishment to ensure that Geert Wilders is convicted on the charges that have been maliciously brought against him (read more about what Geert was charged with and why). And yet, Geert's support among the Dutch people is growing. It seems likely that Geert's party will win the next election in 2011, which means Geert Wilders would become Prime Minister. The global establishment does not want Geert in such a position of influence, even if the people of the Netherlands do. An international SITA action in support of Geert Wilders was established in late January 2009. It resulted in hundreds of letters being sent to decision makers in the Netherlands to educate and inform them. The campaign produced so much interest, even the Dutch Ministry of Justice visited the SITA websites. The "SITA action" is now being reactivated in order to highlight, criticize, and repudiate this politically-motivated prosecution. If Geert Wilders falls, freedom of speech is as good as dead in Europe. There are three ways you can fight: 1) By mail. You can write whatever you want, or you can use one of two possible texts created by SITA; one comparing Wilders to Winston Churchill and another comparing him to Charlie Chaplin. If you follow either of those links and scroll down, you'll find all the details about where to send the letters. Or use this shorter, easier-to-follow source of names and addresses. This kind of international pressure using snail mail letters is extremely effective. It is one of the primary methods used by Amnesty International because it works. If you want to help Geert Wilders, and if you want to have an impact on freedom of speech around the world, promise yourself you will do your part and send a letter this week. Go to the Winston Churchill link or the Charlie Chaplin link, and let's make the judges and politicians in the Netherlands feel the heat! 2) Another way you can help is by making comments on online articles about the trial of Geert Wilders, and include links. You can write your own message, or copy this article and paste it in the comments, or simply make a short comment and leave a link to this article or any of the articles provided below. To support Geert Wilders and our dearly-acquired freedoms, please participate in the two suggested actions above, and transmit this message to your friends who have web sites so they can help spread the word. 3) A third way you can help is by giving money to Geert. To donate, go to Geert Wilders' official web site. Below are some links to articles and videos you can use to help promote the national resistance to Geert's prosecution: Geert Wilders' movie, Fitna (video) Keep On Fighting For Geert Wilders and Freedom of Speech How Similar Are These Two Books? An Interview with Geert Wilders (video) Find out what Wilders is being charged with and why: The War on Wilders The Latest Update on the Geert Wilders Trial Update on Geert Wilders Geert Wilder's Hearing Geert Wilders Update July 1st - 2010 Geert Wilders Update August 7, 2010 Geert Wilders Is In Trouble And You Can Help

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Let's Help Each Other Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam

Sunday

People write to us all the time wanting help with the challenge of talking to people about Islam. They are having difficulties dealing with their frustrations (for example, when people deliberately refuse to accept facts), or they want advice about how to deal with a particular circumstance or how to answer a specific objection. And sometimes they just seek a little empathy and support because they feel like they are alone in the world, the only one in their life who seems to understand what's going on.


So we have created a site where we could all help each other talk about Islam — a place to share your frustrations, to share your successes, to learn from other people what works and what doesn't, to share resources, and to contribute your hard-won wisdom about talking to people ab out this challenging topic.

When you have a particularly frustrating conversation, or when you've had a particularly successful conversation about Islam, go to this site and express yourself. Or just read what others have written, and gain strength and courage and insight for the conversations you still have ahead of you.

We encourage you to bookmark the page, and we also put a link to it in the Citizen Warrior sidebar.

We will "moderate" these comments so the conversations stay productive and won't be interrupted by Muslims. Let's build ourselves an awesome resource.

I got the idea for this after seeing a "comment page" created just for comments on an article about sociopaths. People have made comments, asked for advice, answered each others' questions, supported each other, and produced an illuminating collection of information about, in this case, the challenges of dealing with a sociopath.

Let's create something similar for the challenges we face when we tell our fellow non-Muslims the disturbing truth about Islam.

So please share your frustrations and your advice on this vital subject. Go here and let's get the conversation started:

Talk About Islam Among Non-Muslims

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Article Spotlight

One of the most unusual articles on CitizenWarrior.com is Pleasantville and Islamic Supremacism.

It illustrates the Islamic Supremacist vision by showing the similarity between what happened in the movie, Pleasantville, and what devout fundamentalist Muslims are trying to create in Islamic states like Syria, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia (and ultimately everywhere in the world).

Click here to read the article.


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