What Would Stop Uninformed Non-Muslims from Defending Islam Long Enough to Learn Something?

A while back, I asked this question: "What don't people understand about Islam that makes them see Muslims as disadvantaged, vanquished, helpless victims bullied by omnipotent, intimidating, domineering non-Muslims?"

Many came forth with great answers.

Exploring this issue is important because, as you well know, a lot of non-Muslims instinctively defend Islam, preventing you from sharing valuable information with them. They see Muslims as the 98-pound weakling and the West as the big, mean bully, and they don't want you picking on the weakling.

We know something our fellow non-Muslims don't know. What is it? Something is missing in their worldview. We might be better at getting our message across if we knew what key understanding our fellow non-Muslims were missing. Here are some of the best answers:

1. Civilus Defendus said: The Tiger is majestic and beautiful from a distance. If you could, the Tiger's coat would be soft to the touch, its fang and talon hard and sharp. Its muscles ripple with strength as it ambles casually to and fro. Its voice is startling, yet proud and awe inspiring. And the Tiger lives in an exotic place of wonderment. The Tiger is truly magnificent.

Yet were you to perceive it from a different angle, to feel the Tiger's hot breath upon you, to have nothing separating you from its raw power and natural instinct, would send you into a panic and instant survival mode. The Tiger’s presence would sharpen your thinking and govern your every move. Nothing would you take for granted, not your next heart beat, your next move, your surroundings, nor the mindset of the Tiger.

Is the Tiger friend or foe? Does it enrich your world or threaten it? From a distance it is a wonder, up close and personal it is life-threatening.

Be careful how you perceive things.

2. Lynne said: An adroit question that reveals a chink in our armor. Because of our Judeo-Christian roots, Americans [Westerners] see the world in a particular way. These cultural sensibilities incline us to 'love our brothers, sisters, neighbors..' Forgive, without requiring a change in behavior, i.e., Remorse, Repentance, Repair, and not Repeating wrong doing.

Because Muslim communities are not open to those outside the Ummah, true understanding of their mentality is up to interpretation based only on their 'word' and our cultural bias.

It is incumbent upon us to read their sacred texts [as unfortunate as that turns out to be since it will now be in our heads] to see that their cultural roots are diametrically opposed to ours.

Mohammed taught lessons we cannot relate to, thankfully, but to understand those of the Islamic faith, we need to attach these teaching to their culture without apology. Not just some, but to ALL.

If we take this first step, we might actually save ourselves.

I remember hearing a Muslim 'academic' say with some pride that it took Egypt 300 years to fall to Islam...THEY NEVER STOP!

3. Kall4less said: a) People have been misinformed about the so-called "Palestinians" since 1948. They believe that they were a nation with a history, distinctive foods, clothing, & lifestyle. They mistakenly believe that they are mistreated by Israel & that is the reason that they are in a difficult predicament. Obviously, to those of us who are well aware of the real history of Israel since at least the mid 19th century, they are wholly misinformed.

b) People are also misinformed about the beliefs of Islam. They believe that Islam is practiced around the world as are the rest of the world's religions, so it should be treated equally.

c) Their world view is missing knowledge of the history of the Muslim Brotherhood in America, its plans, & how it has grown.

d) Finally, missing from their world view is an understanding of how vital it is to civilization that people not only not shy away from confronting them now in every way possible, but on the contrary, that it is high time that we fight back fiercely in the political arena &, of course, whenever they make it necessary, like in the case of the plane that was brought down on 9/11 by its brave passengers who'd heard it was on its way to destroy the White House or Capital.

4. Another anonymous writer said: Those of the American public who defend Muslims are guilty of ignorance. Since the 7th century, when Muhammad founded that religion, Muslims have been trying to conquer the world because that's what the Koran tells them to do.

Our government schools have done an excellent job at dumbing down Americans and making them ignorant of history.

My family comes from Spain, where the Muslims settled for 800 years. They tried to invade France, but they were repelled by the French general Charles Martel, whose son became King of the new Roman Empire.

The Muslims then tried to invade Europe from the East and succeeded to reach Austria! in the 14th century.

Muslims are still in Czechoslovakia, in the Serbian region. Now, encouraged by the OWO tyrants in the West, they see their opportunity to continue their conquest of the civilized world. Their main target being the United States of America.

Any American that defends these savages is an ignorant fool.

5. Another anonymous writer said: Why don't they understand? I'd say...

a) The Crusades — poor Muslims being oppressed by tyrannical Christians

b) The idea many socialist-minded people have that there are greedy neocon fascists who hate everything non-white and non-Christian

c) We are wealthy and Islamic nations aren't wealthy (this is the stereotype, anyway) and poverty is an excuse for barbarism

d) Most Muslims are darker-skinned than most Westerners, so criticism = racism

e) Here in Europe, the holocaust has made us think that the Muslims are the 'new Jews' and has made us sensitive to scapegoating one religious minority. Here in the UK, we have the guilt of our colonial legacy to hinder us from asserting our own values.

It's all down to tu quoque and white guilt.

We've all been indoctrinated with these views, here in Europe and in the USA. I think the solution is to just keep pushing the alternative view, the truth. But time is running out.

6. "Finally Figured out Islam" said: What the general population don't realize is the different tactics the devout Muslims are in the process of using to aid in the imposition of Islam. It isn't just bombs. It is control of our courts and our finance. It is with the use of the pen. They have learned how to win the PR war with the ignorant, especially the ignorant left. Muslims who are devoted to the cause of implementing Islamic law are strategically placed in powerful places. We have been asleep. It is also a culture that has chosen to hate those outside its religion and until there is a change of heart on their side, we will continually be at war with the the push and force of Islam.

7. Another anonymous writer said: My impression of them in their home countries, probably due in some part to our treasonous media here, is that they are downtrodden, poor, and low-tech. It seems that if it weren't for oil they would all be broke. Of course, living under the rules that they have would cause anyone to feel beaten down, and this probably provides a rich source of anger — by design.

8. Mo said: "What do people not understand about Islam...?" I have found that most people not only don't understand much about Islam, but they have been taught the exact opposite:

They are told all religions are the same, and/or all are worthless or evil.

They are told we are never supposed to judge anyone's views — especially religious ones — as being right or wrong. (Except for Christianity of course.)

They are told that Islam teaches peace.

They are told that it is Israel who is the constant aggressor in the never ending Middle East conflict.

I could go on but I will leave opportunity for others.

The worst part is that they do not have any desire to educate themselves on the issue.

9. Another anonymous writer said: I am seeing it's more conservative versus liberal. Some liberals actually appear to hate conservatives, thinking they are responsible for interfering with liberal freedoms. If a liberal attempted to talk to them [about Islamic doctrine], that person would be labeled a conservative. What they don't understand is that those of us [speaking about Islamic doctrine], conservative or liberal, are attempting to protect their freedoms.

While this has nothing to do with liberal versus conservative, some liberals think it does. It does not matter what tactic is used with them, some are so close-minded, they only spew out hate.

Hate for Christianity is on the rise. So, it becomes Christian conservatives against Islam. It's interesting that while some accuse Christians of being bigots, they, themselves hate Christianity and conservatives.

These people want proof. Many say the Muslims they know are fine people; therefore, there aren't any bad ones in our country. When talking about it, generalizing won't work.

They don't think radical Islam can happen in this country. We have laws to protect us from that. What they fail to see is our laws can be changed.

Our media is partly responsible, as well. Very little is shown about what is happening, for obvious reasons. They don't want to be called bigots. If we don't hear about it, we don't know what is going on. Many don't use the internet to find out.

If it isn't happening in our own backyards, it isn't happening, is another mentality I hear.

Maybe, it's best to give up on those and go on to others less resistant. Hopefully, those resistant will be the minority.

10. Blogger said: I am not from America, but I notice that Americans are more scared of critiquing Islam that Europeans are, and I have come to understand that it is because of their guilt regarding previous treatment of non-whites, plus of 2 main myths:

A. Islam is a "race", ie "black race".

B. Criticising Islam is the same as going back to the pre 1960s treatment of black people.

Both of those myths need a thorough debunking. Outside of America, the majority of Christians are black. The majority of Muslims are also 'not' black (the biggest group are Indonesian Asians). Islam is also not linked to any race, except that the Hadithes claim that Muhammad was "white", and the Arabic word for "slave" and "black" are still the same. Arabs traded slaves long before the Spanish and British did.

11. In Victor Davis Hanson's book, The Father of Us All, he wrote: The only mystery about our reluctance to speak honestly and freely about particular issues is why we are so eager to give up on free expression, especially when it comes to radical Islam, which fuels much of the world's terrorism in the post-September 11 landscape.

Other than fear of bodily harm, one reason for curbing criticism of radical Islam surely is contemporary postmodern ideologies such as multiculturalism (the notion that the West is just one of many cultures, no better or worse than any other); utopian pacifism (wars can be eliminated through diplomacy and the teaching of nonviolent arbitration); and moral equivalence (those with power and influence in the West, given its own sins, cannot legitimately calibrate, much less condemn, the distasteful practices of other cultures)...

The aggregate result of multiculturalism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among its cultural elites and leadership is that philosophically and ethically the Western public becomes less well-equipped to condemn antithetical ideologies and to defend itself against their aggression. In Western consensual societies this so-called political correctness likewise permeates the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

12. Here's my take on it: The Key to Your Listener’s Inability to Confront the Disturbing Nature of Islamic Doctrine.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here.

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Lessons on Jihad From the Movie, "What About Bob?"

I was thinking of writing an article about the infuriating cleverness of orthodox Muslims, and I was wondering what I could use to illustrate what they're doing. And then it came to me in a flash: The movie, What About Bob?

In the movie, Bill Murray plays a psychiatric patient who drives his psychiatrist crazy (Dr. Leo Marvin, played by Richard Dreyfus).

I just watched it again and the parallels to orthodox Islam's dealings with the West are amazing. Bob uses the same techniques on Dr. Marvin that orthodox Muslims use against the United States and Europe, and with similar results: Bob successfully fools everyone except Dr. Marvin, and Dr. Marvin becomes infuriated and helpless, but unable to stop it.

Bob is able to cleverly insert himself into Dr. Marvin's life without his consent, and able to turn Dr. Marvin's friends and family against him.

As I watched, I kept stopping to write notes every time I saw a parallel. Here are my notes:

1. Bob's stand is: I am suffering. Islam's stand is: We are an oppressed people, we are under attack, we are the underdog, and we are suffering. Bob manages to make normal events in life cause him to suffer. Orthodox Muslims take anything their enemies do and turns it into "oppression." And if their enemies do nothing offensive, they create opportunities to be affronted.

Read any mainstream Muslim publication, like the Muslim Public Affairs Committee newsletter, and you will see a strong theme running through almost every article: Muslims are oppressed and persecuted (and therefore must "defend" themselves).

I subscribe to several pro-Muslim e-mail newsletters, and this is an extremely common theme. Every little "hate-crime" they can come up with proves that Muslims are an oppressed minority. I recently read this: In the year 2007, the number of hate-crimes in the U.S. committed against someone because of their religion was 1400. Here's how the hate-crimes break down by religion:

Anti-Jewish 969
Anti-Other Religion 130
Anti-Islamic 115
Anti-Multiple Religions 62
Anti-Catholic 61
Anti-Protestant 57
Anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. 6

Over the course of a year, and with 300 million people in this country, that's a pretty low incidence of hate-crimes against Muslims. But their perpetual position is that they are an oppressed minority. Here's why.

2. Bob uses every technique he can find to keep pushing for what he wants. And he uses the one tool that gives him the most leverage with normal people: Pity. Evoke genuine pity, and you can pretty much gain any concession you want. Read more about this.

The stealth jihad uses this principle constantly. Jihadis try to portray themselves — just as their leader Mohammad did — as innocent victims of wrongdoing. Then, having aroused pity, they seek a concession of some kind.

They continue gaining concessions and giving none. Islam is a ratchet: It only goes one way.

3. Bob uses deceit masterfully. Bob hires a hooker to portray Dr. Marvin's sister to get through on the phone (when Dr. Marvin is on vacation and is not taking calls). Bob impersonates a detective and lies to the operator to get information about where Dr. Marvin is vacationing.

Islam has a principle called taqiyya, which means "religious deception." They can and do lie to non-Muslims and they have Allah's permission to do so as long as it serves the cause of Islam.

In the movie, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, there are several good examples, captured on film, of a Muslim leader speaking to Western media, saying one thing, and then it shows the same leader speaking to their fellow Muslims saying just the opposite. You see them speaking peace and tolerance to Westerners and two days later vigorously preaching jihad against the West to their fellow Muslims. This is taqiyya.

Probably the single most important reason orthodox Muslims have gotten away with so much is because they use deceit masterfully.

4. Bob pushes for concessions because he is special, unique, weird. And Bob captures everyone's attention and doesn't let them go about their normal lives.

Muslims do the same thing. In Norway, for example, Muslims were agitating for a law that would make it illegal to serve alcohol in discos on certain nights (because they are uncomfortable around alcohol). Hege Storhaug, the co-founder of Human Rights Service, rejects such a proposal. "All the time they have special rules," says Storhaug, "and we reject special requirements. We get a split-up society and Islam gets more presence in the public sphere. People force religious opinions on others. In the most extreme consequence it leads to the Islamization of society...All the time it's Muslims who come with special requirements. We never hear a peep from Catholics, Jews, Hindus, etc."

One way to try to gain a concession is to simply ask. Another way (and far more effective) is to ask while providing a good reason why an exception should be made for you that would not be made for others. Bob had "special needs" because he was agoraphobic or afraid of sailing or deathly afraid of germs, and people went out of their way to accommodate him, conceding things to him they would never concede to a normal person.

Islam does the same thing. And they often succeed (read more about what kinds of concessions they have gained). They press for concessions because they are oppressed or because they are unique (they have particular needs because of their unique religion), or because they've been wronged or persecuted or whatever.

5. Bob seems really nice to everyone but his enemy. People usually recognize Bob is unusual, but they think he is innocent. But Dr. Marvin sees what he's doing and how deliberately and insidiously he's doing it.

By the skillful use of taqiyya, Muslims — even Muslims we know to be bloodthirsty killers — are considered "really nice people" by those who don't know better. (Read a good example of that here.)

Islamic countries are often very friendly to Western countries while at the same time whipping up national hatred against those same Western countries on Islamic television stations, and funding global jihad against those same countries.

6. Bob uses public embarrassment to force concessions. When he arrives in the small town where the well-respected Dr. Marvin spends his summer vacation, Bob starts yelling at the top of his lungs in the middle of the street, "Dr. Marvin! Doctor Leo Marvin!" He keeps yelling until he has everyone's attention and Dr. Marvin can't simply ignore him and get away, which is what he was planning on doing.

Orthodox Muslims try to embarrass organizations into doing what they want. They will go to court even though they know they will lose, they will get the press involved. They'll do whatever it takes to embarrass people or companies or governments into conceding. Radio stations have fired good people because the station didn't want to deal with the public embarrassment of a lawsuit. Politicians restrain themselves and go out of their way not to say anything honest that might be offensive to the super-sensitive Muslim-advocacy organizations, because those organizations will do what they can to embarrass the politicians. Even comedians avoid talking about Islam.

Orthodox Muslims have wormed their way into training programs for police and intelligence agencies and intimidated them into not saying anything that might lead to public embarrassment, demonstrating again and again that the Muslim organizations will use public embarrassment to silence critics of Islam.

7. Bob uses Dr. Marvin's enemies against him. There is a husband and wife in town who are angry because the rich city doctor came and bought their dream home out from under them. Bob gets these people to help him, and they do it to help ruin Dr. Marvin's life.

Orthodox Muslims are actively converting and recruiting disgruntled convicts in prison — people who are already enemies of the society. Iran sent soldiers into Iraq in order to kill U.S. soldiers, but Iran also supplied Russia and China with oil, so if the U.S. wants to do something about Iran, they'd have our two biggest enemies to contend with. In essence, Iran used America's enemies against them.

Closer to home, those of us who are in the process of alerting our fellow citizens to the danger of Islam's prime directive have enemies among our own fellow non-Muslim citizens. The blind multiculturalists in the media actively fight against us, trying to discredit anyone who criticizes Islam, and the orthodox Muslims use those enemies against us.

I get a newsletter from CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) that brags in almost every issue about how they are bringing this suit against this person or sending press releases out about this or that grievance, and you can see from their wording that they are hitting every hot-button they can think of to gain sympathy from our fellow non-Muslim "enemies."

8. Bob exploits all of Dr. Marvin's weaknesses — his egotism, his desire to win his family's love and approval, his failures and embarrassments, his family's kindness and innocence, his family's resentment against Dr. Marvin's pomposity — Bob exploits it all to get what he wants.

Orthodox Muslims exploit Westerners' weaknesses, too. One of our "weaknesses" is our reverence for life. Jihadis will hide behind their own civilians during a battle, knowing Western soldiers will not open fire.

Here's another example of this principle, from DhimmiWatch:

"Palestinian jihad fighters have even used Christian sites and people as shields against the Israelis. In Spring 2002 they appropriated Bethlehem’s Manger Square as a base of operations, knowing that Israeli forces would not attack them there and would face international opprobrium if they did. This activity precipitated the siege of the Church of the Nativity in April and May of that year. After launching attacks against the Israelis from Manger Square, a group of jihadists fled into the church, where they remained for 39 days — secure in the knowledge that Israel would not attack a Christian holy site. Meanwhile, they desecrated the church."

Orthodox Muslims are masters of exploiting their enemy's weaknesses. They immigrate into free countries and then use the democratic process and rights of free speech to agitate against those freedoms and seek to subvert the democracy.

They also exploit the multicultural beliefs of the resident population in order to wage jihad by gaining concessions.

9. Bob is absolutely relentless. He doesn't let up ever. Neither do orthodox Muslims. They keep infiltrating, they keep immigrating, they keep agitating, they keep killing, they keep intimidating, and they will never stop on their own. They've been doing it for 1400 years, and they are determined to keep it up until the whole world acknowledges there is no god but Allah and Mohammad is His Messenger. They will never give up until the whole world falls under the rule of Islamic law. This is Islam's Prime Directive.

10. Bob makes sure every response Dr. Marvin makes will backfire. He ensures that no matter what Dr. Marvin does to return to his normal life or solve his problem, it will not work. In the documentary, Target America, you can see each successive American president through the seventies, eighties, and nineties try many different ways of dealing with orthodox Muslims, and every attempt backfired.

The orthodox Muslims made sure they set up a situation where no matter what the U.S. did, it would go badly.

The same infuriating frustration Dr. Marvin feels is what I saw on the faces of all the presidents in Target America as they tried and failed to deal successfully with hijackings and captured hostages and bombings.

11. No matter what he does, Bob makes Dr. Marvin look like the mean one and Bob look like the innocent, underdog victim of Dr. Marvin's apparently bad-tempered selfishness. Osama bin Laden's plan was to run planes into the Twin Towers in the hopes that the U.S. would overreact, counting on the fact that the violent overreaction would cause Muslims around the world to unite against the West.

Many people think that's exactly what happened. Muslims flew planes into the Twin Towers, killing thousands of office workers, and in the end, the U.S. looks like the mean one to a lot of people, and Muslims look like the underdog victims who only need potable water and a little compassion from big, bad America.

12. Bob causes Dr. Marvin's wife and kids to sympathize with Bob and to resent and reject Dr. Marvin. They all try to look out for poor Bob. They push for Bob to get what he wants. This is analogous to orthodox Muslims causing multiculturalist Westerners to sympathize with Muslims and turn against their fellow countrymen who are trying to protect us all from further harm.

So we have one group of people in the U.S. who want to make sure we're no longer vulnerable to attack by orthodox Muslims. And we have another segment of the U.S. who wants "stop the hate," wants to "give peace a chance," and wants to stop "racial profiling."

In other words, orthodox Muslims have successfully turned some of our own people against each other. They have manipulated the situation so some non-Muslims are pushing for the orthodox Muslims to get what they want.

This is not just happening in America, it is happening in free countries all over the world.

13. Bob keeps provoking a hostile overreaction from Dr. Marvin and then appears to be the innocent victim of Dr. Marvin's cruel insensitivity, and then he leverages that to gain concessions. If Dr. Marvin doesn't respond, Bob escalates or persists in his provocation until Dr. Marvin can't take it any more and bursts out in anger.

One memorable example from the movie is the dinner scene. Bob moaned with pleasure while he was eating. He kept moaning and saying, "This is so delicious!" And he kept it up until Dr. Marvin suddenly yells at him to shut up. All of Dr. Marvin's family looks at him with anger and embarrassment. Bob looks like the innocent victim of Dr. Marvin's irrational rage.

Here's a good example from William Bennett's Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism:

"From the beginning, the Palestinian strategy was, and still is, to provoke outrages to which Israel has had no choice but to respond with stringent countermeasures, thereby supplying endless footage of Palestinian casualties and eliciting fresh pressure by the West to accommodate ever-escalating Palestinian demands. Israel's commitment to peace stimulated in the Palestinians not a spirit of reciprocal amicableness but an appetite for more..."

14. Bob knows full well what he's doing, but successfully appears innocent to everyone but Dr. Marvin, who sees right through him but can't get anyone else to see it. Those of us who have been trying to alert our fellow Westerners to Islam's relentless encroachment are having a very difficult time.

Islam appears innocent to many people, and to them, we are suspect. We must be racists or bigots or Islamophobes. This assessment effectively shuts their ears to accurate information about something real enough to cause over seventeen thousand deadly attacks since 9/11.

15. Dr. Marvin clearly expects the problem (Bob) to go away, but he will never go. He keeps insinuating himself more and more thoroughly into Dr. Marvin's life. Almost every non-Muslim I talk to about Islam's relentless encroachment expects someone to take care of it and expects the problem to go away. But it isn't going away. It's getting worse. Orthodox Islam is insinuating itself more and more thoroughly into Western societies.

16. Bob is skillful, but conceals it. Dr. Marvin comes up with a brilliant scheme to admit Bob into a mental institution, but the institution can only legally hold Bob for 24 hours before they let him go. They can keep him there only if the staff agrees Bob needs to be institutionalized. Dr. Marvin is sure everyone will see Bob is crazy, but they don't. Within a few hours, they release Bob. Bob completely charmed the staff, telling jokes and cracking everyone up.

Like Bob, Islam is skillful, but conceals it. The more I learn about the clever infiltration of the Muslim Brotherhood into mainstream American life, the more impressed I am at the long-range planning and the skillful, sophisticated understanding of the American mind.

One branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. They have successfully fooled most people in America that they represent moderate, peace-loving Muslim Americans. Read about what they are really up to.

17. Bob is in it for the long haul. Eventually, Dr. Marvin loses his mind, goes off the deep end, and he becomes violent and irrational, mainly because nobody else sees what Bob is really doing except Dr. Marvin.

Orthodox Muslims find every crack in the wall they can find and work their way in. And they twist every event and utterance to their purpose. They will not stop, they will not tire, and they have nothing else to live for. This is it. This is the meaning of their existence: Islam must win. Islam must dominate all other cultures, all other religions, all other governments. Allah wills it.

They have infiltrated our schools by giving donations to colleges and then using their seat on the board to exert influence (creating a campus culture of Islam-loving, America-hating students). Orthodox Muslims offered the British government and banks on Wall Street money to help them through the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but with strings attached — the money is "Shari'a compliant" which means, among other things, that there is a built-in written agreement that a certain portion of the money goes to particular charities — charities that support jihad against the West.

Orthodox Muslims have created "legitimate," mainstream organizations that lobby Washington and "represent the Muslim community" to governments and to the media, and yet have a secret agenda, revealed at the Holy Land Foundation Trial, of conquering America from within.

The list goes on and on. They are in it for the long haul, and they absolutely will not stop, ever. They won't grow tired or give up. If they are going to be stopped, we must stop them. And we had better do it with more success than Dr. Marvin had with Bob.

To get rid of Bob, out of mad frustration, Dr. Marvin tries to blow him up, but Bob ends up "accidentally" blowing Dr. Marvin's vacation home to smithereens, and then marries Dr. Marvin's sister!

Bob won. Dr. Marvin lost. We've got to do better.

Would you like to entertain yourself while watching a demonstration of orthodox Muslim techniques? Watch What About Bob?

And while you're watching, see if you can come up with ideas we can use. What would you do if you were Dr. Marvin?

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here. 

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The Key to Your Listener’s Inability to Confront the Disturbing Nature of Islamic Doctrine

Someone left the comment below on The Islamization of the West and it reminds me of many similar comments I've gotten over the years, and similar feelings I've had:

"I am at a complete loss as to why CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MPAC or this NMLA is even allowed to exist in America?? Are some Americans so dumbed down that they don't see the enemy right in front of them? Is this or any political party in government so stupid that they just turn a blind eye to what's happening?"

Can you feel the commenter's exasperation? Have you had this feeling before? We are in a strange situation: We try to simply share new information we've learned, and we find ourselves unable to share it — not because we are incapable of articulating it, but because our listeners do backflips trying to invalidate the information. They contort themselves into impossible cognitive pretzels in order to reject simple, factual information. It has been baffling to many of us. I know. I have heard from hundreds of our fellow counterjihadists about this.

And I know how it feels. I sometimes want to write off my fellow non-Muslims as idiots, but I know many of them are not stupid, so what is going on? What could be the cause of their seemingly stubborn stupidity on this subject?

Last night, I was reading Victor Davis Hanson's book, The Father of Us All, and he said something I've never thought about before. Namely, that people in the West are acutely aware of the inequalities of the world — we in the West enjoy a material quality of life far better than billions of other people — and for a lot of Westerners, this presents a serious ethical problem.

They feel guilty about it. They need to assuage their guilt in some way. But here is the key insight I've never thought about before: They need to assuage their guilt in some way other than giving up the goodies, because even though they don't like the inequality, they don't want to give up the high quality of life.

In other words, many people need to have a way to keep enjoying the material riches, but still rectify or expiate the guilt they feel about others being so poor.

The solution many have chosen is to go out of their way to see what's wrong with their own culture, and to give other cultures an undeserved reverence.


A FAMILIAR SOLUTION

This solution is something we are familiar with in our personal relationships. If you are more successful than a friend of yours, for example, one way you can help him feel better and prevent him from resenting you is to point out your own faults. Those who are exceptionally successful often habitually display humility, making it a point to underline their own personal imperfections.

The successful person can do this with integrity because everyone has faults, even very competent people, and because every success is partly a result of pure luck — the luck of being born in a free country, the luck of being born with ambition, a high energy, basic intelligence, good health, etc. Many people use this stratagem, knowingly or unknowingly, because it helps. The self-deprecation helps a successful person continue to enjoy the material goodies without feeling too guilty about it around other people, and without making other people feel bad about themselves or resentful of the successful person.

It shows no class to put down the "less fortunate" as lazy, stupid, ignorant, etc. It is the height of vulgarity to criticize or humiliate or ridicule or rebuke or denounce the less fortunate.

And I think the people who will not listen to you, or who argue in defense of Islam even when they know nothing about Islam, are doing the same thing on a cultural scale. In other words, when you, a fellow member of the fortunate class (a Westerner) start bad-mouthing another culture — when you start criticizing Islamic doctrine — you have violated an important code of etiquette. And for them to listen to you and accept what you say is for them to violate it too.

What we're dealing with is a "cultural humility" about Western culture and achievements. People are going out of their way to point out what is wrong with their own Western culture or their country in particular. They're not casual about this — there is an underlying intensity. They seem hell-bent on criticizing their own country or culture.

Now it makes sense that it seems so deeply felt, that your listeners seem so committed to stopping you from criticizing Islam and committed to criticizing their own culture. Many people rely on this criticism to allow them to enjoy their abundant technology and relative luxury without too much guilt.

They feel less guilty because they express a sufficient degree of contempt for their own highly successful culture, and they feel (or at least profess) sufficient admiration for all other cultures.

The simple, factual information about Islam you want to share threatens to undermine this whole unformulated creed, which endangers the linchpin of their emotional harmony and ethical congruence. They can't let it in.

To let it in would require them to rearrange an important feature of their worldview and their self-image. This is not a minor matter. This is not a small, inconsequential barrier we can easily sweep aside. It is a major psychological problem that stands in the way of our goal of educating people about Islam. Understanding what it is and what we're up against is the first step.


SURVIVOR GUILT

We are talking about a psychological problem similar to survivor guilt. People who have survived plane crashes or concentration camps or some other event where others have died sometimes suffer a painful, unrelenting guilt because they survived while others perished. It wasn't fair, and they have a problem dealing with the unfairness.

Westerners are in a similar position on a global scale. Think about it. We've seen close-up, full-color pictures of our fellow human beings starving in Africa, imprisoned in China, tortured in Iran, executed in Saudi Arabia, while we drive to and from our pleasant activities in clean, comfortable cars, go to grocery stores overflowing with food, come home to a comfortable shelter with cable television, microwave ovens, high-speed internet, and enjoy an immense degree of personal freedom. It isn't fair. Yes, we may have worked to earn the money, but had we been born in Iran or China, our lives would be tragically different, regardless of how hard we worked.

We got lucky and it definitely isn't fair. At some level, I think most of us feel some kind of guilt about this. I think we should have a name for it. Born in a Western Country Guilt? I don't know what to call it, but clearly some of us handle the guilt better than others.

How do you live with the inequality of the world? Some people think those of us in Western countries have created a superior culture, so we deserve our wealth. Some think the European or "white" race is genetically superior. Some good evidence indicates the inequalities are a result of geography. And some just consider themselves lucky and try to help others when they can.

We've all found a way to live with it, but the people we're having a hard time communicating with about Islam have found a less-than-optimal way of dealing with it. It's better than the path self-righteous racists use, but it is not ideal (or even adequate) — it's preventing them from confronting and accepting important facts about the real world.

Multiculturalism is one way this guilt manifests itself. Multiculturalism says all cultures are equal. None is better than others. Moral equivalence is another. Moral equivalence says, "Yes, that other culture does terrible things, but look, we've done terrible things too," so again, we are not better than others. White Guilt is another. Each of these different manifestations all stem from the same fundamental need to relieve guilt while still enjoying the safety and wealth and comfort of their Western society.

We have a need, wrote Hanson, for "cultural neutrality" — for seeing ourselves as no better than anybody else. This doesn't sound so bad, but the need for cultural neutrality can be so well-ingrained that it causes a kind of willful blindness that overrides common sense and the basic instinct of self-preservation. It has gone off the deep end. Hanson wrote: "...so strong is the tug of cultural neutrality that it trumps even the revulsion of Western progressives at the ... jihadist agenda, with its homophobia, sexism, religious intolerance, and racism."

It is important to clearly understand this perplexing, confusing, exasperating phenomenon we are all running into: The compulsive, undiscriminating reflex to defend Islam and criticize Western countries. The source of the resistance we're coming up against is this: People feel guilty for having so much more than others, and this prevents them from accepting your legitimate criticisms of Islamic doctrine.

With this understanding, we can begin to find more effective ways of educating our fellow non-Muslims on the basic facts about Islam.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence.

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The Key to Today's Global Jihad is Oil Money

Money is the power behind jihad. This has been the case since Muhammad began his raids on caravans. Look at the graph below. Before Muslims started gaining plunder, their numbers hardly increased for 13 years. Once the money started coming in, Islam's success rate skyrocketed.

Plunder from raids was only part of the cash flow. They also confiscated goods from the Jews they expelled from Medina (and the Jews they slaughtered, taking their women and children as slaves).

The other very crucial part of Islamic cash flow has been jizya taken from dhimmis. Jizya is a tax on Christians and Jews. As long as they remain subordinate and pay their non-Muslim tax, they are allowed to remain Christians and Jews under Islamic law.

All of these forms of income are parasitical. They take wealth from non-Muslims and use it to advance the cause of Islam.

The exploitation of oil's monopoly of the transportation fuel market is the modern version of jizya. The non-Muslims of the world paid OPEC nations over a TRILLION dollars last year (nine of the twelve OPEC nations are Muslim countries). That number should make you sit down to catch your breath. It is a literally incomprehensible sum of money. 

Just like the use of jizya in Muhammad's time, Islamic fundamentalists are draining the wealth of non-Muslims, trying to keep them weak and struggling, while strengthening and enriching their prime directive.

This can be stopped with fuel competition. Petroleum must get so much competition that we strip it of its strategic status. This will cause oil prices to drop, which will cut off money now going to build madrassas around the world and funding suicide bombers and sleeper cells and mosques that promote hatred and violence, etc. — fuel competition will cut off money now funding jihad. 

Many abundantly available fuels can successfully compete with oil better than ever before (because of the Save the King Foundation). The single most effective thing we can do to marginalize, discredit, and disempower Islamic fundamentalism in the world is to give those fuels a chance to compete with oil in the fuel market. 

In America, an Open Fuel Standard bill has just been introduced into Congress. It will make fuel competition a reality in the United States. If you are an American citizen, please urge your Representative to co-sponsor this bill. Learn more about it here.

The key to jihad is money. The key to curbing jihad is cutting off the money.

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Blasphemy and Free Speech

IN A RECENT issue of Imprimis from Hillsdale College — a publication read by almost two million people every month — is an excellent article by Paul Marshall, adapted from a lecture he delivered February 3rd this year. Here are the opening paragraphs of the article:

A growing threat to our freedom of speech is the attempt to stifle religious discussion in the name of preventing “defamation of” or “insults to” religion, especially Islam. Resulting restrictions represent, in effect, a revival of blasphemy laws.

Few in the West were concerned with such laws 20 years ago. Even if still on some statute books, they were only of historical interest. That began to change in 1989, when the late Ayatollah Khomeini, then Iran’s Supreme Leader, declared it the duty of every Muslim to kill British-based writer Salman Rushdie on the grounds that his novel, The Satanic Verses, was blasphemous. Rushdie has survived by living his life in hiding. Others connected with the book were not so fortunate: its Japanese translator was assassinated, its Italian translator was stabbed, its Norwegian publisher was shot, and 35 guests at a hotel hosting its Turkish publisher were burned to death in an arson attack.

Click here to read the whole article (and share it with your friends).

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There is No Substitute for Doing the Work — Not Even Catastrophe

MANY PEOPLE seem quite sure that the "masses" will not wake up to the threat of Islamization until there is another big attack — as big or bigger than 9/11. But there is a problem with this idea. Orthodox Muslims recognize — at least many of them do — that a big attack would awaken the West, strengthen the West's resolve, and seriously curtail Islamic encroachment. So they will avoid it and try to go as far as possible first with stealth jihad, soft jihad, financial jihad, economic jihad, educational jihad, immigration jihad, etc. They will take these as far as they can before making the mistake, as they did on 9/11, of alerting Westerners to their goals. So we should not rely on a catastrophe to do our work for us. By that time it may be too late. Orthodox Muslims could have their roots into our societies too deep to extricate. So it is up to us. Now. Don't know what to do? Start here: WhatYouCanDoAboutIslam.com.

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The Enemy of Us All

A growing movement in Europe is explicitly anti-Muslim (click here to read more about it). This is both good news and bad news. The good news is the problems inherent in Islamic encroachment into Western democracies is being spoken about publicly. The bad news is that some of the most outspoken are white supremacists.

For those of us who are not racists but who see the growing threat of Islamic encroachment, the white supremacists are a problem. People on the other side, the multiculturalists and the Muslims and many of the most ardent anti-conservatives see anyone who speaks out against Islam or tries to educate people about Islamic doctrine as racists and white supremacists and fascists. And, in fact, there are some fascists who speak out against Islam. But we're not all fascists, of course. We're not all white supremacists. We're not all racists. Not by a long shot.

What is racism? It is an overgeneralization. It says because some members of the racial group have a particular characteristic, all members of the race have that characteristic.

The blind multiculturalists also overgeneralize when they say all people in the counterjihad movement are racists. They are making exactly the same mistake they are accusing us of making (that most of us are not making). That is, since a few of us who are working to curb Islam's prime directive are racists, then anyone who says they don't like Islamic doctrine is a racist. It's the same mistake. It's an overgeneralization.

And even those of us in the counterjihad who are not racists often make the same mistake against both Muslims and multiculturalists by thinking that all Muslims believe X, or all multiculturalists are Y.

Another example of the same mistake is "white guilt" (as it is known in America) or "post-colonial guilt" (as it is known in Europe). This guilt is being exploited by many orthodox Muslims. It makes us less able to defend ourselves, and the source of the guilt is the same mistake: Overgeneralization.

America had slaves. That was wrong. But should I feel guilty about that? I've never owned a slave or endorsed the idea. I have no idea if any of my ancestors did, either, and even if they did, it wouldn't matter. Any crime committed by an ancestor does not make me guilty. And any bad action taken by someone with the same skin color as me does not make me guilty either. This guilt — that allows orthodox Muslims to get away with things they wouldn't be able to get away with otherwise — is caused by the overgeneralization (all white people are guilty and have ammends to make).

One of the things non-Muslims dislike the most about the content of Islamic teachings is "kafir hatred," which is, of course, the same mistake again. The doctrine says Muslims are the best of people and non-Muslims are the worst of people. These are overgeneralizations.

On all sides, it's the same mistake, and it makes any productive conversation almost impossible. If you believe you do not make this mistake, I suggest to you that you're probably wrong. It is a natural mental error our brains are prone to make.

How can we get out of this mess? How can we have productive conversations about Islam with our fellow non-Muslims? How can we help school those who are against our cause? The answer is to be specific, and insist on others being specific too.

We in the counterjihad are talking about Islamic doctrine. We must make it absolutely clear that we're talking about doctrine, not people. We're talking about Islamic ideology, not Muslims. When we're talking about a Muslim, we need to speak about a particular Muslim. Our overgeneralizations usually come from talking about a group of people rather than a specific person or an ideology. Any group of people contains individuals. Any group of individuals will be different from each other, will have different levels of belief, will have different levels of commitment to the ideology, will have different understandings and familiarity with the ideology, and will have different characteristics from each other.

And we can speak specifically about Sharia law. This is a very effective way to avoid overgeneralizing.

We can also make a clear distinction between the different kinds of Muslims: Orthodox and heterodox, Jihad-embracing Muslims and Jihad-rejecting Muslims, Practicing Muslims and MINOs.

Do whatever you can to be as specific as possible and avoid overgeneralizations. We must be eternally vigilant with our own thoughts, with our own speaking and writing, and we must carefully and deliberately expose the error when others make it. And when we're pointing it out in others, we should avoid ridiculing them for making the error. The tendency to overgeneralize is a natural by-product of the brain's functional design (read more about that here) and requires constant vigilance from all of us to prevent our brains from making this error.

Overgeneralization gets in the way of good communication. It gets in the way of accurate thinking. It impairs our ability to solve problems.

Overgeneralization is the enemy of us all.

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“Radical” is a Misleading Term

LOTS OF PEOPLE use the word "radical" to describe devout, orthodox Muslims. I've always been bothered by that term because it is misleading. If a Christian prayed for forgiveness, or gave to charity, would you call that “radical?” If a Buddhist meditated every day, would you call that “radical?”

No, you would call them "practicing Buddhists" or just Buddhists. They are practicing the basic ideas of their faith.

Let's stop using the word "radical." Non-Muslims have been using it to avoid offending “non-radical” Muslims, but it makes our educational efforts more difficult because it gives the illusion that "normal Islam" is not "radical."

The idea that the "terrorists" have "hijacked" Islam is widespread and ultimately mistaken. The mistaken notion causes confusion when people begin to learn about Islam. The use of the term "radical" supports this confusion. Let's stop using it, even when talking to people who know very little about basic principles of Islam. Eventually they need to learn what's really happening, and the more people use misleading or confusing terms, the more difficult it will be for them to learn.

At least, that's what I think. Words are important. Let's try to use words that make things clearer, not more murky.

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Muslims Are Not the Problem

I OFTEN HEAR from people who are focused on winning arguments with Muslims, or somehow convincing Muslims they're wrong, or trying to make them feel bad for being Muslims, or just hating people they think look Muslim. Their focus is all on Muslims.

But Muslims in name only (MINOs or JRMs) are not the problem, and Muslims who actually follow Mohammad's example are not the problem either.

The problem is us.

The problem is too many non-Muslims either don't have a clue about the third jihad, or have a clue but can't believe it, or they are non-Muslims who know what's going on but think there's nothing they can do to stop it (the demoralized).

With the know-how you have right now, you can turn all three of those around. (The fourth category I didn't mention are those few who know all about it, but don't really care. They are a small percentage and they cannot be reached.)

But the vast majority of people in the free world are in the three categories above and they can all be influenced. They can all be swayed. Learn more about how to reach each here: clueless, don't believe it, demoralized.

Anyway, that is our problem: The lack of understanding of the situation by non-Muslims. And that can be handled by us. It's our problem. We need not — and should not — expect Muslims to do anything.

The Islamic supremacists can be stopped by us if enough of us know what's going on. Trying to make them wrong or get them to change or ridiculing them or doing anything about them (or to them) is the wrong thing to focus on.

There are hundreds of millions of non-Muslims in the free world who need to be enlightened. Once enough of us are enlightened, we'll be able to wield enough influence to get more articles and programs critical of Islam published in mainstream sources. That will bring even more people into the inner circle. At that point, we'll have enough people to vote in politicians who know what's going on and are willing to do something about it (knowing they'll have the support of enough of the population).

We will continue to gain influence and new recruits as this understanding spreads. The majority of Muslims may or may not see the writing on the wall and may or may not do something about it, but it doesn't matter. If we take care of what we need to take care of, we don't need to care what they do, and that's the right attitude to have.

We do not need to make them see the error of their ways — it's a waste of our time. We have one task that needs to be done: The education of our fellow non-Muslims. You, personally, have only one primary task: The education of the people within your sphere of influence. And once they understand, it's time to get them out there influencing the people within their sphere of influence. Let's get crackin!

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A Cry of Despair From Malaysia

WE RECENTLY received another email from Jasmine in Malaysia. We've posted something from her before. This time she wrote:

I just cried when I read from Stop Islam's Relentless Encroachment the article called You Will Be Muslim" posted Feb 10 2009.

Why some American schools allowed Islamic teachings when Christian teachings are sidelined? Why Oh Why?

Why not Christian values, passages from the Bible (and also Christian History, like the inquisition & crusades); Islamic ideology, passages from Koran and Islamic History taught in shcools?

Christians have learned from the Inquisition & Crusades. But Muslims? Keep on persecuting infidels?

Ya, I read that Islam was in Spain 800 years and Christians survived. Sure, survived at a heavy price like higher taxation & I guess some other injustices as well.

Why do Americans allow this??? I just can't believe what I read!!!

I'm so disillusioned - like there is no hope. I also viewed all the 7 youtubes forum by Brigitte Gabriel. She knows better as she was from Lebenon.

Here in Malaysia, all we can do is pray. We cannot question. At least in America there is still freedom to voice out like what Brigitte is doing.

As for the Geert Wilders trial, I am watching very closely.

Have the West & America give in to Islam??? If they have, then the whole world is gone.

I answered her with this simple statement: "No we have not given in. There are those who are actively fighting against it, and there are those who are completely ignorant of it. Very few who are aware of it have given in. Very very few."

This is similar to the situation on board Flight 93. The three other planes flew into buildings, killing everyone on the plane. The passengers believed the Islamic supremacists who said they would land the plane safely, so they stayed in their seats. They didn't know any better.

But the passengers aboard Flight 93, with only a little more information, realized what they were up against and they fought back. It took the Muslims two years to plan their attack; but forty strangers were able to defeat their plot in a half hour.

What is needed is more people who know the goals of Islam and the method (waging jihad by gaining concessions). Once enough people know, the rest will be easy. Wield your freedom of speech and get the word out now. Start here: Just One Thing.

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Will Muslims Do The "Heavy Lifting?"

In January 22nd issue of THE WEEK magazine, they had the following as their quote of the week:

"If the battle against Muslim terrorism is to be won, moderate Muslims will have to do the heavy lifting. If Americans and Westerners continue to take the lead, it will remain an 'us vs. them' war. If Muslims take the lead, it will be 'them vs. them,' co-religionists battling co-religionists, not 'infidel and oppressive outsiders battling 'victimized' Muslims. [So] where are the funds, the programs, and the personnel to re-educate young ones brainwashed in madrasas, and where are the alternate schools for these children? Where are the programs to show up at mosques everywhere and argue with mullahs who say that Allah wants them to kill fellow Muslims and infidels and enslave women?"

At first I thought it was wonderful that the author (Leslie Gelb from TheDailyBeast.com) used the phrase, "Muslim terrorism." Even that small acknowledgment of the Islamic role in terrorism seemed unusual to read in such a mainstream magazine as THE WEEK.

As Phil Cooke wrote, "I find it interesting that on those rare occasions when someone — no matter how wacked — commits a crime at an abortion clinic, there's no hesitation by the media to label them as a 'Christian.' But political correctness leaves them unable to mention 'Muslim' when it comes to terrorism."

And yet Leslie Gelb does just that and THE WEEK quotes him. But the underlying premise of his questions reveals an ignorance about the situation. Where are the Muslims who will argue with the mullahs? It's a silly question if you know the first thing about Islam. On what basis would these people argue? They cannot argue as Muslims because they would have no ground to stand on. To argue as Muslims they would have to base what they say on either the Qur'an or Mohammad's example, or both, and using those writings, they would have no way to argue that it's anti-Islamic to enslave women or kill infidels.

And if they were arguing against the mullahs on any other basis, they place themselves immediately into the category of infidels — or worse, apostates — and would not be listened to.

In other words, the Muslims cannot win any battle against "Muslim terrorists," and remain Muslims. And if they are no longer Muslims, there will be no co-religionists battling co-religionists.

We will not be saved by good-hearted Muslims, no matter how many of them there are. We will have to save ourselves.

Our first step is to make this understanding very common and widespread among non-Muslims: That it is fundamental to Islam to be at war with non-Muslims and to try to seize the reins of political power wherever they can. This is part of their religious teachings. It is their religious duty and they have no choice in the matter. It is not "fringe" and Muslims following these teachings are not "extremists."

And as soon as this knowledge is widespread enough, our first political action should be to stop importing Muslims into our countries.

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Why Is This Happening?

I RECENTLY received a long letter from a woman who just found out a few months ago "the true extent of the Islamic problem." And now she is depressed and worried and doesn't understand why the government is allowing it to continue. She is from the UK where Islamic supremacists have been allowed to operate relatively unimpeded.

Why, she wondered, doesn't the government shut down the mosques and deport the Muslims? Why would so many European governments allow the Islamization of their countries?

She said she was confused and distressed by this seeming cooperation between Western governments and Islamic supremacists. She asked, "Why is this happening?"

After I was done answering her, I thought, "I should post this." So here it is:

This is one of the questions I have asked myself many times and written about quite a bit. It's a big topic. There isn't one reason it is happening. There are many:

1. Tens of thousands of Islamic supremacists are able to devote all their time to jihad because they are being supported by rich oil billionaires. The flow of money to these oil billionaires needs to be cut off, and you can help. Start here (this site is for Americans, but I'm sure you can find something similar in the UK). They are also being supported by zakat — the "alms" Muslims give to their mosques all over the world. Much of that money finds its way to Jihadis. Jihad is doing Allah's work, and it is apparently a perfectly legitimate charitable activity.

2. The tactics of Islamic supremacists are unethical from a Western point of view. War is deceit, as Mohammad put it. They will tell Westerners whatever Westerners will believe. They study the Western mind. They try to discover what will appeal to people and then they use their understanding to fool the Western public by talking in terms of cultural diversity or by accusing people of racism (to silence their critics) or by presenting themselves as the poor, third-world underdogs. They disarm us with pity.

3. I don't know how it is in the UK, but in America, the two main political parties have separated themselves along these lines: The conservatives think Islam is a threat, and the liberals think the conservatives are only saying that to scare people. Anything conservatives say is suspect. Many liberals, especially college students, believe in wild conspiracy theories. I suspect many of these theories originated in Muslim minds, and through their influence on campuses, have mislead many young people about Islam's relentless encroachment. The influence begins pretty early according to this new report.

4. Political action is a Muslim's religious duty — the kind of action that advances the influence and political power of Muslims with the end goal of establishing Shari'a law everywhere. So Muslims vote as a unit. They use democracy to advance Islam however they can. This means the "Muslim vote" is important for a politician to gain and a dangerous thing to lose. So politicians are prone to give concessions to Islam's relentless encroachment in order to win this organized voting block. Islamic supremacists know this and use it to their advantage. They sometimes threaten violence, as happened recently in Britain. Even worse for a politician is the veiled threat (no pun intended) that they'll accuse a politician of racism and thus potentially damage her or his career. Some politicians are cowed by the threats, and others are sincerely fooled by the taqiyya and think they're doing the right thing.

5. Western economies are dependent on Middle Eastern oil. Political leaders and business leaders don't want to offend their "allies." So in public, they are less likely to speak straight about Islam, even if they know better.

6. By the judicious use of violent riots, many newspapers and book publishers and even governments have been intimidated by Islamic supremacists, and so avoid telling the truth about Islam. Each decision seems wise at the time, even though each is a small act of cowardice. And for the same reason, small concessions are given to placate the Muslims and avoid offending them. The concessions are accumulating, but it is an entirely one-sided negotiation — Islam never concedes. Islam is a ratchet: It only goes one way.

7. Most journalists and teachers have multicultural leanings and are sympathetic to anyone who is not Caucasian or Christian. This point of view stems from a sympathy with underprivileged people combined with a holdover reaction from the racist arrogance Europeans often displayed when encountering the rest of the world during Age of Exploration. Added to this is a distrust of anything Christian, which has its roots in the Enlightenment. Although the roots of the point of view are hundreds of years old, the pro-underdog, anti-white-man and anti-Judeo-Christian sentiment is still alive and well on campuses and in the media, and those teachers and journalists have exerted a strong influence on the minds of the population. So much so, many Europeans and Americans don't even know the West has a worthy culture that needs defending.

8. Islamic supremacists have established what appear to be "mainstream, moderate" Muslim organizations and have set themselves up as officially representative of the Muslim population. In the U.S., the media and government agencies consult with these organizations to find out what should be said to the public about Islam and what Islam really teaches, and most important, to find out what would offend Muslims. These Muslim organizations are almost all working toward the goal of Islamizing the free world, and their "counsel" to Western governments serves that goal with the liberal use of taqiyya.

9. People in the West, generally speaking, know almost nothing about Islam. This is the key to all of the above. Too few people know. And we are told Islam is pretty much like Judaism and Christianity, and many of us naturally want to believe it. It is almost unbearably alarming to discover the true nature of fundamental Islamic teachings, and a healthy mind recoils from the implications. We don't want it to be true. This ignorance is everywhere. Even among politicians who should really make it their business to know better.

All of these factors, and I'm sure there are more, combine together to produce what appears to be (but is not) a collaboration between Islamic supremacists and Western governments, deliberately conspiring together in an evil plot to destroy civilization.

But I assure you, the situation is not at all hopeless. A conspiracy of that kind would be nearly impossible to tackle, but the nine influencing factors above can each be impacted by citizen action.

Many things are already being done. There are powerful people in government positions who have looked beyond the propaganda they're getting from the "mainstream, moderate" Muslim organizations and are helping to wake up their fellow representatives. Geert Wilders is obviously one. In America, Jon Kyl, Tom Tancredo and Sue Myrick are among them. Myrick has started a group of U.S. members of Congress, hosting workshops led by experts on Islamic supremacism to bring the group up to date on what it's all about. The caucus has 120 members and is growing.

There are also many sources of information on Islamic supremacism, and those sources are continually increasing in number and reach online (see my blogroll for a small sampling) and even in the mainstream media.

In addition, several powerful new organizations like ACT for America and the United American Committee are organizing united political action at the grassroots level to put legislation into place to stop the Islamization of Western governments.

And there are millions of people around the world like you who have awakened and who are actively awakening others. This is a difficult task because lots of already-existing barriers prevent the information from entering peoples' minds easily. But I hear of success stories all the time. I hear about the neighbor who "gets it" for the first time. I hear about people who talk to a friend who is skeptical at first but decides to look into it and eventually comes to grip with the scope of the problem.

I hear from people like you quite a bit too — the newly awakened. And of course, I don't hear about hundreds or thousands more awakening every day around the world. Each one represents one less dhimmi and one more citizen warrior.

You are clearly distressed and worried, as well you should be. But there is much you can do. You can turn your discomfort into motivation and take the actions that will change the future for us all. I have a list of practical actions a citizen can take at WhatYouCanDoAboutIslam.com. I encourage you to pick one of those tasks and take it on. The action will eliminate your feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and will go a long way toward relieving your distressing feelings. Respond with purpose.

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