Running Out of Ways to Defend Islam

Damon Whitsell sent me the following article the other day. It is written by Allen Clifton, co-founder of Forward Progressives, and author of the popular Right Off A Cliff column. He is also the founder of the Right Off A Cliff facebook page, on which he routinely voices his opinions and stirs the pot for the Progressive movement. Clifton has a degree in Political Science.

Clifton's article was originally published on the liberal website, Forward Progressives. Here it is:

After a day in which the news was mostly dominated by the terrorist attack in France that claimed 12 lives, I felt numb much of the day. Not just because of the shooting, but because it’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to do something that I’ve done steadfastly for many years. That is, defend Muslims from those who ignorantly attack and bash them.

I’ll be honest, as badly as I want to stand in the face of some right-wing radical who’s proclaiming that Islam is a violent, hateful religion and tell them that they’re an idiot and nothing but an ignorant jackass — I don’t know if I can say that and still honestly mean it.

Just let the reality sink in for a moment of what really happened. A newspaper experienced its second terrorist attack in just over three years because it dared to poke fun at Islam. What other group of ideological individuals on this planet would do that? Say what you want about right-wing Christian radicals, they might throw a hissy fit when someone makes fun of Christianity or Jesus Christ, but Christian fundamentalists didn’t violently attack Seth MacFarlane or his team of writers when Family Guy aired their Christmas episode last month where the subject was trying to get Jesus laid.

And let’s not forget that nearly five years ago, South Park (a show that brutally mocks and makes fun of practically everything) had one of its episodes edited by Comedy Central following violent threats by Islamic groups concerning their making fun of Islam and the prophet Mohammad. In fact, one of these groups based out of New York, Revolution Muslim, said at the time that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone would probably end up like Theo van Gough for making fun of Islam.

Who’s Theo van Gough you ask? Well, he was a Dutch filmmaker who was killed by an Islamic militant in 2004 because he dared to make a documentary concerning the abuse of some Muslim women in Islamic countries.

In other words, this group Revolution Muslim, a group that was based out of the United States, was essentially threatening the lives of the South Park creators for making fun of Islam.

But my frustrations with all of this seemed to boil over today when I read that Saudi Arabia had condemned this attack. When I read that I didn’t feel a sense of relief that a powerful Islamic nation stood up against this kind of behavior. Instead I thought to myself, “Who the hell is Saudi Arabia to condemn anyone else considering the way they treat their own citizens every single day”?

Not that Saudi Arabia is a terrorist nation, but their record when it comes to basic human rights is atrocious. So, how are they an “example to set” for other Islamic states? Should we just ignore the fact that there are still laws in Saudi Arabia that punish people for being openly homosexual; that they treat women more like property than human beings (women still can’t even drive there); they continue to behead people as a means of execution; and often use Sharia law to oppress many of their citizens?

Seeing the wave of anti-Islamic messages that have flooded the internet since the attack in France, I so desperately want to say, “To hell with you anti-Islamic bigots” — but what examples do I have to prove them wrong? ISIL isn’t shrinking. In fact, it’s growing at a rather fast pace despite our airstrikes. Then when you look at countries such as Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria they’re a complete mess. Then it seems that far more often than not, when Muslims are given a choice to select their own leaders, they often choose some degree of religious fanaticism. Even the stable Islamic countries in and around the Middle East are ruled more along the lines of Saudi Arabia than countries that actually enjoy freedom such as the United States, Canada, England, Australia and Germany.

During a discussion about this topic, I asked a liberal friend of mine to name one Islamic state where:

• Homosexuals are allowed to be openly gay.
• Women are given equal rights.
• Other religions are allowed to freely practice their faith and are not oppressed.

He couldn’t do it. And I’ll be honest with you, I can’t either. Because to my knowledge, there’s not a single Islamic nation in or around the Middle East that meets all three of those criteria.

So, while there are several Islamic states that have publicly condemned this attack, and that’s great that they did, the laws by which many of these nations are governed are still awful when it comes to giving basic human rights for many of its citizens. Which makes it really difficult for me to say, “See, these nations are leaders in the Islamic world that are going to bring about change and opposition against Islamic radicals,” when many of these countries are flat-out oppressive on many aspects relating to their citizens having freedoms and rights.

Can I really say, “Yes, Saudi Arabia is a powerful nation that condemns terrorism” as a point of bragging to defend Islam from bigots? What do I say when they counter with, “Well, what about their stances on religious freedom, gay rights and women’s rights”? There’s nothing I can really say to that.

Now let me be clear, this article isn’t meant to sound anti-Muslim. It’s me reaching a point where I really don’t know where to go or what to say anymore about this subject. It’s hard for me to keep saying “it’s not Islam, it’s just the bad guys” when so many non-terrorist Islamic states fail the litmus test when it comes to basic human rights for so many of those living under these regimes.

And I know there are millions of great Muslim people on this planet. And I believe the overwhelming majority of them are kind, loving and wonderful people.

But something has to change. Publicly opposing terrorism is easy, but condemning horrific acts being carried out by religious fanatics isn’t going to bring about the fundamental change that’s needed to get at the root of much of this violence. That change is only going to come from Muslims fighting every single day against oppressive Islamic states. These people have to want, and demand, actual democracy. They have to build nations not ruled by the Quran, but by basic human decency toward everyone regardless of gender, religion or sexual orientation.

Theocratic governments have always, and will always, breed violence and oppression.

And as long as Muslims continue to flock toward nations founded, built and driven by Islamic rule — none of this is going to stop. And sadly, far too many Muslims continue to do just that.

So please, don’t take this as an “attack on Muslims,” because that’s not at all what I mean here. I just really, truly don’t know what to say anymore.

When I see videos of hostages being beheaded by ISIL, hear about 145 people killed (including 132 children) in a Pakistan school suicide bombing, learn of hostages being murdered in Australia and now satire newspaper writers brutally gunned down because of a couple of cartoons — all in the name of the same religion — how can I keep defending it from those who spew hatred toward it?

I want to, I really do. But I’m just not sure if I know how to do it anymore.

Share this article with a friend. I recommend you share this version: I'm Running Out of Ways to Defend Islam, unless your friend is a conservative, in which case I recommend the Inquiry Into Islam version.

Read more...

How Do You Know You've Gotten Through?

Yesterday I was talking to a man I work with. We were having a casual conversation about current events — the recent Super Bowl, the footage of the plane crash in Taiwan, etc. — when I said, "I saw an interview last night and the guy was saying what Boko Haram means. I thought this was interesting. He said that haram means forbidden or discouraged. Halal is the opposite. It means permissible or allowed."

He nodded. He seemed to know that halal meant permissible. "Well," I said, "the word 'Boko' means 'books!' I guess books are sinful. Funny thing to stand for, huh?"

He smiled. We've talked a bit about Islam before. He hasn't really been in "my camp" about the issue, but he has listened to me. Over time his understanding of Islam has expanded and his willingness to talk about it has noticeably increased. I said, "I just read that ISIS is now burning books. And killing educated women."

"It's crazy," he said, referring to the whole world, I think.

"There's a real conflict, almost a civil war, going on within Islam," I said. "Some Muslims want to reform Islam, to modernize it, to modify it, but others think they should just follow the book to the letter. And they're fighting it out."

Notice what I did there. First of all, by describing the situation this way, I was not "against Muslims." This is important to him. He is definitely a fan of multiculturalism. He really cares about fairness. So by portraying it as Muslims against Muslims, I'm not "vilifying an entire religion" but I still have a chance to make an important point. And I almost always try to work the fact into my conversations that this is not a conflict between two "conflicting interpretations" of Islamic doctrine. Rather, this is a conflict between those who actually want to follow the doctrine as it is written, and those who (like the President of Egypt said in a recent comment) want to update the doctrine, want to establish some modified form, some standardized way of ignoring some of the teachings in the core texts.

That is a crucial distinction, and I think it is very important for as many people as possible to understand that simple fact.

I posted something recently on Facebook. It was quoted from a recent Bill Maher show (see it here), and I really loved Salman Rushdie's blunt and emphatic response. He's absolutely right. That is exactly what we should do: Give no more concessions to Islam. Period. But someone made this comment on the Facebook post: "Show me a Muslim who has taken up arms in this 'war against extremists.'"

I answered: "Many of the Muslims killed in Iraq and Syria are being killed because they are insufficiently Muslim according to the committed orthodox Muslims (ISIS). Some of the 'insufficiently Islamic' Muslims do, in fact, try to defend themselves. So it can be legitimately called a war. However, that's between them. What WE can do is educate our fellow non-Muslims so they are no longer fooled."

And I think one of the most important facts non-Muslims need to know is that this is not a conflict of interpretations. It is a conflict between following the actual text to the letter, or not following it to the letter. This simple fact makes Muslims and Islamic apologists less capable of deceiving us with their disinformation.

After my answer, someone else added a good one: "The Kurds maybe?" Yes. The Kurds are Muslims fighting ISIS. They are less-orthodox Muslims fighting more-orthodox Muslims. A perfect example.

Muslims are commanded in the Koran to not only kill non-Muslims but also "hypocrites," which means Muslims are exhorted to kill people who profess to be Muslims but do not follow the teachings. And orthodox Muslims are doing exactly that. Sometimes during a massacre of non-Muslims, the jihadis have been known to "test" the Muslims they come across to see how knowledgeable they are about Islam. If they fail the test, it means they are hypocrites, so they are also killed.

I ended the conversation with the man at work by saying, "These are interesting times we live in."

His reply was, "Scary times."

That's the first time I ever got that kind of response from him, and it was the first time I thought the reality of our situation has finally gotten through to him. My approach with him in the future will be different than it has been up to now. I remember when it first sunk in for me, that was my first response too: Fear. That's true for a lot of people.

But it should progress beyond that into a determination to do something about it. So I'll think about it and I'll make sure he and I have a different kind of conversation next time.

Read more...

Why the Crusades Began

About 450 years before the first crusade began, a new religion was born in the Middle East. At the time, the Middle East was mostly made up of Christians and Jews.

Before Islam began, there were five main centers of Christianity: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

As Islamic warriors conquered the Middle East and North Africa, three of those centers were lost. Most of what was once "the Christian world" became "the Muslim world."

Two of the centers of Christianity remained, and one of them was the new Islamic target: Constantinople (now known as Istanbul). Constantinople was a huge walled city, and it was being threatened by the now powerful Islamic empire.

Constantinople's emperor pleaded to Rome for help.

Rome needed to somehow unite the quarreling, constantly competing countries of Europe in order to defend Constantinople. But how? The only thing the European countries had in common was Christianity, so that was what the Pope used for his call to action. "Christianity is being threatened," he said. Jerusalem is in the hands of Muslims. Their "Christian brothers" who made pilgrimages to Jerusalem were being slaughtered. "Constantinople has cried out to us for help. We must save Christianity."

The appeal worked. People from many European countries put aside their differences and joined in the defense of their culture.

Several Crusades were organized over the next two hundred years. They didn't save Constantinople, but they did slow down the conquering forces so that Rome and Europe mostly survived. I say "mostly" because Italy and Spain were invaded by Muslim armies and Spain was conquered by Islamic forces for 800 years.

Spain finally re-conquered their own country in 1492, the same year Christopher Columbus "discovered" America while he was trying to find a new trade route to the East (the old trade route had been cut off by the Muslims who had conquered the Middle East and didn't want any infidels travelling through their territory).

The Crusades began as a response to a call for help because Muslim armies had conquered most of what had formerly been "the Christian world" and were threatening what was left of it with annihilation.

This was also published on History is Fascinating here.

Read more...

The Great Awakening Has Begun

FRANCE: Several polls show that more than 70% of the French think Islam is incompatible with democracy and Western civilization. Those polls predate the Charlie Hebdo attack (source).

AUSTRALIA: One in four Australians holds a negative attitude towards Muslims, a national survey has found. It found people were five times more likely to hold negative attitudes towards Muslims than any other religious group. "What we're finding is negativity towards Muslims is five times higher than towards Christians and Buddhists, so there's quite a significant issue there," said Professor Markus (source).

AUSTRIA: A new survey carried out in December 2014 and published January 2015 by Der Standard newspaper shows that 51 percent of the respondents believe that Islam is a threat to Austrian society (source).

BRITAIN: More than a quarter of young adults in Britain mistrust Muslims, a BBC survey shows. Some 27% of the thousand 18 to 24-year-olds questioned said they did not trust them, while fewer than three in 10 (29%) thought Muslims were doing enough to tackle extremism in their communities. A similar proportion of the young people polled (28%) said the country would be better off with fewer Muslims and almost half (44%) felt Muslims did not share the same values as everyone else (source).

GERMANY: A majority of Germans have rejected former President Christian Wulff's famous statement that "Islam is now also a part of Germany", with 52 percent against the idea (source).

CZECH REPUBLIC: About two-thirds of Czechs who have used the European election calculator EUvox consider Islam a threat to Czech society, according to an analysis of the results carried out by the Academy of Sciences Sociological Institute, released today. The institute assessed the opinions of 18,000 Czechs (source).

NETHERLANDS: Half of all Dutch people agree with Geert Wilders’ opinion that there should be fewer Moroccans in the country. De Hond polled 2500 people, 43 percent of whom expressed that they would rather there be fewer Moroccan people in the Netherlands. Only 3 percent of the people want there to be more Moroccans (source).

DENMARK: A Gallup poll shows most Danes think too many concessions are made for the minority. The public debates over banned Christmas trees, halal meat at schools and cashiers wearing headscarves appear to have made the Danish population more wary about giving their Muslim neighbors cultural concessions (source).

UNITED STATES: A Zogby Analytics poll found a growing number of Americans doubt that Muslim-Americans would be able to perform in a government post without their religion affecting their work. Forty-two percent of respondents felt that Muslim-Americans would be influenced by religion (source).

CANADA: Polls by Angus Reid, a public opinion research firm, show a steady increase in anti-Muslim sentiment since 2009, higher than any of the other major religions. Last year, 54 percent of English-speaking Canadians viewed Islam unfavorably, a feeling that stands even higher, at 69 percent, in the country's French-speaking region, Quebec (source).

ITALY: At least half of those surveyed in Italy say they have a negative opinion of the Muslims who live in their country (source).

GREECE: Fifty-three percent of those surveyed in Greece have a negative opinion of the Muslims who live in their country (source).

SCOTLAND: A school in Glasgow, Scotland asked pupils to say which which words came to mind when people talked about Muslims. Their responses included "terrorist," "oppressed," "a threat" and "scary" (source).

AUSTRIA: A new survey on how Islam is viewed in Austria suggests that anti-Muslim sentiment has risen sharply in the wake of the Paris shootings, with 69 percent of those polled saying they did not believe that Islam belongs in Austria. The survey, carried out by Unique Research for the Heute tabloid paper, polled 500 people. Only seven percent strongly agreed with the statement “Islam is part of Austria”, with 42 percent responding “definitely not”. Around three quarters of those polled said that they believed Austrian citizens who travelled abroad to fight with Islamic State militants should have their citizenship withdrawn. Only five percent rejected this idea categorically. Forty percent said that they felt Islam was a threat for Austria (source).

BRITAIN: More than half the British public think that Muslim women SHOULD NOT be allowed to wear the niqab in public. An opinion poll for Channel 4 found that 56% of respondents said they opposed the wearing of the full face-veil, while 55% said they would support a national ban, similar to legislation that was passed in France in 2010. The poll found that three-quarters (76%) said they were unsure of how to relate to women wearing the full face veil, while more than half (56%) thought it was demeaning to women who wear it (source).

GERMANY: The Bertelsman Foundation think tank survey looked at the perception of Islam in Germany from the eyes of Muslims and non-Muslims. Of the non-Muslims surveyed, 57 percent thought that Islam was threatening or very threatening to German society. The survey was carried out in November, before the massacre of journalists in Paris (source). According to a study by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 56 percent of Germans consider Islam to be an "archaic religion, incapable of fitting into modern life" and many believe religious freedom for Muslims should be "substantially restricted" (source).

UNITED STATES: A Pew Research Center survey found that 82% of American Republicans are “very concerned” about the rise of Islamic extremism in the world, compared with 60% of political independents and 51% of Democrats. Similarly, two-thirds of Republicans (67%) say that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its believers, compared with 47% of independents and 42% of Democrats (source).

AUSTRIA: There are only 11 percent of Austrians now who say Islam is compatible with the Western ideas of democracy, freedom and tolerance (source).

DENMARK: According to a YouGov poll conducted for Metroxpress, half of all Danes want to limit the number of Muslims in Denmark. Most of them don't want any more than they already have (source).

Read more...

A Movie You Ought to See

We're going to recommend a movie that might seem at first to be simply a patriotic movie for Americans. But it is something more. The man who made the film, Dinesh D’Souza, is an immigrant to America from India and in the film, he looks at the criticisms leveled at America by Americans (and others), and then addresses those criticisms. The film is called "America: Imagine the World Without Her." See a trailer here.

The reason this is relevant to most of the readers of Citizen Warrior is that many of our readers are Americans, but also because similar criticisms are leveled at Canada, Australia, Israel, and many European countries too.

The movie looks at the story being told in schools to our young people — a narrative that has been told for many years now: That America gained its position of prominence and wealth by invading, pillaging, enslaving, stealing and killing. The end result of the inculcation of this point of view is an ingrained feeling of shame by Americans about America (or by Germans about Germany, or by Australians about Australia, etc.). Westerners in general have become guilty and ashamed of their own countries and culture.

This feeling of guilt produces a desire to give restitution or compensation to anyone who seems to be a victim or an underdog. And it is this that is being exploited by orthodox Muslims. It's a weakness — an Achilles heel — that orthodox Muslims are using to gain access, to gain concessions, and to gain ground.

The creation of this shame and guilt successfully disables our fellow citizens' desire to defend their own culture. Islam is primarily an ideology of cultural annihilation, so the shame and guilt of non-Muslims serves Islam's prime directive very well.

Watch the film and share it with your children. Hopefully it can help you immunize them from the crippling, enfeebling, one-sided history of the West being expressed so widely.

Check out the movie's website here: AmericaTheMovie.com.

Read more...