The Discerning Texan
-- Edmund Burke
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Dhimmitude at the Washington Post
From Cox and Forkum (Click to enlarge):
From FOX News: Washington Post, Other Newspapers Won't Run 'Opus' Cartoon Mocking Radical Islam.
A popular comic strip that poked fun at the Rev. Jerry Falwell without incident one week ago was deemed too controversial to run over the weekend because this time it took a humorous swipe at Muslim fundamentalists.The Washington Post and several other newspapers around the country did not run Sunday's installment of Berkeley Breathed's "Opus," in which the spiritual fad-seeking character Lola Granola appears in a headscarf and explains to her boyfriend, Steve, why she wants to become a radical Islamist.
The installment did not appear in the Post's print version, but it ran on WashingtonPost.com and Salon.com. The same will hold true for the upcoming Sept. 2 strip, which is a continuation of the plotline.
Labels: Appeasement, Cartoons, Censorship, Dhimmitude, Islamic Fascism, Media Bias
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Islamic "Enlightenment" and winning the Long War UPDATED
The major revolution in that period was the rejection of the Church's absolute authority on religious interpretation of Christianity. Luther's challenge led to the inevitable conclusion that each Christian could determine for himself the meaning of Christianity. If each man could interpret the Scriptures as validly as a Church, then each man could become his own Church. So thousands of sects sprang into being, each with its own interpretation, and the extremes being as violent as Muslim jihadists today.How true this is--and from all appearances this reconciliation of fundamentalist Islam and Western thought does not appear likely to happen anytime soon...
Muslims stopped having a central authority analog to Rome with the fall of the Caliphate, formally in 1920. As a result, Muslims increasingly relied on personal interpretations of the Qur'an and the Hadiths. Imams had no central authority or oversight and could teach their own personal brand of Islam. It's no accident that the Muslim Brotherhood, the grandfather of jihadi groups, sprang into being at this point and produced thinkers like Sayyid Qutb, who argues for the Muslim version of sola scriptura. As Muir notes, Qutb could be seen as a Calvinist in temperament, but one that argues for the reinstatement of the Caliphate, based on his own interpretation of the holy books of Islam.
Churchill can get some of the blame for this. He argued for an end to the tottering Ottoman Empire in the early days of the First World War, and his Dardanelles campaign was designed to bring it to a speedy collapse. The elimination of the Caliphate in the final settlement of the war had far-reaching consequences that the short-sighted Western powers could hardly calculate.
We're in the middle of the Islamic Reformation. What we need is an Islamic Enlightenment, where Islam gets relegated to the personal and not the political. Few Muslims outside of the West appear interested in arguing for that, unfortunately.
In a sense, though, even had a Caliphate been somehow preserved in the 1920's, and a Caliph with a "moderate" pro-Western viewpoint been installed (e.g. with a leader like the Pope who urges the masses to "render unto Ceasar..." etc.); while that might have been a more effective near-term deterrent to Islamic extremism in one sense, that arrangement would still have been vulnerable to a more radicalized fundamentalist Caliph someday assuming office--and that result would have been possibly even worse than the current situation. So maybe Churchill was not so far off base after all. In any case, you can't take back the past.
Regardless, in the long term there really is no choice for Western Civilization other than insisting on the defeat and the outlawing of Political Islam (much as in the US, the prohibition of governmental imposition of a State religion is an key part of our Constitution...), while still allowing room for a more tolerant Personal Islam to evolve. The goal must be for Islam to become--in practice as well as theory--a less threatening and less fundamentalist world view; a faith which pays far less attention to the literal denotation of texts such as the Koran and the Hadith, and pays much more attention to their connotation--especially in regard to their similarities with other world religions--in order to coexist peacefully with other people of other faiths and non-Islamic societies. And in order to integrate into this "Core"--as Thomas P.M. Barnett calls it--Muslims must come to accept that barbarism such as stoning non-believers, honor killings of women who engage in sex outside of marriage, restricting dress, suicide bombings for religious gain, etc., is going to have to go the way of Salem Witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition, i.e. into the dustbin of history. Anything short of this result (or of the West's defeat and subjugation to a barbaric Islamic nightmare of dhimmitude) must be grounds for fighting this War with all of our collective might to save our civilized world.
Unfortunately, there is nothing to suggest that this fundamental conflict between a secular, moral "good" and a fundamentalist, barbaric "evil" is unlikely to be resolved in my lifetime. And until this great struggle of our lifetimes is finally won, it will be important for the West to continue to convey to the Islamic world that our prosecution of this War is not to stamp out their religion, as much as it is to ensure that tolerance and respect for others (meaning even for those not sharing your faith...) must be protected by law; and to also convey that anything short of official State tolerance of all faiths and secular differences--is unacceptable. Until a large majority of the world's Muslims can feel comfortable in getting behind this concept--and in standing up for it--there can and will be no peace. The sooner we realize this in the West--and unite behind it--the better.
UPDATE: This is not the way to win the War.
Labels: Christianity, Dhimmitude, Islam, Islamic Fascism, The Long War
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Dhimmicrats: The Worst
Labels: Congress, Defeatocrats, Democrat Sabotage, Dhimmitude, US Senate
Why are Dhimmicrats bailing out on the John Doe Amendment?
Today's passengers have an advantage. They know what can happen. They know what to look for. They will not be taken by surprise, and they are willing to take action. But some in Congress would sacrifice their lives on the altar of political correctness. ...
As a federal air marshal in Las Vegas observed: "The crew and passengers act as our additional eyes and ears on every flight. If they are afraid of reporting suspicious individuals out of fear of being labeled a racist or bigot, then terrorists will certainly use these fears to their advantage in future aviation attacks."
What bothers us is why some Democrats want to let them.
This move really seems inexplicable. The explanation from the Democrats makes little sense, but neither does anything else. Democrats said they feared the legislation would lead to profiling by transportation security, but profiling has nothing to do with responding to tips. Profiling means investigating people without any substantive basis except superficial characteristics.
When travelers pass tips to airline and airport security, those professionals then evaluate the information and determine the best course of action. That might involve rescreening specific passengers, but not on the basis of prejudice but on the basis of potential threat information. The onus should be on the professionals to ensure that they properly evaluate the information, not on the travelers who are just trying to help keep our transportation secure.
If Congress allows tipsters to remain vulnerable to legal intimidation, it will result in less secure airports and flights. No one will worry about tipping off police if they see a bomb or a gun, but more subtle clues might go uninvestigated as travelers have to weigh the importance of informing security against the potential hassle of getting sued. Eventually that will give terrorists a wider opening to exploit our transportation in a similar manner as 9/11.
Labels: Air Travel, Appeasement, Democrat Sabotage, Dhimmitude, Homeland Security, Islamic Fascism
Saturday, July 21, 2007
New Democrat War on Terror Ad Campaign
Shamelessly pilfered from Gateway Pundit and Rob Coleman. Excellent work, guys!
Labels: Appeasement, Defeatocrats, Democrat Sabotage, Dhimmitude, Homeland Security
UPDATED Why Democrat Approval Numbers are the Worst in recorded Polling History
Unfortunately; the Left has become so strident, and the MSM is such a fixed game--that the voices of the right are often all but drowned out in the "shout fest." So finding a columnist who can express a direct and firm opinion from the Right--in an affirmative and non-threatening manner--is a big plus. It was via the Instapundit that I first discovered Surber, and now I cannot get enough. Here is Surber cutting to the chase about the pathetic state of Congress and the Senate under Democrat rule (read it all...):
Last year, the congressional Republicans went hog wild on pork spending. Prosecutors put a couple of them in prison for selling favors. One of them was caught messing with the House pages, who are the equivalent of political altar boys.We can only hope--and get organized for the battles next year. It may well be the most momentous election of our lifetimes.Voters threw the bums out. But unlike 1994, when voters voted in new Republican leadership, voters elected the old Democratic leadership. Democrat David Obey of Wisconsin became House appropriations chairman -- again after a 12-year absence.
This is reform?
Instead of addressing the energy crisis, tax reform, securing the borders or even increasing production of U.S. oil to end America's reliance on foreign oil, Democrats have one agenda item: Putting Bush's head on a plate.
Their inability to impeach Bush may explain why only 19 percent of Democrats approve of the job being done by the Democratic Congress.
But what about the 8 percent job approval by independents?
Instead of debates, we get stunts like this week's all-night filibuster.
Instead of compromise, we get up-or-down votes without amendments.
Instead of tackling problems, we get hundreds of investigations into Bush.
Instead of civility we get Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid of Nevada taking a below-the-belt verbal jab at Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and then making Specter wait 30 minutes to respond.
Democratic leaders want to do nothing. They want to portray Republicans as obstructionists and Bush as evil, in the hopes of securing the presidency in 2008 and a 60-vote majority in the Senate.
This probably will work.
In driving down the public's confidence in the federal government, Democrats are counting on apathy. That is what happened in 2006 when more Republican voters from 2004 stayed home than Democratic voters did.
But what if it doesn't? What if the public sees this cynicism for what it is?
UPDATE: Don Surber kindly wrote me to gently inform me that he is in Charleston, West Virginia, where he assures me it is Almost Heaven (I've heard that line somewhere...). Ah well, South Carolina's loss. But Don: see if you can't do something about those Senate seats!
Labels: Appeasement, Congress, Defeatocrats, Democrat Sabotage, Dhimmitude, US Senate
Friday, July 20, 2007
The Dhimmicrats Present...Zero Visibility
Cartoon by Cox and Forkum (click to enlarge)
Labels: Air Travel, Appeasement, Democrat Sabotage, Dhimmitude, Homeland Security, Islamic Fascism
Outrage Continued: King rips Dhimmi-crats on John Doe (Video)
I truly don't think it is possible to accurately reflect in words how angry I am about this; we should all be outraged. This puts every one of us in greater danger because it seves as an attempt to silence any citizen who otherwise might come forward to report suspicious activity that might be terrorism.
If the King Amendment does not make it to the final bill in conference, then the President should veto it and make them start over again; it is that important.
Please register your displeasure with your Representative and also with your Senators and all members of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees (who are meeting in "conference") about this bill. I did this and it only took me about 30 minutes. Cut and paste is a wonderful thing...
They are acting to make it easier for our enemies to kill us: we must stop them in their tracks, NOW. Please do your part: even if everyone reading this blog acts accordingly, it would make a tremendous difference.
Labels: Dhimmitude, Homeland Security, Islamic Fascism
