Where Seldom Is Heard
Ray Keller
Diane Alden
Sept. 28, 2001
I For whatever reasons, President Bush is wasting his time on devising
increased security measures which terrorists or war mongers or nut cases can
get around. A national ID card will do nothing but make it easier for
government to catch tax cheats and parents who have not had their kids
immunized.
Meanwhile, back in the REAL world, lavish funding will continue to flow into
the pockets of terrorists and others who can game the system. Falsifying
documents and buying cryptotechnology and the latest in fraud techniques
will create brand new business ventures. The only people who will be
impacted by more surveillance will be you and me as the thousands of laws
and regulations we now have are written into a microchip and put into the ID
card to tell Homeland Defense who is avoiding the tax man or hitting porn
sites on the Net.
The recent proposals of a new and improved terrorism bill coming out of the
John Ashcroft DOJ will be as flaky and full of holes as the last terrorism
bill of 1996. Bills and more laws and more IDs is not the problem here.
Meanwhile, Bush meets with mullahs and Muslim clerics and tells us all to be
nice to our new playmates. I have trouble with Bush's priorities, but so
what else is new. I have trouble with the fact that he changed the name of
the operation against terrorism to appease Islamic leaders, a name change
from Infinite Justice to Enduring Freedom.
He changed the name because, according to the mullahs, infinite justice can
be rendered only by God. I am wondering, considering it was Islamic
fundamentalists who vaporized 7,000 folks of various nations in the WTC, why
Bush wastes time on such arcane and unimportant concerns. Political
correctness at this juncture is stupid and vainglorious and will further
serve to impede American resolve.
I bet he would have ignored the request if the pope had asked him to rename
a similar operation if the terrorist attack had been conducted by Catholic
fundamentalists. Having respect for another religion is one thing, but he
should have blown it off as beneath consideration.
It would seem we are once again losing sight of what just happened in New
York and Washington. As we sink further into a morass of multicultural
Sensitivities, most of us must come to understand this "war" is bogus. The
last thing that should be on Bush's mind is accommodating clerics who have
done little but whine and complain about being picked on by nasty Christian
and Jewish America. Talk about creating resentment.
Bush is not helping by reminding us twice weekly to be nice to Muslims. Most
of us are trying to be nice. But he is blind to the fact that Christian and
Jewish America is NOT our immediate problem. .
In a recent column, John Leo supports what I am telling you. He says, "The
media stress on bias crimes is important. Sikhs, who are neither Arabs nor
Muslims, have been attacked simply for wearing turbans. As Mayor Giuliani
said, cowardly attacks based on hate are exactly what we are supposed to be
opposing now. Still, there is something unbalanced and one-sided about the
anti-bias rhetoric. I have noticed no comparable stress on the heightened
responsibilities of Muslim Americans."
Operating with his newfound knowledge about Islam, Bush is making some
monumental mistakes. He is under the impression that the word "Islam" means
peace. Sorry to disabuse him of that notion, but according to eminent
British historian Paul Johnson:
It is widely said that Islamic terrorists are wholly unorthodox in their
belief that their religion sanctions what they do, and promises the
immediate reward of heaven to what we call "suicide bombers" but they insist
are martyrs to the faith. This line is bolstered by the assertion that Islam
is essentially a religion of peace and that the very word "Islam" means
"peace." Alas, not so. Islam means "submission," a very different matter,
and one of the functions of Islam, in its more militant aspect, is to obtain
that submission from all, if necessary by force.
What Johnson has to say will not go down well with the multicultural coffee
klatches in the West Wing of the White House. Johnson relates in a recent
article in the National Review:
Islam is an imperialist religion, more so than Christianity has ever been,
and in contrast to Judaism. The Koran, Sura 6, verse 85 describes the
inevitable enmity between Moslems and non-Moslems: "Strongest among men in
enmity to the Believers wilt thou find the Jews and Pagans." Sura 9, verse
5, adds: "Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize
them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them, in every stratagem [of war]."
Then nations, however mighty, the Koran insists, must be fought "until they
embrace Islam. ... The number of Moslems penetrating and settling in Europe
is now beyond computation because most of them are illegals. They are
getting into Spain and Italy in such numbers that, should present trends
continue, both these traditionally Catholic countries will become majority
Moslem during the 21st century.
This is no time for political correctness or celebrating diversity. I have
yet to hear anything but a passing reference to the terrorist attack of
Sept. 11 from almost anyone in the Muslim community. With the exception of
the very fragile Muhammed Ali, the silence is deafening. However, almost
daily there is a call to be nice to Muslims. I keep asking myself, what the
heck did I do to any Muslim?
Furthermore, why do Muslims and others keep saying that we deserved what
happened because of our foreign policy or friendship with Israel? Why is it
that there is always "it's too bad what happened, BUT ..."? BUT is usually
followed by a laundry list of things they think America has done to the
Islamic world, like our support for Israel. Like not dumping Israel in order
to promote the Palestinians.
Yet Muslims turn a blind eye to the fact that we backed Albanian Muslims of
the KLA against Serbian Christians. In addition, they wanted our troops and
dollars to throw Saddam out of Kuwait, but they don't want us on Saudi soil.
God forbid they should be subjected to the slimy Americans anywhere near
Mecca or that American women soldiers with their sleeves rolled up might be
seen driving a jeep by one of the sons of Ishmael.
Christians are getting killed by Muslims all over the world, but America is
not supposed to see that. Frankly, I don't care if they don't like our
foreign policy. All I know is that some 7,000 Americans are dead because
Islamic fundamentalists abused our hospitality and now they try and blame us
for provoking the attack. It won't wash, and it shouldn't with President
Bush.
Americans are asked to be tolerant and counseled to be patient as a
coalitions with Arab countries is formed. We walk on eggshells so we don't
piss off the Islamic world. Yet Moslems in Afghanistan destroy Buddhist
statues in that country which was once Hindu and Buddhist. Meanwhile, Islam
continues its rule by force in Africa in Nigeria and the Sudan, in
Indonesia, and elsewhere. Non-Muslims are given a choice of conversion or
death. Barbarities committed on women in Afghanistan by the Taliban go
unremarked except by westernized members of RAWA, the counter-revolutionary
group of Muslim women, who risk their lives to bring the information to the
West. Information that we promptly ignore.
A Historical Lesson on Islam
Much has been made of the Koran recently, and Americans are getting a short
course on what Islam and its attendant credo are. However, little is said in
regard to the other traditions which go hand in hand with Islam. There are
rules which were established as early as the eighth and ninth centuries by
the founders of the four schools of Islamic law: Hanafi, Malaki, Shafi'i and
Hanbali. These bodies of law are as important as which parts of the Koran
are used as cover for the more violent aspects of Islam. Islam is more than
the Koran, and even that is misquoted or misunderstood in an effort to be
fair to Muslims. The other aspects of Islam should not be ignored; rather,
every effort should be made to understand them.
Bush and our leaders ignore the darker truths at our peril. In modern times,
the 19th century and particularly after World War I, Islam conquered former
Christian territories spreading from the Balkans, Greece, Serbia and
Bulgaria to Armenia and the Middle East. In a desperate attempt to
accommodate Islam and Christianity in the area, Eastern Christians tried to
shield themselves against Islamic persecution and slavery. While
Christianity survived in some places like Egypt and Turkey, in other places
it was completely wiped out.
There is a word for the strange situation with Christians and Jews living in
Islamic countries. When Christians and Jews have been allowed to exist, they
exist under a condition of "protection," or pact, which in the testimony of
religious historian Bat Ye'or* before Congress early last year means "pact,"
or dhimma. The explanation is that Christians and Jews, known in the Koran
as "people of the book," are a protected people if they submit to Muslim
rule - somewhat like the American Indian in the USA. In the case of the
Muslim world, they must pay a poll tax, the "jizya," to the Islamic
community, the "umma."
Ye'or related that if dhimmis rebel against Islamic law and give allegiance
to a non-Muslim power or refuse to pay their poll tax; entice or convert a
Muslim from his faith; harm a Muslim or his property; commit blasphemy, and
that includes denigration of the prophet Muhammed, the Koran, the Muslim
faith and other "errors," the jihad begins. The jihad is the sixth tenet of
the Muslim faith. The first five are sweetness and light and Bush can rattle
them off, but everyone seems to stumble over number six and its
implications.
To further enlighten you, the word shari'a is one you should know and
understand. It is a compendium of laws based on theological sources, the
Koran and the hadiths - the latter the sayings and acts of the prophet
Muhammed. The shari'a also relates to the concept of dhimmini. Yeor tells us
that "dhimmintude" includes the inequality of rights in all domains between
Muslims and dhimmis, the social and economic discrimination of dhimmis, the
humiliation and vulnerability of the dhimmis.
The other word you should know is fatwa. If a fatwa is decreed against an
individual, any Muslim is authorized to kill him, and by so doing he is the
executor of what is considered the sentence of Allah. Fatwas are usually
issued by the powers that be; like a Supreme Court ruling or an act of
Congress, they become the law.
These have been issued by bin Laden and other Islamic Jihad networks against
many people. In the case of several Muslims, they were assassinated for
translating Saloman Rushdie's "Satanic Verses." This was done because a
fatwa was issued by the religious rulers of Iran.
It is important to note in light of the increasing number of "let's blame
America and the West for everything" bunch that it was only under colonial
rule that Christians and Jewish minorities in conquered lands were liberated
from centuries of oppression.
Having said that, it is also a fact that the vast majority of Muslims are
also victims of Islamists from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Egypt,
Turkey and Algeria.
The warning which Ye'or gave Congress should warn us as well:
We should realize that those populations are in grave danger and that even
Muslim governments cannot protect them from mob violence - sometimes they
pretend to be unable to do so, in order to stop foreign pressure or public
campaigns. We should also remember that, from the late 1940s, the Jewish
communities in the Arab-Muslim world - then more than a million, now less
than 1 percent of that number, under 10,000 and fast dwindling - were the
victims of persecution, terrorism, pillage, and religious hatred that forced
them to flee or emigrate. Christians were left as the only non-Muslims on
whom religious fanaticism and hatred could be focused. Each Christian
community tried to resist the return of the old order, following the path of
secularism or communism.
In other words, there have been Jews and Christians in so-called Muslim
lands for years.
But the sad fact is there are very few moderate Muslims. Most have taken on
the worldview and groupthink that the Islamists promote. Even Muslim
intellectuals and academics suffer from the groupthink, much as ours suffer
from years of Hegelian groupthink and political correctness. That fact kills
dialogue, cooperation and peace between ideologies, religions and peoples.
It kills it in Muslim society as well as ours. It is insufferable that ideas
are now classified according to a set of standards set up by political
correctness on the one hand and violent and militant religious or ethnic
dogma on the other.
If Bush and America do not understand the history and the real facts behind
the jihad on America, we will lose this war. I am not saying that we should
hate all Muslims or Arabs. What it does mean is that as a nation we have the
right to find out if there are people living here, citizens or not, who want
to kill and maim Americans and contribute to our downfall. In order to do
that, we don't need a national ID card - we need common sense.
We also need the cooperation of the Muslim community in the U.S. We now find
some Muslim organizations asking Muslims in the U.S. not to cooperate with
the FBI. If Muslims do NOT cooperate with the FBI and this investigation in
pursuit of the terrorist network, there WILL be a war. Perhaps it will sneak
up on people as they whine about being picked on instead of looking around
and giving some thought to the anti-American hate they spew and the spawn of
hell they may be harboring in their communities. Understanding is a two-way
street - it applies to all of us and not just Christians, Jews, or American
atheists of non-Muslim or Arab lineage.
Quoting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, John Leo reminds us that
the responsibility of Arab and Muslim Americans is to send positive word
about America overseas just as immigrants in the past have done. A good word
home helps create and heal and lifts up all our diverse groups. The opposite
just creates jihad and more days like Sept. 11.
The Tribe of Memory
My mother's mother and her family came to America from Poland in the early
1900s. A small, blonde, independent, rugged yet sentimental woman, she
survived so much and sacrificed so profoundly to come to America for a
better life. With nothing but four suitcases, along with her husband, John,
and two children, plus a framed picture of Christ on the cross, Victoria
left her homeland and pledged allegiance to a country she came to love
deeply.
I can remember as a child seeing her weep openly whenever she spoke about
the home America had given her and her family. I never heard her say one
unkind or critical word about America. I never heard her say one single time
that she was oppressed or picked on by the majority. That was true even
AFTER the KKK burned a cross on her lawn. The KKK threatened her family and
other foreigners often in the small mining town in northern Minnesota during
the anti-Catholic and anti-foreign 1920s.
Among her few possessions was a battered American flag given to her by a
local unit of the American Legion. She received it when one son was shot by
a sniper at the Battle of the Bulge and another went down on a ship in the
Pacific. Her favorite song was "Home on the Range." The words are good ones
for this time and place, for both Muslim Americans and those Americans who
don't hyphenate their names. "Where seldom is heard a discouraging word ..."
Millions of people from all over the world come here for something. Most
come to live in peace and to find prosperity. To them I say welcome home.
But to those who have evil intent or, what is just as bad, who turn a blind
eye on the evil in their midst, I say BE American or BE gone.
*Bat Ye'or is the author of "The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam"
(1985/1996) and "The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam. From Jihad
to Dhimmitude: 7th to 20th Century" (1996). Both books were published by
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated.
--
Ray Keller
rayk...@theriver.com
http://personal.riverusers.com/~raykeller/
"You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some
higher moral development. You expect them to obey the law because
they know that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged."
-Michael Shirley
Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other
terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ...the
unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or
state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the
hands of the people.
-Tench Coxe, 20 Feb 1788
Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and
strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a
woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound
I would prefer to live in a free society than
a drug free society - even if the latter could
actually be achieved.
tos...@aol.com ab...@aol.com ab...@yahoo.com ab...@hotmail.com
ab...@msn.com ab...@sprint.com ab...@earthlink.com u...@ftc.gov
spa...@spamcop.net
WhiteWolf
well read...........
WW
On 6 Oct 2001 03:19:08 GMT, "Ray Keller" <rayk...@theriver.com>
wrote:
Lonnie Courtney Clay
*******************************************************************************
Well well, a deep subject indeed, producing hollow echoes all around.
Back in the early 80's as an experiment, I obtained a copy of the King
James Bible, the Koran, the Book of Morman, and the Red Book of
Sayings of Chairman Mao. I read them all ignoring annotations in the
course of a couple of weeks. I have to give credit to Mao, at least he
had a sense of humor. The box containing them has been packed away for
many years, but I notice that wherever it may be in my things, it has
never caught fire from spontaneous combustion.
One thing which I have noticed lacking in the discussions about Sept
11 is comment by Hindu and Buddist persons. I suspect that they are
yawning at the antics of these Johnny Come Lately religions..........
Lighten up, read more books, expand your consiousness, sing a few
songs, crack a few jokes, and take a careful look around you. Who is
close minded ? Who is trying to say that YOU must not do something
because THEY say it is wrong ? Harm yourself as you please, "think of
it as evolution in action". But when you say that you have a writ from
some deity to harm others, then you had better read the fine print on
your contract. You might also notice who wants a signature in blood
and other bloody sacrifices.
I eat chicken, beef, pork, fish, shrimp, all sorts of thing besides
fruit and vegetables. As someone once said, there would be no danger
of extinction for the Condor if it were a commercially viable
foodstuff. In exchange for a life of leisure, animals are served up to
mankind on a dinner platter. Mankind is king of the jungle on earth
and fought the way to the top the hard way up. On the other hand, the
jungle is almost gone and mankind seems to be so much in the habit of
fighting that the planet itself may be fighting back at the microbe
level. Has anyone bothered to do blood tests on the captured
terrorists to see what peculiar things may be toxicologically
affecting their judgement ?
No more hints today.
Lonnie Courtney Clay