Why Confront Islamism?

An excellent article from Amil Imani via Think-Israel:

If we don't it will continue to get more extreme. This is not Islamophobia, as many Muslims and their apologists protest. A phobia is a baseless irrational fear. Detestation of Islamism, the violent form of Islam, is based on irrefutable facts and it is not only rational, it is ethically imperative.

It is a virtue to take action to oppose the hateful, a vice to ignore it. It is a virtue to hate tyranny, misogyny, discriminations of all sorts, oppression, and all manners of violations of the legitimate rights of individual and peoples. Islamism is a mutation of Islam into a terrible menace. It is religious fascism, a destroyer of liberty and much of what free people cherish. Therefore, it must be confronted.

Islamism, Islamofascism, radical Islam and political Islam, are different terms for essentially the same thing: a virulent, hateful, and violent system of beliefs and practices. Yet, one and all are progeny of Islam itself.

It is a systemic problem of Islam that inevitably gives rise to Islamism. The three scriptures of Islam, the Quran, Islam's holy book; the Hadith, sayings of Muhammad as recorded by his contemporaries; and the Suna, the life examples of Muhammad himself, together form the body of Islamic beliefs. They provide an array of frequently confusing, multiple-meaning and even outright contradictory dogma that enable anyone to pick and choose certain teachings of Islam and justify anything they do on the basis of the scripture.

The Quran enjoys a sanctified standing, since Muslims believe it is written by Allah himself. Allah handed down the Quran to Archangel Gabriel, chapter by chapter, to deliver to Muhammad over the course of some 22 years. Muhammad could neither read nor write. So Gabriel had to whisper the chapters to him and Muhammad in turn would reveal them to a literate person who happened to be around to write them down on anything he could find. To Muslims, every word of the Quran is a literal perfect immutable eternal word of Allah himself. Therefore, no man or divine is ever to revise, much less dispute, the Quran.

The hodgepodge of Islamic scripture is the medium for generating all kinds of mutations, some of which such as Islamism are extremely dangerous. A segment of any society, at any time, is staffed by people who feel disaffected, alienated, and disenfranchised. It is from the ranks of this population that Islamists heavily recruit.

Islamism's rallying cry is also of particular attraction to the young since it is rabidly anti-establishment. The young lack a major stake in society but brim with action-inclined vitality. They are among the most willing recruits to anti-establishment causes. Older leaders frequently take advantage of the young's proclivity to act and enlist them as foot-soldiers in their cause. The Hitler's youth, the Soviet Union's young Communists, and the Islamic Republic of Iran's Basij (young Islamic storm troopers) are some examples of the young's enlistment by tyrannical systems.

Furthermore, there is excitement in action, any action. The greater the risk, the greater is the excitement. This feature is highly attractive to a significant segment of the population. That's why it is said that war is exciting, while peace is boring. The validation of this dictum is seen daily, for instance, in numberless arenas where battles rage between combatants, be they cocks, dogs, or human. Throngs of spectators pay by time and money to participate vicariously in the socially-approved brutalities.

In any physical contest, the more violent side usually prevails. The Islamists use ruthless force to eliminate the opposition or to intimidate them to join its ranks.

Islamism is rapidly advancing on two fronts. In every Islamic country, it is cowing the non-radicals while recruiting more and more radicals into its own ranks. In non-Muslim lands, Islamism,flush with Petrodollars, is establishing itself as a formidable force by enlisting the disaffected and attracting the delusional liberals with its promises. For the faithful, there is the added incentive of Allah's heaven and its irresistible attractions.

There are those who claim that the majority of Muslims in the world are moderate and non-violent. It may be so. Yet, the silence of this majority is deafening, although, they do speak up from time-to-time by, for instance, claiming that the 9/11 slaughter was the work of the Jews, even when Osama himself proudly admits the dastardly act.

This very same Muslim majority pours into the streets of the West on a moment's notice to protest against the slightest perceived affront to its sanctities, but they almost never march to condemn the violent acts of the Islamists or speak up against them. This sort of behavior by the majority makes it complicit with the Islamists.

In spite of all this, Islam's apologists and lobbyists want us to accept the notion that the present Islamic radicalism is an aberration that, given time, will dissipate as have all radical movements of the past. These folk fail to tell us about the radical movements that inflicted horrors on humanity before they expired. Here are a few instances of the bloody acts of radicalism from Wikipedia:

Japan 1910-45. Imperial Japanese killed 25,000,000 Chinese and enslaved millions of Koreans.

Soviet Union 1918-89. Communists killed 20,000,000 of their own citizens.

Germany 1940-45. Nazis killed 11,000,000 Jews, Romas, homosexuals, Slavs, the mentally ill and Communists.

China 1950-80. Communists killed 65,000,000 fellow Chinese.

Bangladesh 1971. Muslims killed 1,500,000 Hindus.

Cambodia 1975-79. Communist Cambodians killed 1,700,000 Cambodians.

Afghanistan 1979-89. Soviet Communists killed unspecified number of Afghans.

Sudan 1983-2007. Arab/Muslims killed over 2,000,000 Africans.

Iraq's socio-fascist Baathist government slaughtered several hundred thousand Kurds and Shiites during Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. And let us not forget the genocidal mullahs presently ruling Iran. These Islamofascists executed, without the least due process, tens of thousands of the opposition in order to consolidate their Islamist tyranny. The mullahs' present project is the subjugation of the region and, down the road, the world itself.

Islamism threatens to set a new record for brutality, contrary to the contention that there is no reason to worry about it. Jihadist Wahabism's tentacles are reaching out from its cradle in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf Arab Emirates. The Petrodollar flush Sunni zealots are liberally financing mosques, madresehs (Islamic indoctrination schools), Islamic centers at universities, front organizations and lobbyists to promote the Wahabi virulent Islamism in every part of the world.

Murderous Shiism, led by Iran's racing to arm itself with the ultimate weapon, is busily doing whatever it can to ensnare the world into Islam's nation, the Ummeh. The purported peaceful Muslim majorities are nowhere to be seen. They are either complicit with the Islamists or on the retreat from Southeast Asia to the Americas, from Australia, to Europe.

Islamism is a pincers, with the world in its jaws between the end-of-the-world Shiism and the jihadist Sunnis. The two jaws aim to crush the life of all non-believers. It is imperative that people who value liberty rise up and act to defeat Islamism. Here are some specific suggestions:

Any mosque, Islamic center or front organization that condones or promotes hate or violence must be shut down.

Islamic studies centers at universities must be scrutinized to guard against mercenary academes who deceptively preach the gospel of Islamism.

Lobbyists and front organizations serving Islamism must be investigated as to their sources of funds.

Laws should be enacted to protect all media and individuals against lawsuits, so that they can report the truth without risking ruinous litigations.

Imams, mullahs and others who promote Islamic hate doctrine should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Local Muslims should review Islamic literature, including the Quran, and should mark them with an asterisk, disavowing teachings of hate and violence or purge them entirely.

It is urgent that we confront Islamism. All free people, Muslim or not, must demand that their governments, at all levels, abandon the practice of political correctness and act to safeguard liberty against the truly deadly assault of Islamism on the rest of the World.

Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States, who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website at www.amilimani.com. This article appeared in the American Thinker, week ending March 12, 2007.