The Guaranteed Failure of Catering to Muslim Perception
In the past year, the Obama administration made ameliorating Palestinian perceptions of injustice a priority, strong-arming Israel to impose a ban on Jews moving to the West Bank and even parts of Jerusalem. Only the policy hasn’t helped the administration’s plan to reconvene peace talks. Far from it: the U.S. having raised the demand, Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority duly adopted it as a precondition and has refused to negotiate until Israel accedes to it.
The track record of policies designed to appease Arab and Muslim perceptions is provably poor, inasmuch as the irrationality, suspicion, and hatred that they seek to validate are impervious to facts.
Polls show, for example, that neither Egyptians nor Palestinians like America more despite being recipients of ever-rising levels of American largesse. Saudis have scant affection for the U.S. after decades of Washington’s fawning deference. Nor has Muslim opinion been perceptibly altered by the most striking examples of American aid and succor given to Muslims: in Bosnia in 1999, or in Indonesia after the 2005 southeast Asian tsunami.
Even Barack Obama is the partial exception that proves the rule: his popularity among Muslims after a year of strenuous outreach is limited relative to the rest of the world. His approach has not translated into Iranian mellowing or Arab gestures to Israel, two objectives he publicly sought to achieve in return for emollient diplomacy towards Muslims coupled with pressure towards Israelis.
More to the point, such popularity as Obama enjoys in the Muslim world is likely to be deeply conditional. With Obama unable to deliver an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that does not lie in his gift, or to pull out of Afghanistan, or to ignore what occurs in neighboring Pakistan, Arab and Muslim perceptions of Obama can be expected to erode over time. At present, he reportedly has the confidence of just 13% of Pakistanis — hardly a significant improvement over his predecessor’s 9%.
Lying behind the recurrent urge to adopt policies conditioned on what Arabs and Muslims perceive are many things, both general (fear of Muslim groups with a proven track record of violence; political correctness) and particular (rationalizing anti-American or anti-Jewish hatreds). But fear and rationalizing hostility offer no outlet: as in Palestine in 1930, it is a low level of statesmanship that caters to these, one that dooms its practitioners.
Theres no way to win the blame game, they will hate us no matter what.
One, the hate especially of Jews and all other unbelievers is part of muslim tradition since the beginning. Second, we can see that almost all predominantly muslim states are more or less failed, tyrannies with a rich ruling class and poor masses. Its so much easier to blame Israel and the West than to question your own culture. Lefties will never stop blaming the US for the failures in Cuba and Venezuela, its so much easier blaming someone than investigating your own failed policies.
The foolishness of it all should be clear with a look at the map in one minute. How can the tiny, tiny state of Israel be responsible for the woes of the muslim world? How can 12 million jews be responsible for the failing of 1,2 billion people?
You have to handle this from a position of strenght. Fair, non-agressive but firm, and not afraid to take action if necessary.
Physics envy meets Hyperzionism!
Golly, Dr. Bones, what next? Is it not a delight to live in such interesting times?
Healthy days.
The Muslim failure to modernize existed long before the state of Israel. Islam is itself a failed concept.
liberals prize themselves on their openmindedness but they entirely fail to understand that not everyone wants liberalism or tolerance or openness of the kind the west has. I give liberals the benefit of the doubt and assume that they don’t in fact want to destroy their own civilization. In fact, when others look at the west, they see decadence and degradation. But at the same time, there is terrible jealousy (and as the bible says,jealousy is as cruel as the grave) that these seemingly slutty and careless people are so wealthy. It seems unjust to them.
The more the west caters to muslims, the more they believe that we don’t value ourselves. If they were in our position, they would wipe us out. So they see liberalism as weakness. At the same time, they see us as hypocrites. If we are really so liberal, why not just give up everything to them? Why survive at all? Because survival entails a certain amount of non liberal aggression. I want to live is an aggressive remark.
I like myself and I won’t let you destroy me or Israel, I have a right to a nation, and national identity, and culture is the only sensible approach for the west to take and also to admit that western style democracy is not desired by all. Such an approach inspires respect. It is the apparent weakness of liberalism that inspires hatred. Liberalism is holding out the hope that perhaps yes, we can overtake them and then the bitter realization, no we can’t. At least I hope they can’t. If we are ultimately destroyed, it will not be because of what anyone else does. It will be due to our own loss of faith in ourselves.
It is hard not just for liberals but even for conservatives to admit that a group of people amounting to a billion honestly feels that they should be the only ones in the world, leaving just a few pockets of perhaps a few tens of thousands of christians or other groups, who will be a little tolerated. But that is how it has been always. Islam began with jihad. A few crucial battles along the way prevented the west from being conquered. On the other hand, when the west colonized muslim lands, they did not interfere with the religion. It was understood and always has been to this day that no attempt can be made to change people in that regard. This attitude, expressed even in the midst of colonial conquest, is very different from the muslim attitude towards other religions.
It’s SO sad… Entire generations steeped in a culture of hatred towards the Jews.
Their leaders- keeping them placated with “Blood and Circuses.”
“A man hears what he wants to hear
and disregards the rest.” Simon&Garfunkle
When people, due to nature or nurture,
pay attention only to the voices they
hear in their heads, urging violence,
their opponents can only offer them
conversion, submission, or the sword.
P.S. I hear voices too, as may anyone;
The difference is I don’t necessarily
believe them, and I can say NO to them.
What’s the difference between Hitler and Chamberlain?
Hitler killed millions on his feet. Chamberlain killed them bent over. Hitler was at least respectable by Nazi standards. Chamberlain — not even.
Yay genocide and incestuous baby rape… I mean, Islam.
It is about time that objective reality was the standard used to size up the Sons of Allah.
The hypocrisy of the left is unbearable for me. My gay friends KNOW they would be killed living over there. My liberal girlfriends KNOW their life would be brutal under Islam. Yet they cling to the non-judgmental mantra. They actually believe Christian extremists are just as dangerous.
Their sympathy for Palestinians is two-faced as well. They condemn overpopulation and ignore the astounding rate of the biggest welfare state on the planet, not to mention many other Islamic countries multiplying like rodents. They want to save the environment and Arabs don’t give a rat’s ass about filth and trash. Only the Jews have restored their desert nation’s fertility.
The only way forward with this insanity is to recognize it for what it is: INSANITY, EVIL INSANITY. Face it, accept and deal with it as rational intelligent civilized western people vs. evil barbarians bent on our destruction and enslavement.
izlam is a mental disorder. We must stop treating it with any more legitimacy or respect than was given to hitler and his faithful followers.
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Bravo, DrBukk.
Ask Moslems why they cannot beat the Israelies and they say “Inshallah”.
“As Allah wills”? Maybe they should ask what Allah wills? He sure does not seem to want the Moslems to win against Israel; they cannot win even out numbering the Jews 100:1.
Every time the US CFR filled government tries to push Israel, and help the Muslim terrorists Hamas, America gets slammed with a storm. The latest was two snow storms, and the coldest winter.
Don’t take my word for it, look back to Bush 1, and the storm that destroyed his house up on the east coast. He ran his jibs about how the world was going to solve the problem between Israel, and the Arabs. It keeps happening.
Watch, the next time America’s government runs their suck about what Israel should do, or is going to force Israel to do with the Arabs that got kicked out of Jordan, about a third of our country will get slammed with to much rain, snow, fire, earthquake, or volcano.
Delusion is part of the human condition. Jews are not immune to these forces. But truth is stronger. To say that the ‘left’ is deluded or that politicians ‘pander’ to arab/muslim perceptions is to ascribe a sincerity to these parties that does not and has never and never will exist. islam wants an end to the Jewish enterprise. Leftists and anti-Semites agree. The chattering classes don’t much care but lean to the seemingly powerful vocal noise-makers. Truth is always a social handicap because it is always an unpopular and unwelcome handmaiden of ignorance and popularity.
There is no political representative of truth. When such a person is revealed the delusionists will be cast aside as the aroused voice and righteous fury of the silent majority is brought to bear. Then islam and their ‘palestinian’ cohorts will be crushed without mercy as they deserve to be. Their sentence is declared form their own mouths. What they have wish for and tried in every way to inflict on others will be delivered to them a hundred fold. They think they are masters of terror. They are fools and amateurs. We will show them what terror really is! And for those that survive, they will never forget it!
Catering to perceptions is built into the progresive mindset, in which there are no absolutes (especially an external morality), but only subjective relative value systems. Anyone who plays this game is therefore effectively a progressive, no matter which party or religion they come from.
It has been said by others on these pages (Mona Charon?) that Muslims are legalistic and therefore can always formulate an excuse to find exception to their own religious laws. In addition to worshipping “the other”, this is yet another reason why progressives find common ground with Islam.
The Muslims are either at your throat or at your feet. Islam is a death cult.
To Minda (4)…
I encourage you on your journey, but gently suggest that you have not yet travelled very far. Here’s what you will sooner-or-later discover:
- They are not liberals, they are progressives, AKA evolutionary socialists. They generally refuse to acknowledge any end goal for society, but from history we can surmise it will be either right socialism (AKA fascism) or left socialism (AKA communism).
- Progressives do not care in the slightest whether everyone wants to believe as they do. They will force their way of life on everyone via the state-as-god regardless. To get there, they employ relativist mental gymnastics based upon pseudo-intellectual fads such as postmodernism, in which a disingenuous narrative provides the excuse for might-makes-right.
- NEVER give progressives the benefit of the doubt about their underlying assumptions. Regarding society in general, you will realize some day that progressives actually do have a societal death wish, and that they would like nothing better than the suicide of Western culture.
Good luck on your intellectual journey… you will discover that it is ultimately a spiritual one as well.
Muslim “perception”, at least the version of Muslim perception that is intent on destroying the western house and its foul, anti-Allah religions, is done in the spirit of taqiyya.
Islamists are orchestrating a takeover and are, in fact, delighted that the decadent, self-abosorbed and weakened “west” is fragile and pathetic enough to give them a hearing and pay attention to their phony and pretentiously orchestrated outrage.
Not so true in the 19th century, when…
Winston Churchill saw through to the truth
Even Barack Obama is the partial exception that proves the rule: his popularity among Muslims after a year of strenuous outreach is limited relative to the rest of the world.
I think it was Amir Taheri who noted Saudis and others weren’t too impressed to hear Barack Obama’s speechifying abroad, dissing his “tribe”, America.
In many ways, Obama’s professed and obsequious obeisance to Izz-lam may have backfired in the degree of respect it earned him while speaking in Muslim countries whose favor and liking he was attempting to curry by dissing his “tribe”.
Trumpeting the West’s shortcomings is not the way to appease angry Muslims. After Western liberal diatribes of lies and half-truths about the culpability of the West, Muslim radicals have been fed a succor of hatred–with many more than willing to feed off this.
Its ridiculous to stoke this anger with more “confessions of wrongs,” which can only make them angrier. Why not just try the truth. How much does the West owe the Muslim world? How much do they owe the West? Let’s take a quick look.
1. Muslims lorded over half of Spain for five centuries.
2. Until 1918, Muslims ruled over most of the historically Christian Balkans for hundreds of years.
3. Muslims continue to hold Eastern Christendom’s holiest city: Constantinople (now named Istanbul). A city which sits in Europe.
4. For centuries, Muslims raided European coastal cities and–by piracy–terrorized the Mediterranean Sea up to the 20th Century.
5. Muslims enslaved an estimated FOUR MILLION European Christians while they had the ability.
Per Wikipedia:
According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates, who were vassals of the Ottoman Empire, and sold as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries.[13][14] These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages from Italy, Spain, Portugal and also from more distant places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America. The impact of these attacks was devastating – France, England, and Spain each lost thousands of ships, and long stretches of the Spanish and Italian coasts were almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants. Pirate raids discouraged settlement along the coast until the 19th century.”
Add in the slavery of Eastern Europeans and the estimated number or Christian slaves soar to four million plus.
To be fair, European Christians committed the following against Muslims:
1. Held a small piece of land (considered Christianity’s holiest) in Israel on and off for 150 years total?
2. Held modern-day Pakistan and the Suez Canal for 200 years? Egypt for 100?
3. Held Iraq between WWI and WWII.
4. Most of N. Africa for fifty years?
These infractions against Islam by Christians for the most part ended fifty years ago. However, Spain continues to hold two dirt lots in Morocco.
Now I mention all this not as a call of “Let’s get ‘em,” but
to remind the angry Muslim that the West has grievances of its own, and that Muslims aren’t necessarily the ones who have a monopoly on righteousness.
yes, it’s true. Obama’s obeisance to Islam only makes them contemptuous of him. They think he is weak. At least they were afraid of Bush. They find this liberal “let’s win hearts and minds through the example of our wonderful Western values, let’s be their friend and show them how great democracy is, and how they will succeed, and then they will like us, world peace, yay…” attitude ridiculous and are using it against us at our peril.
An Israeli lobbyist writing with a straight face about the “dangers” of catering to ethno-religious groups. That’s chutzpah. You almost have to admire the pure, shameless hypocrisy of it.
#21
It’s not ‘catering to an ethno religious group’ its catering to the LIES of an ethno religious group. The Jews have never enjoyed that luxury, but only the perfidy of those who refuse to meet their moral and legal obligations.
But why waste time telling you this. For your ilk lobbying is always illegitimate if it is undertaken by Jews; just like everything else is ‘illegitimate’ to Jews such as self-defense; radicalism; self-determination; security etc. etc.
But muslim oil money that corrupts the entire fabric of the US government, buying senators, ex-presidents, bureaucrats (in and out of office) THAT is legitimate. Lobbying by arabs is legitimate.
Israel doesn’t need America. It is America that needs Israel for if you fail this test, you will sink into oblivion. If America loses its leverage over Israel what good is it to the arabs? That time is coming – the ‘palestinians will then be squashed. But since when does one need Jews to supply oxygen for anti-Semitism?
If all the Jewish lobbying apparatus (what little good it does) were dismantled what would you complain about then? The fall back position is the Jewish ‘conspiracy’ of course!
As all anti-Semites unable to answer the charge of the topic, deflection is attempted by reference to the ‘Jewish conspiracy’ and the ‘Israeli lobby’.
Keith,
You forgot about invading and occupying Iraq & Afghanistan while murdering thousands of innocent civilians, but that was like five years ago so I’ll give you a pass.
Ryan,
Well, other than the fact that you don’t understand what the word “murder” means, other than the fact that it was mostly fellow Muslims killing each other, other than the fact that Saddam’s regime was–overtly or by indirect policy–killing at least as many Iraqis per year as the insurgents ever did, other than the fact that the Godly UN’s prewar sanctions killed an estimated half-million children alone (per UNICEF), and other than the fact that if you and I were Iraqis living under Saddam Hussein there is no doubt that we would want the US to throw the murderous bum out (refer to usage of word “murderous” here for accuracy), I’ll give you a pass, too.
THE ISLAMIC WORLD WAR
We must understand that Islam’s prime directive is the militant conquest of the entire world, mandated by Allah & Muhammed in the Koran & this hadith: Bukhari (8:387) – Allah’s Apostle Muhammed said, “I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah’”
Can it be any more crystal clear? Islam’s minions have been dutifully following this mandate for 1,400 years, since the time Muhammed left Mecca for Medina.
What we are facing is nothing less than an ISLAMIC WORLD WAR that rages on every continent except Antarctica, against everyone and everything “non-Islamic”.
Let’s look at the FACTS.
Islam against:
- the Catholics in the Philippines (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- the Christians in Indonesia (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- Australian tourists in Bali (blown up…twice)
- the Buddhists in Thailand (routine slaughter & beheadings)
- the Hindus & Sikhs in India (hundreds of years battling the Islamic Jihad)
- the Jews in Mumbai (slaughtered)
- the Zoroastrians & Baha’i in Iran (virtually exterminated)
- Islamic converts to Christianity in Afghanistan (death fatwa)
- ancient Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan (blown up)
- the Chaldean Christians in Iraq (routine persecution, slaughter & church burnings)
- the Jews in Israel (routine attacks against civilians, threat of 2nd genocide)
- the Jews in Yemen (nearly exterminated)
- S. Korean & German tourists in Yemen (blown up)
- the Coptic Christians in Egypt (routine persecution, slaughter & church attacks)
- the Christians & animists in Sudan (genocide)
- the Christians in Kenya (constant Jihadist threat from Obama’s homies)
- the Christians in Nigeria (routine Jihadist attacks)
- U.S. embassies in Tanzania & Kenya (blown up)
- the athiests in Europe (the prime target)
- the native French in Paris (torched car terrorism)
- Jews in Paris (read the grisly story of Ilan Halimi, a Jewish shop clerk who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in 2006)
- the native Swedes in Malmo (Islamic rape brigades)
- the native Dutch in Amsterdam (routinely terrorized)
- Dutch politicians (Geert Wilders & Ayyan Hirsi Ali – death fatwa)
- Dutch cinematographers (Theo vanGogh savagely murdered by an Islamist in broad daylight)
- Dutch cartoonists (Kurt Westergaard – death fatwa)
- Dutch newspaper editors (Flemming Rose, Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor – death fatwa)
- Train commuters in Spain (blown up)
- Tube commuters in London (blown up)
- Airports in Scotland (blown up)
- Jews in Argentina (blown up)
- Jews in Caracas (blown up)
- Twin Tower office workers in N.Y. (blown up – twice)
- Defense workers in the Pentagon (blown up – airliner jihad)
- Army/Navy military recruiters in Little Rock (gunned down by an Islamist)
- Soldiers in Ft. Hood Texas (gunned down by an Islamist turncoat)
- Pedestrians at the U. of N. Carolina (run down with an SUV by Islamist)
- Journalists like Daniel Pearl (savagely decapitated by Islamists)
- Nick Berg, Kim Sung-il, Piotr Stanczyk, Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong, Paul Johnson (savagely decapitated by Islamists)
- Jewish centers in Seattle (slaughtered by Islamist Jihadist)
- Jewish centers in Toronto (slaughtered by Islamist Jihadist)
- Infidel Delta Airlines passengers (underwear bomber)
And on, and on, and on………
It is Islam against everyone, everything, everywhere that is not Islamic.
It is Dar al-Islam against Dar al-Harb. Islam against us, not us against them.
Let’s face the facts and call it what it is. It is not a ‘War on Terror’ against a few ragtag misunderstanders of Islam. It is nothing less than: THE ISLAMIC WORLD WAR.
THE ISLAMIC WORLD WAR – Muhammed’s legacy.
~ The Infidel Alliance
MUHAMMED – THE MAN RESPONSIBLE
To understand Islamic thought, we must understand the man who founded Islam, the ‘holy prophet’ Muhammed.
The Koran 68:4 upholds Muhammed as “…an exalted [standard of] character.” Islamic tradition upholds Muhammed as ‘al-insan al-kamil’ or ‘the perfect man’, to be emulated by all Muslims.
The hard truth about Muhammed, as recorded in the Islamic ‘holy’ texts, is that far from being a a ‘holy prophet’ Muhammed was a sadistic sociopath.
Muhammed was a murderer, torturer, amputator, decapitator, slaver, looting stealing thief, rapist, human trafficker, sex trafficker, child rapist, sexual deviant, genocidist and self proclaimed terrorist.
Muhammed was perhaps one of the most vile men in the pantheon of human history, a brutal barbarian afflicted with narcissistic personality disorder, consumed by unquenchable sexual lust, greed and power.
By any objective standard, Muhammed should have been incarcerated not venerated, reviled not revered.
Every pathology that afflicts Islam comes directly from this sick man, Muhammed, and the world suffers because of him.
~The Infidel Alliance