I am not the only one to admire Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept. This review in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer by Carlin Romano is highly laudatory, placing Bawer’s book in the context of historical works about Islam.
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This little nugget of information jump to the front, “Seventy percent of the inmates in French prisons, Bawer reports, are Muslim. Four out of five residents at Oslo’s main women’s shelter are non-Norwegian women seeking protection from male family members. In Denmark, “Muslims make up 5 percent of the population but receive 40 percent of welfare outlays.” It has always warfare and subjugation with the Islamic ‘religion’ and is showing itself in Europe just lately that it hasn’t changed. Political Correctness and diversity is another word for suicide with these adherents of a ‘religion’ that makes it a commandment to kill or enslave unbelievers [that's you if your not a Moslem]. The Europeans have taken a viper to their breasts and its taken its first bite in Denmark and England. If the history can be a teacher, it won’t be the last bite either.
Roger:
I have been to many inter-faith breakfasts and I have heard incredibly beautifull statements from Muslim clerics. When I rip into Islamo fascists I am not insulting Islam or Muslims who live in peace in America, those who accept the idea of religous pluralism. I may have theological disputes with the cleric but these disputes would never rise to violence. Most faiths have abandoned the notion of faith by submission. Unfortunetly there are large segments of the Muslim world, individuals and governments, who have not rejected that concept.
The recent attacks on Christians in Nigeria is solid evidence of the lie of the “men of the book” myth. What did those Churches and 15 dead men in Nigeria have to do with the Danish cartoons? Not a thing. It shows that the notion of dhimmihood is still valid in these Muslim countries. Non-religous cartoonists in Denmark print offensive cartoons in a foreign paper. Because you are not Muslim and you share a faith that was important in the founding of that now largely secular country that you have no connection to and probably have never been to, it is just to kill you and burn your houses of worship.
This is the worldview of a large section of the Muslim world. There are Muslims and there are infidels(sub humans). Your faith that is non muslim so you are subject to our anger at people that you do not support or have any connection to and we reserve the right to punish you for others who we think have offended us. And we reserve the right to go past our borders to ennact our revenge. And muslims who live in other countries have the right to live under our laws, even if they conflict with the core values of the countries that they have migrated to. And even if these ex-pats do not share our understanding of the Koran we reserve the right to punish them in our own fashion. Look at last nights 60 Minutes. That nut compares the pre meditated violence of the cartoon pograms to car accidents. He thinks this is a good thing. And he would get the heroes treatment in many, not all, Muslim countries.
American Muslims bear no responsibility for these actions. But if they try to rationalize them or shift blame to the cartoonists then they are missing the big picture or they possibly share a type of sympathy for that form of logic. I am religous and I have read and seen untold numbers of print, movie, book, and news papers that have insulted my faith and my worldview. and I have written and spoken my protests. And I particpate in the fair electoral process so I can contribute my views into the process. But when I am in the minority I don’t resort to murder to change the outcomes, and when I talk to someone who thinks I am a deluded fool I take it with a grain of salt. And if someone decided to spit on my Church I would not kill them. The thought never crosses my mind. This is happening daily in the Muslim world and any Muslim who is offended by this should take a look in the mirror and talk to his partners in faith and quit blaming others for these actions.
I don’t think this is the only outcome possible for the World of Islam. Christianity went hrough the reformation and Islam could too. But those who call for it have to fear for their lives and supporting or rationalizing these governments and Imams who support these violent reactions is a sign to me that there could be some sympathy for this worldview from those who defend them so passionatly.
It is a fact that in America you are allowed to practice whatever faith one chooses or to have no faith at all. It is not true in large sections of the Muslim world. And that is the problem. faith by submission is still practiced. I don’t care what the Koran says about it. The reality of submission overwhelms whether it is proper theology or not.
I remind myself that the Church used to burn people at the stake, persecute Jews and that Catholics and Protestants fought pitched battles…and somehow Christianity reformed. Now western states are secular.
If Islam can not learn to leave other people alone I fear for the future. Their paranoia together with a sense of entitlement is making it more and more difficult for the world to ignore their growing dysfunction.
In fact I think the cartoon frenzy is actually making people less tolerant of Muslims. I know it makes the mad mullahs seem more sinister.
Regarding the question of Islamic reform, there are pessimists and optimists. I think Pope Benedict XVI and Dennis Prager are pessimists.
Apart from President Bush, the optimists are tougher to identify. Many support Bush policy in Iraq, despite understanding that the road to reform is hugely conditional. That being the case, even “optimists” are made up of a range.
This is only wise, because the challenge is enormous. But what is the alternative? Admit that a nuclear exchange and further Islamic-West war is inevitable? This may be more realistic, but how many American’s can embrace such pessimism? Relatively few – unless you’re losing leftist loons who are used to it.
I am halfway through Bawer’s book this evening and I have not been able to put it down. It was favorably reviewed in the Journal on Friday and I was very intrigued by it, so I bought it.
Last night on “60 Minutes,” Bob Simon did a show on the cartoon publication in Denmark. He interviewed the editor of the paper [and conveniently trashed him by getting other opinions from competitors about the stupidity of the publication], and, then he interviewed the Imam, who lives in Denmark, who gathered up all the cartoons, packaged them [they had not been published apparently on the same day, some were not even published in that paper], carried them en masse to the Mideast where he disseminated to the Moslem press to get a reaction.
Simon asked him if, in light of all the deaths, he regretted his action. The Imam answered in effect in a snarky way; collateral damage, consequences are consequences.
Simon, having got his answer, moved quickly through the piece to reinforce his criticism of the brave editor who published these cartoons, never challenging this Iman whose quote about collateral damage should send any normal reporter into the stratosphere.
But then I realized that the American mainstream media is not going to dump on these extreme imams because they are afraid of them. Secondly, it is clear that 60 Minutes is “hell on wheels” when it catches some $ 200 a week used car salesman ripping off an unsuspecting buyer, “you just watch old Mike rip Jasper a new one.” But let fearless Bob Simon come face to face with a real live Imam and he turns in jello.
The Christian reformation happened hundreds of years ago and took hundreds of years. Can you imagine the 100 years war in Europe? A European then might have said “My father and his father fought. I fight. So it will be for my sons and their sons – - all will fight”.
Reformation was a much a result of exhaustion as anything else. After centuries of bloody strife and persecution, growing numbers of Christians finally concluded that only by depriving the churches of access to the coercive and repressive powers of the state AND by depriving the state of the power to intervene in the affairs of the church could they achieve any tolerable coexistence between people of differing faiths and creeds. The bloody religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries almost compelled Christians to secularize their states and societies in order to escape the vicious cycles ofpersecution and conflict. … The Muslims encountered no such problem and so needed no such solution (See Bernard Lewis’ “What Went Wrong?”).
The idea that ANY group of persons, ANY kind of activities, ANY PART of human life is, IN ANY SENSE outside the scope of religious law and jurisdiction is alien to Muslim thought. This is the foundation why Muslims only have a single law, the sharia, accepted by Muslims as of divine origin and regulating ALL aspects of human life; civil, commercial, family, criminal, constitutional as well as matters religious in the more limited (not secular) Christian sense of the word.
So, where does that leave us? We are at a particular intersection of WMD technology availability and Islamic Fascism bent on world domination (nothing less) or martyrdom. Islamic Fascism is a ruthless enemy with no moral compunction about killing innocent civilians (even including children!!?!?). We can ignore the problem, hopeing for the best or we can try appeasement since it worked out so well for Neville Chamberlain, OR we can engage the enemy NOW and perhaps avoid a nuclear exchange.
The current experiences with Moslem populations mixing with “infidels” is not good. India had to be partitioned, we are into 60 years of Palestinian terror, and even Europe with the revenge “ethnic cleansing” of Moslems has a history filled with Islamic conflict.
I am going to take a leap and say doing nothing and hoping for the best is NOT a good option.
As noted in Rogers post, Bawer points out that in Denmark, Muslims make up only 5% of the population but receive 40% of welfare outlays. But in addition, Bawer, notes that many of these immigrants are told by their leaders that Muslim law (sharia) gives them the right to “cheat and lie in the countries that harbor them.” They are told to view the benefits they receive as jizya–the tributes that “the infidel natives of Muslim-occupied countries are obliged to pay to Muslims in order to preserve their lives.” And the welfare offices in Denmark can be the setting for violence–termed “culture clashes” by Danish journalists. “Some clients lay waste to social security offices and hit social workers–not out of frustration but because they’ve learned that bullying gets them what they want.
The absence of a native secularism in Islam and so no attendant free market capitalism, free press, rule of (secular) law, and independent judiciary means the only rational option is to engage and defeat the enemy NOW as hard and as fast as we can (before it gets nuclear). We must act now. There is not enough time for the Islamic society or the Fascists to evolve on their own. The decadent and demographically declining (non Muslim) European societies will either not be much help or very late to the game.
The moral imperative of millions of (Moslem and non-Moslem) deaths DEMANDS we must settle this conflict a fast a possible!
Otherwise count me a pessimist.
Orson2:
I don’t think that change is impossible for anybody or any group. But change in the radical muslim world will not happen by ignoring their current fascist worldview or trying to understand them. And certainly not by abandoning our own values out of fear or lack of spine. I am not hoping for a bloody war. But backing down to a bully does not stop them. It only encourages them to continue their actions. If we start self censoring our cartoonists they will go after the writers next. the mistake they made with Rushdie was they went after him instead of using the tactics they used with the cartoonists. I wasn’t fond of the cartoons. But the insane actions of the Islamo fascists makes me want to buy a t-shirt with one of the ‘toons and buy a Danish beer. If we don’t repect our values they will feel free to continue their jackboot tactics.
“Secondly, it is clear that 60 Minutes is “hell on wheels” when it catches some $ 200 a week used car salesman ripping off an unsuspecting buyer, “you just watch old Mike rip Jasper a new one.” But let fearless Bob Simon come face to face with a real live Imam and he turns in[to] jello.”
jedrury -
the Blogosphere and the internet
expose (“Obsolesce”, as McLuhan would say)
the poseurs of Mike Wallace and Co.
(as well as their other pals in *one-way-media*).
who edits 60 Minutes?
why,the producers of 60 minutes,of course.
would these producers *ever* show their white knights careening down a false alley, to a bumbled conclusion?
doubtful.
would they *ever* follow up on a
story the white knights got 180 degrees wrong??
not on your life.
once one realizes this,
it’s insulting to watch
the “drama” of their heroic expo-sayz “unfold”.
to add:
the other aspect of the 60 Minutes model
is the “trial by media” game that gets played.
in order to build their rep/street cred as defenders
of the public, they bully and harass their victims on camera,but,of course,only allow a modicum
of conflicting evidence to be presented…
…just enough to allow their coup-de-grace
to seem hard-won and righteous.
Gumshoe:
“60 Minutes” was accurately denounced for me in the movie “The Insider” when Christopher Plummer, doing Wallace, agrees with management not to support its producer, Lowell Bergman played by Pacino. Of course, Hollywoord tamed
it down a bit but the point was made. It has now morphed into Sunday nights’s version Entertainment Tonight with ear ringed Ed Bradley playing Mary Hart.
Watch the lineup; one kiss ass portrait of an entertainment person ["Ooooo, Aaaaah"], a mock up piece on an issue of the day and then a health issue.
Err, the 3 most offensive cartoons were added by a Muslim cleric? Rummie is right, we are losing the pr war.
Count me among the pessimists. A religion that does not recognize my rights will get no respect from me. Until the “moderate” Muslims repudiate the radicals, they’re all the same to me. I’m not paying jizya, I will have no dealings with those who believe it is OK to lie to me, and I will support anything our government decides to do to the illegal combatants housed at Gitmo, including a summary tribunal and execution by firing squad. Which is exactly what they are entitled to under the Geneva Convention.
This is going to end, and end badly. Our misplaced sense of decency is going to cost us thousands more dead. Our enemies, quite correctly at this point, doubt our resolve. The escalating violence means the next attack in the US will leave tens of thousands dead and will trigger a massive retaliation. Iran has been at war with us, via proxies, since the embassy was siezed. Payback is overdue.
Does anyone have Bruce Bawer’s email Address? I just finished reading While Europe Slept, after reading Mona Charen’s Useful Idiots, the Fourth Crusade by Johnathon Philips and the Fall of the Ottoman Empire. Yes, the dots have been connected. Great job Bruce!!!,
I would be very interested to hear comments from native born western Europeans with regards to the conclusions in this book. I don’t understand their passivity in the face of this threat to their way of life. What are they thinking?
Cal-Berkeley grad, liberal, democrat. I teach school. What concerns me most is the intrusion of mamby-pamby liberalism into our curriculums. Our education establishment is firmly of the opinion that everything can be solved by talking. There are no basic disagreements, only misunderstandings. Etc. Etc.
This year I taught WWII. A girl in my class, very bright, said: “I don’t think you should be teaching this. It’s making me hate Germans.”
I told her that it was okay to hate Nazis–that it was actually the only sane response. She was way too polite to argue, but she looked very skeptical.
Our next generation.