Al-Reuters and the Latest Installment of

…“You Brought That Sh*t on Yo’self“.

Western foreign policy and a tendency among some Muslims to impose their idea of truth have been key factors in the rise of radical Islam, Muslim writers say.
“Islam is about peace and submission. But there are certain realities that we cannot hide from,” said Ziauddin Sardar, a Britain-based writer best known for his book, “Why Do People Hate America”.
“There is a certain radicalization of young Muslims not just in Muslim countries but also in the Muslim population in the West,” Sardar told a writers’ conference in the Balinese resort town of Ubud.
“One reason for it is Western policy, what’s happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya. (Millions of) Muslims are very young and they feel very angry and hurt by the perpetual death and destruction in their society.”*
Muslim writers do not, however, pin the blame for the rise of Islamic radicalism only on Western policy, but say the Muslim world’s failure to engage with the Western world is a key reason for the differences and misunderstanding.

*Note to poor young Muslims disaffected by Iraq policy: there would be no Afghanistan or Iraq without 9/11 and that always seems to be left out of these treatises from Islamic writers. Millions of ‘very young’ Americans are also ‘angry and hurt by the perpetual death and destruction in their society’ wrought by YOUR kind.
I think we should take the blame for some of the rise of radical Islam ~ because we ALLOW it, we PERPETUATE it, we ENABLE it. From Somali cab drivers dictating who may grace their PUBLIC cab as a fare (which MIGHT NOT be a religious issue after all: “Partly out of concern that taxi drivers might be citing religion to avoid short-distance fares“), to CAIR dictating what one may or may not say on PUBLIC airwaves, to cancelling operas and opening a ‘prayer room’ at Windsor Castle, EVERY accomodation is seen as weakness and the demands accordingly become more strident, more encompassing. The Germans are beginning to question things.

…SPIEGEL: You have said numerous times that the conflict between the Western world and Muslim groups here is an “ideological war.”
Tibi: The result of a conflict between two sides is that people politicize their cultural backgrounds. In Germany representatives of the Islamic communities try to hijack children who are born here, along with the entire Islamic community, to prevent them from being influenced by the society which has taken them in. Children born here are like blank sheets on which you can write European or Islamic texts. Muslim representatives want to raise their children as if they don’t even live in Europe.
SPIEGEL: Many Germans believe that communities should live together peacefully without any parallel societies. Is it therefore right to compromise in order to avoid antagonizing Muslims unnecessarily?
Tibi: Quite the opposite. The Islamic officials who live here are very intelligent and view this as weakness. Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism.

When do we START defending ours? As Mr. Tibi says at the end of the interview, “America’s strength is that it is capable of accepting people into its communities.” But those very same people, be they Hispanic or Islamic, Vietnamese or Laotian, need to be willing to be BROUGHT into the fold. Not just satisfied to reap all that America symbolizes while maintaining isolated ‘old country’ enclaves they scuttle back to after taking our money in commerce or welfare. (And I’m about sick of those Spanish NFL commercials they’ve been running during games, but that’s a whole ‘nuther rant.)
Assimilation is our only hope. It has always been what makes us ~ the great, rambunctious, scrappy, larger-than-life collective ~ “American“.
‘Cause there really is an ‘us’ in U.S.A.
And if it needs defending, so be it.
Bingley Update: This post at Hot Air ties in very nicely with what Sis is saying.

One Response to “Al-Reuters and the Latest Installment of”

1. neo says:

   October 3, 2006 at 12:22 pm

   Avoid embarrassing and sometimes homicidal moments. Make sure your car is safe.
   Check the *M*O*L* before you leave home.