The Religion Of Silence
Via MEMRI:
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Columnist: The Muslim World Must Take a Firm Stand on KashmirWhile the Saudi government and media for the most part supported Pakistan and did not explicitly condemn the Mumbai attacks, [4] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Hussein Shobakshi called to take a firm stand vis-à-vis Muslim separatist movements in Kashmir. He wrote: "If the investigations reveal... that Pakistani organizations supporting the separatist movement in Kashmir were behind the recent attacks and murders in Mumbai... the Muslim world will have to take a firm stand on the Kashmiri issue...
"A Muslim, no matter where he is, is required to worship Allah and fight for the rights to which he is entitled, as part of his freedom to worship [without any connection to] separatist political slogans. Otherwise, what is the difference between [the Muslims in Kashmir] and the radical racist programs of the Zionist enterprise in Israel or the old Apartheid [regime] in South Africa?...
"The important thing is not to let the entire Muslim [world] become entangled in separatist political schemes that have a particular agenda and are backed by highly influential [forces] with particular interests. The Pakistani example is a case in point. The Pakistani Muslims, who won independence from India, let their country fall hostage to corruption and to a plague of hideous tribal division...
"By taking a firm, resolute and clear stand against the separatist movements in Kashmir... the Muslims will send a new and necessary message, [namely, that] Islam is a religion of worshiping Allah, of moral [values] and of coexistence, and it must not be exploited by land dealers and slogan [mongers]. [Newspaper] articles and marches of condemnation are not enough - the world expects the Muslims to take different measures now." [5]
Of course, that's not what the Quran says -- Muslims are commanded to convert or kill the infidels and take over the world. And the Quran is meant to be taken literally, and all of Mohammed's actions, including taking a little girl for his wife and having sex with her at 9, are to be emulated. Where are the Muslims speaking up against all this? The silence is utterly deafening.
Meanwhile, Western media are equally pussyish about calling murder murder. Here's a bit by Shelomo Alfassa, on Scholars For Peace In The Middle East, about their wording of the Mumbai terrorism, including the torture-murders of the Chabad rabbi and his wife:
When someone is "killed" they may have been hit by a car, drowned at sea or struck by lightning. In contrast, when someone is "murdered," this speaks of a victim who was targeted with premeditated malice. It is someone who inhumanly had their life taken from them, it is someone who was a victim of severe mutilation, targeted brutality, a person who had their life taken by another person who sought them dead. This begs the question, why did the media avoid using the word "murdered" ?The Wall Street Journal reported: "The dead also included a young New York rabbi and his wife..."
The Boston Globe reported: "the New York rabbi and his wife were among the foreigners killed..."The International Herald Tribune reported: "Two of the victims, a rabbi and his wife..."
The Sun-Sentinel reported: "killed were Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivkah, 28, who died in the attack..."
The Associated Press reported: "The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish center..."
National Public Radio reported: "Among the dead are Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka..."
The New York Times reported: "six of the hostages were killed, including the Brooklyn couple who operated the center..."
The Los Angeles Times reported: "the Chabad Lubavitch members who were killed by militants"
...The Chabad rabbi and his wife (as well as the other 190+ victims) were not killed, they were murdered, there is a difference, and one that needs to be differentiated at every opportunity.
As far as what we, as a country, are going to say about Islam as a religion of murder, here's a view on Obama's "naive Muslim outreach," by Amir Taheri on FamilySecurityMatters:
To be sure, not all Muslims are terrorists. But virtually all terrorists are Muslims. Nor do they live on another planet: They are recruited, trained and sheltered in Muslim countries. Individual Muslims and Islamic charities finance them; Islamic governments provide them with passports and safe havens. The media regimes in most Muslim countries (often state controlled) propagate the very themes that sustain the terrorist ideology in its different versions.
What Obama ignores is that Islamic terrorism isn't limited to suicide attacks against the "infidel"; it also comes in the form of terrorizing ordinary Muslim citizens into conformity with rites and rules that should have no place in a civilized society.
I found this passage very revealing: "Otherwise, what is the difference between [the Muslims in Kashmir] and the radical racist programs of the Zionist enterprise in Israel or the old Apartheid [regime] in South Africa?".
Muslims (whether violent or moderate), believe Allah made Jews (and all other non-Muslims) inferior to Muslims and therefore believe Jews (and all others) must live as second-class citizens in Muslim lands. Muslims will never accept Israel. Period. This is not because they believe it is a "racist" regime, but because they believe Jews are inherently inferior to Muslims.
Keep up the good work Amy!
Charles at December 18, 2008 4:58 AM
When you first heard of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, was there a flicker of doubt in your mind that it wasn't the work of Islamic fanatics?
Could this possibly have been the work of Hindus? Or Buddhists? Or even the U.S. military? Do we deliberately target women, children and civilians for death? What other demographic could possibly contemplate doing something like this?
And nothing but silience from the "vast majority" of "moderate Muslims" we're always hearing so much about?
Moshe Holtzberg is now an orphan, because Jewish people aren't allowed to co-exist on the same planet as Muslims. His parent's deaths weren't the result of an accident, negligence or some terrible mistake. They were targeted for death because they're not Muslims.
Am I an "Islamophobe"? Damn right, I am. For lots of very good reasons, too.
Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg at December 18, 2008 5:24 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2008/12/18/the_religion_of_1.html#comment-1614621">comment from Snoop-Diggity-DANG-DawgWhen you first heard of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, was there a flicker of doubt in your mind that it wasn't the work of Islamic fanatics?
Not a one. But I didn't blog it as Muslim because I couldn't find the word "Muslim" in a single news account anywhere, and I try to be careful. I was waiting and waiting and nobody said "Muslim." Incredible.
Amy Alkon
at December 18, 2008 8:34 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2008/12/18/the_religion_of_1.html#comment-1614624">comment from Charlestherefore believe Jews (and all others) must live as second-class citizens in Muslim lands.
And pay a tax for not being Muslim.
Amy Alkon
at December 18, 2008 8:38 AM
"Muslims believe Allah made Jews inferior to Muslims..."
Well, not quite. Muslims actually believe that Jesus, his disciples, Moses, Abraham, Adam & Eve, and all the rest of the gang from the Bible & the Torah weren't really Jews or Christians, but Muslims. Judaism, Christianity, and their scriptures are perversions of Islam, and Allah sent Muhammad on a mission to bring the lost sheep back to the fold of the original pure faith. You may recall the 13-year old girl in Somalia who was stoned to death by a pack of imams in front of a cheering crowd last month. Why is that still happening in the Muslim world in the 21st century? Because Muslims really do believe that that is what God intended, and that "let he among you who is without sin cast the first stone at her" is blasphemy. Since Allah is forgiving & merciful, Christians & Jews can carry on with their foolish, misguided beliefs, but only if they bow, grovel, and pay taxes to their Muslim masters.
Everyone knows that there are Christian Arabs out there, but the idea of Jewish Arabs sounds like an oxymoron. But when Muhammad began preaching his ravings in 610 AD, Jewish Arab tribes owned much of the best land in Arabia. If you were a cultured Arab Jew in the 7th century, and an illiterate lunatic started shouting at you that Allah had commanded him to tell all men to abandon their false beliefs and bow down to him, it probably wouldn't go over well. So it's no surprise that the Jewish Arabs responded to Muhammad with scorn, mockery and ridicule. True to his nature, Muhammad responded to them with robbery, rape and murder. After 1400 years of that, Jewish Arabs are extinct, and Christian Arabs are a tiny and ever-shrinking minority in the Middle East.
The word "Islam" does not mean "Peace". It means "Surrender". Surrender to the will of Allah. Gavriel & Rivkah weren't murdered because they were Jews, but because they were proud Jews who refused to bow trembling before Muslims. And no matter how much "outreach" they get from Obama, Muslims will keep wanting to fly planes into American buildings until Americans stop being stubborn and surrender the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution to the Koran & sharia law.
Martin at December 18, 2008 11:26 AM
It is such a relief to see that all the posters here GET IT.
If only the rest of the clueless would start to catch on.
Thank you Amy for posting this.
Ruby at December 18, 2008 12:12 PM
Yes Ruby,
Amy is doing a great service to her readers in pointing out that Islam is anything but a "Religion of Peace."
"If only the rest of the clueless would start to catch on."
Posted by: Ruby
To this I can only add: "... and would that so many of these clueless not be among the leaders of the West."
Ken at December 18, 2008 1:21 PM
Good post.
They also have also been quiet about the fact that the Murdered Rabbi's Murdered wife was 5 months pregnant.
Feebie at December 18, 2008 1:37 PM
Muslims actually believe that Jesus...[wasn't]really [Jewish]....
Even Archie Bunker admitted Jesus was Jewish...on his mother's side.
Conan the Grammarian at December 18, 2008 3:21 PM
"But virtually all terrorists are Muslims."
Ehhh, not quite. Virtually all the ones that give us major problems are Muslims, but there are plenty of others.
LYT at December 18, 2008 7:18 PM
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