Thursday, 27 May 2010

 Please read the commentary after the article by one of the Southwest’s experts on Islam, 


Harry J. Sweeney, author of The Restless Wind and Shifting Sands. 


  Sent by Ideology of Islam

State Department Endorses Islamic Law


Posted 05/25/2010 ET 

Last Thursday was “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” and Muslims, predictably, are outraged. Thousands of Pakistanis demonstrated against the drawings of Muhammad, and the Pakistani government shut down access to Facebook and YouTube to prevent its citizens from seeing the offending images. (Interestingly enough, images of beheadings and suicide bombings have never given rise to similar acts of censorship anywhere in the Islamic world.)


Since then, several Facebook sites have sprung up announcing an “Everybody Draw the Holocaust Day,” in the mistaken view that anyone in the West will react as strongly to mockery as Muslims will.


 And the Obama State Department is doing all it can to soothe offended Muslim sensibilities. Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley said Thursday: “Obviously, this is a difficult and challenging issue. Many of the images that appear today on Facebook were deeply offensive to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”


Pakistan’s Daily Times added: “The U.S. State Department also expressed respect for any actions that need to be taken under Pakistani law to protect their citizens from offensive speech, but expected a balance between restricting offensive material and ensuring flow of information for the Internet users.”


Did the U.S. State Department ever condemn Andres Serrano’s “artwork” that consisted of a crucifix submerged in a jar of urine, or Chris Ofili’s dung-encrusted portrait of the Virgin Mary? Of course not. The Obama Administration only moved to condemn the cartoons of Muhammad because of the
anti-free speech campaign of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which kicked into high gear in 2006 in response to the original Danish cartoons of Muhammad.


That campaign is an
attempt to compel the West to criminalize criticism of Islam. In 2008, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu issued a warning in terms that made it clear that he knew which party was in charge, and which was in the position of accepting orders: “We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed” regarding free speech about Islam and terrorism. And he reported success: “The official West and its public opinion are all now well aware of the sensitivities of these issues. They have also started to look seriously into the question of freedom of expression from the perspective of its inherent responsibility, which should not be overlooked.”


And now the
State Department has acted fully in compliance with this dictation. In response to “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” the Obama Administration has demonstrated that violence and intimidation work—which only ensures that we will see more of it.


In calling for a “balance between restricting offensive material and ensuring flow of information for the Internet users,” the State Department was trying to have it both ways: condemning the cartoons while offering a weak, fig-leaf defense of the freedom of speech. 


But issued in the context of deploring and denouncing the cartoons, all this statement amounted to was a call for self-censorship.


Self-censorship is something we all do all the time, in innumerable contexts: If everyone always said what he thought, there would be a lot more broken relationships and lost jobs. But politeness and respect are not what are at issue here. The point of publishing cartoons of Muhammad nowadays is not to cause offense, although they certainly do that. 


The key fact is that the cartoons arouse in Muslims not only murderous rage but attempts to restrict the freedom of speech through legal avenues. As such, self-censorship amounts only to self-imposed dhimmitude, and to acquiescence to the supremacy and rule of Sharia—Islamic law.


That's why
the Muhammad cartoons published last week all over the Internet were not a stunt, not a joke, not a raspberry to anyone, not an exercise in obnoxiousness or gratuitous offense. They are, rather, the foremost battleground in the defense of the freedom of speech today


Every newspaper in the country should be printing them today, to show they are not cowed and will defend free speech. The State Department should be explaining what I am explaining now. Instead, they bowed no less unmistakably than did Obama to the Saudi King.


Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)", "The Truth About Muhammad," "Stealth Jihad," and most recently "The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran" (all from Regnery -- a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).

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COMMENTARY BY HARRY J. SWEENEY

 

Some say the issue is complicated, but the experienced people do not think so. The Islamists do not really care if everyone becomes a believer in their faith or not, despite their efforts at propaganda and extortion (making leftists and other weak-kneed Western leader dance to their tunes with the vague threat of "or we might be offended" hanging in the wind.


 What the Islamists do want is that everyone is ruled by the sharia!


The UK has already given in on that point to a unacceptable extant, if they wish to remain a free nation--but naturally freedom is not as important to them as equality. As long as they are treated the same as everyone else, they are happy. I often wonder, if everyone else is treated horribly and horrible treatment reaches them, is that situation satisfactory?


 If you think along the lines of "Well if that's all they want, then perhaps it is better to deal with their laws than to deal with their constant bickering,whining, and throwing tantrums so often" there are a few things you might want to take into consideration. 


Living under the sharia, like growing old, is not a kid's game. Women will be hot and sweaty in the summer, wearing the abaya or the chador, the hijab, or any number of other garments designed by misogynists, giving women obliged to wear them a sample taste of Hades! 


They will not enjoy hearing over and over again such traditional themes as "Wives may not enter paradise unless their husbands are happy with them" (Isn't that something like 'Arbeit Macht Frei'?). And I doubt that women will get a chuckle from one of the favorites: "


A Women should only leave the house three times--1) when she is born, 2) when she is married and goes to her husband's house, and 3) when she dies and goes to her grave." What? No more shopping? Some liberal husbands may approve some small shopping errands, but never alone; females need a male relative to accompany them--and not a kissing-cousin! 


Would you be pleased to know that no one is permitted to ask a husband why he beat his wife so badly? I am sure that you would not appreciate knowing that a man need not let you know he is divorcing you, or that he is taking a second bride. 


He could write you a note when he goes off to work, telling you you are divorced (of course divorces are never really final until the end of the next cycle. Any children that have resulted from the marriage are his, period). A woman divorced has no rights or alternatives--and definitely no alimony. Now you may ask about divorcing one of the real bad ones. 


Even if most judges had the power, which they don't, they probably would ask the man whether he wants the divorce or not. 


But not only women are affected negatively by the sharia. Non-believers living in lands ruled by believers, have a special status, called Dhimmis. The best way to describe them is as third-class citizens, if that. Dhimmis don't walk on sidewalks, they pay a special, exorbitant tax, and have many other restrictions to let them know continuously that they are a disgraceful part of the community. 


They cannot defend themselves in court from a believer's charge, and worse: there is not even a reprimand due to a believer for killing a non-believer. If you have not seen the book Cruel and Usual Punishment by Nonie Darwish, please check your library--but you would want to keep the book, so buy it! 


And for lots of great information about the status of Dhimmis, Robert Spencer's book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), or for even more world-class details of Dhimmitude, you would be amazed at Bat Ye'or's Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide, or her The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam. 


The last two are fairly expensive, but Amazon sells them used as well. They are worth every penny!

 Islam is a part of our world! It could be a good part of our world, but we have lousy leaders on two continents who make it easy for the bad guys of Islam to get what they want--even from the good guys.


Those leaders seem to have been born without backbones and for some reason have found a home in politics--where they are protected from ordinary mortals, so they can get away with being stupid and tyrannical. People usually are not as mean to their neighbors when those neighbors can either punch them in the nose or ride them out of town on a rail. Ron White the comedian says "You can't fix stupid." 


He is probably right. But not all the leaders are stupid; many of them have already decided on the basis of their own uninformed opinions that Islam is just another religion, so neither logic nor reality will ever unlock that mental gate and adjust the definition to include "a complete way of life, antithetical to our Judeo-Christian way of life. If you say the people who are of that opinion show just another type of stupidity, the educated kind, I will be the last one to argue. 


One thing about religion; if it does not blend in seamlessly with other religions, respecting the people as well as the religion, and respecting each person's right to leave without rancor or punishment, it should be investigated, not encouraged. And leaders who do not know this, should be sent packing.