The man suffering from Adult-Onset Islam above missed my point, missed all kinds of points, in his animated reply. He speaks of "colonialism" and "imperialism," those old standbys, but in doing so, he fails to recognize that Islam itself, or rather the Arab supremacism of which Islam is a vehicle, has been the most successful imperialism, for the Arabs, in history, above all, and most damaging for those who were first islamized and then arabized (some peoples managed to resist the second -- see Iran, for example), led to a forgetting, by the conquered countries, of their own pre-Islamic past. Christian missionaries translated the Bible into many local languages, and in many cases, that preserved those languages for they had never been written down before. But the Arabs were different. They had no interest in the preservation of local languages; indeed, as recently as a few years ago the Arabs in Algeria were still attempting to stamp out, by forbidding the use outside the home of, Tamazight, the Berber language. Christianity has a universal message, but it is not one that turns everyone into a little Englishman or Frenchman or Italian. But with Islam it is different. Ideally one should take an Arab name, read the Qur'an only in Arabic, turn Meccawards five times a day, and sedulously ape the morals and manners of seventh-century Arabs living in the Hijaz. The late Anwar Sheik, who left Islam, wrote a number of piercing studies, and one was entitled "Islam: The Arab National Religion." 80% of the world's Muslims are non-Arabs. They do not possess the easy oil wealth of the rich Arabs of the Gulf. They may, as they learn more about Islam as a vehicle of Arab supremacism (and why has the C.I.A. not had Anwar Sheikh's book translated into three dozen languages, and subsidized its publication and distribution in those languages, the way it once did for certain books in Russian, and so successfully?). Imperialism? Colonialism? The most successful of all imperialisms, of all colonialisms, is that of the Arabs, and it is going strong.
As for the "violent confrontational paths" -- my point was that the less we have to do with Muslim peoples, the less troops we send to them, in the vain hope of changing their ways without somehow changing their belief in Islam (which we pretend is just fine, means nothing, when it is the very thing that looms largest in the lives, and explains the behavior and attitudes, of Muslims), is nonsense. The less aid they send them -- none should be sent, for it makes no sense to support those who are not only your mortal civilisational enemmies, but who should be forced to confront, by enduring, the consequences of Islam that result in economic backwardness that is only temporarily hidden by the vast unmerited oil (and natural gas) wealth, a wealth that through taxation by the oil-consuming countries, and great, necessary, changes in energy policy, can and will be diminished.
My entire strategy, the one I have harped on for the last five years, is to do everything not to increase but to limit contacts with Muslims. Do not give them access to Western education and Western technology, with which to hasrm us. Do not allow them into our countries. Do not make our countries Islam-friendly but, either through private initiative, or through government action, make sure that no comprommises are made, no yieldings, no surrenders, to Muslim demands for changes in anything. Do not allow Muslims to dictate, and even to rewrite, our textbooks and our history. Do not allow Muslims to silence discussion of Islam, especially by apostates from Islam, such as Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Magdi Allam. Do not allow, at any level, silencing of intelligent discussion of the contents of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Do not allow foreign governments and individuals to transfer vast sums to support such groups as CAIR, to buy up influence at colleges and universities, to pay for a small army of Western hirelings -- academics, journalists, businessmen, former diplomats and intelligence agents -- as has been allowed, in the capitals of the West, for too long.
There is much more. But Islam, the threat of Islam, the instruements of Jihad -- the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, demographic conquest -- can be recognized, anlayzed, and checked or checkmated. This does not require what the Adult-Onset Muslim poster calls "violent confrontation." Remove troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and more importantly, end all aid. Then watch the spectacle in those countries, and in Somalia, and in Yemen, and everywhere -- and as the Arabs begin to realize, with a panic, that they will no longer be bailed out, in a thousand ways, by the West, that panic will lead to still more divisions, ethnic and sectarian and economic, and more demoralization, and more strife.
And we can watch, and so can the world's Muslims, as we show them not only that we now, in sufficient numbers, grasp the nature of Islam and its effects on the minds of men, but that we understand, and what's more can explain, just how the political, economic, social, intellectual, and moral failures of Muslim states, societies, even families or individuals, suffused with Islam, are explained by Islam itself, its teachings, and the attitudes and atmospherics that naturally arise from those teachings. It will be fun. It will be bracing. And it will minimize the need for military or "violent" confrontation.
I am amazed at how long it has taken, by dint of constant repetition, to win over readers to this site. And I am amazed at how long it will take, apparently, to convince those who are slip-sliding on banana peels still along the corridors of power where, for example, all the wrong reasons, or vague reasons, or no coherent reasons at all, were given for the folly in Iraq, and are now being given for the Af-Pak folly, when there are much cheaper, easier, and not at all less ruthless ways, of dealing with the world-wide threat that the adherents of the ideology of Islam pose to the well-being of the West, and indeed to the well-being of All the Rest.
The man suffering from Adult-Onset Islam above missed my point, missed all kinds of points, in his animated reply. He speaks of "colonialism" and "imperialism," those old standbys, but in doing so, he fails to recognize that Islam itself, or rather the Arab supremacism of which Islam is a vehicle, has been the most successful imperialism, for the Arabs, in history, above all, and most damaging for those who were first islamized and then arabized (some peoples managed to resist the second -- see Iran, for example), led to a forgetting, by the conquered countries, of their own pre-Islamic past. Christian missionaries translated the Bible into many local languages, and in many cases, that preserved those languages for they had never been written down before. But the Arabs were different. They had no interest in the preservation of local languages; indeed, as recently as a few years ago the Arabs in Algeria were still attempting to stamp out, by forbidding the use outside the home of, Tamazight, the Berber language. Christianity has a universal message, but it is not one that turns everyone into a little Englishman or Frenchman or Italian. But with Islam it is different. Ideally one should take an Arab name, read the Qur'an only in Arabic, turn Meccawards five times a day, and sedulously ape the morals and manners of seventh-century Arabs living in the Hijaz. The late Anwar Sheik, who left Islam, wrote a number of piercing studies, and one was entitled "Islam: The Arab National Religion." 80% of the world's Muslims are non-Arabs. They do not possess the easy oil wealth of the rich Arabs of the Gulf. They may, as they learn more about Islam as a vehicle of Arab supremacism (and why has the C.I.A. not had Anwar Sheikh's book translated into three dozen languages, and subsidized its publication and distribution in those languages, the way it once did for certain books in Russian, and so successfully?). Imperialism? Colonialism? The most successful of all imperialisms, of all colonialisms, is that of the Arabs, and it is going strong.
As for the "violent confrontational paths" -- my point was that the less we have to do with Muslim peoples, the less troops we send to them, in the vain hope of changing their ways without somehow changing their belief in Islam (which we pretend is just fine, means nothing, when it is the very thing that looms largest in the lives, and explains the behavior and attitudes, of Muslims), is nonsense. The less aid they send them -- none should be sent, for it makes no sense to support those who are not only your mortal civilisational enemmies, but who should be forced to confront, by enduring, the consequences of Islam that result in economic backwardness that is only temporarily hidden by the vast unmerited oil (and natural gas) wealth, a wealth that through taxation by the oil-consuming countries, and great, necessary, changes in energy policy, can and will be diminished.
My entire strategy, the one I have harped on for the last five years, is to do everything not to increase but to limit contacts with Muslims. Do not give them access to Western education and Western technology, with which to hasrm us. Do not allow them into our countries. Do not make our countries Islam-friendly but, either through private initiative, or through government action, make sure that no comprommises are made, no yieldings, no surrenders, to Muslim demands for changes in anything. Do not allow Muslims to dictate, and even to rewrite, our textbooks and our history. Do not allow Muslims to silence discussion of Islam, especially by apostates from Islam, such as Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Magdi Allam. Do not allow, at any level, silencing of intelligent discussion of the contents of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Do not allow foreign governments and individuals to transfer vast sums to support such groups as CAIR, to buy up influence at colleges and universities, to pay for a small army of Western hirelings -- academics, journalists, businessmen, former diplomats and intelligence agents -- as has been allowed, in the capitals of the West, for too long.
There is much more. But Islam, the threat of Islam, the instruements of Jihad -- the Money Weapon, campaigns of Da'wa, demographic conquest -- can be recognized, anlayzed, and checked or checkmated. This does not require what the Adult-Onset Muslim poster calls "violent confrontation." Remove troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and more importantly, end all aid. Then watch the spectacle in those countries, and in Somalia, and in Yemen, and everywhere -- and as the Arabs begin to realize, with a panic, that they will no longer be bailed out, in a thousand ways, by the West, that panic will lead to still more divisions, ethnic and sectarian and economic, and more demoralization, and more strife.
And we can watch, and so can the world's Muslims, as we show them not only that we now, in sufficient numbers, grasp the nature of Islam and its effects on the minds of men, but that we understand, and what's more can explain, just how the political, economic, social, intellectual, and moral failures of Muslim states, societies, even families or individuals, suffused with Islam, are explained by Islam itself, its teachings, and the attitudes and atmospherics that naturally arise from those teachings. It will be fun. It will be bracing. And it will minimize the need for military or "violent" confrontation.
I am amazed at how long it has taken, by dint of constant repetition, to win over readers to this site. And I am amazed at how long it will take, apparently, to convince those who are slip-sliding on banana peels still along the corridors of power where, for example, all the wrong reasons, or vague reasons, or no coherent reasons at all, were given for the folly in Iraq, and are now being given for the Af-Pak folly, when there are much cheaper, easier, and not at all less ruthless ways, of dealing with the world-wide threat that the adherents of the ideology of Islam pose to the well-being of the West, and indeed to the well-being of All the Rest.