Raging With the Muslims

With a small church (50 members, allied with the psycho-religionist Phelps clan in Kansas), preparing to burn Qur’ans tomorrow, we can expect explosions of outrage around the world from Muslims. The press is reporting this world-wide, fully complicit in whatever damage is to be done. Regardless of my feelings about the Qur’an and its calls to violence, the media burning is an intemperate act of provocation. For example the burning could have happened with no–one but those in the immediate neighborhood knowing about it. But the media have chosen to fan the flames, and even government and military officials have taken the bait and chimed in.

It is inevitable that violence will occur, if even a single page is singed. Violence is the currency of certain sectors of Islam. As Christopher Hitchens has said, the media has portrayed violence as a characteristic of the majority of Muslims. Maybe not. But what if that is true?

Hitchens:

“But our media regularly make the assumption that the book burners and fanatics really do represent the majority, and that assumption has by no means been tested. (If it is ever tested, and it turns out to be true, then can we hear a bit less about how one of the world's largest religions mustn't be confused with its lunatic fringe?).”

With the world-wide Islamic community fully primed, we might be able to gauge the extent of Muslim violence from this single event.

The media is not the cause. It is just another useful idiot, a tool. A similar outrage is not seen in Christians, when they are informed of another martyring of a Christian by outraged Muslims; sadness and revulsion are the emotions. A similar outrage is not observed in Americans when the American flag is burnt, again and again, by mobs of Muslims; anger is muted into disgust by the frequency of such things. Westerners do not riot, burn, kill or instigate to kill, even out of outrage at Muslim atrocities.

The outrage is not a characteristic of all humans, nor of all cultures. The explosive nature seen here is endemic to Islam, and it can logically be identified as an outcome, an effect, and the cause is related to Islam.

Hitchens again:

“The acceptance of an honor by a distinguished ex-Muslim writer, who exercised his freedom to abandon his faith and thus courts a death sentence for apostasy in any case, came shortly after the remaining minarets of the Askariya shrine in Samarra were brought down in shards. You will recall that the dome itself was devastated by an explosion more than a year ago—an outrage described in one leading newspaper as the work of "Sunni insurgents," the soft name for al-Qaida. But what does "Rage Boy" have to say about this appalling desecration of a Muslim holy place? What resolutions were introduced into the "parliament" of Pakistan, denouncing such shameful profanity? You already know the answer to those questions. The lives of Shiite Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Christians—to say nothing of atheists or secularists—are considered by Sunni militants to be of little or no account. And yet they accuse those who criticize them of bigotry! And many people are so anxious to pre-empt this accusation that they ventriloquize the reactions of Sunni mobs as if they were the vox populi, all the while muttering that we must take care not to offend such supersensitive people.”

Hitchens characterizes a “rage boy”, one who is prepared at any instant a camera is near to produce an American flag to burn. A poster boy has even been chosen to represent the raging masses.

Hitchens concludes,

“Rage Boy keenly looks forward to anger, while we worriedly anticipate trouble, and fret about etiquette, and prepare the next retreat. If taken to its logical conclusion, this would mean living at the pleasure of Rage Boy, and that I am not prepared to do.”

While writing this I just now received the news that the Qur’an burning has been cancelled. I am not certain why just yet, but I suspect that it is due to abject fear of Muslim violence and the inevitable death threats and even deaths that would have resulted. Deaths, even secondarily caused, are not acceptable to Christians and westerners in general. It is apparent to the casual observer, however, that the lives of Christians and westerners – or any non-Muslim, be they African or Indian or Chinese – are of no consequence under Islam.

An example of this kind of Islam is represented in Britain’s Anjem Choudry, documented by Geoffrey Wheatcroft in Slate. Choudry is an organizer of raging Muslim demonstrations in Britain. In a TV round-table discussion, Choudry said:

No, of course England didn't belong to the English, Choudary insisted, or to any human inhabitants, "It belongs to Allah, the whole world belongs to Allah." He prayed for "the domination of Islam" ("hopefully peacefully") and looked forward to the day when "the black flag of Islam will be flying over Downing Street."

Shortly after that, Choudry is quoted thus in a radio interview:

There can be no separation of church and state for Muslims, because Islam has never accepted "render unto Caesar," Choudary said. It is a religion that is not confined to the mosque but that informs every aspect of social and political life at all times. Censoring transgressive cartoons and books is only a beginning. Sharia law must rule everywhere; the black flag of Islam must fly over Downing Street.

The question then becomes how can multiculturalism and Islam fit into a secular democracy? These Muslims wish to rule, and their weapon is death and death threats; beheadings; raging mobs. There is no room in their world for anyone that is not them. In the pusillanimous world of British governing multiculturalism, the Islamic vote might soon declare Sharia to be the law, and Islam to be everyBrit's religion.

Whether that is the view of the majority of Muslims is of no matter, whatsoever. If it is a minority view within Islam, it is a huge minority of a huge group. And that group is bound by a common allegiance to a vindictive, violent history, and an irrational, absolutist demeanor, one that values only brothers, and devalues, even despises the Other. Moderates, assuming they exist, are in the same danger as the rest of us.

Even if fear of this huge demographic is not warranted as some would tell us, a wariness and suspicion along with constant preparedness cannot be avoided under the circumstances that present themselves. Anything less would be foolish.

Addendum: Now it appears that other groups, including the Topeka, Kansas group of psychos, will proceed with burning Qur'ans. Apparently the rage will happen as scheduled.

Addendum II:For information on Muslim burning of Bibles, destruction of crosses, and razing christian buildings with accompanying violence, see here.

Addendum III: Obama says that 1 billion Muslims will riot or something, if the Qur'ans are burned. US military people will be killed.

Addendum IV: The GZ Mosque Imam says that if the mosque is forced to move, it will show that radicals have taken over, and what will be written Islamic periodicals is that Islam is under attack.

There is no doubt about the threat of violence around the world, unless the Muslims get their heart's desire at every turn. There is no longer any rational way to deny the violent hegemony of Islam's people.

Addendum V: Apparently I misunderstood the significance of Rage Boy. Rage Boy is a professional protester who is front and center and the focal point of numerous Muslim demonstrations, at least around Srinagar, India. His picture shows up frequently as is indicated here.

Addendum VI: the NYT says it won't publish pictures of the burning "because it adds nothing to the story". Or more likely they are scared of Rage Boys.

Addendum VII: From the A.P.:

"Cleric Rusli Hasbi told 1,000 worshippers attending Friday morning prayers in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, that whether or not he burns the Quran, Jones had already "hurt the heart of the Muslim world."

"If he'd gone through with it, it would have been tantamount to war," the cleric said in the coastal town of Lhokseumawe. "A war that would have rallied Muslims all over the world."