Before the current rise of Islamist radicalism, when communism was the major threat of the day, conservatives were anti-communist. Some liberals were anti-communist, too. However, many leftist ideologues with a naive, romantic attachment to the utopian promise of communism were reflexively anti-anti-communist, meaning they had a special animus toward anti-communists.
We’re seeing a variation of that mentality today when it comes to Islam and Muslims. Bending over backwards to be tolerant of murderously intolerant Muslims, we have the pathetic specter of politically correct exhibitionists who claim the threat of Islamophobia is greater than the real thing: Islamist terrorism. But even that term, Islamophobia, is contrived. It’s falsely defined by those who glibly throw it around as “a dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims.” Wrong. That might describe “Islamoaversion.” But a phobia is, more precisely, an irrational fear of something. There’s nothing irrational about a rational fear of Islamist terrorism.
President Obama refuses to call that all-too-real threat by its name. Hillary Clinton is similarly afflicted. In the wake of the Islamist attack on Paris that slaughtered 130, she preposterously proclaimed, “Let’s be clear, Muslims have nothing whatsoever to do terrorism.” Huh? “Clarity” ought to sue Hillary for slander. It wasn’t Jews or Christians or Quakers or Buddhists who attacked Paris. Or who attacked the U.S. on 9/11 or Fort Hood or the Boston Marathon or Madrid or London or Kenya or Mali. It was, indeed, radical Islamists.
Yes, not all, or even most, Muslims are murderous terrorists. But that doesn’t belie the fact that a significant, virulent faction of Muslims are radical Islamists currently engaged in an epidemic of heinous terrorist atrocities. And they’re doing it in the name of their God and their prophet. Again, invoking that Hillaryism, let’s be clear (a lot clearer than she was): In their minds, this is a religious war and we, the “infidels,” are their sworn enemies. Terrorism is just a tactic.
Islamists’ core motivation is a zealously held belief in their radical vision of Islam. To be sure, other Muslims disagree, just as Christians and Jews have rivaling interpretations of their religions.
The radical Islamist vision may be a minority view but it’s also the most ruthless. So much so that peaceful Muslims who might stand up publicly to oppose them risk having their heads chopped off. That tends to discourage dissent and opposition or relegate it to puerile rationalizations and diversions.
For example, Dalia Mogahed is a prominent Egyptian-born Muslim and naturalized American citizen who serves as an adviser and occasional speechwriter for President Obama. Educated and articulate, she’s skillful and shrewd at public relations and damage control for the Muslim image. Mogahed claims that “Islamic terrorism is a contradiction in terms” because “terrorism is not Islamic by definition.” That’s not a factual argument, it’s no more than a tautology. It skirts the key point that the very definition of Islam, in practice, is in dispute today among its warring factions.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Mogahed argued that “according to the FBI, the majority of domestic terror attacks are actually committed by white, male Christians.” This was statistical sleight of hand by Mogahed. The issue, here, is worldwide religiously motivated terrorism. The FBI data she cites cover all kinds of attacks, including those by white supremacists, left-wing anti-capitalists, radical animal rights and environmental groups; none of which is motivated by religious hatred. White-supremacist Christians kill black Christians because of their race, not their religion. Of course, Christians massively outnumber Muslims in the U.S. And men commit six times more murders than women. Other than as a distraction, there’s no point in comparing white, male Christians to Islamist terrorists.
The enemy is Islamist radicalism. Let’s call it by its name.
Freelance columnist Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. on 850-KOA.
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