[ April 23, 2024 ]
The Empire of Fear
By Robert Spencer
As I wrote last week, Muslim and non-Muslim analysts often tell us that Muslims hate the West for its decadence, its immorality, its lasciviousness, which they contrast unfavorably with the supposed morality and uprightness of the Islamic world. Often this boils down to a Muslim critique of Western “freedom,” especially as Bush and Obama pursued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan ostensibly to bring Western-style freedom to those countries.
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In line with that, the Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, once complained that “Australian law guarantees freedoms up to a crazy level.” Yet genuine freedom is an indispensable prerequisite for any cultivation of real virtue. Even the post-Christian West makes it more possible to be virtuous than the apparently much more straitlaced Islamic world. With its stonings, amputations, death penalties for an array of offenses including apostasy, Islam has created not a framework in which people can become genuinely good, but an empire of fear. People don’t dare step out of line, not out of an authentic understanding that the path of moral and ethical uprightness is preferable to the alternative, much less out of love for God or a real desire to please him, but because they are afraid of what would happen to them if they did depart from Islam’s vision of morality.
Certainly the same critique can be leveled to some degree against societies that were more Christian than our present one, and this is not to say that society has no right or responsibility to legislate against immoral activity. Still, were people unable to choose to do evil, their choosing of the good would not be a manifestation of virtue, but merely of fear and the power of coercion. Those who have no choice but to be good demonstrate nothing about whether their beliefs enable or inspire them to choose the good when they could just as easily not do so.
Islam does not see virtue this way. Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini once thundered: “Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors!”
Even the popular conservative writer Dinesh D’Souza, before he came to agree with the Islamic critique of Western immorality, wrote in 2004: “Consider the woman in Afghanistan or Iran who is required to wear the veil. There is no real modesty in this, because the woman is being compelled. Compulsion cannot produce virtue; it can only produce the outward semblance of virtue.” Yet three years later D’Souza had moved to the other side of the fence: “When you make America synonymous with permissiveness, when you dismiss serious moral offenses with a no-big-deal attitude…you are driving the traditional Muslims into the arms of the radicals.”
D’Souza appeared to be unaware that something quite similar to Western “permissiveness” was already written into Islamic law, albeit with a fig leaf of morality over it. In Islamic law we see circumstances permitting lying (cf. Muhammad’s dictum “war is deceit”), stealing (under the guise of the lawful seizure of the property of the victims of jihad, and the collection of the poll tax — jizya — from the subjugated Jews and Christians), rape (understood as the lawful sexual enslavement of infidel women captured in jihad warfare), and murder (if the victim is a non-Muslim who is understood to be at war with Islam, or someone who has simply been accused of “blaspheming” Islam or Muhammad).
These outrages, and others like them, blunt Islam’s moral critique of the West and should deter American social conservatives from seeing “conservative Muslims,” in D’Souza’s phrase, as potential allies in the culture wars. They also highlight how radically different Islamic law is from the core values and principles of American society. However, since “war is deceit” after all, the Islamic supremacist propaganda machine, with the willing help of the mainstream media, will continue to obscure these vital truths for most Americans. Nonetheless, as Islam continues to expand its presence in the U.S., the horrors of Sharia and the Empire of Fear it creates will eventually become obvious here – although probably only when it is too late.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad.
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9 Comments
12 years ago
Joys of Muslim Women
By Nonie Darwish
In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as 1 year old and have sexual intimacy with this child. Consummating the marriage by 9.
The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman (who becomes his slave) and for the purchase of the private parts of the woman, to use her as a toy.
Even though a woman is abused she can not obtain a divorce.
To prove rape, the woman must have (4) male witnesses.
Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honor killing) to restore the honor of the family. Husbands can beat their wives ‘at will’ and he does not have to say why he has beaten her.
The husband is permitted to have (4 wives) and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.
The Shariah Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
In the West World ( America and Britain ) Muslim men are starting to demand Shariah Lawso the wife can not obtain a divorce and he can have full and complete control of her. It is amazing and alarming how many of our sisters and daughters attending American Universities and British Universities are now marrying Muslim men and submitting themselves and their children unsuspectingly to the Shariah law.
By passing this on, enlightened American and British women may avoid becoming a slave under Shariah Law.
Ripping the West in Two.
Author and lecturer Nonie Darwish says the goal of radical Islamists is to impose Shariah law on the world, ripping Western law and liberty in two.
She recently authored the book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.
Darwish was born in Cairo and spent her childhood in Egypt and Gaza before immigrating to America in 1978, when she was eight years old. Her father died while leading covert attacks on Israel . He was a high-ranking Egyptian military officer stationed with his family in Gaza .
When he died, he was considered a “shahid,” a martyr for jihad. His posthumous status earned Nonie and her family an elevated position in Muslim society.
But Darwish developed a skeptical eye at an early age. She questioned her own Muslim culture and upbringing.. She converted to Christianity after hearing a Christian preacher on television.
In her latest book, Darwish warns about creeping shariah law – what it is, what it means, and how it is manifested in Islamic countries.
For the West, she says radical Islamists are working to impose sharia on the world. If that happens, Western civilization will be destroyed. Westerners generally assume all religions encourage a respect for the dignity of each individual. Islamic law (Sharia) teaches that non-Muslims should be subjugated or killed in this world.
Peace and prosperity for one’s children is not as important as assuring that Islamic law rules everywhere in the Middle East and eventually in the world.
While Westerners tend to think that all religions encourage some form of the golden rule, Shariah teaches two systems of ethics – one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims. Building on tribal practices of the seventh century, Shariah encourages the side of humanity that wants to take from and subjugate others.
While Westerners tend to think in terms of religious people developing a personal understanding of and relationship with God, Shariah advocates executing people who ask difficult questions that could be interpreted as criticism.
It’s hard to imagine, that in this day and age, Islamic scholars agree that those who criticize Islam or choose to stop being Muslim should be executed. Sadly, while talk of an Islamic reformation is common and even assumed by many in the West, such murmurings in the Middle East are silenced through intimidation.
While Westerners are accustomed to an increase in religious tolerance over time, Darwish explains how petro dollars are being used to grow an extremely intolerant form of political Islam in her native Egypt and elsewhere.
(In twenty years there will be enough Muslim voters in the U.S. And Britain To elect the President by themselves! Rest assured they will do so… You can look at how they have taken over several towns in the USA .. Dearborn Mich. Is one… And there are others….) ( Britain has several cities now totally controlled by Muslims)
I think everyone in the U.S. And Great Britain Should be required to read this, but with the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on!
It is too bad that so many are disillusioned with life and Christianity to accept Muslims as peaceful.. Some may be but they have an army that is willing to shed blood in the name of Islam.. The peaceful support the warriors with their finances and own kind of patriotism to their religion. While America and Britain are getting rid of Christianity from all public sites and erasing God from the lives of children the Muslims are planning a great jihad on America .. (and Britain ) ..
This is your chance to make a difference…! Pass it on to your email list or at least those you think will listen..
Some of those I’m sending it to WILL NOT! Put your head back under the covers so you can’t see the boogie man!
12 years ago
I enjoy Mr. Spencer’s analysis and dialog. The discussion about morality is good for everyone who wants to make a difference in our young people. Between Islam and Judeo-Christian values we are trying to measure a single object with two different sticks- a meter stick and a yard stick. Then there is the 3rd stick which is invisible and if we could see it the increments would be adjustable. So whose measuring stick should we use? I vote for the Judeo-Christian stick. The moral-relativism stick is invisible so since we can’t find it we should ignore it.
The real test for a free people to decide which moral measuring stick should be used is really easy. All would agree that the struggle of mankind since Creation is obtaining food, clothing, shelter, and safety. I throw down the two measuring sticks now and ask which has been the best at providing food, clothing, shelter, and safety for the most people for the longest period of time? Its a no brainer- The West when it is based on Judeo-Christian values.
12 years ago
Thank you, Mr. Spencer, for a great article.
Sweden now has the fastes growing muslim population in the West and the problems are becoming very evident.Since 1975, when a unanimous Parliament decided that Sweden should be transformed into a multicultural society, the number of rape cases have increase with an incredible 673 percent.
Here is what the immigrants have to say about it:
“Some young men that were interviewed by the daily newspaper DN in response to a gang rape in Rissne outside of Stockholm put it like this:
“It’s not as wrong to rape a Swedish girl as it is to rape an Arab girl, says Hamid. The Swedish girl gets a lot of help afterwards, and she had probably been fu**ed already. But the Arab girl will get problems with her family. For her it is a great shame to be raped. It is important that she retains her virginity when she marries. “
“It’s far too easy to get a whore … girl, I mean,” says Hamid, and displays an embarrassed smile due to his choice of words. Many immigrant boys go with Swedish girls when they are teenagers. But then when they are to marry, they take a proper woman from their own culture that has not been with any guy. So will I do. I do not have much respect for Swedish girls. You could say that they get fu**ed until they are broken. “(DN 11 February 2000).
Read all about this and other aspects of the immigration driven crime wave in Sweden here:
http://cavatus.wordpress.com/
12 years ago
The mohammadans have been at war with Western Civilization ever since their depraved prophet first placed his hellish dribblings on parchment. They couldn’t blame their fury on the excesses of Hollywood during the 11th Century. Then what was their problem? Their devotion to their hellish god and totalitarian cult is what spurs them on. Western Europe is crumbling under the onslaught of unchecked muslim immigration and demands. If The United States and Israel do not confront it now, it will be too late. What remains of the free world will be gone. The lights will go out.
12 years ago
Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that an open microphone caught President Barack Obama telling outgoing Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that he would be prepared to yield to Russian demands on missile defense after his re-election, but needed more “space” until then.
The two leaders were meeting in Seoul, South Korea, and Medvedev immediately promised to relay Obama’s message to incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/03/26/Obama-to-Putin-Ill-Surrender-After-Reelection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you vote this pos back in again, the usa is doomed.
12 years ago
“War is deceit” — Well, since the war (jihad against the West) is a constant, ongoing process, then it follows that the deceit is also. This is a propaganda war as much as a war of bloodshed. By believing the lies, the West is slitting its own throat.
12 years ago
I can boil Spencer’s article down to ten words: >>There is no virtue in the absence of free will.<< Yaweh is the God of free will and rationale choice. He could have prevented all sin by making it impossible, but then he would be a divine puppet master, only playing with himself really, like a narcissistic kid surrounded by his stuffed animals at a "tea party". But God desires real fellowship with his created beings, real companionship and real love. With his divine will forced upon us we would be incapable of good or evil. But God is not vain. He is not a divine rapist, forcing us to "love" him. We can choose to love him because we can also choose to hate him or regard him with indifference. God created a universe where man is free to choose wrong and suffer the consequences. Islam is the enemy of free will and the enemy of God. Keith Mahone (aka Charles Martel)
12 years ago
In Islam there is no morality. Period. Everything that a normal human being considers moral Islam and Muslims do not. In Islam the definitions of good and evil are exactly reverse of that a normal human being understands. That is why we see Muslims having no remorse in killing non-Muslims and even their own because they justify it based on Quran or based on conduct of their ideal man, Mo/allah. It is this same non-morality of Muslims with which they have killed more than 300 million non-Muslims all over the world in last 1400 years and they still continue killing without having a second thought. Of course they can’t have any thoughts since Mo/allah has done all thinking for them and so they are forbidden to think for themselves.
That’s why I say there is non morality in Islam. Period.
12 years ago
Robert is on the right track here. Fear is our most primeval emotion, and it controls virtually everything we do in life. Fear drives the ‘Fight or Flight Response’ – our most basic survival mechanism. Most religious indoctrination
(including Christianity), involves the use of fear. But more than any other religion, Islam uses fear to control every detail of its adherents’ lives, from the cradle to the grave. It uses rigid dress rules and threats of violence for sexual transgressions, to control its women. The punishment for apostasy or family dishonour is death. Fear is its ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in its on-going jihad against all non-Muslims. And fear of violence or death threats is used to silence its critics.
Robert is also right about the (former) Mufti of Australia, Sheik Hilali, an Egyptian-born cleric with a medieval mindset, who also likened our women to “uncovered meat!” Like all authoritarians, Muslims cannot tolerate freedoms, especially freedoms for women, and yet freedom of speech, word and deed is the very basis of democracy, individual creativity, and personal morality. The laws of most
Western countries, while initially based on Judeo-Christian ethics, are now made
by elected governments, which are largely secular. ‘Separation of religion and
State’ is an important part of the modern democratic process, to help prevent
domination by powerful interests and protect minorities – but it is anathema to
Muslims like Sheik Hilali.
While we have our share of ‘useful idiots’ and apologists for Islam in Australia,
particularly among left-leaning politicians, bureaucrats and academics, most
ordinary people are now waking up to the threat of this pernicious creed, its ever-
increasing demands, and its covert agenda to dominate the world – and we are
not happy!
I agree with most of the comments on these blogs, however I take issue with
some who suggest that one must embrace Christianity to have the moral insight
to see what is happening, and oppose the onward march of Islam. Perhaps this
attitude is symptomatic of the religiosity of American society – which is greater
than here in Australia. While I would rather live under Christianity than Islam, I fail to see that it is a necessary pre-requisite to win this war. In fact, treating religion as a ‘sacred cow’ (as we do), is probably our ‘Achilles heal’, when dealing with such a ruthless adversary. The mullahs simply exploit our democratic attempts to be fair to all faiths. We have to learn to fight fire with fire, or we will not survive this medieval madness.
I discarded my Christian faith many years ago, simply because I could no longer
accept supernatural explanations of reality – which are essentially beliefs in magic. However, I did not become “disillusioned with life”, or lapse into immorality, or “accept Muslims as peaceful”. Instead, I became a Humanist, and to someone who had also been persecuted by religious bigots, it was like a ‘breath of fresh air’!. The fundamental ethic of Humanism is the Golden Rule: ‘Treat others as you wish them to treat you’. This most fundamental guide to human behaviour, pre-dates any of the modern religions, and without it, early human societies probably would not have survived. Ironically, we also support freedom of religion, provided it is not harming others, but clearly, Islam does great harm to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
While ethics and morals can be prescribed by religious laws, they do not necessarily stem from religion – and no one would suggest that there is any
morality in Islam. Altruism and caring for others are not ‘god-given’ attributes! They are not even confined to humans, but observed in all other animals, to a
greater or lesser extent. So please Christians, leave any holier-than-thou
attitudes out of these debates.
We all need each other to win this fight! United we stand! Divided we fall!
SheikMyHead.
