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March 1, 2006
On Islamistawareness, Islamophobia, And 'Islamophobia-phobia'
Powerline notes today that Tony Blankley conducted some research on the issue of port security in connection with his book The West's Last Chance. Based on his research, his column today strikes a cautionary note on the ports deal and defends the instinctive popular oppositon to it: "Islamistphobia-phobia."
Not by chance, some months ago -- well before the Dubai port issue had emerged -- I had had extended conversations with senior executives of an American port management company. They had explained the close inter-working of the management team with the Coast Guard, Customs and local law enforcement in trying to secure the full import process (which starts at foreign ports and continues on board ship, through the terminal and includes local law enforcement -- with management an active agent of that strived-for seamless process) .Back on November 8, 2005 we posted, "On The West's Last Chance: 'An Islamist threat like the Nazis'", in which we wrote of Tony Blankley's book. Here are a couple of pertinent excerpts from our post on Blankley's comments:Based on that and other research I had carried out last year for my book, I understood that merely repeating the mantra that "security is exclusively run by the Coast Guard, Customs and Homeland Security" -- as we heard late last week -- was somewhere between an incomplete and a deceptive statement. But for those with a limited knowledge of the topic and other policy axes to grind, once they were fed the mantra, it was a short step to the nativist, Islamophobic charge.
Of course Islamophobia is a repulsive mentality -- suggestive of old-fashioned hate of others. But, as Denmark's leading Islamic scholar, Jacob Skovgaard-Petersen, explained in 2004, there is a different and growing phobia, which he named "Islamistphobia." This is not an atavistic hatred of another man's skin or faith or last name, but is instead the fear of the ideas and conduct of radical Muslims.
Prepared to murder
What Muslims say and do now is the measure of the political, cultural and military danger facing the West.Most other religious developments around the world, such as the spread of Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere, have benign or nonviolent consequences.
However, the overwhelming political fact deriving from the ferment in Islam is that, to some degree, some percentage of Muslims are prepared to murder -- and are murdering -- great numbers in what they feel is their religious duty.
Many more Muslims are, to some degree, supportive or protective of these killers. Even more Muslims, while not supportive of such tactics, share many of the terrorists' religious convictions and perceptions.
Radical currents within Islam drive some Muslims to terrorism and push others at least to a more adversarial view of their relationship to non-Muslim nations and cultures in which they live -- whether in Paris, London, Hamburg, Rotterdam, or any American city.Islamophobia you say? What common sense, rational, normal human being, whether a Muslim or a non-Muslim, wouldn't be concerned about the state of affairs in the world today, and Islam's role in it? Are we to turn a blind eye to those "radical currents within Islam" that drive some Muslims to terrorism and push others at least to a more adversarial view of their relationships with non-Muslim nations and cultures in which we live?The resurgence of a militant Islam drove the United States to fight two wars in Muslim countries in two years, disrupted America's alliance with Europe, caused the largest reorganization of the U.S. government in half a century (with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security), changed election results in Europe and threatened the stability of most governments in the Middle East.
Islamist-awareness, or as in Blankley's reference to Jacob Skovgaard-Petersen, Islamistphobia, is a first step toward understanding our enemies and what we must protect ourselves from.
Islamist-awareness, or Islamistphobia, is not "an atavistic hatred of another man's skin or faith or last name, but is instead the fear of the ideas and conduct of radical Muslims."
At the risk of sounding like an alarmist, Islamophobia-phobia will only get us killed, and will have us all attending mosques instead of churches or synagogues, or staying home on Saturdays and Sundays doing whatever we want. As for Fridays, that will be our prayer days, on which we go to hear imams spout their usual anti-Jewish and anti-Christian diatribes, and of course why and how we should all live under Islamic law.
Suggested readings:
Be sure and read all of Tony Blankley's article, Islamistphobia-phobia, our previous post, "On The West's Last Chance: 'An Islamist threat like the Nazis'", and "This War Is For Real". You'll be both glad you did and better informed.
Cross posted by Hyscience
Posted by Richard at March 1, 2006 1:21 PM
