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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Who Suffers Most?

by Sam Huntington

In a 2007 study, the Pew Research Center concluded that 61% of American respondents indicated that Islamic extremism was a problem in the United States; thirty-five percent believed that Islamic extremism was not a problem. Four years later, responses to the same question differed by one percent.

Let us wonder about that for a moment: if such is the perception of most Americans, why isn’t the United States government proceeding along similar lines? Do we the people govern, or not?

But wait … what if those 61% of respondents were American Moslems?



That is the case.

If such a large percentage of American Moslems think that Islamic extremism is a problem within the United States, then why is our government discounting this concern? In fact, after so many years of terrorist acts and threats, what is our government doing to address domestic Islamism?

We don’t know the answer to the preceding question, but we do know what our government isn’t doing. Here is a short list of what our government isn’t doing:

1. They aren’t listening to mainstream American Moslems.
2. There does not appear to be any anti or counter-Islamist campaigns.
3. We are not having a public discussion about what it is about Islam that makes it radical and dangerous to a free society.
4. Our government is not working to defund organizations that pay for radical programs.

If we can spend billions on televised public health and safety ads, why haven’t we spent a single dime on a campaign designed to save our young people from the effects of radicalization? Do young people even know why they should plant bombs next to the finish lines of races —beyond the racist tripe that spews from the mouth of Wahhabis and Sufi Imams?

I think it was Robert Spencer, who several years ago observed that moderate Moslems are much like unicorns. Everyone knows they exist, but no one has ever seen one. Absent any credible undertaking, as discussed above, it is easy for the average person to conclude that there are no moderate Moslems, or that there are no non-violent Islamacists. It would be incredible if this were even partly true.  Our problem is that we simply don't know for a fact that moderate Moslems exist.

Is this knowledge a key element to moving forward to defeat radical Islam?

Bad news travels very fast.  It didn’t take long to hear about the Moslem assault upon proselytizing Christians in Dearborn, Michigan.  News that local police aided and abetted Moslems in denying non-Moslems their civil rights spread like wildfire.  Yet, we hear almost no good news at all regarding moderate Moslems, and so the questions remain: are there any viable efforts among moderate Moslems to work with interfaith partners in changing the perceptions of most Americans about Islam?

Here’s what I think: there are moderate Moslems, but we have been denied access to them.  I believe this has been intentional.  I believe there is an agenda that intentionally ignores the works of moderate Moslem communities, and that the American press and agencies of the US government are complicit.  Apparently, good news isn’t worth the effort, or the expense.  Federal, state, and local governments thus penalize moderate Islam by treating it as if it didn't exist.  In this sense, moderate Moslems suffer most under the heavy fist of terrorism.

Admittedly, I am making a stab in the dark here, but I suspect moderate Islam is being ignored because American leftists have aligned themselves with the most radical elements of Islam.  Both groups have been working tirelessly to destroy the American Republic.  Digging deeper, who controls the parts of the federal government that could possibly ameliorate the problem?  The American left.  Who controls the American media?  The American left.  Who regards mainstream America as an enemy that must be defeated at every turn?  The American left. 

If 61% of American Moslems think radical Islam is a problem in the United States, while leftist controllers steadfastly refuse to implement common sense programs to help combat it, is it time for conservative Americans to challenge the status quo?

AOW and I have been discussing a quote that has been attributed to Marco Polo.  


"A militant Muslim is the person who beheads the infidel, while the moderate Muslim holds the feet of the victim." 

It is doubtful Marco Polo ever said this.  First, I think common usage back in Polo's day was Mussalman, rather than Muslim.  Second, I believe moderation or extremism depended on the temperament of the Caliph or Sheikh.  It is hard to imagine tolerance for a public debate over the behavior of theocratic dictators.  On the other hand, if Polo did say it, then the indication may very well be that moderate Moslems are exactly like unicorns.


28 comments:

  1. There is also the element of fear and maybe an element of cowardism. The militants of an i are more than willing to use violence to achieve their ends. The majority of Germans were not followers of Nazism, but they not resist the Nazis. The majority of Russians were not Bolchvicsbut they did not resist. Much the same is true with the so-called moderate Muslims.

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  2. Sam, you could be right about the leftist conspiracy, but it is also a fact that the conservative right (for whatever reasons) has allowed this to happen. The right can’t complain too loudly about the left when the best they can do is select McCain/Palin and Romney/Ryan. We could solve a lot of our problems were it not for the slugs who we reelect ad nauseam.

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  3. Do you have electricity, running water and a flush toilet yet or are you still buring candles and wiping with old catalog pages?

    Come on. The reason is because Hussein Obama is a Muslim. Duh.

    Next boring non-subject?

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  4. "In a 2007 study, the Pew Research Center concluded that 61% of American respondents indicated that Islamic extremism was a problem in the United States; thirty-five percent believed that Islamic extremism was not a problem. Four years later, responses to the same question differed by one percent.

    Let us wonder about that for a moment: if such is the perception of most Americans, why isn’t the United States government proceeding along similar lines? Do we the people govern, or not?"

    Are you serious?

    91% of the American people were for universal background checks, and that was thwarted.

    Are you outraged by that?

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  5. "Here’s what I think: there are moderate Moslems, but we have been denied access to them."

    I can (and have) go to open house at the Roxbury Crossing mosque. I don't know if you consider them "moderate" but I found them quite friendly.

    "I believe this has been intentional."

    Who's intention? In my experience certainly not local Muslims.

    "I believe there is an agenda that intentionally ignores the works of moderate Moslem communities, and that the American press and agencies of the US government are complicit."

    Who heads this effort, Obama?
    Cue the Twilight Zone music or provide some sort of evidence. This is absolutely nuts.

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  6. "Admittedly, I am making a stab in the dark here, but I suspect moderate Islam is being ignored because American leftists have aligned themselves with the most radical elements of Islam. Both groups have been working tirelessly to destroy the American Republic."

    ----
    The absolute ravings of a lunatic.

    Say Hi to Pamela Geller. You're so far n the weeds you can no longer think.

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  7. I keep saying this over and over. There is absolutely no way that anyone can predict when, where and which one (or more) of these spooky people will strike. Thay may appear as a sort of a pillar of the community type right up to the time that they massacre innocents. I tried to explain this to a Liberal once and he responded, in precise psycho-babble/socio-jargon, that I was "painting with a broad brush". In other words he didn't hear what I was actually saying or if he did it didn't fit his text-book, by rote, mentality. About two weeks later the Fort Hood incident occured!

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  8. "61% of respondents were American Moslems?"

    Wow, just wow. That puts an entirely different light on the subject. However, we have a government that doesn't listen to the wants of the people, apparently even if they ARE Muslims. Obama bends over backwards to our enemies. This is really interesting.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  9. Well, that went over well, Sam. Got another big winner for us? LMFAO.

    "Try to stay on topic, Shaw." Aww, gee, people are disagreeing with you. How awful that must be for you. Shaw was on topic, he asked you about a comparable issue and how you felt about it. People go totally off topic and you never say a word until someone disagrees with you. Then you snipe at them.

    Don't you wonder why people don't like you? You need to lighten up, you need to be far more accurate in what you post, and you need to find subjects that matter more than pap like this one.

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  10. I must say that Dr. Sowell made a good point in his column today. Serious issues are no longer seriously discussed. As a society, we are only capable of assertions and counter-assertions, talking louder, refusing even to try to understand another point of view—even if we don’t agree with it. What we have before us is the product of decades of dumbing down our children, replacing education with indoctrination —and how many today even know the difference?

    And it looks to me as if Black Sheep is the poster child for Ass Clown of the Day.

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  11. I don’t know if Sam has Internet friends or not … but I can see from reading blogs and comments that Black Sheep has little invisible friends floating around in the Matrix. They probably talk to him, too … little voices urging him to exhibit the most asinine behavior possible for a man of his age. It is a pathetic behavior, actually … and according to his account, it’s been with him for years. He still laughs about helping Marines to fill their canteens with salt water so that they can dehydrate and become sick on the beach. This means that Black Sheep is a douchebag; a Ted Kaczynski kind of person; pulls wings off flies, and for whom no adequate number of psychiatrists even exists. But all his Internet friends do not seem to be filling up the comments section of his blog. So who is the asshole, Black Sheep? Sam, or you?

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  12. "I must say that Dr. Sowell made a good point in his column today. Serious issues are no longer seriously discussed."

    ---
    I assume Sowell is smart enough to sense the irony here.

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  13. Marco Polo probably never said that, but Napoleon Bonaparte did say "The Muslim has two postures - your boot on his neck, or his hands at your throat."

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  14. And it looks to me as if Black Sheep is the poster child for Ass Clown of the Day.

    Facebook, I believe, measures this in Butthurts per post.

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  15. Great post, Sam! Very relevant to what's happening today and it fits right in with a discussion that I had not too long ago with a DHS agent. It's my thought that the moderates are afraid to stand up and be counted. That guy (or woman or child) that's sitting next to him might just pull the pin. As you say, we seem to be too busy stomping on piss ants while elephants roam the halls. Okay... so, you didn't really say that; but I'd like to think that I understand it that way.

    Oh... and by the way, Marco Polo and I had lunch this afternoon. Marco asked me to pass on a little poem he had written for Black Sheep. The title of the poem is "Get Bent, Black Sheep" and it goes like this: "Get Bent, Black Sheep. The End."

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  16. Pastorius recently informed me about THIS ESSAY about Marco Polo: "Was Marco Polo an ‘Islamophobe’?" Brief excerpt: ...Polo clearly had no problem being blunt about Islam (political correctness being nonexistent in the Middle Ages). Whereas he praised the Brahmins for their “hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons,” regarding the Muslims of Tauris, (modern day Iraq), he wrote:

    "According to their doctrine, whatever is stolen or plundered from others of a different faith, is properly taken, and the theft is no crime; whilst those who suffer death or injury by the hands of Christians, are considered as martyrs. If, therefore, they were not prohibited and restrained by the powers who now govern them, they would commit many outrages. These principles are common to all Saracens."
    ...

    Read the entire essay by Raymond Ibrahim at the above link.

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  17. Marine4ever,
    we seem to be too busy stomping on piss ants while elephants roam the halls

    You could just as easily have been speaking of the media -- or of education "experts," for that matter.

    It seems to be that the dominant theme of America today is obsession with trivialities. Indeed, much of the time I feel as if the entire West has lost the plot!

    Those of us who are pamphleteers or town criers are Cassandras, and our voices are echoing in the wilderness.

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  18. I have nothing to say -- and will never have ANYTHING ELSE to say on this subject -- but this:


    DIDADIN

    Detain
    Intern
    Disempower
    And
    Deport
    Islamaniacs
    Now

    D-I-D-A-D-I-N!

    Those who would be kind to the cruel are sure to be cruel to the kind."


    "Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

    ~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

    DIDADIN!

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  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  20. AOW, we are not obsessed with trivialities so much as we are obsessed with avoiding any perception of the merest hint of RACISM.

    We have been brainwashed into believing it is morally wrong, unjustifiable and reprehensible to STAND UP for our OWN KIND.

    I have long ago grown weary of trying to explain why this has happened, because no one in younger generations has the faintest desire to believe me.

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  21. FT,
    we are obsessed with avoiding any perception of the merest hint of RACISM

    Agreed.

    I read the other day that the word Muslim has become the new n-word. If uttered by a non-Muslim, of course.

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  22. I read the other day that the word Muslim has become the new n-word. If uttered by a non-Muslim, of course.

    What are we supposed to call them? There ARE so many possibilities, you know. Whatever it is, I hope it isn't politically correct.

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  23. I hadn't heard about THAT one, Robert. I really need to get out more.

    Like you said, there are SO MANY possibilities... eighteen jump out at me without even giving any thought to it. None of which are politically correct, of course. I don't do 'Political Correct.'

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  24. It is true enough that there are authentic moderate Muslims who are moderate precisely because they rationalize ignoring sharia by construing it as mere “advice” or “loosely defined . . . guidelines.” But Reuters reports their interpretation as if it were controlling and authoritative – as if it were what sharia is, rather than what these moderates claim it is. And their claim is not persuasive. When the Saudis say homosexuals must be killed and that non-Muslims are not permitted to set foot in Mecca, that is not just “advice.” People are killed, maimed, imprisoned, ostracized, and tormented over failure to comply with the dictates of sharia. Your First Amendment right to free speech is threatened because the Obama administration supports the supremacist campaign to impose sharia blasphemy standards that forbid frank discussions of Islam. To keep telling people, as the media does, that sharia is nothing to be concerned about because it is just an airy, aspirational, personal moral compass is dangerously irresponsible. —Andrew McCarthy

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  25. Another BS post here too?! What are you trying to do, Black Sheep? Stuff the raffle box until you win?

    It's not fair everyone else gets to abuse their power over you.

    ReplyDelete

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