The Redhunter

Disturbing Poll Numbers

The problem is much worse in Europe than it is in the United States, but we might be catching up. A recent poll of British Muslims revealed the following:

- Almost a third of those polled would like to live under sharia law.

- More than one in ten understand why British Muslims might want to carry out suicide missions in this country.

- Nearly a quarter thought that the 7/7 bombings were justified because of Britain's foreign policy.

- Almost one in five respect Osama Bin Laden to some extent.

- Two-thirds think that the poeple who publish the cartoons critical of Mohammed or Islam should be punished

- 45% think that 9/11 was a conspiracy by America and Israel

Last February, during the "cartoon jihad", another poll of British Muslims revealed similar results

- Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the (UK)

- A fifth (of British Muslims) have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers who attacked London last July 7, killing 52 people, although 99 per cent thought the bombers were wrong to carry out the atrocity.

- Overall, the findings depict a Muslim community becoming more radical and feeling more alienated from mainstream society, even though 91 per cent still say they feel loyal to Britain.

When this and other polls are upsetting to the left-wing Guardian you know there's trouble afoot.

Although I wasn't able to find much on American Muslims, this Zogby poll, taken shortly after 9/11, shows that we don't have much to worry about. Yet, anyway.

Teaching Hate

We all know by now that Muslim schools throughout the Middle East teach the most vile propaganda, but it bears repeating. Whether Islam is a "religion of peace" in theory or not is not relevant. What counts is how it is taught.

Nina Shea & Jeanne Hoffman reviewed the hate that is regularly taught in schools thoughout the Middle East. Sample paragraph

Of all the anti-Jewish influences in the region, one of the most prevalent and potent is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Disseminated with the support and official sanction of the governments of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Palestine, and Syria, as well as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, this work is used to shape the collective consciousness of Arab populations.

The Protocols, if you're not aware, is one of the most vile pieces of anti-Jewish propaganda every produced.

Arab and Iranian media constantly run shows that purport to prove that 9/11 was an American or Jewish conspiracy. Freedom House has a page on their website with paper after paper documenting the hate that is regularly taught in Saudi and other Middle Eastern schools. On and on it goes.

Now I realize that not all Christian teaching has been nice. But say what you will about Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, it is stretching things to say that they teach hate. And I am aware of no outbreak of terrorism carried out in the name of Christianity.

Where are the Moderates?

To be sure, there are some who are fighting the good fight within Islam.

In July of 2005 the Fiqh Council of North America issued a Fatwa against terrorism and religious extremism. Mansoor Ijaz is a voice of reason, in addition to being an informed commentators on foreign affairs in his own right. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, chased out of Holland on an insignificant immigration charge, has taken a positon at the American Enterprise Institute, where we can look forward to her astute analysis of the problem within Islam.

But let's face it, these are lonely voices, struggling to be heard above the din. Groups like CAIR, which has been linked to terrorism, and who can't stand criticism of itself, get the news coverage and are feted by the White House.

The Western Response

The response in the West has generally been pitiful.

Douglas Murray is a scholar who went to Holland last February to speak at a conference on Islam in Europe, and wrote about it in an article that appeared in the Telegraph. The threat to conference speakers from Islamic terrorists was so high that they were asked by hotel staff if they wanted to register under false names. The police provided a personal security detail for everyone. Murray had a guard outside his hotel room door.

The event itself was orderly and debate was conducted in scholarly fashion. But Murray goes on about the situation in Holland and the rest of Europe

All across Europe, debate on Islam is being stopped. Italy’s greatest living writer, Oriana Fallaci, soon comes up for trial in her home country, and in Britain the government seems intent on pushing through laws that would make truths about Islam and the conduct of its followers impossible to voice.

Those of us who write and talk on Islam thus get caught between those on our own side who are increasingly keen to prosecute and increasing numbers of militants threatening murder. In this situation, not only is free speech being shut down, but our nation’s security is being compromised.

Since the assassinations of Fortuyn and, in 2004, the film maker Theo van Gogh, numerous public figures in Holland have received death threats and routine intimidation. The heroic Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her equally outspoken colleague Geert Wilders live under constant police protection, often forced to sleep on army bases. Even university professors are under protection.

Europe is shuffling into darkness. It is proving incapable of standing up to its enemies, and in an effort to accommodate the peripheral rights of a minority is failing to protect the most basic rights of its own people.

If you don't believe that debate is being stopped, consider that Belgian authorities have harassed a blog, The Brussels Journal, for alleged "hate speech", and have threatened to shut it down. Whether you agree with what the print at there or not, this is a violation of freedom of speech in the name of political correctness plain and simple.

Why is "debate being stopped"? If you really don't know, consider the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah. How did many in the West respond? Victor Davis Hanson provided a cogent answer

These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.

Some say that we should try and understand Muslims, especially those who have immigrated to the West. "Tolerance" "diversity", and "multiculturalism" are their watchwords. No country typifies these attitudes as modern day Great Britain. After reviewing yet another poll of Muslims which showed that "Muslim attitudes in Britain more resembled public opinion in Islamic countries in the Middle East and Asia than elsewhere in Europe", Melanie Phillips commented

So much for appeasement! The result of Britain being nicer to Muslims than anyone else in Europe and beating its collective breast about ‘Islamophobia’ has meant that they hate us more. Or to put it another way, Muslims hate their host countries less the more ‘Islamophobic’ they are.

The situation in the United States is not nearly as dire, but that is not for lack of trying. We should take heed from what is happening in Europe and make sure that we do not follow suit.

But the real problem is within Islam, and until it undergoes fundamental reform we are going to have problems.