As someone specializing in Islamic jihadism, one would expect
I’d have much to say immediately after jihadi attacks of the sort that recently
occurred in San Bernardino, or Paris, or Mali, with a total of about 180 dead.
Ironically I don’t, as such attacks are ultimately symptoms of what I do deem
worthy of talk: root causes. (What can one add when a symptom of the root cause
he has long warned against occurs other than “told
you so”?)
So
what is the root cause of jihadi attacks? Many think that the ultimate source
of the ongoing terrorization of the
West is Islam. Yet
this notion has one problem: the Muslim world is immensely weak and intrinsically
incapable of being a threat.
That
every Islamic assault on the West is a terrorist attack -- and terrorism, as is
known, is the weapon of the weak -- speaks for itself.
This
was not always the case. For approximately one thousand years, the
Islamic world was the scourge of the West. Today’s history books may
refer to those who terrorized Christian Europe as Arabs, Saracens, Moors,
Ottomans, Turks, Mongols, or Tatars[i],
but all were operating under the same banner of jihad that the Islamic State is
operating under.
But
today, the ultimate enemy is within.
The
root cause behind the non-stop Muslim terrorization of the West is found in
those who stifle or whitewash all talk and examination of Muslim doctrine and
history; who welcome hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants while knowing
that some are jihadi operatives and many
are simply “radical”; who work to overthrow secular Arab dictators
in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” only to uncork the jihad long
suppressed by the autocrats (the Islamic State’s territory consists of lands
that were “liberated” in Iraq, Libya, and Syria by the U.S. and its allies).
So,
are Western leaders and politicians the root cause behind the Islamic
terrorization of the West? Close, but still not the right answer.
Far
from being limited to a number of elitist leaders and institutions, the Western
empowerment of the jihad is the natural outcome of postmodern thinking -- the
real reason an innately weak Islam can be a source of repeated woes for a
militarily and economically superior West.
Remember,
the reason people like French President Francois Hollande, U.S. President
Barack Hussein Obama, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are in power -- three
prominent Western leaders who insist that Islam is innocent of violence and who
push for Muslim immigration -- is because they embody a worldview that is
normative in the West.
In
this context, the facilitation of jihadi terror is less a top-down imposition
and more a grassroots product of decades of erroneous but unquestioned
thinking. (Those who believe America’s problems begin and end with Obama would
do well to remember that he did not come to power through a coup, but that he
was voted in -- twice. This indicates that Obama and the majority of voting
Americans have a shared, and erroneous, worldview. He may be cynically exploiting
this worldview, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s because this warped
worldview is mainstream that he can exploit it in the first place.)
Western
empowerment of the jihad is rooted in a number of philosophies that have
metastasized into every corner of social life, becoming cornerstones of
postmodern epistemology. These include the doctrines of relativism and
multiculturalism on the one hand, and anti-Western, anti-Christian sentiment on
the other.
Taken
together, these cornerstones of postmodern, post-Christian thinking hold that
there are no absolute truths, and thus all cultures are fundamentally equal and
deserving of respect. They hold that if Western people wants to criticize a
civilization or religion, they must instead look “inwardly” and acknowledge
their European Christian heritage as the epitome of intolerance and
imperialism.
Add
to these a number of other sappy and silly ideals: Truth can never be uttered
because it might “hurt the feelings” of some (excluding white Christians, who
are free game); if anything, the West should go out of its way to make up for
its supposedly historic “sins” by appeasing Muslims until they “like us”; etc.
All
together, we have a sure recipe for disaster -- which is the current state of
affairs.
Western
people are bombarded with these aforementioned “truths” from the cradle to the
grave, from kindergarten to university, from Hollywood to the newsrooms, and
now even in churches. So they now are unable to accept and act on a simple
truism that their ancestors well knew: Islam is an inherently violent and
intolerant creed that cannot coexist with non-Islam (except insincerely,
in times of weakness).
The
essence of all this came out clearly when Obama, in order to rationalize away
the inhuman atrocities of the Islamic State, counseled Americans to get off
their “high
horse” and remember that their Christian ancestors have been guilty
of similar, if not worse, atrocities.
But
he had to go back almost a thousand years for his examples; he referenced the
Crusades and Inquisition.
That both events have been completely distorted by this warped postmodern
worldview -- which portrays imperialist Muslims as victims -- did not matter to
America’s leader. And worse, it did not matter to most Americans. The greater
lesson was not that Obama whitewashed modern Islamic atrocities by
misrepresenting and demonizing Christian history, but that he was merely
reaffirming the mainstream narrative that Americans have been indoctrinated into
believing.
And
thus, aside from the usual ephemeral and meaningless grumblings, his words --
as with many
of his pro-Islamic, anti-Christian comments and policies -- passed along without consequence.
Once
upon a time, the Islamic world was a superpower, and its jihad an irresistible
force to be reckoned with. Over two centuries ago, however, a rising Europe, which
had experienced over a thousand years of jihadi conquests and atrocities,
defeated and defanged Islam.
As
Islam retreated into obscurity, the post-Christian West slowly came into being.
Islam didn’t change, but the West did. Muslims still venerate their heritage
and religion which impels them to jihad against the Western “infidel,” whereas
the West learned to despise its heritage and religion, causing it to be an
unwitting ally of the jihad.
Hence
the current situation: the jihad is back in full vigor, while the West -- not
just its leaders, but much of the populace -- facilitates it in varying
degrees.
This
situation is not easily remedied, for to accept that Islam is inherently
violent and intolerant is to reject a number of cornerstones of postmodern
Western thinking. In this context, nothing short of an intellectual/cultural
revolution -- where rational thinking becomes mainstream again -- will allow the
West to confront Islam head-on.
But
there is some good news. First, the eyes of more and more Western people are
being opened to the true nature of Islam. That this is happening in spite of
generations of pro-Islamic indoctrination is a testimony to the growing
severity of the threat.
Yet
it still remains unclear whether objective thinking on Islam will eventually
overthrow the current narrative of relativism, anti-Westernism, and asinine
emotionalism.
Simply
put, celebrating multiculturalism and defeating the jihad is impossible.
However,
if such a revolution ever does take place, the Islamic jihad will be easily
swept back into the dustbin of history. For the fact remains: Islam is
terrorizing the world, not because it can, but because the West allows it to.
*****
"The Muslim world is immensely weak and
intrinsically incapable of being a threat". – except Iran, that is
