Stop the racism. Before it is too late

geoffff

Pat Condell says it as well as anyone in the world.

This is a war against a racist violent imperialism as vicious and rampant not seen since  the Nazi era to which it bears a striking resemblance.  Australians are fighting and dying in this war against barely one strand of this horrible thing. Many more will no matter what happens in Afghanistan.

I do not define the enemy as "Islam" as Condell and others do. This is hardly liberal squeamishness on my part.   All religions have belligerent bits that can be abused by the ideologues of the day. Take  pre reformation Christianity.

The enemy is Islamism. In all its forms. An ideology.

Or if you prefer "pre-reformation Islam".  In all its forms. A terrible enemy of the peoples of the world and especially the Muslims. .In its most extreme forms as bad as the Nazis and there are a lot of extreme forms.

Why on earth would we act to undermine the Israelis who are on the front line of another front?

Where's the sense in that?  Who or what exactly is this Government trying to appease?

Update

Comments from Israel Thrives

1. Shirl in OzJanuary 3, 2013 6:24 PM

   Geoff
   
   A political ideology masquerading as a religion

   Reply
2. 
   Randall KohnJanuary 3, 2013 10:50 PM

   "pre-reformation Islam" is the best description I've encountered yet. It has the potential of reaching anyone who's left of the hard right who still has an open mind.

   
   

   Mike L.January 4, 2013 10:39 AM

   I agree with you, Geoffff.

   
   

   The problem is not Islam, per se, but political Islam or Islamism.

   
   

   If western Christians were attempting to create theocracies then they'd be the problem, as well. Fortunately that's not what they are up to and even the most devout American Evangelicals do not wish to replace the Constitution of the United States with the New Testament.

   
   

   Shirlee argues that Islam is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. The thing of it is, prior to the Enlightenment all religions were political ideologies for the simple reason that there was no distinct separation of church and state. All that there was was the religion itself, upon which the state and the politics were grounded.

   
   

   The same is true of Islam to the extent that it refuses to accept the separation of church and state.

   
   

   Most American Muslims do, in fact, accept that separation and consequently do not represent a threat to American Jews.

   
   

   The problem with Islam in the Middle East, and increasingly in Europe, is that they refuse that separation and thereby ground their political cultures within Sharia, which is precisely what is happening in Egypt and throughout the Arab Spring countries.

   
   

   The Obama administration is advancing political Islam and thus undermining the separation of church and state throughout the Middle East.

   
   

   This is hysterically ironic for a president of the United States who once taught Constitutional law, but it clearly shows us that this president believes more in the multicultural ideal than universal human rights.

   
   

   That's where the tension lies.

   
   

   Right at the crux between the two.

   
   

   
   

   3. Shirl in OzJanuary 4, 2013 3:47 PM

      Mike
      
      You are wrong very wrong. It's Islam full stop.
      
      Read the Hadith. Read the Reliance of the Traveller which is the Bible of Muslims. All 336pages
      
      www.shafiifiqh.com/maktabah/relianceoftraveller.pdf

      ReplyDelete
   4. 
      CazJanuary 4, 2013 6:25 PM

      What squeamish hair-splitting projection!
      
      It's Islam, stupid!
      
      What is this thing "political Islam", that can be separated from Islam the religion? What's this projecting of a Western-Democratic construct - separation of church and state - onto a lost in ancient-times Middle Eastern religion, which has banned revision to it's own texts for hundreds of years?
      
      That's one wild and whacky premise for analysis, a major misappropriation of the analytical prism.
      
      Islam can and should only be discussed on it's own terms, not from the vantage point of white, middle class, capitalist democracies - of which Islam could not be more divorced if it tried.
      
      

      
      

      Mike L.January 5, 2013 10:24 PM

      Neither Geoffff or myself are arguing that Islam is not anti-Semitic in doctrine.
      
      Of course, it is.
      
      
      

      geoffff continues
      (where is that damn ape)

      
      

      OK. I put these upfront.  I'll post them on Mike's blog as well.  One of the most frustrating and dangerous things about this war is that no one can agree on who is the enemy. Therefore there is no agreement on how to fight the war or even if there is a war.. The enemy of course is playing that for all it is worth.

      
      

      The rulers and gang chiefs who ride this ideology are not stupid men. They are mostly psychopaths which is both their strength and weakness and they have very keen tactical intelligences.  That combined with ruthlessness and complete freedom from concepts such as the truth means they frequently outflank the West..

      
      

      This is why they might win.

      
      

      Their sheer inability to grasp ordinary human empathetic emotion and motivation and to accept physical reality always brings them down in the end usually to be replaced by another psychopath. In the meantime the human damage they do can be beyond the reach of the language.

      
      

      I agree with the British Freedom Party guy. They could bring down everything. Civilisations do come to an end.   

      
      

      You do not have to be that old to see how far the West has retreated and so quickly especially in the last thirty or so years. Since the Islamic Revolution.   
      
      Further Update
      
      

      
      
      On the question of what is the enemy.
      
       "Islam", the religion,  with its genocidal antisemitism and other alarming features such as  homosexual homicide , female subjugation,  infidel beheading, God made law and global imperialism
      
      Or
      
      "Political Islam" or "Islamism", the ideology that captures these features and turn them into a means of oppression, control and violent aggression
      
      Verdict
      
      Definitely Islamism or Political Islam 
      if you like: pre-Reformation Islam
      pre-Enlightenment Islam 
      
      It is a great mistake to attack a religion no matter how vile are some of the passages at least in the context of this struggle. We are not theologians. Or at least I'm not.  
      
      Mike is right that there are many Muslims who just want to get on with their lives and practice their religion in peace. In the West there is no reason why that can not be a religion of peace.
      
      In fact we should insist on it. 
      
      Of course the religion is problematic but this depends on how it is taught and presented. In this part of the world there are many Muslims who have no stake in the Middle East . A past President of Indonesia was an eminent Muslim cleric who turned out to be an admirer and friend of Israel.  Israel has friends in the Muslim world and there are Muslim countries that have accepted her. Right now Jordanian and Israeli special forces are reportedly carrying out coordinated  secret operations on the Syrian side of the borders against Assad special forces.
      
      How the religion is presented. The prophet mentioned  most after Mohammed in the Koran is Moses. Far more than Jesus. Jesus scores only about 15 mentions while Moses is up around the 100 mark. There is even a passage about Moses leading his people to "their sacred land"
      
      The Koran is not alone in having its bracing parts. The Christian Bible is notorious as we   know which means Christians would certainly be a problem if we lost the Enlightenment  This is the reason antisemitism is suddenly back in fashion in certain parts of the Protestant clergy and why they have attached themselves so closely to Islamic clerics and the Palestinian cause..
      
      They are hoping for a seat at the top table once the secular state has been swept aside and the boys in the hoods are calling the shots once again. I bet they wank themselves silly over that dream. Takes the heat off the kids I suppose.
      
      And dare I mention it? There are some pretty torrid pieces in the Hebrew Bible as well. Quite a bit in there that you might find challenging as a modern woman. As I recall the rules for dealing with a man who lies with a man as a woman do not leave much room for discussion either. God made himself very clear on that one. That hasn't stopped Tel Aviv having Mardi Gras parades and gay bars and Israel being a sanctuary for Palestinian homosexuals. These days the only way a Jewish gay anywhere could get stoned to death is if it was self inflicted.
      
      Not that anything in Jewish law or tradition will be of any significance if we were to lose the Enlightenment.. Jewish anything really. Speaking strictly for myself, in a world governed by sharia and composed of competing  nuclear armed Islamic states and gangs at perpetual war and revolution, I would very much prefer to be dead..    
      
      Right now there are respectable Muslim clergy who do not see their religion the same way as the lunatics in Tehran and Gaza. They are perhaps envisaging a  post-Enlightenment Islam.They should not be discouraged. That is one way out of this mess.
      
      
      Further Comments
      Israel Thrives
      
      (in particular note comments by ziontruth in Israel)