Author: Laina Farhat-Holzman
Publication: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Date: January 31, 2009
URL: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_11597946
President Barack Obama mentioned reciprocity:
mutual respect between the Muslim world and America. Not much reciprocity
in Europe, where some governments are already putting up white flags as clever
Islamists attack their basic institutions. Diana West townhall.com worries
that French schools no longer teach authors deemed offensive to Muslims Voltaire,
Diderot, Darwin, and, of course, history of the Holocaust.
She notes that the British government "cravenly
elevated five Sharia courts to the level of tribunal hearings, making their
rulings legally binding." The first verdicts upheld male supremacy --
inheritance that gives girls half of the inheritance of boys -- and they dismissed
several domestic violence charges. Sharia permits wife beating.
The French city of Tours was the historic
capital of the French king Charles Martel, who in the 7th century turned back
the Muslim invasion that had overrun Spain. Because of this, Europe did not
become Muslim.
Now Tours is the recipient of money from the
French government -- as well as Algeria and Saudi Arabia -- to construct one
of the largest mosques in France. While this is very generous, and politically
correct, of France, Algeria is shutting down Christian churches because they
might try to convert Algerians, and in Saudi Arabia Christianity is illegal.
In almost all Muslim countries, Judaism may not be practiced either.
The French Ministry of the Interior lists
1,500 places of worship, including 400
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mosques. Here "mosques" mean any places of worship. Prisons are
another locus for active Islamist conversion. According to Walid Phares, who
has been talking with French counterterrorism people, a terrorist cell from
Central Asia was picked up in France, where they were getting military training.
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said 90 Islamic activists were
arrested in France in 2007. She notes that French and American prisons are
incubators for Islamist recruitment and conversions, as are French suburban
ghettos.
The ministry has compiled a "handbook
on Islamism" to be used inside prisons so that authorities can detect
the growth of jihadist ideology. They watch airline passenger lists and destinations
such as Pakistan or Yemen -- and watch those going through Switzerland to
avoid detection. Security trumps political correctness in France now -- except
for building mosques.
England is less clever. Despite the good work
of British intelligence and police, the courts and elitist clamor keep them
from effectively protecting themselves. And in London an enormous mosque is
being built, which upsets many Londoners, but not the government, apparently.
They did better in the 19th century when they refused to give religious tolerance
to Catholicism until the pope of the time finally recognized Protestantism
as a legal religion in Catholic countries. Islam must be treated the same
way. Apparently Moscow believes the same; despite a rising number of Muslims
there, there will be no more mosques until the Saudis reciprocate.
England's concerns in earlier centuries were
that Catholic churches and their priests were spreading insurgency -- and
there was truth in it. Queen Elizabeth I knew that she was on a papal assassination
list and should they succeed, England would suffer an Inquisition like that
in Spain. Today, many Europeans know that mosques are hotbeds of militant
Islamism and active conversion campaigns and are taking action.
But grim as this all seems, the Jihadi dream
of taking over the world and forcing us all under some mythical Caliphate
looks more and more the realm of fantasy. There will continue to be suicide
bombers and mosques that recruit clueless young men and send them off to "Muslim
education" in Yemen or Pakistan and military training in Sudan or Somalia.
However, this really is the last hurrah of an ideology that is quickly heading
for the trash heap of history. They have nothing to offer but death, destruction
and fantasies of a hyper-sexualized afterlife, and more Muslims know it. This
is not enough to create a civilization. Charles Martel need not turn over
in his grave.
- Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer,
and author. Contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.
