בס׳ד
It has been some time since my last post. It's not because I haven't had anything to write about. Quite the opposite. There has been way TOO much to think about, consider, and try to organize in my head. Last week, while riding the bus into Yerushalayim, I worked the beginnings of a great essay in my head. Of course, being too lazy to start writing once I returned home, it has mostly turned to vapor.
I feel like grabbing a large piece of oak tag (anyone reading this who is old enough to remember what that is?) and a thick black magic marker, and scribbling "The End Is Near!". I want to picket in front of every European capital, and of course, the Osama Obama palace in Washington. Because if the liberal west does not wake up, the non-liberal Muslims of Europe - and eventually America - will have them living under shari'a law.I've been trying to understand why this obvious trend is so universally denied. Does the West have a death wish? And the answer I have arrived at is as follows - no, but yes.
Let me explain.
Europeans hate themselves because they feel guilty for their colonial past. They feel they must make it up to the colonized. On top of that, within Europe nationalism has become a bad word. Centuries of nationalistic war left Europe traumatized. Bad things have been done, and Europeans wish to set things to rights, and atone for the past.
As Abraham Lincoln might say, "It is altogether fitting and proper" that they do this.
But introspection and atonement do not require suicide. In an effort to be just, and to respect all cultures, Europeans have decided that they must reject all that was historically valuable and binding in their cultures and religions and replace it with no values at all. That way they can't possibly impose those values on anyone ever again.
The problem, when such a value vacant culture encounters those who actually believe in something, there's a transference of values to the area of no values - just as in physics high pressure fills a low pressure void. As long as Europeans of one country become culture neutral in relation to the Europeans of another culture neutral country, this might work out. But not when, in an effort to repent the past, culture neutral Europe bends over backwards to make the benefits of their societies available to the formerly colonized - who are culture positive. The result is not something resembling the American "Melting Pot". The immigrants have no desire to blend in. They want to change those host nations to reflect their own values.
Some place in The Lord of The Rings someone says, and I paraphrase, "Those who refuse to live by the sword, can still die by the sword." This seems to be Europe's choice. Yet it is so unnecessary. It is certainly reasonable and proper to try to make up for past wrongs. But in order to recognize the worth of another, you also have to recognize your own worth.
Respect for distinctions does not require the elimination of distinctions. And it has to be a two way street. Secular Europe somehow expects religious Muslims to become secular Europeans. They think that just as their own empty churches and Cathedrals are just historical centers of art, Muslim mosques will become just that. But the Muslims aren't cooperating. They're not satisfied to live by their values and be left alone, like the Jews wanted (but were rarely allowed) to be. No. They want to make the churches into mosques - like it or not.
Hence, shari'a law here, Mulsim only neighborhoods there. And the Europeans just don't get it. They refuse to recognize that they have gone way too far. But that does not mean that hate is a thing of the past. Like everyone, the thing they hate the most is to be told that not only are they wrong, but they've gone and joined the other side - the side of terror, jihad, oppression, coercion, brutality, and violence. Back to everything they wanted to escape from. And that person is Israel. All the self-hate and self-loathing, and all the inevitable resentment of having to fear those who used to fear them, is turned on the one source of light that has the effrontery to stand and say "NO!".
And please don't accuse me of hating Muslims. It is Muslims who hate me. Of course not all Muslims. But I believe that Brigitte Gabriel is correct. She says "The peaceful majority are irrelevant". There are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. It can be argued that only 15% to 25% of those are "Radicals". But this still means that between 240 million and 400 million are out to get us. And they set the agenda. So it's time to "take Politically Correct and throw it into the garbage where it belongs.".
And please don't call me a racist. It's a stock phrase that can be used to silence anyone and make them run the other way. No one wants to be called a racist, to the extent that many will deny the obvious truth. In our time, those who accuse others of racism are usually the real racists. (Check out these two links).
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/25/jewish-student-assaulted-by-palestinian-supporter-at-temple-university/
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/25/anti-israel-activist-ali-abunimah-accused-of-african-hating-after-comparing-president-obama-to-white-supremacist/
Racism has been redefined in such a way that it no longer means anything. Racism "should" mean the belief that one is superior to another simply by their race, and using that belief to cause injury to the other. Human beings innately make destinctions based upon race, among other things, including gender, height, weight, attire, etc. And these distinctions are often important to make. If I walk through the Damascus gate, I'm nervous. Does that make me a racist? No. It means two things; 1) that I know that 15% - 25% at least of the people around me want me dead, and 2) that I'm an idiot for walking through the Damascus gate! (here are 3 interesting links)
https://bloodytree.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/racism-universal/
https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/f83efe294f5c85f585257015006e1949/2fb79b1fd74e2136852572e90077ffa4?OpenDocument
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism
Every person on earth makes assumptions about people based on their appearance, or speech, or attire, or whatever. Either everyone is a racist, or we are defining racism incorrectly.
So, when Muslims tell me that the Beit HaMikdash never existed, that there never was a Judea and Samaria, that Jews are dogs and should all be killed, that Judaism is a gutter religion, that Israel is not a Jewish State, that Moses was a Muslim and it was the Muslims who crossed the Red Sea, and then attacks me with fists, feet, rocks, cars, trucks, knives, guns, bombs and missiles - I think I should be given a little slack when I assume that the guy walking toward me dressed like a Muslim is someone to watch out for.
And I don't think Europeans should feel bad about recognizing publicly that there is something to worry about.
The recent murders in France, and the reactions to them, only serve to support my argument. Radical Muslims murder cartoon journalists who lampooned their Prophet, as well as a French police woman, and Jews doing their grocery shopping. Not to mention the murder of freedom of expression. But no no no, it's not because of Islam. And CNN actually wants us to believe that the murder of Jews in the kosher grocery was not anti-Semitic. The PM of Israel is asked not to come to a "Unity" march against terrorism. When he shows up anyway, he's accused of being a pushy Jew. Fearing for their lives at the hands of rioting Musims, all of Europe - all of the world - is willing to ignore the obvious threat rather than be considered "racist", but it's OK to hate Jews, because the Muslims do. This is not to say that they didn't already hate Jews, it just gives them the green light if their Muslims are OK with it.
And the United States was conspicuously absent from that act of "Unity". What a mess.
I believe - I truly believe - that בס׳ד Israel will eventually be the last man standing. By that I mean that the time will come when Europe and America will be so overwhelmed by a tide of Jihad, that they will call for the help of the only free nation on earth that recognized the threat early on. There are good people of all faiths in all countries, but their leaders are, with a few exceptions, political hacks. One exception is Stephen Harper of Canada. Another is Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel. Both of these leaders are unafraid to say what needs to be said, while the West remains dumb. Even the Pope, while decrying the acts of murder, nevertheless blames the victims for being insulting. (I have to give Vladamir Putin some credit - he has said flat out that anyone who wants shari'a law is welcome to leave Russia to find it. But then, who would want to live in Russia anyway?).
And Israel בס׳ד will be there to rescue humanity from a new dark age. That's what we're here for, after all.
Or is it just me?
