Lumish:
The western-left refuses to stand up to the cruel bullies of political Islam.
In
doing so, the Left has abandoned women in the Muslim-Middle East, gay people in
the Muslim-Middle East, all non-Muslims in that part of the world, as well as
freedom of speech even in Europe. As a
direct consequence, as I have argued ad
nauseum, they have flushed adherence to the ideal of universal human rights
directly down the toilet.
In this
way, the progressive-left has abandoned its very reason to be because it has
abandoned the heart of its movement in favor of the multicultural ideal.
When I
think of the joyous escapades of our friends in the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) – such as, for example, burying Yazidis alive in mass graves or
using young non-Muslim prepubescent girls as sexual slaves or the mass chopping
off of “infidel” heads or the destruction of ancient antiquities, such as we
recently saw in Palmyra - one word comes immediately to mind:
Enemy.
The
thing about the western-left, in general, and the American-left, as well, is
that it recognizes no such category of human being – beyond Republicans,
Evangelical Christians, or conservatives – as an enemy. They may actively and loudly despise people
such as former president George W. Bush, but they can live with the Muslim
Brotherhood or Islamic Jihad or Boko Haram.
This is because they tend to have little, or no, sense of ethical
proportionality. Sure, Boko Haram might
kidnap hundreds of young girls for the purpose of raping them and selling them
into sexual slavery but, aghghg!,
George W. Bush is a Texas Republican!
The
Left knows who their real enemy is and it is definitely neither Boko Haram, nor
the Islamic State.
I
understand, of course, that the concept of “enemy” is not a pretty one. When a people or a nation have an enemy then
their leadership is obligated to defeat that enemy. This requires a willingness to stand up, put
oneself forward, and actually do whatever is necessary to win the war. People on the Left, however, have no such inclination
unless they are spitting hatred at the likes of Dick Cheney or that heinous Zionist, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The
rise of political Islam represents the single most significant geopolitical
event since the downfall of the Soviet Union.
The crazed and vicious denizens of organizations like ISIS or Hamas
despise essential western values such as the equality of women, freedom of
speech or, even, freedom of thought, and they are perfectly happy to use even
the most horrendous forms of violence to prove it.
And,
needless to say, political Islam is the most violently anti-Semitic political
movement that we have seen in the world since the Nazis were pulling gold out
of Jewish teeth. This makes them
unequivocally my enemy and they should be the acknowledged enemy of anyone who
believes in western-liberal values... which the Left no longer does, if it ever
did.
There
are at least two important reasons why the progressive-left finds it difficult
to acknowledge groups like ISIS as an enemy.
The first is because the United States is a powerful, largely white
country, and people “of color” in the Middle East are considered underdogs and
the natural instinct is to protect the underdog even, apparently, if the
underdog is burning people alive in cages.
The
second reason is because most progressives blame the West for the rise of political
Islam due to unjust material factors imposed by Europe for centuries and by the
United States since early in the twentieth.
That is, they believe that western and American imperialism destabilized
traditional societies, subjecting them to war, poverty, and thereby encouraged
a rational hatred of the West.
There
is only one major problem with this analysis.
It infantilizes Arabs in an exceedingly bigoted and prejudicial manner
and it fails to acknowledge the linkage between strongly held religious beliefs
and behavior. ISIS, whatever else it may
be, is a religious-political movement drenched in the Salafist form of
Islam. When they say that they wish to
carry out the violent Jihad for the purpose of establishing the Caliphate, they
mean it. When they say that
head-chopping is the pleasure of Allah and that if they die in Jihad they will
go to paradise, they mean that, as well.
They
act on their beliefs and those belief are not due to the fact that sometimes
Jewish people build housing for themselves beyond the Green Line. Their beliefs are grounded in their religious
faith and the primary sources of that faith are the Qur’an and the hadiths.
Drop
Sam Harris a line.
He will
have a few words.
