timeimmortal

The former may exist. The latter, as Mark Steyn points out, does not:

What the west calls “moderate Muslims”, Islam regards as apostates. Sometimes, as with Dr [Wafa Sultan], they’re atheist apostates; sometimes, as with Miss [Irshad Manji], they’re lesbian apostates; and sometimes, as with Magdi Allam, they’re Christian apostates. To Islam, it doesn’t matter which branch of apostasy you opt for: As the Prophet [Muhammad] puts it, “Whoever changes his Religion, kill him.” All four principal schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree. So do the 36 per cent of young Muslims in Britain who believe apostasy should be punished by death. But, to the west, which branch of apostasy has most appeal to Muslims is an interesting question.

There are two main reasons why I feel myself compelled to take such a hard-line stance against Islam, its false prophet, and the various violent excesses of many who hold to that religion. The first, of course, is that Islam is, itself, a false religion, and is worthy of opposition on those grounds alone.

Equally, though, I cannot comprehend how one could view Islam as being in any way compatible with Western, Christian-founded ideals like human rights, equality before the law, equality before God, and other fundamental tenets of what we call “freedom.” In Islam, none of these things exists. There is no free will; there is only the will of Allah. There is no equality; there is Sharia. There is no freedom; there is only submission.

And ultimately, there is no love either; there is only hatred. Whether that hatred is directed at the Jews or at those who are not sufficiently “Islamic” in their character shifts week to week, but the hatred itself is ever-present.

On the one hand, Magdi Allam’s conversion is bad news…on the other hand, it’s good news in that it suggests the most effective strategy against a resurgent, radicalized Islam may be the oldest of all — an evangelizing Christianity.

The response of Europe to its progressive Islamicization has been a predominantly secular one that has sought to push Christianity even further toward the sidelines. In Canada, Muslim lobby groups (like the Canadian Islamic Congress, headed by terror-supporter Mohamed Elmasry) use human rights commissions to silence and censor those who dare to articulate any views that holds Islam suspect. In America, CAIR attempts to do the same through the civil courts.

And for the most part, when the West has roused itself to push back, it has done so through secular avenues. And while it is good to meet the enemy on the battlefield, whatever form that battlefield might take, it is not enough to merely win at the secular side of the game, because that is the distraction, the feint. And indeed, becoming too entrenched in a secular response to Islam will be our undoing, because Islam’s advantage is its ability to proselytize into the void that secularism leaves in its wake.

A strong, expanding religion like Islam can only be met, and subsequently thrown down, by a strong, vibrant religion that exists in opposition to it. Traditionally, this has been Christianity.

And so it must be, again.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

One person was arrested in a search of the home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, a group of “breakaway” former Mormons — led by one Warren Jeffs — who practice polygamy. Apparently, there was an investigation underway “related to the marriage of an underage girl.”

Somewhat less reported in the news, of course, are those missing British schoolchildren, a phenomenon that this blogger is almost certain can be found, albeit to a lesser extent, both in Canada and the U.S.

Just to be clear: in parts of the world, thousands of young girls are being effectively sold into arranged marriages at a very young age. No arrests seem to be emerging from what sparse investigation into such practices is being done. And the people behind the disappearing schoolgirls are members of what may now be the most populous religion in the world.

But a rogue group of ex-Mormons numbering only a few hundred are worth a full-on investigation complete with arrests, and all because one underage girl may have been married off?

I’m not trying to excuse what Jeffs et. al. were doing — polygamy disgusts me, as does the idea of underage marriage. And yes, O Reader, I realize that I’m discussing phenomena that have been reported in different nations, and so in a sense am comparing apples to kumquats. That acknowledged, can any of us say that we labour under the delusion that, were a rampant phenomenon of underage arranged marriages being reported in the American Muslim community, similar arrests would be made at the outcome of comprehensive police investigations? Or would police forces and federal agencies back down in the face of another lawsuit and media campaign by CAIR…not unlike how British police have similarly been cowed into looking the other way for fear of being branded as “racist” over across the Pond?

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Ezra Levant draws attention to an interesting coincidence:

Here is a letter in the Toronto Star from Ali Mallah of the Canadian Arab Federation, supporting human rights commissions and their arrogation of the powers of political censors. It’s signed by the vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

…

Say, that wouldn’t be the same Canadian Arab Federation that, at the last Liberal leadership convention, smeared Bob Rae because his wife was Jewish? Or the same Canadian Arab Federation that denounced Gerard Kennedy when he criticized the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah? The same Canadian Arab Federation that supports boycotts against Jewish businesses in Canada?

So a hater named Syed Soharwardy uses the Alberta Human Rights Commission to persecute the Western Standard;

A hater named Mohamed Elmasry uses the Ontario, B.C. and Canadian Human Rights Commissions to persecute Maclean’s magazine;

And now the hateful Canadian Arab Federation weighs in to defend these commissions as necessary.

Anyone see a pattern here?

Not that this really comes as any surprise. Islamism does have a very appreciable ability to adapt its tactics to the “lay of the land,” and in this case the Islamist agenda is being advanced in part through the human rights commissions (HRCs) in Canada.

It’s a known fact that when a majority of society aligns against some tenet of sharia law, the advocates for that Islamic bigotry will beat a hasty retreat (as CAIR recently did down in the States over the issue of Muslim cabbies refusing to give service to blind persons and their “unclean” guide dogs). It is to the advantage of the Islamists, then, if it is made illegal and punishable by fines to criticize Islam or the various barbarities of Sharia law — into the sudden silence, the radical imams and politically-minded advocates can inject all the misogyny and cruelty of their beliefs without any fear of opposition.

Update: Welcome Steynians!

In 1997, in New Orleans, a blind woman tried to enter a taxi with her seeing eye dog. The Muslim taxi driver physically attacked her and further injured an already-broken wrist. At trial, the judge described the driver’s behavior as a “total disgrace” and sentenced him to 120 days of community service at the Lighthouse for the Blind.

In 1999, a Muslim taxi driver in Cinncinati refused to transport a blind female passenger with a seeing eye dog. The woman complained; CAIR defended him as having acted in accordance with his religious beliefs. (dogs are considered impure and contact with them is considered to render a Muslim ritually unfit for prayer.)

In 2000, in Edmonton, Canada, a blind woman tried to enter a cab with her seeing eye dog. The driver first claimed ‘allergies,’ but then stated that “taking a dog conflicted with his Religion.” At trial, he failed to produce the necessary proof from an allergist. However, the case against him was dismissed because it had been improperly filed.

We also know that in 2005 and 2006, some Muslim taxi drivers in Minneapolis refused to pick up airport fares whom they suspected of transporting alcohol or pork. In 2007 the Metropolitan Airport Commission of Minnesota then unanimously voted to crack down on such drivers who “declined to transport passengers with alcohol or pork.”

What next? Will Muslim taxi drivers refuse to transport “naked” women? “Naked” as in with their faces showing?

But, what’s true of some Muslim taxi drivers is also true of some Muslim convenience store owners.

For example, in 2003, in Edmonton, Canada, a blind woman tried to enter a convenience store owned by a Muslim and was forcibly ejected by the owner who stated that, “this store is also my church because I pray and eat here and my religion will not allow dogs or any animal to come in here.” In 2004, at trial, she stated that he started yelling at her and did not allow her to explain why she needed the dog, what the dog meant to her, or to enunciate her legal rights.

In 2005, a blind man in Brooksville, Florida, who tried to enter a store with his seeing eye dog, was similarly thrown out by a raging Muslim.

Other correlates of “raging Muslim” behavior also exist: Poverty, a limited education, (but this is not always so), dim prospects for a brighter future — coupled with a very specific cultural and religious zero-frustration tolerance, hostility towards non-Muslims, and paranoia when non-Muslims are in control. However, “male” and “Muslim” are also correlates of this behavior.

Please understand: Nothing that I am saying has anything to do with “race.” Muslims come in all colors and ethnicities.

Some people have already hit the “last straw” point — some of the bloggers I read have vowed to request, from any cab company they patronize in the future, a non-Muslim driver. Others will not patronize businesses obviously run by Muslims.

I’m not at that stage yet, but I think it’s fair to say this much: there’s one strike left. One more incident, like any of the above, within the greater Edmonton area and I will never again patronize any cab, nor any business, operated by an adherent of the Islamic faith. I would strongly encourage what few readers I have to consider doing the same.

(In Soviet Russia, hat tips you: Kathy Shaidle)

Update: Welcome, Steynians!