The [London] Daily Telegraph reports the following:
Muslim places of worship in two French towns were fired upon overnight, leaving no casualties, prosecutors said on Thursday.
Three blank grenades were thrown at a mosque shortly after midnight in the city of Le Mans, west of Paris. A bullet hole was also found in a window of the mosque.
In the Port-la-Nouvelle district near Narbonne in southern France, several shots were fired in the direction of a Muslim prayer hall shortly after evening prayers. The hall was empty, the local prosecutor said.
An explosion at a kebab shop near a mosque in the eastern French town of Villefranche-sur-Saone on Thursday morning also left no casualties. Local prosecutors have described it as a “criminal act”.
France is on edge following the deadly assault by heavily armed gunmen on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday that left 12 dead. No link has yet been established between the attacks.
Here’s an interesting observation:
Rarely do you hear of mosques being threatened or attacked in any way, at least not in the name of Westernism, secularism, or even Judaism or Christianity.
Why is that? I’m not advocating the initiation of violence against anyone, including the blowing up of private houses of worship, or private homes of any kind. But if Muslims are, at least in part, victims of Western egoism and imperialism, as many of our educated elites and officials believe, then why do they not live in fear for their lives like anybody who is non-Muslim? If we’re really so bad, why are they not afraid? And why are we terrorized because of their beliefs?
Why is my first reaction to reading this Telegraph story, “Well, that will never happen. Those mosques and their members have nothing to fear.” And why is that reaction probably reasonable? And certainly supported by fact, at least to date?
Imagine for a moment that even one highly visible act of terrorism was committed against an Islamic mosque, or other Muslim symbol, in the name of Christianity, individual rights, secularism or Judiasm. (I’m lumping those differing things together because what they share in common is that they’re all enemies of Islam, as Islam generally defines it.)
Imagine the upheaval. The screams and rage in the streets. The State Department condemnations, the President’s address to the nation that executive orders will now be issued to ensure non-discrimination and non-violence against Muslims, the Pentagon’s demand that troops show respect and dignity towards the religion, etc. etc.
College campuses would probably erupt in an upheaval like nothing seen since the 60s. Everywhere you’d look, you’d find defense for the glory of tolerance, diversity and the dignity of all religions, most particularly an oppressed religion such as Islam.
I don’t buy the idea that Islam is really a religion of “peace,” and that the adherents who orchestrate dozens or hundreds of these beheadings, explosions and shootings in the name of their faith are merely fringe elements. If that were true, you’d find protesting in the streets by the majority of Muslims who are sickened and disturbed by those who are doing obviously barbaric things in their name. If a fringe group of Jews began launching orchestrated attacks against innocent civilians and even children in the name of Judiasm, I bet you’d find thousands of Jews protesting in outrage. Ditto if it were Christians.
My point here isn’t to defend these other religions so much as to point out an obvious fact and ask the most obvious question of all: Where are the peace-loving Muslims whenever there are attacks, shootings, beheadings, hostage-takings or other actions of this kind?
The magnitude of, and the inherent logical contradiction contained in, a contradiction of this sort provides more than a clue as to why we’re losing the war against Islamic terrorism, despite superior firepower and a massively superior existence economically and technologically.
Sophisticated aliens arriving from another galaxy would have to marvel. Here you have two warring parties on this planet. One side is bitter, angry, and fervently believes in the afterlife as the only thing that matters. Suicide is an act of glory, particularly when paired with the genocide of infidels (defined as anyone who does not believe.) Allah (their supernatural god) is everything and the only thing. You’re either with Him or against Him and if you’re against him — well, consider yourself dead.
On the other side, you have technologically and militarily massively advanced civilizations (Great Britain, France, the United States). Church and state are separate, for the most part. People practice all manner of religions (including even Islam) and some practice no religion at all. They’re bound by their common interest in their freedoms, and the secular nature of their civilizations (whether they’re personally religious or not). Yet they also attempt to subscribe to the view of “turn the other cheek.” They are not pacifists, but they don’t really have an inclination to retaliate beyond the bare minimum (if that), and only if done in a spirit of brotherhood, multicultural sensitivity, and love.
Their angry foes respond not with calmness or love in return, but only more hatred and more violence. The more one side shows restraint, humility and love, the more the other side — with their inferior technology and capacity — fires harder, and more effectively, than ever. The free countries’ leaders apologize to the world for their past arrogance and their enlightened ways, promising to be more understanding and humble in the future. “There,” they smugly hope. “Now people will like us.” What happens? More bombs and hatred than ever. And everyone is acting stunned and confused.
The aliens would have to ask: What’s wrong with those people on the losing side? They’re superior in every respect, and — compared to the haters — they love life and find their civilizations meaningful and purposeful. Unlike the haters, they have something to lose. Most of them don’t wish to die, and have plenty to live for. So why don’t they seem like they want to fight for their right to live and thrive? Where is their will to live?
At some point — now, perhaps? — we’ve got to start looking at all this terrorism objectively. The attack on the Paris satirical newspaper is an attack on freedom of expression. We’re supposedly against “hate crimes,” but hatred of freedom, backed up by violence, is the ultimate hate crime.
Many of us are so worried about not appearing hateful by stating the obvious truth that we’ve made ourselves more vulnerable to hatred and violence than at any time in the history of free nations. Unearned guilt is a sad, sick and dangerous thing.
It’s literally killing us. More and more of us, all the time.
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