Who is Radical Islam?

Much has been said about the speech of Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the 10th session of the Islamic Summit Conference on Oct. 16. If you have only seen excerpts, the full text of the speech can be found here, (link via LGF.)

You've probably already seen these excerpts:

Those weapons and horses cannot help to defend us any more. We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defence.

...

It cannot be that there is no other way. 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategise and then to counter-attack.

....

We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.

But, I think these comments demonstrate the crux of the problem:

We are up against a people who think. They survived 2000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking. They invented and successfully promoted Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also.

The claim is that 1.3 billion Muslims are being persecuted by the Jewish people, who control the world, and get the whole world to fight for them by proxy. Not only that, these Jews have promoted all these types of government so that "persecuting them would appear to be wrong."

Think about it. What is the implication here?

His assertion is that persecuting the Jews is the right thing to do. They have only made it "appear" to be the wrong thing to do.

What was the reaction at the conference? Fifty-seven leaders, including Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Musharraf of Pakistan, Abdullah of Saudi Arabia gave him a standing ovation.

So the mere existence of Israel has accomplished the oppression of 1.3 Muslims throughout the world, and it is against this threat that they must regroup and unite and "counter attack."

Can you say Armageddon? (I realize many of you may not ascribe to biblical prophecy, but I cannot ignore that the bible is written with Israel at its center and here we are 2,000 years later, with Israel at the center of world conflict.)

Contrast this scenario with the war on terror.

We have 19 Muslim hijackers who kill 3,000 people in the US on Sept. 19.

We have Muslim snipers who go on a killing spree in D.C.

We have Muslim U.S. soldiers who attack and kill their own during war time.

We have a Muslim Chaplain and two Muslim translators charged with crimes from spying to disobeying orders at Guantanamo.

We have Bali.

We have Riyadh.

We have Morocco.

We have Abdurahman Alamoudi, who was responsible for recruitment, training, and certification of Muslim military chaplains, who identified himself as President of the American Muslim Foundation, now under arrest for laundering funds from Libya to support U.S. Islamic organizations.

Now read this, a personal account from Blackfive of encountering the same attitude from a well educated, U.S. Muslim friend, (link via Boots and Sabers.)

One of my friends is a guy I met in grad school a few years ago. He's a lawyer that practices IP law and was pursuing a MS in Computer Science to further his knowledge of programming. He is brilliant. Went to U of Chicago undergrad, then Northwestern University Law. He works for one of the biggest law firms in the world. He is from Pakistan. His name is Masood.

A few months ago, Masood invited me to his brother's birthday party. Since I love Middle Eastern food and knew his family pretty well, I went.

....

Masood's younger brother just came right out with what everyone of them was alluding to...: "The f-cking Jews controll everything."

Me: "Come on. Do they control your family's restaurant? Do they control your alderman? Mayor Daley?"

.....

Masood, surprising the hell out of me, was nodding his head in agreement: "Just like 9-11."

Me: "What?"

Masood: "Just like 9-11 where the Mossad flew planes into buildings."

WTF?!

Me: "You can't really mean that, Masood. Really?"

Masood's older brother spoke again, pointing at me: "You are just too stupid to see. Americans are puppets of the Jews."

Me, ignoring Masood's idiot brother: "That's really ridiculous. You are telling me that Al Qaeda is controlled by the Mossad?"

Masood looked me right in the eye: "No. Al Qaeda didn't bomb the buildings. The Mossad did."

......

What I can tell you is that experience scared the hell out of me. How the hell can a guy be so well-educated and smart and successful in America and be so close-minded at the same time?

We, the west, have been very careful to define this conflict as the war on Terrorism, and in doing so we have made it very clear that we are not at war with the people of Islam.

Our enemy is radical Islam.

Here is the question I have.

How do I tell the difference? I'm asking you honestly.

How do we know what lies in the hearts from one Muslim to the next?

How do we protect ourselves? How do we determine if someone in the armed forces is actually a sleeper working for the enemy?

Can anyone tell me?

I'm not advocating a war on Islam, or detention camps like the Japanese were interned at during WWII. However, I question if we in our politically correct little world are simply naive.

When the Prime Minister of Malaysia can claim the Jewish people run the world, and all other nations are their puppets and then receive a standing ovation, this tells me that we have been blind to the scope of radical Islamicism.

How can we align ourselves with those who think, It is right to persecute them. They are Jews.?

How do we defend ourselves against those who believe this, and use our very freedom against us?

DC

Update Oct. 23: Don't miss Conrad's post here with insightful analysis of Mahathir's speech.

Comments

[ant]

I never read beyond the headline that Mahathir was trying to incite the Muslims to rise up against the Jews. That scared me enough. I must admit I shouldn't be surprised because I already know how Mahathir had suppressed Chinese-Malaysians and wrongfully imprisoned his political challengers.

I recall from some source that many of the renown terrorist leaders were schooled in the best universities the US has to offer. I think we'd be very naive to believe that the educated or even highly educated (and intelligent) aren't prone to be radicals. Knowledge can actually be very dangerous. I think Sun Tzu said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "if you know yourself and you know your enemy, you will win everytime you fight".

Anyway, I understand and share your concerns. Unfortunately, there is no answer. I suppose we can do some form of profiling, but there are always outliers. How many times have we had the surprise reaction "Oh, s/he was always so quiet. I can't believe ..."?

Radicals exist in all groups. Right now, the Muslims seem to be the primary focus. I just hate to see that focus be the catalyst and we have a self-fulfilling prophecy on our hands.

Ok, I think I basically rambled on without saying much. Same old ant.

Lots of nuts out there. Let's hope our nutcrackers work well.