Friday, September 16, 2005

Our Prejudice

Prejudice is an obstacle to understanding and most people abhor such injustice. However, shouts of prejudice, when used as a means to cut short any investigation, are manipulative tactics of intimidation. Islamic apologists, who want to exploit the ignorance of Americans, resort to this tactic to establish a wall of protection that pre-empts a critical examination of the Islamic religion.

They just don’t want you to learn the truth about Islam. You can sense the hysteria whenever someone presents an extensive examination of the ideology and historical record. As the negatives mount, instead of trying to refute the evidence, apologists resort to angry name-calling: “racist, prejudice, bigotry, hate!” Such tactics of intimidation are an admission that Islam can’t be defended.

A recurring pattern of intimidation, however, works. Slowly a taboo is established that prevents the critical examination of Islam. What results, ironically, is prejudice – a positive prejudice. Today we see a positive predisposition to view Islam as benign. This isn’t a result of knowledge – most people are still ignorant about Islam – but a pre-judgment. It is this prejudice that we have to work against.

Such blindness can be lethal. During the 1930s apologists downplayed the threats of communism and Nazism. I’ve discussed, more than once, the willful blindness, during the 1930s, to the horrors of communism. I’ll talk about the problem many had facing the threat of Nazism in a future post but most intelligent people know the history in a general sense.

In many ways, Islam is similar to the totalitarian threats of the 20th century but until recently Islamists lacked the financial means and military technology to commit the atrocities on the scale that we’ve seen by secular illiberal ideologies. After being defeated by Israel in conventional wars, Islamists have temporarily resorted to covert attacks that invigorate their spirit (“our success is a sign from Allah”) and motivate recruitment while technological means are being acquired or developed. They openly state that their goal is to defeat and conquer the West. A nuclear destruction of a Western city is their Holy Grail – the ultimate sign from Allah.

While Islamic apologists are busy condemning a fictitious negative prejudice they call Isalmophobia, Muslims have created the most extensive hate-movement since the 1930s. The polls showing over 90% express hatred of American and Jews lead some self-deprecating Western commentators to ask “why do they hate us?” as if we did something to earn that hatred. It’s extremely hard for many to see such hate-filled people as the hate-mongers they are. Yes, some of that hate is manipulative, but there is a core group of virulent hate-mongers that seek our destruction. And the general culture of hate and paranoia feeds the virulent and vicious among them.

The growth of this movement is little understood. A typical victim psychology has gripped Western commentators who seek hope in the illusion that it’s our fault and we can change it. Yet, it continues to surprise everyone by its worldwide growth from the Middle East to the Philippines, to Nigeria, and to the clerics who openly preach these doctrines in London.

Israelis were shocked that after Oslo there weren’t just one or two suicide bombers but, at its peak, a steady stream of daily attacks that seemed endless until the wall was built. Over the "Oslo decade" a whole generation was indoctrinated with the Islamist virus. Even leftist Israeli propagandists, like Benny Morris, who wrote volumes as a revisionist historian (see The Oslo Syndrome), admitted that he hadn’t figured on the influence of Islam. “So there is something else here, something deeper that has to do with Islam and Arab culture … There is a deep problem in Islam. It’s a world whose values are different. A world in which human life doesn’t have the same value as it does in the West, in which freedom, democracy, openness and creativity are alien. A world that makes those who are not part of the camp of Islam fair game.”

Americans and Iraqis are shocked that aside from pockets of resistance, continuous streams of jihadists attack Iraqi citizens on a daily basis. Few can face the broad revival of Islam as a vibrant warrior ideology originally practiced by Mohammad. "It must be something we did," say the apologists. Yet, secular dictators only hid this growing movement. Even Saddam had to admit the power of the revival by the creation of a massive mosque-building program. Philosophy – religious or secular – has a way of reasserting itself in the long-run unless refuted and replaced by a secure and sound alternative.

Today we face a hate-filled supremacist ideologically-driven movement with imperialist designs. Like the 1930s, our blindness virtually guarantees its growth to the point that it will take massive death and destruction before people face the evil in our presence. Prejudice – even a positive prejudice – is a loss of contact with reality that leads to fatal consequences. We must wake up; we will wake up! The only question is before or after the next major atrocity. We have to fight to insure that it sooner rather than later.

10 Comments:

Blogger Benjamin said...

Many on the Left cozy up to anybody who is against America. They simply hate their own country. "The friend of my enemy is my friend." That being said, many on the left are simply naive. (I avoid labels myself. I am somewhat suspicious of the religiosisty of the American right, though it is in no way comparable to Islam.)

To understand fanaticism, one needs to understand how emotion can overpower reason. Religion is especially prone to this, as it arouses deep existential emotions. During the European enlgihtenment, fresh from the religious wars, the 'philosophes' spoke much about 'passions'. There's some culture for you, Jason!

9/16/05, 10:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty much everything written in Our Prejudice applies not just to Muslims but to blacks. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the evil culture and lifestyle of most of the residents of New Orleans is left almost utterly uncriticized -- except for the usual PC smears of whites and capitalism. Blacks in America and elsewhere are incredibly illiberal and anti-American -- as well as massively bigoted and racist. But to identify any of their beliefs and practices as profoundly wrong is to leave yourself wide open to denunciations of "racism" -- in the same way, and for all the same reasons, cited in the article.

9/16/05, 8:01 PM  
Blogger beakerkin said...

I have been giving this subject some thought.

We are most likely to see mental defectives like Ducky. They are attention seekers mainly.

2 Insane hateful communists bigots like 167. They are easily dispatched.

3 Naive dopes like the Anarchist Wintermute who are naive but also easily punted.

4 Lastly we see the rare jihadist .I think that there was once a person who called you a Joo and the rest of us dogs. Warren let him have it.

Know thy pests and dispatch them accordingly

9/16/05, 8:25 PM  
Blogger Always On Watch said...

I agree with Benjamin Orion that religious beliefs can overpower reason. But if the practitioners of any faith have respect for human life--all human life--that respect will temper the emotion and the tendency to act on the us-versus-them dogma.

I'll speak as a Christian. I have my convictions as to the validity of my faith, but I have no desire to kill anyone who doesn't believe as I do. I might try to persuade you of the tenets of my faith, but the idea of forcing you to believe as I do is foreign to me. You have the free will and the freedom to take care of your own soul, just as I have the same free will and the freedom to tend to mine. I count among my friends these diverse groups: atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Jews, all demominations of Christians. I have worked with and have had business dealings with Muslims, but when they find out that I'm a Christian, they always walk away. Why is that?

In short, tyranny of men is always morally wrong, in my view. And when any religion is used to further the tyranny of men, I find that religion objectionable and dangerous. Too often, history shows religion as tyranny. I believe that religion is a private matter and a personal faith, and should be practiced as such.

Furthermore, I try to look for good wherever I can. My Bible speaks of "Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are pure..." Many "good and pure" things are not Christian per se.

And the converse is also true. Some things are evil and impure. Islamism is an evil ideology because it inherently furthers the tyranny of men. And that's what some of the criers of "Islamophobes" are so afraid that we'll discover. Others of the criers just want to side with anything which denigrates the ideals of America.

Yes, Jason, we see many with a positive predisposition to view Islam as benign. And as you've pointed out, the same was true with Nazism and Communism.

Since the London bombings, some eyes have opened--but not enough.

9/16/05, 8:29 PM  
Blogger Pastorius said...

Good post. I look forward to your post on how people avoided coming to recognize Nazism as evil during the 1930's. It's a pathetic history. I hope it will serve as a mirror in which people can view their current actions and dispositions.

You are right that if we, as a civilization, do not wake up soon we will face massive destruction. And then, as you say, we will be awake.

9/16/05, 8:40 PM  
Blogger Always On Watch said...

Americans have a tradition of waking up late. Considering the weaponry now available, we cannot afford the luxury of sleeping in.

9/16/05, 10:01 PM  
Blogger LA Sunset said...

I think the claims of racism each and everytime someone is accused of something, hurts their cause when there really is a case of racism. Similar to a cry wolf syndrome. But let's face it. Groups like CAIR and people like Jesse Jackson, have to create problems, when there are none, so as to jusify their worthless existences.

Also, in every modern war that the media has been involved in, there has been a propaganda machine. In this war, it is CAIR that is one of the designated propaganda machines, run by this enemy. The difference between WWII and the communist conflict machines and those of this war today, is the media reported propaganda from those enemies, as propaganda. And, today's media reports today's propaganda, as fact.

9/16/05, 11:24 PM  
Blogger Benjamin said...

Whooops! Make that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'!

9/17/05, 2:16 PM  
Blogger gandalf said...

I am in the process of writing a paper concerning Islamic personality", the following is a broad definition of how western psychology describes "personality"

"An individuals set of characteristics which are unique to the individual (many people have similar personalities but not identical) made up of the totality of an individuals attitudes, interests, social values, behaviour patterns, social role and emotional responses.”

The above includes formal and informal education processes.

The Islamic mindset appears to be much more "contructed" and the development of personality is manipulated.

The education of a muslim is from a victim perspective, the Qu'ran is
wriiten in victim mode, all emotional responses are prescribed in the Qu'ran as are ways to behave and also not to question

The important word is"prescribed".
Thus, in Islam there is a conditioning process from birth to death. This creates concrete thinking, thus when the muslim percieves any threat(this can be a very minor thing) against Islam
the response is veherment and hateful, the prescribed response is
demonstrated.

A very similar form of conditioning was used by the Nazis
indeed if you Read Mein Kampf and the qu'ran there is little difference in the messge

With this group of people being in constant "victim mode", thier perception of others is inevitably one based on paranoia, this can vary in strength from person to person.

So we have a group of people who have strictly constructed personalities augmented by concrete thinking with various degrees of paranoia to boot.

The world is thier enemy, the conctrete block is Islam - thus if all the world is Islam- no-one will hate them, they will no longer be the victim but the victor

this is a very dangerous mix, it is pointless for people in the west to wonder or ask "why do they hate us" there is no answer to that.

There may be many "reasons" given by the Islamic world for thier dislike of the West but that is Taqiyya.

we are seeing the enactment of conditioned responses that has been happening for the past 1400 years.

I will be posting the full paper in about a month on my site, just click on the blue gandalf

9/17/05, 5:07 PM  
Blogger Jason Pappas said...

Yes, I'm definitely interested in your assessment of the Arab/Islamic psyche. The concrete-bound mentality – also called a rule-based mentality – is something I’ve been thinking about lately. I touched upon the topic in passing here but there's so much more to say.

9/18/05, 10:49 PM  

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