| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Calling Londonistan:
It’s Time To Wake Up
They were such nice boys, born and raised in Britain,
“totally aware of British life and values,“ as John Stevens, ex-
Metropolitan Police chief of London, put it. One of them was a
respected teacher’s assistant. What could have made such
good British boys become mad suicide bombers who willfully,
wantonly and depravedly targeted innocent fellow citizens for
horrific and merciless death?
It’s a question that the world’s psychiatrists could argue
over for the rest of their careers and perhaps for all eternity.
But disregarding the useless intellectual exercise of clinically
diagnosing these murderous Muslim punks, the answer, in a
way, is deceptively simple: the poisonous and perverse ideology
of radical Islam made them -- or, at least, encouraged them --
to do it.
But the only way that could happen would have been if their
otherwise harmless identity as everyday Muslims had somehow
become radicalized and far stronger than their identity as
Britons. And why would that have happened? Because they
had been unduly influenced by Britain’s large, teeming
population of unassimilated Muslims who would rather brood
over and nurse perceived grievances against Islam than simply
take advantage of all the opportunities offered in the West and
make a good life for themselves.
And it would be hard to find a place outside the Middle East
more infested with radical Islam than London, or Londonistan,
as it is commonly and derisively referred to. One former
counterterrorism official has likened it to “the Star Wars bar
scene” for Islamic radicals.” Everyday and twice on Friday,
radical imams are preaching jihad to the high heavens in
London and throughout Britain. Considering Britain’s
hospitality and extraordinary tolerance, it doesn’t seem very
cricket of them, what? But Britons ought be tolerant of them,
oughtn’t they?
Well, actually, no, they oughtn‘t, unless they want the
Britain that they know and love to go the way of the dodo bird.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell. What Britain has created for
itself is the ultimate multicultural conundrum: How do you
tolerate the intolerant culture that wants to destroy your
culture of tolerance without risking the total loss of your
enlightened toleration? Or to put it more simply: How do you
practice enlightened tolerance in a world filled with
apocalyptic Islamic terrorists without allowing it to become a
societal suicide pact?
The first clue to the rather simple answer is that
enlightened tolerance does not require the toleration of
extreme intolerance, which is what constitutes radical Islam.
Unfortunately, the high priests of multiculturalism don’t get
that, or at least they didn’t before 7/7. Whether their
heretofore impervious minds will change post-7/7 remains to
be seen, but it’s a cinch the more sensible British masses will be
clamoring for change because they won’t be willing to risk
carnage in the streets on any given day for the sake of
someone’s politically correct fantasy of warm and fuzzy one-
worldness.
But how did Britain get in this fix to begin with? It would
seem that in Britain’s drive to rid itself of historical guilt over
colonialism, empire, and all the other havoc wreaked upon
mankind by its white Eurocentric depredations, it allowed a
clearly dangerous culture to flourish in the midst of its own,
one whose perverse extremes have openly advocated the
destruction of Western culture. Britain apparently believed
that the allowance of this would illustrate its newfound
enlightenment and tolerance.
But the seething 800-pound gorilla in the living room that
no one’s been willing to talk about is that that ugly, perverse
and dangerous culture that Britain was willing to tolerate isn’t
itself willing to tolerate any other, including Britain‘s, and so,
in being so insanely tolerant, Britain potentially sows the seeds
of its own destruction.
And here’s the final rub for the gurus of multicultiness. If
the culture of tolerance -- which is to say, Western culture -- is
defeated, or even seriously undermined, then multiculturalism
will quickly be relegated to the dustbin of history and that’s it
for enlightenment and tolerance in anyone’s foreseeable
future. To the more rabid, uncompromising multiculturalists
it must seem like the mother of all catch-22’s.
The good news is, there’s a way out. It’s called
“moderation.” If you want to preserve multiculturalism, you
just have to moderate it so that its extremes don’t eat you
alive. You have to be willing to face certain facts, no matter
how unpleasant, including acceptance of the fact that all
human cultures do not have the same inherent value. Thus, a
culture that spawns, glorifies or tolerates the bombings --
suicide or otherwise -- of innocents is intellectually, as well as
morally, inferior and does not deserve the tolerance of
British/Western culture.
So the prescription for change is simple: you shut down the
homegrown Muslim hate machine no matter whose sensitivities
get bruised in the process. If there are complaints that
prejudice rather than self-preservation is behind the new
commonsensical scrutiny of Muslims, too bad. Which is worse,
hurt feelings or shattered transit systems and bags full of
mangled bodies?
The Brits will have to keep a stiff upper lip not only against
the threat of terror, but also against their insane British and
Western brethren who will try and convince them that if
Britain will just pull out of Iraq or if Israel will just make a deal
with the Palestinians, then the madness will cease. It won’t.
Iraq and Israel are symptoms of the real and much larger
problem. The targeted bombings of innocents are the most
extreme manifestations of the angst of a failed and degraded
civilization.
Why Arab/Islamic civilization has failed is a subject about
which ponderous tomes have been written and is beyond the
scope of a trifling column. Suffice it to say, however, that
generally speaking, it’s due to a poisonous combination of
religious fanaticism, irrational and immutable hatred of Jews,
a long festering inferiority complex due to the centuries-long
imbalance of power between the West and the Muslim world,
and some of the worst leadership on the face of the planet. It
all adds up to the stifling of progress and instead encourages
the indulgence of the worst impulses that human beings are
prone to.
Then, because of the politics of ethnic identity and culture,
the pathology gets exported to the West and you end up with
9/11, or Spain’s 3/11, and now Britain’s 7/7. Or, in the
extremely liberal and hospitable Netherlands, the murder of
Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist upset
with van Gogh’s criticism of Islam’s treatment of women,
among other things. The Islamist shot van Gogh 15 times, then
stabbed him, then slit his throat for good measure, all in front
of numerous witnesses on the street. Just the other day in
court the killer declared that he acted purely in the name of his
religion and would do the same again if ever released. He also
said to the mother of the victim in court that, “I cannot feel for
you . . . because I believe you are an infidel.”
That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
In the meantime, over in Iraq, there was the recent suicide
bombing of candy-seeking children as they gathered around
U.S. soldiers. Human beings can’t get any more depraved than
the ones who committed that act. You want these monsters to
win? Then go ahead, pull out of Iraq and make their day. Just
don’t expect the worldwide jihad to get called off due to lack of
interest. The jihad ain’t over till it’s over and that’s when the
fat and happy infidels have got what’s coming to them.
And back in Britain the BBC continues to eschew the word
“terrorist” because it is scared witless about the “careless use
of words which carry emotional or value judgments.” If the
“insurgents” in Iraq or the homeboy bombers of 7/7 can’t be
called terrorists because the self-anointed high priests of
Western culture consider it an unjustifiable “value judgment,”
Western culture will soon be done for.
Calling Londonistan: Wake up!
It’s Time To Wake Up
They were such nice boys, born and raised in Britain,
“totally aware of British life and values,“ as John Stevens, ex-
Metropolitan Police chief of London, put it. One of them was a
respected teacher’s assistant. What could have made such
good British boys become mad suicide bombers who willfully,
wantonly and depravedly targeted innocent fellow citizens for
horrific and merciless death?
It’s a question that the world’s psychiatrists could argue
over for the rest of their careers and perhaps for all eternity.
But disregarding the useless intellectual exercise of clinically
diagnosing these murderous Muslim punks, the answer, in a
way, is deceptively simple: the poisonous and perverse ideology
of radical Islam made them -- or, at least, encouraged them --
to do it.
But the only way that could happen would have been if their
otherwise harmless identity as everyday Muslims had somehow
become radicalized and far stronger than their identity as
Britons. And why would that have happened? Because they
had been unduly influenced by Britain’s large, teeming
population of unassimilated Muslims who would rather brood
over and nurse perceived grievances against Islam than simply
take advantage of all the opportunities offered in the West and
make a good life for themselves.
And it would be hard to find a place outside the Middle East
more infested with radical Islam than London, or Londonistan,
as it is commonly and derisively referred to. One former
counterterrorism official has likened it to “the Star Wars bar
scene” for Islamic radicals.” Everyday and twice on Friday,
radical imams are preaching jihad to the high heavens in
London and throughout Britain. Considering Britain’s
hospitality and extraordinary tolerance, it doesn’t seem very
cricket of them, what? But Britons ought be tolerant of them,
oughtn’t they?
Well, actually, no, they oughtn‘t, unless they want the
Britain that they know and love to go the way of the dodo bird.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell. What Britain has created for
itself is the ultimate multicultural conundrum: How do you
tolerate the intolerant culture that wants to destroy your
culture of tolerance without risking the total loss of your
enlightened toleration? Or to put it more simply: How do you
practice enlightened tolerance in a world filled with
apocalyptic Islamic terrorists without allowing it to become a
societal suicide pact?
The first clue to the rather simple answer is that
enlightened tolerance does not require the toleration of
extreme intolerance, which is what constitutes radical Islam.
Unfortunately, the high priests of multiculturalism don’t get
that, or at least they didn’t before 7/7. Whether their
heretofore impervious minds will change post-7/7 remains to
be seen, but it’s a cinch the more sensible British masses will be
clamoring for change because they won’t be willing to risk
carnage in the streets on any given day for the sake of
someone’s politically correct fantasy of warm and fuzzy one-
worldness.
But how did Britain get in this fix to begin with? It would
seem that in Britain’s drive to rid itself of historical guilt over
colonialism, empire, and all the other havoc wreaked upon
mankind by its white Eurocentric depredations, it allowed a
clearly dangerous culture to flourish in the midst of its own,
one whose perverse extremes have openly advocated the
destruction of Western culture. Britain apparently believed
that the allowance of this would illustrate its newfound
enlightenment and tolerance.
But the seething 800-pound gorilla in the living room that
no one’s been willing to talk about is that that ugly, perverse
and dangerous culture that Britain was willing to tolerate isn’t
itself willing to tolerate any other, including Britain‘s, and so,
in being so insanely tolerant, Britain potentially sows the seeds
of its own destruction.
And here’s the final rub for the gurus of multicultiness. If
the culture of tolerance -- which is to say, Western culture -- is
defeated, or even seriously undermined, then multiculturalism
will quickly be relegated to the dustbin of history and that’s it
for enlightenment and tolerance in anyone’s foreseeable
future. To the more rabid, uncompromising multiculturalists
it must seem like the mother of all catch-22’s.
The good news is, there’s a way out. It’s called
“moderation.” If you want to preserve multiculturalism, you
just have to moderate it so that its extremes don’t eat you
alive. You have to be willing to face certain facts, no matter
how unpleasant, including acceptance of the fact that all
human cultures do not have the same inherent value. Thus, a
culture that spawns, glorifies or tolerates the bombings --
suicide or otherwise -- of innocents is intellectually, as well as
morally, inferior and does not deserve the tolerance of
British/Western culture.
So the prescription for change is simple: you shut down the
homegrown Muslim hate machine no matter whose sensitivities
get bruised in the process. If there are complaints that
prejudice rather than self-preservation is behind the new
commonsensical scrutiny of Muslims, too bad. Which is worse,
hurt feelings or shattered transit systems and bags full of
mangled bodies?
The Brits will have to keep a stiff upper lip not only against
the threat of terror, but also against their insane British and
Western brethren who will try and convince them that if
Britain will just pull out of Iraq or if Israel will just make a deal
with the Palestinians, then the madness will cease. It won’t.
Iraq and Israel are symptoms of the real and much larger
problem. The targeted bombings of innocents are the most
extreme manifestations of the angst of a failed and degraded
civilization.
Why Arab/Islamic civilization has failed is a subject about
which ponderous tomes have been written and is beyond the
scope of a trifling column. Suffice it to say, however, that
generally speaking, it’s due to a poisonous combination of
religious fanaticism, irrational and immutable hatred of Jews,
a long festering inferiority complex due to the centuries-long
imbalance of power between the West and the Muslim world,
and some of the worst leadership on the face of the planet. It
all adds up to the stifling of progress and instead encourages
the indulgence of the worst impulses that human beings are
prone to.
Then, because of the politics of ethnic identity and culture,
the pathology gets exported to the West and you end up with
9/11, or Spain’s 3/11, and now Britain’s 7/7. Or, in the
extremely liberal and hospitable Netherlands, the murder of
Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist upset
with van Gogh’s criticism of Islam’s treatment of women,
among other things. The Islamist shot van Gogh 15 times, then
stabbed him, then slit his throat for good measure, all in front
of numerous witnesses on the street. Just the other day in
court the killer declared that he acted purely in the name of his
religion and would do the same again if ever released. He also
said to the mother of the victim in court that, “I cannot feel for
you . . . because I believe you are an infidel.”
That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
In the meantime, over in Iraq, there was the recent suicide
bombing of candy-seeking children as they gathered around
U.S. soldiers. Human beings can’t get any more depraved than
the ones who committed that act. You want these monsters to
win? Then go ahead, pull out of Iraq and make their day. Just
don’t expect the worldwide jihad to get called off due to lack of
interest. The jihad ain’t over till it’s over and that’s when the
fat and happy infidels have got what’s coming to them.
And back in Britain the BBC continues to eschew the word
“terrorist” because it is scared witless about the “careless use
of words which carry emotional or value judgments.” If the
“insurgents” in Iraq or the homeboy bombers of 7/7 can’t be
called terrorists because the self-anointed high priests of
Western culture consider it an unjustifiable “value judgment,”
Western culture will soon be done for.
Calling Londonistan: Wake up!