- This topic has 5 voices and 21 replies.
-
Posts
-
After London in 2013, today in Wuppertal, Germany, 2014Sharia polizei
Somewhere along the line, a conscious decision has been made or will be made about how far Islamist extremism will be permitted in Europe.
I heard about them on the news. Here is a story about the incident in English: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2014/09/05/Police-arrest-Sharia-Police-in-Wuppertal-Germany/2811409937280/I hope and think that normal westerners are starting to wake up to the danger posed by not just extremists but muslims in general. The problem is that Islamists are seen as if not quite mainstream, then representing a legitimate thread of Islamic thought by many non-extremist muslims. It is as though the average Christian would tell you that "while I disagree with the Westboro Baptist Church's preachings, they kind of have a point." Failure to condemn confers legitimacy. The fact is that Islamists are animals and those that support them whether tacitly or covertly are just as guilty of any outrage. Huntington was right, we are looking at a Clash of Civilizations. The big difference is that right now most westerners refuse to acknowledge that the clash is occurring.Things are going to get worse before they get better because it will take some huge Islamist outrage to wake people up. 9/11, Madrid, and the London Underground bombings were apparently not enough.
I agree with you about the separation between “Islamists” and non-extremist Muslims. Maybe I'm just missing it, but I don't hear much of any push-back by any so-called mainstream Muslim groups when people kill in the name is Islam. Heck, there's an entire militarized group marching through Iraq at the moment which has the name “Islam” in its title….you'd think that there would be at least some Muslims standing up and definitively denouncing ISIS as false Muslims. I have to think that there's a conscious effort to ignore this issue on the part of the media. In America, how often have we seen the media try to infer racism in the Tea Party with the slightest of threads? And yet it seems like when groups massacre people in malls or in hotels, when they force people to recite verses from the Koran, when they force people to convert, that the media reports it and then moves on. I don't think that society needs to stand up and condemn Islam for the actions of its adherents, but society does need to tell Muslims to condemn the actions of their fellow believers.
There actually are a few groups of Muslims who condemn the Islamists but they are few and far between. You even actually hear about them on the news every once in a while. Just recently there was a piece on the German news about how the Imam of the largest mosque in Manchester is kicking Islamists and Salafists out of his mosque and refusing to allow them to come to Friday prayers. The main point of the story was about how he has received death threats and is under police protection though.
Well that's good to hear. I think the fact that there is no central authority in Islam (like there is in Catholicism, or even various large Protestant congregations) does make it difficult for a consistent message to be released to the public.
Policeman: I surrender (je me rends) I surrender (je me rends)gunman: You wanted to kill me !? (T'as voulu me tuer !?)Policeman: It's ok-alright, boss (C'est bon, chef !)gunman: We've avenged the prophet (on a vengé le prophete Mohammed) Charlie Hebdo is dead (Charlie Hebdo est mort)http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2be_1420632685
