RUTHFULLY YOURS

When “rebels” booted out Assad and took over Syria I surveyed a couple of people. Both, having listened to the news, probably the ABC News, indicated that they were suspending judgment on the outcome. One of the two is gay. I said to him ‘they are jihadis’. He was not convinced. I don’t know why but many, perhaps most, Westerners are naïve when it comes to Islam. Thus the metamorphosis of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the terrorist leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which evolved out of Al Qaeda – is given some unmerited benefit of the doubt. This is probably down to all that misconceived talk of moderate Muslims; and you might recall “the religion of peace” had a run before it tested the credulity of even useful idiots.The new top guy in Syria, al-Jolani, has swapped his nom de guerre for his birth name Ahmed al-Shara. He dresses in a suit rather than fatigues. He is every bit the model of the moderate Islamic gentleman. All part of the makeover. Antony Blinken is ready to be wooed, though we can safely bank on Netanyahu to remain locked and loaded. Penny Wong will undoubtedly and happily take any position which most harms Israel. If recent history is a guide, Tony Burke will be keen on rushing tourist-visa applications to disaffected Syrian Muslims.

To a small extent, this piece is a cautionary tale for Mr Shara. Feign being moderate too effectively and a fundamentalist henchman might well take your head. However, mainly it is a cautionary tale for those in the West whose optimism about Islam outruns their realism.

As al-Jolani, Ahmed al-Shara has a history of fighting infidels. From a PBS Frontline article:

Over most of two decades, Jolani’s life was a roadmap of Islamist militancy in Iraq and Syria. He battled U.S. forces in Iraq and was jailed by the Americans for several years. He had risen through the ranks of the group then known as the Islamic State of Iraq, or ISI, and then with help from ISI’s successor, ISIS, Jolani founded an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra.

Can a jihadist change his fanatical mindset? Should we be wary? Or is that just too cynical? Best to be cynical if the cost of being wrong is having your throat cut. Remember, Muslims are not bound by the truth when non-Muslims are in a position of power over them. Lying and deception, taqiyya, is permissible. See, for example, Mark Durie on this matter in The Third Choice. Right now al-Shara needs to curry favour with the US and Europe. Nothing he says should be taken at face value. As that cynic Daniel Greenfield puts it in jihadwatch:

Even as Islamic Jihadists are taking over Syria, ethnically cleansing Kurds and terrorizing Christians, the media is hailing the new “inclusive” regime which “liberated” Syria. The regime is indeed inclusive if you consider bearded men with assault rifles to be the measure of inclusivity. And terrorizing minorities to be the exciting new diversity. “This victory, my brothers, is a victory for the entire Islamic nation,” [al-Shara] declared in the Umayyad Mosque…[echoing] the speech given by his old friend, the former ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri.

You may know of O’Sullivan’s law. Named after John O’Sullivan, Quadrant’s esteemed International Editor. To wit: “All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.” Surely, that is one of the truest of all laws not rooted in the physical sciences. Moral preening and virtue signalling takes any number of pantywaist centre-righters to the dark side.

I have a new law of somewhat similar character. Though I don’t want to give it the kiss of death by naming it. It is this: countries which have an overwhelmingly Muslim population inevitably drift towards fundamentalism unless there is a strongman holding it at bay. Kemal Ataturk held it back in Turkey as did the Shah, backed by America, in Persia. Each eventually succumbed. Some people look to Indonesia and Malaysia as exceptions. Maybe. But both are moving to close down Christian churches rather than to accommodate their opening. The trend is in the usual Islamic direction. This should not be surprising. Islamic scripture calls for Muslim domination. One among many examples:

He it is who sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion, however much disbelievers are averse. — Koran 9:33, Pickthall translation

Even during periods when fundamentalism ebbs, be alert. The scripture is a ticking timebomb. Most Western atheists and Christians wherever they sit politically simply don’t understand Islam. A case in point is the outrage over Islamic preachers preaching hate. For example, referring to Jews as being akin to apes and pigs. This is not hate speech, it is scripture, albeit hateful scripture. Consider these three Koranic verses aimed at Jews: 

And ye know of those of you who broke the Sabbath, how We said unto them: Be ye apes, despised and hated! (2:65) / …Worse is he of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine…(5:60) / So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed! (7:166)

And then there is this infamous hadith, often preached by so-called hate preachers. And why wouldn’t they? It’s their scripture, stupid!

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. — al-Bukhari and Moslem

Let me make up a hadith.

Allah made them naïve and gullible so that they could be easily duped and subjugated. — al-Smith