MODERATE MUSLIMS MUST RECOGNIZE THAT TERROR AND SEDITION INSPIRE FEAR OF ISLAM
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/26695
Moderate Muslims must recognize how terror and sedition under color of Islam inspire fear of Islam
by Bill Levinson
Elizabeth I, who was perhaps England’s greatest monarch, is still painted as a monster by the Catholic Church. It was during her reign, but apparently without her approval, that Saint Margaret Clitherow was executed by pressing to death (the same torture that was applied to Giles Corey in The Crucible). The term “priest hole†refers to the hiding places in which Catholic priests had to conceal themselves to avoid death by hanging, and possibly disemboweling and quartering.
Elizabeth had good reason to hate Catholicism because her older sister had burned hundreds of her fellow Protestants alive, and she had herself lived in terror of judicial murder by the same sister. Her father had started a cycle of hatred by executing Catholics such as Sir Thomas More who objected to his creation of the Church of England, and her sister perpetuated it by bringing in the Spanish Inquisition to burn Protestants. Elizabeth wanted to end that cycle of hatred and make England into perhaps the second or third country in Europe (the Polish Commonwealth was the first) in which religious freedom would prevail. What then passed for the Catholic Church made this impossible and brought centuries of grief and persecution to English Catholics.
Elizabeth’s original position was apparently similar to that of Henry V who proclaimed that, while every subject’s duty belonged to the monarch, every subject’s soul was his own. It was in fact comparable to Jesus’ injunction to render unto Caesar (King or Country) that which was Caesar’s, and to God that which was God’s. Compare the Oath of Supremacy that Elizabeth demanded of her subjects to a similar statement by Frederick William of Prussia and, later, the U.S. Oath of Citizenship.
Oath of Supremacy under Elizabeth I
I, A. B., do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen’s Highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privileges and authorities granted or belonging to the Queen’s Highness, her heirs or successors, or united or annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. So help me God, and by the contents of this Book.
Frederick William I:
I must be served with life and limb, with house and wealth, with honour and conscience, everything must be committed except eternal salvation—that belongs to God—but all else is mine.
Oath of Allegiance, United States
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.
Many English Catholics refused to take the Oath of Supremacy because it would have severed their allegiance to the Pope, who was then effectively a foreign potentate. Pope Gregory III made this very clear in 1580 when he issued a death fatwa against Elizabeth; he said openly that any Catholic was free to murder her and that it would not be a sin to do so. People generally tend to be afraid of other people who are out to kill them, and Elizabeth therefore had every right in the world to be a Catholic-phobe. Margaret Clitherow was certainly not out to murder Elizabeth and bring back the Inquisition, and neither were most of the priests Elizabeth’s government executed, but enough individuals acting under color of Catholicism were in fact trying to do so that she had to excise the entire religion from her realm–much as a cancer surgeon must cut out healthy tissue along with the malignancy.
We have a very similar situation today, in which very few Americans who call themselves Muslims are terrorists who seek to overthrow our nation’s Constitutional liberties. There is however a very visible minority of individuals who call themselves Muslims, wage private “wars†(e.g. conspire to blow up unarmed noncombatants in New York City or allegedly open fire on fellow soldiers in Fort Hood) against the United States under color of Islam, proclaim that Islam will one day rule the United States, or agitate for the replacement of rule of law by Sharia. This is the same class of “Muslims†that might act on a death fatwa from a foreign government or imam just as there were English Catholics who were willing to act on Pope Gregory’s death fatwa against Elizabeth.
Very few people who call themselves Muslims are throat-slitting bomb-planting wife-killing terrorists, but when a throat-slitting bomb-planting wife-killing terrorist calls himself something other than a Muslim, it’s a man-bites-dog exception. In addition, exceptions such as Timothy McVeigh and the individual who recently shot up his workplace are almost universally deranged lone actors as opposed to members of societies or subcultures that condone or even encourage that kind of mindless violence. Bayesian analysis and set theory therefore gives people excellent cause to be Islamophobes.
Paranoia is irrational fear that somebody is out to get you. When murderous enemies of Civilization
* bray to Allah while they crash airplanes full of innocent people into buildings full of more innocent people
* bray to Allah while they stone helpless women to death
* bray to Allah while they saw a helpless prisoner’s head off
* bray to Allah when they detonate themselves in places of worship and shopping centers
* bray to Allah when they disguise bombs as pregnancies and try to get them into Israeli hospitals
* bray to Allah when they tell boys with more testosterone than sense that they will get an eternity in Paradise with 72 virgins if they kill Jews, Christians, Hindus, or the wrong “kinds†of Muslims
* bray to Allah while they cut off a woman’s nose and ears
* bray to Allah while they cut up a woman’s genitals to make sure she cannot enjoy sexual intercourse
* bray to Allah while they issue death fatwas against citizens of other countries
* bray to Allah while they gang rape women whose uncovered faces proclaim them “uncovered meat†that any man is free to “takeâ€
* bray to Allah while they threaten another 9/11 or 7/7 (subway bombings) in Europe
* bray to Allah while they proclaim that Islam will rule the United States
that creates a very rational fear of Islam.
It creates the perception, which is probably wrong in most cases but justified in others, that the friendly neighborhood mosque is not very friendly at all, and that every infidel within fifty miles of said installation needs to own at least one firearm and preferably more in case the so-called Religion of Peace turns the neighborhood into the Dar-el-Harb (House of War). It creates the perception that, when four or five individuals bray to Allah and then ask for seat belt extenders they don’t need get onto an airplane, it is time for every infidel aboard (including the flight crew) to get off. It creates the perception that, when we see women in burqas in a local supermarket, an explosion might be imminent–the truth is that we know the women in question are not going to detonate themselves but, were a detonation to occur, it WOULD come from somebody in Islamic dress.
So yes, count us as Islamophobes until mainstream Islam denounces those who practice these atrocities as mufsidoon (evildoers) and marginalizes them as the Timothy McVeighs of the Islamic world. Until then, we state openly that, while very few people who call themselves Muslims are terrorists, almost all terrorists call themselves Muslims so we are indeed going to “profile†accordingly.
Comments are closed.
