I Haven't Changed My Stance

After putting yesterday's post up over on Facebook, I got some blow-back. Not a lot and not too strong because I think the people doing the blowing-back know that as distasteful as my position is, it's the right one. It isn't nice, but it is how I see it and the comments received haven't changed my mind.

Think of it this way. You have invited a family into your home. Your mother, sister, a trusted friend, or someone else in whom you have confidence says, 'take them in, they're good people' or 'take them in, they need a safe place to stay'. So you do. You open your home and let them in and, for a while, all is well.

You get along okay although they have different ways and a different language. Still, it's no more than a little awkward at times. When you bump up against one another there's a nervous chuckle, an awkward smile and you get on with things.

Then, after a while, one or two of them start fussing. They want more space in the refrigerator, or a different kind of food, more or different selection. They don't like the television shows you do, so they start to insist on having the right to pick what shows you all watch. Then they want a different bathroom schedule. They start pushing back against basic courtesy and fight against living by your rules. They aren't assimilating to your standard.

Still, while you're less than thrilled with how things are going, you made a promise. You said that they could stay so you shrink back and bite your tongue, watching as they take more and more territory. The others reassure you, 'it's okay. It's just his/her way. S/he doesn't mean anything by it.' But the territory is gone, handed over, and until they leave there is no going back. It's the new normal.

This is what has happened in the EU and, to a lesser extent, in America with the people we have accepted from the Middle East.

They came and most, the vast majority slid into place without a ripple - and that's great. Welcome to my home.

Some, however, got to fussing, to pushing back and demanding that they wanted things done differently.

In Britain, instead of assimilating to the standard and trying to fit into their new home, some Muslims started fussing. They wanted more control, a separate system within the system so they could be 'free' and kept apart from the rest of the population.

As a result of that non-assimilation, eighty-five Shari'a courts have been set up and instituted to settle disputes within the Muslim community. They don't (yet) have more power than the British courts, but how long will it be before that's not good enough either? How long will it be before the Muslim Imams and leaders demand still more control over their communities?

It's called creeping incrementalism.

First it's a baby step. Nothing big, nothing overt or threatening. Just a teeny-tiny accommodation to keep folks happy. It settles into place, becomes the norm and people adjust and accept it. Then, months or years later another step is taken. That first quarter-inch becomes half-an-inch. It happens again sometime later and then it's an inch, then a foot and finally a mile.

Eventually, what was unthinkable becomes not only thinkable but actuality - and going back is no longer an option.

That is what is happening in Europe right now. That is why this situation is so dangerous.

After yesterday's post I was corrected - there have been protests against ISIS in the streets of Europe but, according to those who corrected me, they're not being covered by the media.

Why not? Well, golly! Let me guess. It's because it would be seen as one of two things: 1) it would be racial profiling and that is not politically correct; or, 2) it would foment reaction from the other citizens which might lead to violence. Either way the result is the same. Media silence is giving a pass to the violent factions and that is encouraging the violent factions to keep doing what they are doing - like bombing airports and subways and killing dozens of innocent people.

By hiding it, by not showing the disgust of the good people for the behavior of the bad, it's opening a door to more of the bad.

What would be far more effective is if those protests against the wicked were carried live on national television. What if those marches and protests were shown to all and sundry? What if it was made clear that the radicalized are pariah and not accepted by the larger community? What if people known to be in sympathy with Daesh or ISIS or IS or whoever it is today are shown to be shunned by their communities? Could that possibly have an effect?

I think so. People are herd creatures. We don't do well in isolation. If parents shun their radicalized children and it's seen by others, that would be a step. If family members of all stripes shun their radicalized parents or siblings or other family members, that would also be a step. If neighbors and colleagues and others in the community do the same, that's another step.

If not-yet radicalized people see that the behavior is unacceptable, if they recognize that there are serious negative consequences within their social network to that life-style, that might deter at least some of them from following that path. Isolation can be a powerful tool - but it must be total or it won't work.

It's also not something that's going to turn the tide in a day or a week or a month. It will take time and persistence, but it can be done and if we start now, all of us who might be able to encourage or support or engage, we could save untold numbers of lives in the future.

Most importantly, though, people within the Muslim community have got to speak up. If they know of something being planned, or something suspicious is going on, they have got to speak up and tell someone who can do something about it. Otherwise they are just as guilty as the perpetrators of the act - accessories before the fact - and they deserve to be vilified and treated just as the guilty.

The people within the community have also got to stand up directly to the Imams and religious leaders - to make it crystal clear that their children are not available to be taught to hate. Madrassas are fertile training grounds used to indoctrinate the next generation to hate. Hate the Jew. Hate the Christian. Hate the secularist. Hate the Shi'a and hate anyone who doesn't think, look, act or worship as you do. That has got to change. Faster than the rest, the drip-drip of hate mongering has got to stop.

If the Madrassas came under the control of good people, loving parents who worship as the Koran allegedly intends based on what we're all being told - that it's the Religion of Peace - that would save a generation.

Parents throughout the society have also got to make it clear that their children are not there to be used as cannon fodder. And that statement is not hysterical hyperbole. It is a well documented fact that families are handing their children over to ISIS to become 'soldiers'. It is a sick and disgusting trend that makes the battlefield that much worse. How does one fight against child soldiers, after all?

If the good upright people in these groups are not willing to take a hard and fast stand, to make it known with no doubt whatsoever that the behavior will not be tolerated to any degree, the battle will be lost before it's begun. Only Muslims can make the fundamental change within the Muslim community that is required for it to be effective.

If they are not willing, if they will not take charge and take back the hearts, minds and souls of their children and brothers and sisters, then my position stands as it did yesterday. Round them all up - the good, the bad and the ugly - and send all of them back to where they came from so they can fight and kill and live or die by the rules they are willing to tolerate.

The alternative is that Western culture disappears under a burqa. Women who now live free and independent become less than sheep and goats on the social scale. All of us will lose our rights and our liberty.

Take your pick because it is glaringly apparent there is no middle road in this fight.

Best~
Philippa

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