In response to my post a few days ago titled “The Gathering Nuclear Storm: A Moment that History will Judge,” I have received a number of comments from an “anonymous” person around Milton Keys in the United Kingdom. Mr. Anonymous is unfailingly courteous which explains why I am taking the time to respond (for the last time). Mr. Anonymous certainly engages in classic moral relativism and accuses me of tunnel vision, and failing to look at the story from “both sides.” I deny that; I can safely say that I have certainly studied this issue far more than most and I believe that what bothers Mr. Anonymous is that I have, based on extensive analysis of this complex issue over a period of many years, reached a clear conclusion as to the nature and severity of the threat to Western civilization. I also make a clear distinction between the arsonist and the fire brigade, whereas Mr. Anonymous blurs that distinction at every opportunity, and dwells on what I perceive as a truly silly idea of a TV “debate” between an Islamic fanatic who lives in the 12th century, and has visions of the hidden Imam returning to earth at any moment, and… the President of the United States. Good lord! Anyway, Since “Anonymous” is from the UK I will now post a few thoughts on this matter from a number Englishmen who by Anonymous’ standards are probably also narrow-minded. First I give you Sir Winston Churchill's comment on Islam, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-250 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899 (over 106 years ago): "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of
commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property a child, a wife, or a concubine must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science (the science against which it had vainly struggled) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
Now Imagine That With A Nuclear Bomb.
While compiling his most recent book Never Give In! The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches, Sir Winston Churchill III discovered the following hand written speach delivered by churchill on the 14th June 1921 (75 years ago) hard on the heels of the Cairo Conference, at which he presided over the re-shaping of the Middle East, including the creation of modern day Iraq. He warned the House of Commons:
“A large number of( Saudi Arabia's King) Bin Saud's followers belong to the Wahabi sect, a form of Mohammedanism which bears, roughly speaking, the same relationship to orthodox Islam as the most militant form of Calvinism would have borne to Rome in the fiercest times of (Europe's) religious wars.
“The Wahabis profess a life of exceeding austerity, and what they practice themselves they rigorously enforce on others. They hold it as an article of duty, as well as of faith, to kill all who do not share their opinions and to make slaves of their wives and children. Women have been put to death in Wahabi villages for simply appearing in the streets.
“It is a penal offence to wear a silk garment. Men have been killed for smoking a cigarette and, as for the crime of alcohol, the most energetic supporter of the temperance cause in this country falls far behind them. Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and blood- thirsty, in their own regions the Wahabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account, and they have been and still are, very dangerous to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina ….”
In Churchill's day, of course, the viciousness and cruelty of the Wahabis was confined to the Saudi Arabia peninsula, and their atrocities were directed exclusively against their fellow Muslims, whom they held to be heretics for not adhering to the Wahabi creed - but not anymore.
Today the combination of the oil wealth of Saudi Arabia and the supine weakness of the Saudi royal family which - as the price for not having their won behaviour subjected to scrutiny and public criticism by these austere extremist clerics - has bank-rolled the Wahabi fundamentalist movement, and given these fanatical zealots a global reach to their vicious creed of hatred and extremism.
The consequence has been that the Wahabis have been able to export their exceptionally intolerant brand of Islamic fundamentalism from Mauritania and Morocco on Africa's Atlantic shores, through more than two dozen countries including Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, to as far afield as the Philippines and East Timor in the Pacific.
This is a stark challenge that today confronts the Western world and I fear it will be with us, not just for a matter of years, but perhaps even for generations. Whether the decision to invade Iraq was right or wrong, wise of foolish, is immaterial.
Sir Winston Churchill III
There is one more Englishman that should be quoted here as well. not from 100 or 75 years ago, but from a few weeks ago: "Even the issue of Israel is just part of the same wider struggle for the soul of the region, if we recognize this struggle for what it truly is, we would be at least along the first steps of the path to winning it. But I fear a vast part of Western opinion is not remotely near this yet…. whatever the outward manifestation at any one time -- in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Afghanistan, in Kashmir, in a host of other nations, including now some in Africa -- this everywhere is a global fight about global values…it's about modernization within Islam and out of it. It's about whether our value system can be shown to be sufficiently robust, true, principled and appealing that it beats theirs."Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Los Angeles World Affair Council, August 1st 2006.
That is my answer to you Mr. Anonymous. Please put all of this in your pipe and smoke it slowly. I am not at all convinced that you are open to face truth and reality when it is so much more comforting to wollow in the murky depths of indecision, moral and intellectual ambiguity. Most I hope will come to recongnize that the days of such luxury are quickly disapearing.
Joe Gelman (not anonymous).
PS: Might I also suggest that you read these latest articles from two wicked Neocon writers David Warren and Victor Davis Hanson becouse us Neocons like to stick together you know:
Doing the Enemy's Work
Messy Democracy Still the Best Course
