What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

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What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

Your Daily Reminder...

...That the presence of Muslims in any non-Islamic society is the condition of the inevitability of their attempt to establish sharia as normative:

Manifestly, this fellow is deluded as to the intentions of Europeans; the publication of the cartoons that served as the pretext for riots and protests was not a calculated strategy on the part of Europeans, an attempt to provoke the Muslims to such wrath that there would obtain a pretext for the mass expulsion of 30 million followers of Mahomet. Nevertheless, his advice to Muslims in Europe - keep on the down low, pursue respectable careers and lives, so as to better propagate Islam - is shrewd counsel indeed.

(HT: Evan McLaren)

Comments (39)

"...Pursue respectable careers and lives..." Is that an admission? The devil's sly, no doubt about that.

It may be the case that most Westerners do not know much about Islam, as the guest claims in the above video, but it's also the case that most Muslims, including a great number of their clergy, know virtually nothing about Jesus of Nazareth, his claims, Christian historical theology, and the formation of the New Testament and its historicity. This is why Islam is best characterized as the first Christian heresy with the advantage of having a "prophet." Theologically, it combines elements of Arianism, Pelagianism, Gnosticism, and rigorism. Because of its voluntarism, it cannot make sense of "For God so loved the world."


I have to say that my favorite part is where they characterize Europeans as illogical for doing things that they know will provoke violent action or angry reaction from the Muslims. So if European culture does not carefully conduct themselves in such a way so as not to offend one of the most easily offended group of people that has ever existed then it is just illogically and intentionally inviting violent repsponse. Interesting.

The sad thing is that his advice is likely to succeed. I could not help but also be amused at the simple irony of the rapid growth of Islam in Europe. Muslims are having children and Europeans are not. Do the math, lay low, and we will be the majority in no time.

Mercy.

Classic blaming-the-victim strategy. Muslims are masters at it. "If we riot, it's your fault."

The subtitles are a bit strange, aren't they? At 3:53, the man being interviewed is translated as saying Muslims should become "walking propaganda machines." Who on earth openly advocates propaganda? Who uses that word to describe their own activities? No one. No one at all. Just like no one uses "relativism" to describe their own beliefs, or "imperialism" to describe their foreign policy.

At 3:29, he is translated as saying Muslims must "infiltrate" society. One of the comments on the youtube video says a more accurate translation is "intergrate," which makes a great deal more sense, for the same reason that the "propaganda" translation is suspicious.

Finally, look at sandybeaches1234's youtube page. It's obnoxious playground stuff. But then, after the PZ Myers incident, maybe you're all missing the chance to call someone a poopyhead.

If they're suceeding in Europe, so are they here. More than a few Muslim camps are cropping up throughout the US, especially in obscure and unpopulated, wooded areas. I've heard there is actual hidden camera footage existing on these sites. Has anyone seen any of the footage?

So the dastardly scheme is for European Muslims to lead respectable lives, ignore insults real or perceived, and improve the image of Islam through their high moral standards. The horror!

Until the Muslim nations allow religious liberty--including permission to convert from Islam--its citizens have not earned the right to criticize the Western nations for psychic offenses they may have suffered. There is, after all, a difference between losing sleep after being offended and losing your head after becoming a Christian. If religious liberty is the first liberty--as the West apparently believes--then we should pro-actively ignore Muslims who employ the resources of Western liberty for the purpose of destroying it.

Islamic jurisprudence is not wrong because it is non-Western. It is just plain wrong.

Especially after having witnessed the attacks of 9-11 and learning that the ringleaders were perceived as intelligent men of high moral standards, leading respectable lives. Not mentioning of course, the parties later that night, before the smoke had cleared, thrown by those of equally high moral standards, living respectable lives, thereby improving the image of Islam.

So the dastardly scheme is for European Muslims to lead respectable lives, ignore insults real or perceived, and improve the image of Islam through their high moral standards. The horror!

Of course, that is all they desire. They don't desire that European social and political norms be conformed to their own; they just want us to think a bit better of them. Yes, yes, nothing to see here. Islam is a privatized creed, just like modern Christianity...

Exactly. Blackadder, you don't seem to have any idea what even might be meant by the statement at the beginning "and this will influence the decision-making process"--that is, the demographic dominance of Muslims in Europe will influence the decision-making process in Europe. Or at the end where he mentions "channeling their anger for Mohammed and Islam" and "taking action" in their places of work. And yet, we've seen it all over already--the constant demands for accommodations all over in our public life and even for the outright "right" for Muslims to be judged by sharia law in European countries, the teaching of a white-washed version of Islam in the public schools of the secular countries, combined even with role-playing of Muslim religious practices, the establishment (most recently, in Minnesota) of an outright Muslim religious school as ostensibly a non-sectarian charter school, and so forth. It is not like any of this is some great secret.

I was amused, rather grimly, by his reference to the poor, provoked Muslims responding by making a "mistake...like bombings."

I was amused, rather grimly, by his reference to the poor, provoked Muslims responding by making a "mistake...like bombings."

Oops, I did it again..... (Passive-aggressive jiad)

Loving one's neighbor, unconditionally, is obligatory, Lat; trusting one's neighbor, however, isn't.

"Yes, yes, nothing to see here. Islam is a privatized creed, just like modern Christianity..."

The confident Liberal will concede that Islam has not yet been subsumed within the universalist creed & global shopping mall. He'll tell you though, that Amr here, who already shops at Brooks Brothers, will soon be too busy enjoying DirectTV's Choice Extra package, a medical plan that covers Viagra refills, and stressing about his home equity and his 10 year old daughter's penchant for wearing thongs, to pose any threat to anyone but his mortgage holder.

The plan calls for Moslems to be listening to Tony Robbins in Farsi, embracing a modified faith that serves only as a social identifier, and satisfying their tamped down spiritual yearnings with trips to the "Mecca by the Sea" Theme Park. The Liberal believes in the showdown between the sacred and the profane, the latter always wins. Deft product placement, like when he shelved Christianity in the Self-Improvement aisle and repackaged it as a harmless personal hobby works wonders. He expects Islam to consent to a similar re-launching.

For his part, Amr is possessed by piety and prudence, not hubris and delusions. He knows demography is destiny and will wait for the cradles to produce what al-Quaeda never could;
the Dar al-Islam extending over the former lands of his ancient foe. In his more magnanimous moments, Amr is most grateful for the vision and work of the Liberal.

True story. I was on a public bus today, in Ontario, Canada. I counted 16 people on the bus. Seven had the fortune to be members of the White Christian Race. Three were Asians. Six were middle easterners.

Five of the Arabs were teenaged girls. They had the headscarfs on, but everything else? Straight from Old Navy or Abercrombie and Finch.

Islam has absolutely no mechanism to overcome McDonald's. It just isn't there. Aside from wholesale military destruction, Islam as some kind of genuine threat to the West is a ridiculous idea.

"Islam has absolutely no mechanism to overcome McDonald's."

There you go; we'll just Super-Size 'em into submission. Brilliant.

If I understand her position correctly (articulated elsewhere), then I agree with Lydia on the need to restrict Islamic immigration. If we do not, we are inviting in, and granting full legal protection to, those who wish to have us dead, and who will work to make that wish come true, even if they have to kill themselves to do it. In the meantime, they will take cover in respectable jobs, and in other allegedly constructive pursuits -- much like Atta and his henchmen. I am fully persuaded that western culture, in general, and America, in particular, have thousands, probably millions, of deadly enemies, scattered both around the corner and around the world.

I'm still waiting for an American politician to say regarding militant Islam what Ronald Reagan said was his plan regarding communism: "We win; they lose." Instead, we are fed the foolish fiction that Islam is a religion of peace, as if neither its history nor its sacred texts mattered in the least.

As a passenger on United 93 reportedly said, "Nobody's going to help us. We have to do it ourselves."

And Kevin is right: it won't be done by McDonalds.

and stressing about his home equity and his 10 year old daughter's penchant for wearing thongs, to pose any threat to anyone but his mortgage holder

And said thong-wearing daughter, who may well turn up dead one day.

That's not directed at you, Kevin. I think you're giving an accurate portrayal of the liberal mind. Look at Mike with his McDonald's statement.

More later.

Michael,
I think our biggest enemy is...ourselves. A desacralized civilization drained of spiritual energy cannot long survive, no matter how fancy it's food stuffs, nor advanced it's weaponry. Amr knows what Solzhenitsyn knew; the empty shrine produces an empty cradle and he has no intention of following the same suicidal path. Nature abhors a vaccum and Islam will happily fill the void at the heart of our hollowed out existence. Sadly, Mike isn't alone in his belief that the Golden Arches should suffice.

Lydia,
To be fair, the Liberal universalist has a lot of material success to boast about and his worldview, sometimes known as Globalization, is not peculiar only to Western elites. It's broad appeal lies in it's promise; the surmounting of all the barriers, divisions and impediments to what a Christian might understand as communion. It probably has it's roots in the Christian hope to bring the Good News to all the nations and to establish spiritual unity amongst all peoples. Marx gave it further expression, but it has found fulfillment in his foe; democratic capitalism. Globalization is a way of both looking at and organizing one's life and it offers the atomized individual an escape from self-enclosure, loneliness, the restraints of time an place, fragmentation and the resulting anomie into an integrated and healthy whole. Christians best resist and refute this narrative. Otherwise, it will left to the Islamist - who has found somehing worth dying for - to do so. Few here will be happy with the result.

Kevin,
You and I agree that emptiness equals death. Perhaps we disagree on whether or not America is empty. I think not. Or, if we are, no nation on earth is alive.

I think we are the strongest, most generous, most free, most forgiving, and most self-sacrificing nation on the planet -- ever. We have not escaped the ravages of modernism, secularism, or post-modernism, to be sure -- but neither have we succumbed to them. We still are a beacon to those persons and nations in darkness, and we still are a force for good and for freedom.

Michael,
I will agree with this; "we are the most generous, most forgiving, and most self-sacrificing nation" It is those traits that make America so lovable. Not her military prowess or economic might. She is loved because she is humble enough to acknowledge her imperfect past and present day flaws. We love a flesh and blood nation. Not an icon. She has wounds and they make her all the more irresistible.

However the traits described above are not held by our political, economic and cultural elites. They present a face that is much darker, less humble and less charitable. They suffer from a hellacious will to power. This point came through in an Op-end piece in the Times last year by an Arab commentator who expressed profound surprise upon living here awhile, that not everyone was a a Hollywood composite of the 7 Deadly sins. He blamed his erroneous impression of America on contact with the unhealthy cultural exports foisted upon him and his family and that offended his own sensibilities. As they do mine.

Where you and I may part is on how we understand the best means to remain "a force for good". To me; that means forsaking attempts to impose our goods, services and values (many of which are not shared by the majority of us) on people who love their country, as much as I love mine. We should lead by quiet example, not by the raw projection of power.

If anyone, after "reading" a decent selection of the comments I've made on this board (or even on my own blog), still insists on calling me a liberal, than apparently "liberal" means "whatever WWWW writers diagree with."

Nature abhors a vaccum and Islam will happily fill the void at the heart of our hollowed out existence.

But to say the westerner lives their lives in a vacum is a delusion, as if we live in some kind of "post-ideological" world.

It's broad appeal lies in it's promise; the surmounting of all the barriers, divisions and impediments to what a Christian might understand as communion. . . .Christians best resist and refute this narrative.

Hopefully, people will stop repeating this particular talking point. Globalization isn't about homogenization, it is about diversity. The barriers and divisions are built into it - competing egoisms. Yes, Christians can resist this, but for crying out loud, not while defending the current material circumstances of the west that produce globalization!

"But to say the westerner lives their lives in a vacum is a delusion, as if we live in some kind of "post-ideological" world.

Huh? The presence of ideology - a susbstitute for religion - usually indicates spiritual emptiness. There is a plenty of ideology around, but precious little contemporary art that hints at lasting greatness. Unless you can suggest some. Declining birth rates indicate a lack of confidence in the future, or the will to continue one's bloodlines. In other words, barrenness.

"Globalization isn't about homogenization, it is about diversity."

Why then did you point to McDonalds as an antidote to Islam? I assumed you did so because it's a transnational brand whose ubiquitous presence indicates a pacifying homogenization.

Maybe Mike would prefer that the Muslim remained intransigently Muslim and didn't eat at McDonald's. So maybe he was deploring the supposedly calming influence of McDonald's. Or maybe he hopes we'll get more and more halal McDonaldses. That would be in tune with diversity.

"halal McDonaldses."
Brutal.

Amr makes a phone call and Random House refuses to sell Sherry's bridge;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence."

"The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on August 12 by Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann AG, and an eight-city publicity tour had been scheduled, Jones told Reuters on Thursday.

The novel traces the life of A'isha from her engagement to Mohammed, when she was six, until the prophet's death. Jones said that she was shocked to learn in May, that publication would be postponed indefinitely.

"I have deliberately and consciously written respectfully about Islam and Mohammed ... I envisioned that my book would be a bridge-builder," said Jones.

Huh? The presence of ideology - a susbstitute for religion - usually indicates spiritual emptiness.

I suppose an argument over what the word "ideology" means would be pointless, so I'll just say what I mean by the word. To say that citizens of the west exist without some sort of doxa that holds the social world together is false. We all of us share the same set of basic assumptions - you, me, the writers at Town Hall, Christopher Hitchens, etc. Belief in rational dialogue, the dignity of the individual, etc. These ideas hold the social world together, so to speak - and yes, they are ideological.

Why then did you point to McDonalds as an antidote to Islam? I assumed you did so because it's a transnational brand whose ubiquitous presence indicates a pacifying homogenization.

No.

For the foreseeable future, this quasi-military conflict with Muslims nations will probably continue. They conveniently fulfill the need for an outgroup.

What commercialism and capitalism will nullify is radical Islam in the west, and that is what this thread is about, right? Yes, Islam will be re-packaged as self-help, just like Joel Osteen has re-packaged Christianity. It has already begun: the very insistance that Islam is a religion of peace, quite apart from the historical or Koranic reality, is a sign of this. It will - and almost already is - one more cultural option to be added to our long list of choices. Muslims will eventually see themselves that way, as most Christians do now.

It will - and almost already is - one more cultural option to be added to our long list of choices. Muslims will eventually see themselves that way, as most Christians do now.

I wonder how long we're supposed to wait for this, how many people will die of specifically Muslim-motivated crimes in the West in the meanwhile, how far the West will be Islamicized in the meanwhile, and how many horrible practices we will have to worry about and prosecute (e.g., honor killings, taking little girls back to the Old Country to be mutilated on summer break, forced marriage, and so forth) that would, at least, not have been major or widespread problems, and in some cases not problems at all, in the West were it not for Muslim immigration.

Or are the honor killings and mutilations just going to be part of the flavoring of that particular "cultural option"?

We all of us share the same set of basic assumptions...Belief in rational dialogue, the dignity of the individual, etc. These ideas hold the social world together, so to speak - and yes, they are ideological."

Those assumptions have been found in various civilizations since antiquity. if their appearance constitutes ideology the word has no meaning.


"Muslims will eventually see themselves that way, as most Christians do now....
It has already begun"

For a guy who doesn't like being called a Liberal you sure got the Globalist rap; increased commercial and cultural contact will eventually lead "them" to be like "us".

"...the very insistance that Islam is a religion of peace, quite apart from the historical or Koranic reality, is a sign of this."

Perhaps their definition of peace is different than yours. I know they think it only attainable through submission to the will of Allah. Always have, as far as I know, and I see nothing compatible with diluted, "Self-help Osteenism" in that. Especially the parts about subduing kafurs.

The whole "how you going to keep 'em down on the sabkha after they've see Paris Hilton" stratagem would be laughable if it wasn't held as Holy Writ by so many here in the West. Conversion via consumption seems a very thin reed to hang one's hopes on.

For a guy who doesn't like being called a Liberal you sure got the Globalist rap
Well, in fairness to Mike it isn't clear that he wants or celebrates his prediction; he just thinks it is the case that Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy will ultimately prevail over Islam. I'm not sure that is wrong, to tell you the truth: there may be some point in the future wherein Liberalism has vanquished Islam and has not yet completed its own self-destruction. Though I don't expect Islam to go down with a whimper the way Christendom has gone down with a whimper.

I mean, I view it as possible, though I'm not sure how likely. Indeed, if Liberalism were actually a conscious actor it would need, parasite that it is, to be casting about for a new host; and might make goo-goo eyes at Islam for that very reason. For a fat girl she doesn't smell too bad.

I'm not sure how to make my point any clearer to you, Lydia.

Those assumptions have been found in various civilizations since antiquity.

Vague versions of them, yes. Vague versions of just about everything can be found just about anywhere. Romans spoke of humanitas, which is something like the dignity of the individual, yet they held severe class distinctions - they did not mean the same thing as we do by the "dignity of the individual." Come on, this is obvious.

For a guy who doesn't like being called a Liberal you sure got the Globalist rap; increased commercial and cultural contact will eventually lead "them" to be like "us".

But the BEAUTY of their INNER INDIVIDUALITY will be expressed by their choices! They'll eventually come to see that we are all special, unique snowflakes.

Perhaps their definition of peace is different than yours. I know they think it only attainable through submission to the will of Allah.

The insistance that Islam is a religion of peace is a sign of intergration; the fact that Muslims may currently articulate what peace is differantly than us is not as important as you seem to think it is.

Secondly, particular streams of conservative Christians - I assume this site has its fair share of these - believe that it would be Holy and Just for me to suffer in hell for all eternity should I die tonight. This is a pretty extreme believe. Yet, we manage to get along, mostly.

the fact that Muslims may currently articulate what peace is differantly than us is not as important as you seem to think it is.

Mike, if you had more information, or if you believed the information already available to you, you would find that laughable. Y'know, defining 'peace' as blowing people up, murdering your daughters for their western ways and so forth. Hey, the word is what matters, right?

No, it's not.

Christianity promulgated belief in the intrinsic value and dignity of each human life. Predating ideology by about a millenium and a half.

"The insistance that Islam is a religion of peace is a sign of intergration;"

It could be a sincerely, long-held self-conception or slick marketing. You've yet to establish they've bought into the globalization project, but if they have that contradicts your assertion that globalization is about "diversity"?

As for the comfort derived from your ability to get along with Christians; don't let that guide any decisions about relocating to the Middle East.

In betting on the outcome between Islam and McWorld, my gut tells me to go with the side that isn't agitating for the "right to die.", or is so drunk in a culture of repudiation that it's gnawing on it's own entrails.

I'm truly hoping Christianity awakens from it's slumber and poses a more vital challenge to the 2 heresies.

"...if Liberalism were actually a conscious actor it would need, parasite that it is, to be casting about for a new host;"

Since Liberalism arose from within Christendom it would naturally prove more toxic to it's host than it would to other organisms. I don't think Islam is going to prove too hospitable to it.

Kevin, I've been enjoying your comments so much lately (yes, I know, we've had our disagreements in the past) that I must tell you...

You've gotta get 'it's' and 'its' down pat, or I'm gonna start screaming at the computer.

I knew you could handle this information.

Lydia, I promise to try to improve my grammar. Thanks for the merciful correction. And while you and I may not agree on the diagnosis, we both agree on the prognosis; a turning to Christ is the only means of rejuvenating our civilization. That is what counts the most.

Kevin rightly said:
"a turning to Christ is the only means of rejuvenating our civilization. That is what counts the most."


But since, short of the Second Coming, that's not going to happen, what's your real-world proposal to stop jihadism (and communism) in the meantime?

Michael,
Saying "that's not going to happen" is unacceptable and borders on the sin of despair. The only one I may have semi-mastered. Besides, there is no Plan B, unless you think preparing one's final words and hoping the Saif is still very sharp by the time it gets to your neck, constitutes a plan.

Short-term the strategy is to become a smaller target by closing most of the 700 bases dotting the globe. Save money. Restore morale and turn over the Pentagon to Andrew Bacevich and the senior members of the Officer Corps who were shoved aside in the run up to Iraq by careerists and yes men. Asymmetrical warfare requires a different template than 'shock and awe". Focus on border control and provide tickets home for imans with a soft spot for Mein Kampf.

Instead of alienating the Russia Bear we should be developing a relationship with a people who are natural allies in the battle against the Jihad. Likewise, Latin America. The Southern Hemisphere is home to an ascendant, if sometimes un-Orthodox Christianity. Let's call off the IMF hitmen pushing "austerity" programs onto debt-plagued governments and reign in the corporate vampires sucking the life out of impoverished people. Imagine if your sole exposure to America was the machine-gun toting thug trained at the School of Americas who patrols the barbed-wire fenced, windowless cement block that your mom works in for 12 hours a day. She grosses $70 cents an hour making sports apparel. You think you too might hear the siren call of Liberation Theology or Hugo Chavez?
And, Michael don't fall for the Communist label. It's not coming back. Gangsters the world over needed a name and Bloods and Crypts were already taken.

Let's present the real face of America to the world. Not the one cooked up by crack-addled Hollywood producers, Wall Street financiers who pride themselves as loyalty-free "citizens of the world" and the non-uniformed eunuchs that having never fought in a war, have never found one they didn't like.

There will be no decisive victory on a battlefield under the leadership of a later day Charles Martel. Islam is only a threat because in forgetting God we lost the terrain where this war is being fought; within the hearts and minds of men. Can we recover? Of course, but it requires restoring our right relationship with Him and slaying some dragons of our own making. Failing that, I look forward to sharing the same scaffold with you.


Kevin,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

Interestingly, although our policy preferences are quite different, our fundamental values and allegiances are the same, or so it seems to me. Regarding those differences:

1. It's not unacceptable to say something if it's true. It's unacceptable not to accept reality. We are obligated to serve -- and to theorize for -- the world that is, not the world that isn't and will not be. The world, in general, and America, in particular, will not likely be Christianized. You and I both lament that fact. But theological realism is not despair, and we ought not call it so.

2. I believe that what you're calling Plan B is really Plan A when we theorize realistically.

3. The communist label isn't coming back because it never left. The end of the Soviet Union was not the end of communism. China, N. Korea, Cuba and, in my view, Venezuela (not to mention Brazil under da Silva) are its current residence. I'm tempted to say it also lives on most college and university campuses in America as well.

4. I think one of the most fundamental principles of political reality is that it takes a power to check a power. And if the power that requires checking is military, the power required to check it will likely need to be military as well. We won't check a military power like jihadism by providing a good and peaceful example, nor by closing military bases around the world. Even if we give the jihadis everything they want, they'll still want us dead, and they'll still work religiously to make it happen. Here's the real choice we face: either we stop it, or it stops us. In my view, the things you suggested, while they might well accomplish several good ends, will not accomplish this end.

Michael,
I agree, we take different means to the same end.

1) You are usually more optimistic than I, so a bit of a role reversal here. Cultural and geopolitical realities are always subject to unpredictable and profound shifts due to Providence. The Battle of Lepanto, the emergence of Joan of Arc and the fall of the Soviet Union all deviated from the established storyline. I believe the Spirit is at work in ways we neither see, nor understand.

2) The re-evangelizing of the culture must take place primarily on the individual level. It will gather force within families and transform both the culture and the polis. Again, all other plans are simply about managing inevitable decline.

3)The governments you mentioned are neither animated nor linked by the same ideology. Communists in the West now find expression for their misanthropic humanism in environmentalism and multi-culturalism, or in many cases have followed Christopher Hitchens into the War Party.

4) We are not a war with 1 billion people and cannot sanely declare one on any Islamic states at this point. I do not counsel appeasement, but seek a wiser geopolitical strategy that isolates the Jihadists from the very culture from which they spring. Clearly, they hope we blunder into the trap of fighting on their turf and thereby antagonize an entire civilization.

Finally, war is a symptom of a much larger disease. We have to heal ourselves by turning to the one true Physician.

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