On Not Provoking Muslims

Dymphna and I belong to a small rural Anglican congregation that worships in an old frame church not far from where we live. Despite the fact that it is an Episcopal church, and thus subordinate to the — gack! — ECUSA, it is not at all liberal. This is, after all, the remote countryside of Central Virginia. Most of our fellow congregants are older people who grew up around here, and are thus unafflicted by the PC disease that has infected the national church — as well as all the other mainstream Protestant denominations.

Yet our church is not what you’d call hidebound — we follow Rite 2 in the 1979 Prayer Book, sing from the 1982 hymnal, and accept the fact that women are now ordained priests in the Episcopal Church. We’re just average run-of-the-mill cultural conservatives. Our priest is a conservative, and sometimes even forwards me emails from tea party groups or the Blaze.

As a result, I don’t mind speaking up and revealing my political sympathies at church — it’s safe.

From time to time I pass on information acquired as part of my work here at Gates of Vienna, especially reports concerning the persecution of Christians in majority-Muslim countries. Other members of our church get their news mostly from the MSM, especially the television networks, which means they don’t hear much about the routine treatment meted out to Christians in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt.

At the service this past Sunday, the news about the mass destruction of churches in Egypt was fresh in my mind, so I stood up during the announcements and gave an account of the previous day’s reports, knowing that my fellow parishioners would have seen virtually nothing about the atrocities on their TV screens. I explained that in a space of just three days, fifty-eight churches and Christian schools in Egypt had been torched and looted by supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, and I reminded them that the Brotherhood enjoyed the full support of the Obama administration.

An elderly lady in the third row snorted, and said, “Huh! He’s a Muslim himself, isn’t he?”

Which made me wonder:

How how did that idea get through the MSM’s blackout curtains?

Next I spoke about the church-burnings in the German town of Garbsen and the Swedish city of Karlskrona (I had just read a brief report of the latter before leaving for church). I explained that Christians were being persecuted not just in the Muslim world, but also in Europe, especially in Britain, France, and Germany, where violence against Christians and churches was becoming increasingly common.

Another woman spoke up at that point, saying that she accepted that the reports were true, but she thought it was important not to raise too much of a fuss about them.

“Because,” she said, “you know what will likely happen if there’s a lot of noise in the media about all this — it will give the real radicals a reason to take to the street and start even worse trouble.”

I recognized her argument as an old favorite that predates the current administration. It was officially popular during the Bush years, and formed part of the strategy of “cleaving the radicals from the mainstream”. The idea was that when we point out the bad things Muslims do, or what imams and Islamic teachings say, we inflame Muslim sentiments against us and thus generate more mainstream support for the “radicals”, who are thereby emboldened and empowered to commit further terrorist acts.

If, on the other hand, we manage to restrain our righteous outrage and remain calm, the appropriate law enforcement agencies will be able to do their jobs more effectively, and violent extremists will be brought to justice that much sooner.

So the logic goes. It didn’t entirely convince me back in 2002 and 2003, and it convinces me even less now, after nine years of studying Islamic doctrine and the behavior of Muslims. In fact, our quiescence in the face of Islamic atrocities tends to have the opposite effect: it convinces the Islamic world that we are spineless infidel cowards who will roll over and show our soft underbelly at the slightest hint of their aggressive behavior.

Meek passivity is the cornerstone of dhimmitude. Non-Muslim dhimmis are expected to accept without demur whatever punishment the righteous soldiers of Allah inflict upon them — and be glad it’s not even worse.

This is the classic dynamic of the bully and his victim. If the bully experiences no resistance, it only whets his appetite for more vigorous bullying.

I didn’t have time to introduce these arguments — we did, after all, have a Eucharist to celebrate — but I spoke to the woman after the service. I explained that the passive acceptance by Christians of Islamic violence is the first step towards full Islamization, and that Lebanon provides an instructive example of what lies ahead for Christian countries if we don’t wake up to what is going on and resist it.

I don’t know how well I managed to get through, but the amazing thing is that we are actually having these conversations at church. Five years ago it couldn’t have happened — the congregation wouldn’t have had enough information to make sense of what I was talking about.

But five years of Obama have restructured what Steve Coughlin calls the “information battle-space”. Despite the best efforts of the legacy media to minimize the increase in jihad-related violence and lull their audience into somnolence, the word is getting out. From Baghdad to London, from Kabul to Paris, from Benghazi to Stockholm, from Cairo to Dearborn — it’s hard to hide the present-day realities of Islam.

Even from Episcopalians.

35 thoughts on “On Not Provoking Muslims

  1. I wonder how long it will be until churches like yours will go up in flames by Muslims? A year? 5 years? 10 years?

    If the Muslims had their way every synagogue in the US would have been burnt to the ground already.

    • That will not happen until the Federales disarm American citizens. Muzzies hate when their intended victims shoot back.
      What WILL happen is attacks on Christianity in Academia and Media while promoting or benignly ignoring Islam and is crimes. It has already started.

  2. Well, they would have to ram gun confiscation through first. That is happening in some of the big-government friendly areas of the nation, but it is a total non-starter for most of America. The number of guns in private hands is increasing at a dramatic rate, and everything the government does to try and stop that is just increasing demand. A number of states are passing laws which prohibit the Federal government from regulating firearms, particularly those produced in-state for private use (the home-made firearms movement has a lot of steam too, and reloading was already a thriving market sector).

    If Muslims start burning American churches, then lots of American Christians are going to start getting acquitted of homicide, and even more won’t be charged in the first place.

    • You mean ‘when’ Moslems start burning US churches
      don’t you, not if ? Fighting back will get the Police round
      your house faster than You can say Usain Bolt. This is what normal US citizens will have to deal with BEFORE
      any serious sorting out of nutty Moslems can be started.
      In the UK here we already have a totally politicised Police, Judiciary and Media. The Establishment have no intention of allowing ANY kind of resistance let alone an uprising.

    • “Well, they would have to ram gun confiscation through first. That is happening in some of the big-government friendly areas of the nation, but it is a total non-starter for most of America.”

      Gun confiscation in the US won’t be as hard as you think. What you are seeing now in the big-government friendly states is a foreshadowing of what is coming to the rest of the states.

      As the US continues its steady advance to a one party leftist state the Constitution is being reinterpreted out of existence. It is now only an historical document. There are too few US citizens left who even understand the Constitution, much less believe in it. And those numbers grow smaller every year.

      Colorado, New York, New Jersey, those same gun laws, and much worse are coming to every gun friendly US state post haste. Surrender your firearms or become a felon. Soon enough that will be your only choice.

      England and Australia had sane gun laws up until the 1990’s then they bought into the liberal delirium. The US is heading down the exact same path.

      • This is one area where the system of federalism may become significant (indeed, already is, as indicated by the fact that the leading edge of gun confiscation is happening at the state level).

        The test will come, not when state governments are rounding up the guns of overwhelmingly liberal enclaves, but when the Federal government attempts to send agents into states where it is against state law for those agents to take enforcement actions.

        It may be that the “red state” governments will blink. In which case it will simply fall on the citizens to act. I personally have already been deprived of the protections of the law, so I don’t mind if they call me a felon for upholding the Constitution against all enemies. I took that oath in the context of military service, so naturally that would imply a military form of defense. Many others have taken the same oath. Whether they will honor it is on their own heads. I intend to honor mine regardless.

        • “This is one area where the system of federalism may become significant …”

          Federalism will not save the gun friendly states. The US federal government has a two pronged strategy. Attack at both the state level and the federal level. What cannot be acheived at the state level will eventually be acheived at the federal level. Leftist domination of all US institutions and unlimited immigration assures a federal victory.

          The US federal government has departed from the Constitution. It has an alternate agenda and in 2013 already has sufficient power to achieve its end. Those who believe in the original Republic will stand firm, and bless them, but they cannot stop what’s coming. What they can do is be ready to start again when it’s over.

      • Can’t speak for Australia, but as Brit I don’t think most of us want guns; indeed we Europeans and your neighbours to the north find the American obsession with the things perplexing and a tad scary.

        Isn’t the Constitutional right to bear arms connected with the need for a citizens’ militia, as in Switzerland, since the US was not expected to maintain a standing army? Since you now have the most powerful military on the planet, shouldn’t this make private gun ownership redundant? Just asking…

        Also from our perspective, the US government is far from leftist; Obamacare is a pale shadow of the state provision of medical services we take for granted.

        • Are you suggesting that the U.S. would be better prepared to resist Jihad if we followed the lead of Europe?

          • Of course not; but if comes to open fighting on the streets (God forbid), the likes of Orlande, Cameron and even Obama will have to order the military and police to defend the majority to restore order (they’d hardly tell them to open fire on the non-Muslims if they want to remain in power).

          • It has already come to open fighting on the streets in multiple cases. The totalitarians haven’t yet been inspired to make common cause with the majority when they were Western Christians under attack by enemies of Christianity or Western Civilization.

            You are speaking of something a hypothetical certainty when it has already been extensively proven untrue in fact.

          • Mark H on August 24, 2013 at 6:18 pm said
            “Of course not; but if comes to open fighting on the streets (God forbid), the likes of Orlande, Cameron and even Obama will have to order the military and police to defend the majority”

            Obama and Cameron will not order the military and police to defend the majority population. Those politicians have other, more important, concerns. You’re not on that list of concerns. You are on your own.

            Chiu ChunLing on August 25, 2013 at 8:10 pm said:

            “Are you really suggesting that you only support taking up arms when the cause is already militarily hopeless?”

            Agree with Chiu ChunLing. Every day you live is only because you are willing to fight for it.

        • If we could have taken a poll of Armenian Christians suffering Genocide under the Turkish Muslims of 1915, or of Christians today in many places around the globe being massacred by Muslims, I wonder how many of these about-to-be-victims really would say “most of us” don’t “want guns”?

          Might not at least a few of them agree with Sir Winston Churchill’s “Never surrender!”?

          • So would I agree; but as someone who tries to stay informed about the problem, partly by following Jihad Watch, Pat Condell, the Gatestone Institute and Honest Reporting as well as “Gates”, I don’t believe even France or Sweden, let alone the US, are within miles of the Armenians’ or other, current Christians’ desperate situation. If you advocated, say, the Northern Nigerian Christians’ taking up arms I’d support you.

          • Are you really suggesting that you only support taking up arms when the cause is already militarily hopeless?

  3. These last few weeks in Egypt have proved to me at least, that muslims everywhere who are determined to follow their doctrine can only be made to feel defeated if ordinary people gang up on them and all they hold dear.

    They are NOT afraid of the state, but they do fear a good pounding, NO holds barred, from those they have outraged, hurt or persecuted. When this eventually does break out – it will be just as ugly on OUR streets as theirs, maybe in a few years, but it will come. Best prepare.

  4. The amazing thing is how long these bad ideas can last. Here we have a clever evil psychopath from the desert–doing just what you’d expect–and his ideas are still
    percolating around through billions of people. Maybe our new connectedness will finally
    degrade these ideas to irrelevance. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

    • Amazing how one psychopath can be such a curse on the world so many centuries later — unless you adhere to the thesis that Muhammad was invented to sanctify Arab tribal conquest and propel it farther and wider.

      The advantages that Islam has had throughout its history are its sheer brutality, and the diabolical idea of wrapping savagery and greed and power-lust in the garb of divine mandate, and promising an abundance of sex-slaves as a sacred reward for savagery or a lush paradise of carnal delights for those felled in the act of savagery.

      It adds a notion of spiritual purity for those who care about such things, and a monumental holier-than-thouness for those who like to feel superior to their fellow human beings. And over the centuries, some people forced to live under Islam have tried to cultivate something good within it, as an inborn human decency strives to express itself.

      But taking it from the horse’s mouth (Qaradawi), Islam could not have survived without the death penalty for apostasy.

  5. Excellent analysis and cure of the deadly future that awaits us. That deadly situation is already in Syria. I saw some videos of what’s happening to some people in Syria and Egypt.
    Why are our western politicians incapable of correct analysis of things around them and incapable of finding a logical solution to them. Why they are living in a remote world created by their perverse brains. They seem to live in another world, removed completely from what is taking place under their noses. Western politicians ( except G. Wilders) and in all of the continents have an amazingly similar attitudes towards Muslims and Islam: appeasing, spineless, cowardly, stupid, anti-Christian, pro-Muslim. For example Muslim desires and whims in Australia are fulfilled the same way they are fulfilled in France and Sweden, as if democracies were born and developed to meet one goal under the sun: To make Muslims masters of the world and ourselves.

  6. “Non-Muslim dhimmis are expected to accept without demur whatever punishment the righteous soldiers of Allah inflict upon them — and be glad it’s not even worse.”

    Just like Georgie Zimmerman was ‘expected’ to take his – possibly fatal – head beating ‘like a man’ from thug-master Trayvon Martin – a beating warranted by the most egregious sin of a white man daring to look at a black young man. “Keep your eyes down when you look at me, boy….” Same routine, different actors….

  7. Another (even bigger) reason why the ‘elites’ don’t tell the truth (besides their fear of inflaming the muslims), is that they are afraid of the response of patriotic White Americans/Europeans to what is happening and why (islamic doctrine). They fear that the gloves will come off and carnage will take place. They also fear for their own lives if/when we know who was/is responsible for creating and then exacerbating this disaster. Here are some disturbing facts:1) islam is responsible for more deaths and annihilation of cultures than any movement in the history of the world. 2) Marxism and it’s offshoots come in second. 3) They are both vying for power today and even aligning with one another.
    Spreading information rapidly is the only solution to this that I can see.

    • Well said. I agree.
      People from the south going north as immigrants. Politicians invite them. Western politicians do nothing at all. They dare not do anything. They can’t stop immigrants from invading the north. If they stop them there will be riots. Muslims now feel that it is their right to possess the nations of the North. Allah told them to marry 4 wives to enable them to destroy non-Muslims. Because the northern people and politicians are in a strange state of mindset, inflicted with inertia, confusion, inaction, appeasement, … etc. the Muzzies feel that what Muhammd predicted is being validated to the letter. “Lest we forget.” But we forgot quickly. And the Jews are again being slaughtered and chased out of Europe this time by muzzies. Evey stone in Europe is shouting,”there is a Jew behind me.” And Europeans direct the Muzzis to where the Jew is to prove they are not pro-Jews and not racists.
      Clay does not mix with gold. Muzzies will not integrate. Our politicians say that but do things to prevent integration. Minister of immigration and Integration. These things are invented to throw sand into the eyes of the indigenous Europeans. When the minister of immigration / muzzies knows well that muzzies want their own identity and later will be the masters of the land Insha allah.
      How could elected representatives behave in such manner and still be elected next time is amazing. Still people go and vote and never say: what are the people we are putting in office achieving. Bringing more muzzies. Forcing Catholic and protestant schools to open their doors for muzzies and spend $50 000 on a special accomodoation where muzzies wash their dirty feet before they curse Christians and Jews.
      Until now no muslim country has dared to oppose the western countries, only individuals and groups. But the fun will start when muzzies in the west will start to be ruder, bolder, more aggressive to the point where western governments cannot but have to take action against them. Then countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran …. will take a stand against the west because the west is attacking their compatriots. Each western country is blessed with millions of citizens from each of those countries.
      and,” nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.”
      No wonder Shakespeare hated politicians.

    • Agreed, but the one thing the ‘super entity’ fears most is being identified . These Godfathers make Al Capone look like a baby-faced choirboy. The Elites have relied on the confusing state of affairs in Washington DC ensuring there are plenty of red herrings around to distract from
      what is REALLY going on. The Internet has caught them slightly naked, for the moment.

  8. “you know what will likely happen if there’s a lot of noise in the media about all this — it will give the real radicals a reason to take to the street and start even worse trouble.”

    Is this not an indirect admission that Islam’s a “special case”, that we have to deal with differently from everything else?! (about which we surely WOULD “make a lot of noise in the media”, if we thought it was bad enough) In any case, when has this type of logic EVER resulted in a “problem” being dealt with? Does this lady also think that cancerous cells in the human body should not be fought, because they may then “start even worse trouble”??

    “Even from Episcopalians.”

    And even among Guardian readers… see the comments from Guardian readers on any Islam-related topic (while they last!)

    One other thing (I am assuming) also unites these 2 ladies – age… They’ve been there, done that and are now living their retirement. Unlike 18-30 year-olds trying to look cool (in 99% of cases) and desperately trying to find jobs (in ever-increasing numbers – see the recent case of Moritz Erhardt, a German intern who died after working all-night shifts at a London investment bank). How will being suspicious of Islam help to achieve either of these objectives?? Yet THIS may be the key group that needs to be won over, if the threat of Islam is to be seriously countered…

  9. I think that people need to understand the crucial differences between calling attention to the widespread violence against Christians and their churches and committing Terry Jones-like acts that will result in the killing of hostages (All Christians in Muslim-majority countries) . Too many people will, in order to avoid more attacks, refrain from saying anything at all, which is perceived by the Mohammedans as weakness. We have to address these issues while avoiding statements that can easily be taken by Muslims (or our Media) as proof that THEY are the victims. I applaud the Baron’s efforts and am jealous that his church allows such discourse.

  10. In our time not talking about the obvious annihilation of Western European Culture is a death sentence for any non muslim organisation. “We” are now at the beginnings of the counter jihad movement. People with integrity, intellectual ability and clarity of foresight are pressing the validity of their opinions through creating sites such as gates and contributing to the discussion. Open, analytical minds can only come to one conclusion when considering the threat that Islam (there is no such thing a radical Islam) offers to us.

    The next stage will be when enough people of influence shift their opinions to reflect that of those espoused at sites such as here. Then there will be action.

    I personally just wish they would [act with celerity] and I hope it is not too late to save us from a very likely Islamic World War where Western nations will have to contend not just with foreign aggressive nation states but with the internal hostility of masses of unpatriotic immigrants.

    • It has always been a race against time. Will demography
      reach the point of no return in the countries of the Western World before a tipping point is reached in awareness of the existence of the REAL problem we are
      are all facing. It certainly seems like Whites in general are
      VERY slow to cop on.

  11. The response (or more specifically, the lack of a response), by the governments of the West, and the lack of MSM coverage of these horrible attacks (and many more) is/are a deliberate plan of appeasement. They are intentionally emboldening the most savage elements of Islam, thereby “moving the center” of the whole further on the path to global Jihad violence.
    The fact that they are doing this, while also importing as many of them as they can into Western nations, AND putting the Brotherhood in charge of as many states as possible, so that the Caliphate can be reborn, leads me to only one possible conclusion.
    War. Not just any war, but the largest, most brutal, worldwide conflict EVER, by a very wide margin. Not just on the streets of Egypt, Libya, etc, but Germany, France, the USA, Aus, etc. Everywhere.
    That’s not even the scary part, either. The scary part is WHY. What goal could be so perverse, so wicked, so grand, that allowing, much less encouraging, this madness, this horrible act to unfold, is worth it? That is the scary part, the answer to that question.

  12. ‘Let he who is without one, sell his cloak and buy a sword’ -Jesus Christ

    “The Lord helps those who help themselves” -Benjamin Franklin

    A fine book, “Shooting Back: The Right and Duty of Self-Defense”, by Charl Van Wyk, tells how this Christian man responded to terrorists (they happened to be black Marxists in 1993 South Africa, instead of the more typical Muslims we increasingly hear about today -and coming to a town near you, thanks to leftist idiots/traitors -but equally murderous). Innocent Christians were gathered in prayer at church when suddenly, “grenades were exploding in flashes of light. Pews shattered under the blasts, sending splinters flying through the air. An automatic assault rifle was being fired and was fast ripping the pews -and whoever, whatever was in its trajectory- to pieces. We were being attacked!”

    “Instinctively, I knelt behind a bench and pulled out my .38 Special snub-nose revolver, which I always carried with me. I would have felt undressed without it. Many people could not understand why I would carry a firearm into a church service, but I argued that this was a particularly dangerous time…”

    Charl Van Wyk and his sidearm saved many innocent lives that day, thank God. Sadly, 11 people died and 53 were wounded in that St. James massacre. One was 21-year-old Gerard Harker, who threw himself on top of a grenade and bravely saved others. Another was Richard O’Kill, 17, who threw himself across 2 young girls shielding them from the bullet he took to the head. Four were Russian seamen visiting via an outreach ministry: Valentin Varaksa, Andrei Kajil, Pavel Valujev, and Oleg Karamzin.

    The Bible tells us to be “as wise as serpents”, and to “be of good courage”, and to “fight the good fight”. It also lets us know that good prevails in the end, and that heaven (the real one, not Allah’s 72-virgin celestial whorehouse) awaits those who believe in Jesus.

  13. I came across this blog when I was googling life in Vienna for Muslims. It is very well written and if I were a Christian, I would feel the same way. I am not here to defend Islam because it doesn’t need any of it.

    I am here to just pour in my thoughts just so that ya’ll know what is really happening.

    Prophet Muhammad was driven out of Mecca by the tribes there who opposed Islam. He was welcomed into a city which had Jews. The Jews accepted him and admired his behaviour and let him practice Islam in peace. This is city was Medina. When Prophet Muhammad heard of Mecca being attacked, he ordered his troops to defend each and every person in Mecca regardless of them being Muslim or Jew. We were living in peace and in total harmony. Heck! The Prophet himself was living amongst the Jews in peace.

    What the hell happened?

    I honestly do not know. I was relieved to read how you call these Muslims ‘radicals’. Yes they are radicals who are unguided for Allah does not accept anyone who is a murderer. To kill a man is to kill mankind, these are the Lord’s words. Why on earth are these ‘radical’ Muslims going berserk? They are so unguided and because of their actions, it is we Muslims who practice our religion of peace, suffer greatly.

    The Muslim Brotherhood is a joke. They are the reason for all the havoc that is going on in the Arab World (this was a statement from the ruler of Saudi Arabia). Their principles were good when they started off… now they are simply lost in translation.

    I am a Muslim and I am not a terrorist. I am lazy, I skip work, I go out with friends, I dance, I sing, I cry, I fall in love… I am just a regular boy who practices a simple, straight-forward religion – don’t hurt no one, pray five times a day, keep your fasts, pay chairty. do pilgrimage (if you can afford it), pay debts in time and die peacefully.

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