On yesterday’s post “Working, Yet Not Taking Credit”, a commenter named Cave of Worms responded to my assertions about the inherent weakness of Islam, saying (in part):
…I have only to add some caution regarding the weak, for you are correct in presuming the mass movement known as Islam is weak, as all mass movements thrive on (in the words of Eric Hoffer) “instilling in their followers self annihilation and a propensity for self-sacrifice.” It is interchangeable with all other mass movements finding new followers among the same body of people, whom Hoffer described perfectly in his work “The True Believer” (1950).
The weak, and those who perceive themselves hopelessly weak, are largely underestimated in their potential power, not collectively so much as from necessity. The Nazis were, essentially, of the same kind of weakness, and thus capable of shaking Earth and making for much destruction before being overcome and destroyed; though, ultimately, they would have failed regardless because their ideology was not in league with truth.
It’s true that structurally weak ideologies may be extremely violent and destructive. There may even be a correlation between the weakness of a movement’s ideological memes and the amount of violence it unleashes upon the world.
However, if we want to undermine the doctrinal structure of Islam, it’s important to emphasize its inherent weaknesses. Below is my reply to Cave of Worms’ thoughtful comment.
There’s no denying that weak ideologies can kill millions of people and even destroy entire civilizations, since this is what Islam has been doing for the past 1,400 years. But only because of the “death to apostates” rule, without which the Religion of Peace would have been consigned to the dumpster of history before the end of the 7th century.
Islam gains its staying power by killing (or threatening to kill) those who attempt to leave it, and by forbidding all critical examination of anything else inside itself — also on pain of death. Throw in the practice of taqiyya — sacred lying — and you have a hermetically sealed protective cordon. The combination of these three memes is what gives Islam its apparent strength, and allows it to roll across the landscape like a cloud of ravening locusts, consuming everything in its path.
Too much of the Counterjihad spends too much of its time being horrified by what Islam does rather than looking at what Islam is. We waste our energies focusing constantly on the murderous brutalities committed in the name of Allah. Yes, these things are important to examine, but they should not absorb all our attention.
A preoccupation with the atrocities of Islam enhances its reputation as an invincible juggernaut, both among its own adherents and among those targeted by it. In fact, our focus on deadly Islamic violence may even be counterproductive — by inducing a sense of fatalism in those closest to the “bloody borders”, our hysteria over the ghastly realities accompanying Islamic expansion may hasten that expansion by encouraging potential victims to convert without further resistance and be absorbed into the Ummah.
A better strategy is to highlight the inherent weakness of Islamic doctrine. As I wrote a number of years ago, the three memes that protect Islam — “death to apostates”, “no critical examination of Islamic doctrine”, and “lying for the sake of the faith” — act together to produce what is known in evolutionary biology as an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS). An ESS is powerful, but brittle: it is vulnerable to slight changes in the environment of the organism (or information system) that employs it.
These protective memes form the hard, resistant shell that encases Islam. The interior memes that define its ideology are laughably weak. Absent the threat of death, they are merely ludicrous and worthy of constant mockery — which Vlad has noticed and made into his particular specialty.
This is why we need to concentrate on exposing the internal ideology of Islam (its content) and not the violence (its process). Its content cannot stand up to anything resembling rational scrutiny, and will implode if it is denied the ability to wield its murderous techniques for enforcement.
To implement the above strategy, the preservation of our right to free speech is paramount. That’s why I concentrate so much on civil liberties: if enough articulate, reasonable people are able speak out and expose the inherent ideological absurdity of Islam, it will collapse.
Denied that ability, we are all lost.
Yes, without free speech the tyrants have the upper hand. Too bad, even though the Internet still has it, you can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink. If you’re serious about the threat of Islam why not take advantage of the eagle’s eyrie with my Historyscoper’s Islam Watch Blog, the most serious blog about the issue, posting 50-150 links a day to articles and op-eds pro and con from all over the world from my list of 500+ blogs I read daily? GOV is a great feeder blog, but I got the reader blog, get it?
Thank you for this post, and thanks to the commenter whose words moved you to write the essay. CONTENT vs. PROCESS is crucial to understanding any issue.
Jihad porn attracts the same kinds of people who tie up traffic when they stop to gawk at car accidents. And Islam depends on the porn publishers to keep the populace in line. In that they are akin to the old-time mobsters: gruesome pictures and stories serve the purposes of the perpetrators. It boils down to Bully Behavior only this time it has untold amounts of cash to bolster its tactics and buy off the corrupt political class. In other words, the main strategy – intimidation through terror – never changes and the goal of dhimmitude über alles remains the same.
Islam has never been interested in the accomplishments of the West beyond the ever-new killing technologies it produces. Yes, subjugation of the West has always been part of the strategy; witness the feverish building of mosques throughout our lands. But even if the Muslim Brotherhood succeeds, there remains the unconquerable Chinese. Not to mention the Russians.
The West may have earned its dhimmitude, but that is not a condition that will ever descend on China no matter how many terrorists gnash their teeth and brandish their weapons and detonate their IEDs. Same goes for Russia. Those fervent Islamists can squat in the West, but once they engage the Big Boys, they can kiss their Ummah goodbye.
Sadly, that will not be up to us, though. We’re too busy turning our swords into scrap metals so we can pay for the dole.
What we need to understand is that yes intelligent conversation and civil demands will in the end win out. The problem is that we not only have to expose Islam and Sharia Law but also the foolish socialists, and the lame stream media for what they are. Get together and share your thoughts and engage those around you who take no time whatsoever to comprehend the good life that they love but are so ignorant of what it takes to defend it. The defense is intelligent engagement. Notice how those who follow Islam try to attack the very principles that make us who and what we are civilized, thoughtful, free, fearless, people of the BOOK, or people of philosophy (thinkers). We are free thinkers, tolerant, people of historical significance, historians, educated (not in Islamic Law) , and sooner or later we will all recognized the dangers before us and will respond appropriately. I think of people such as Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Bat Ye’or, and many others who have led the way for the misdirected. This will continue and we can be assured.
“A better strategy is to highlight the inherent weakness of Islamic doctrine …
This is why we need to concentrate on exposing the internal ideology of Islam (its content) …Its content cannot stand up to anything resembling rational scrutiny”
Great post Baron and BTW that is what we do at http://derprophet.info/inhalt/ (albeit in German)
Death to apostates AND taqiyya? How do they distinguish between a liar and a genuine apostate?
They can get away with lying because people do not know Arabic. The Bible is transparant, and everybody can read that Christians are not allowed to lie. This makes Christians inherently more trustworthy than muslims, and everybody can draw that conclusion.
Add eternal hell in the mix, and the fear of the death penalty for apostates becomes a lot less.
Although I think Christianity has its own weaknesses, a strong faith in the Afterlife can break any poisonous memeplex.
When dealing with islam, always remember the rule of thumb, in God(not allah) you trust, all muslims are suspect period.
Brilliant and true.
Typical of totalitarian movements is their minority complex. All moslem countries are backward by centuries. Islam as well as communism are afraid of competition. Hence world domination becomes a necessity.
They know they have nothing to offer. I have not seen any mention of work and business referred to in the Quran. The sharing of spoils of war is mentioned several times, in particular how many women each warrior could have. The prime source of wealth is war and robbery.
Islam is a parasitic body, relying on intimidation and violence to maintain power.
That is what needs to be conveyed to the public.
“It is interchangeable with all other mass movements finding new followers among the same body of people, whom Hoffer described perfectly in his work “The True Believer” (1950).”
According to the above statement then the West the weak because they don’t know what is truth and what is not. Just look at the Western parliaments and congresses : They haven’t made a meaningful decision over the last 40 years. The only decisions they made were against the USSR. Over the last 20 years the only decisions they have made( including EU ) are/ were decisions of capitulation to Islam and Muslims.
I worked this out some time ago, to destroy Islam it just requires us to expose it to the full force of unlimited freedom of expression and ultimately ridicule and contempt and it will fall, this is why they are so desperate to put in place blasphamy laws, my fear is that they may well succeed in doing that.
But do not shy away from calling it the religion of xenophobia for example, because that is what it is.
That and carry a very big stick.
Then, of course, there’s this:
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/023326.html
But, as Dymphna says, it’s all irrelevant to us in the West unless our leaders are ready and willing to look the enemy in the eye and shape public policy accordingly.
Given our current political climate and culture, I don’t see it happening on a meaningful public level (yet?)
Obviously, it has to get worse first. More people will be mugged by reality before any of the sacred cows are reconsidered (if that happens at all.)
Now, while it may be crystal-clear to us here that these very foundations of Islam may be its Achilles heel, that doesn’t help with the fact that many don’t see how it affects them in any way at all.
Look around you. Family, friends. Most of them don’t give much thought to what’s this particular future has in store for them. I just doesn’t touch their comfort zone. If it does, it usually gets blanked out. I can’t really blame them, it’s a brain thing.
I can, however, pop their bubble and shove these prospects right in their face.
In a way, all the jihad porn is helpful after all. It’s not hearsay from far away lands. It’s there for all to see. I am aware of who made it and for what purpose, but that doesn’t make it any less credible. In fact it does away with all the ‘religion of peace’ BS, and this in itself is a weakness of the islamic hive-mind.
Don’t let them dictate the terms of their intimidation.
It all bears repeating over and over again.
Well said and what a breath of fresh air it is to be able to look at things this way. As a rule of thumb, I generally avoid videos and texts that enumerate and depict the violence that has been the trademark of this sick ideology since its foundation. When it comes to real violence against real people, there’s very little I can stomach.
There’s nothing we can do for the victims right now apart from comprehending the criminals and not fall into their hands and blades. It’s easy to forget about the “why” amidst the gore-fest that defines mohamedanism. It is context, after all, that is lacking here. Like when 9/11 is referred to as “a tragedy” as if it was an earthquake we were talking about.
Personally I’m inclined to think that the disruption that GoV suffered in the last few months was no coincidence. When you’re a supporter of the Counter-jihad movement, things tend to not “just happen” to you.
Take heart.
The smart phone is an anti-islam vector.
It’s not getting much publicity, but smart phones are pivoting the politics of even Afghanistan.
They take the Internet to the heathen.
We should make it a criminal offence to prevent apostasy!
To quote Goebbels,
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Replace the word state with Islam and you can appreciate the desperate attempts by the OIC to shove their defamation of religions motion through the UN.
An ideology that punishes those who leave it with death.
An ideology that encourages its followers to have many children, and indoctrinate them all with its values.
An ideology that promises reward in the afterlife.
An ideology that, with Jizya money, “temporary marriages” and an ultra-large (1.6 billion and counting) network of “brothers” and “sisters” to call on, if help is needed.
An ideology that bans its women from marrying men from outside that ideology – but encourages its men to marry women being born into other ideologies.
An ideology that puts men in charge of those women.
An ideology that lets its men have many women (and many children with each of these women).
An ideology that encourages these men to do bodybuilding in gyms and learn martial arts.
An ideology which has perfected the art of using threats and terror to silence its opponents.
An ideology which has perfected the art of presenting its expansive ambitions as a “legitimate grievance”.
An ideology which has perfected the art of appearing benign and friendly to others.
An ideology that is now encouraging its followers to emigrate to the corners of the world.
An ideology that gives a manual for living the whole of one’s life in its holy book.
Does this seem a weak ideology? Because to me, it seems to be a combination of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, and a utopic vision of both life on this world in the next. A life full of women, slaves, brotherhood and officially-sanctioned violence. How many men of fighting age (and of fighting condition) would not feel the slightest bit envious of a like this?
Islam is a tool being weilded by a much more malevolent force. The role of Islam is to strike the cohesive foundations of western culture, along with other agencies like Hollywood and the BBC/PBS/Commercial TV stations.
Western Culture is built upon the idea of nation states, Islam is built upon the idea of the ummah; the brotherhood of muslims.
If we strike at Islam, we are striking at the weapon, we really need to strike at those who wield the weapon, and that is the forces of socialism in all our various countries.
If we strike down socialism, Islam withers.
The socialist deception is built upon the ignorance of the public, the public thinks that socialism will protect them, that under the red flag they can ‘live and die’. That ‘moderate’ means ‘friendly’ and that they will ‘live’. Whereas historically, moderate actually means that they wil die more slowly….
This ‘image’ of socialism has been carefully concocted over many years, carefully and lovingly built by passionate (and ruthless) devotees of the socialist religion.
As the socialist Goebbels tells us (above) TRUTH can destroy the lies very quickly. So keep spreading the truth no matter what. Communism, Nazism, Fascism, social democracy, liberal, labour and ‘Conservative’ they are all the same, they want you and me in slavery. This is a fight for life!