Below is Rembrandt Clancy’s translation of an excellent essay by Leon de Winter that was originally published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Introduction
by Rembrandt Clancy
My most salient reason for translating this piece is the author’s attempt to grapple with the problem of evil.
Leon de Winter recognises an unrelativised objective morality, absolute at least in the sense that it is necessary for life. He recognises morality (limit) as an objective and complementary opposite of instinctuality or passion; that is, if one partner in the pair is eliminated, in this case morality, then the instinctual partner finds direct expression in blood lust where violence and sexuality are inseparable. An analogous phenomenon occurs in the autonomic nervous system: if the parasympathetic system fails to impose limits on the sympathetic system, death results from high blood pressure and overexcitement. It should not surprise us to find a similar pattern of complementarity on the psychic or spiritual level, and without implying that the spiritual is an epiphenomenon of biology.
If the two complementary opponents operate in balance, a tertium non datur results, a third factor not given by either of the first two alone. And Mr. de Winter calls that third factor “civilisation”. Therefore it is not the instinctual part of our nature which is inherently evil; rather, evil results from a disturbance of the internal equilibrium caused by possession (“possessed by jihad”); that is, by identification with either “the desires of their heart” or the “law written in their hearts” (Rom. 1:24 and 2:15, Vulgate).
About the Author
Leon de Winter was born in 1954 in the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch in the southern Netherlands, the son of orthodox Jewish parents. Today he lives in Amsterdam with his wife Jessica Durlacher, who is also a writer. He has two children. He attended film school in the 1970s, but today he is admired as an author in both Germany and the Netherlands. He is known for various genres: novels, novellas, short stories, columns, theatre and film. Mr. De Winter had his breakthrough in 1981 with his novel Looking for Eileen W. His latest novel, A Good Heart, appeared in 2013 (Sources: niederlandenet and Frankfurter Allgemeine).
For years Leon de Winter has given talks and interviews and has written essays on Islam in Europe. As recently as January of 2014, an interview with Mr. de Winter appeared on Gates of Vienna. It is called “Avoiding the Unpleasant Questions”.
Note: In his remark that “in the Western world of today every form of aggression is directly sanctioned as early as kindergarten”, Leon de Winter appears to suggest that there remains only a small level of inhibition separating the West from the attraction of jihadism. This reference to the field of education is the only allusion which Mr. de Winter makes in his essay to the contribution of the Left to his discussion of Islam. In regard to the Left, on Paul Weston’s LibertyGB, there is a short piece by Enza Ferreri which is somewhat harmonious with Leon de Winter’s essay; perhaps it even complements it. It is called “What’s the Alternative to the Left’s Programme?”. Ferreri speaks of reclaiming convictions “supplanted by leftist barbarism”, an “alternative to Islam” and “an answer to sexual relativism, pansexualism and radical feminism…”
The Barbarism of the Jihadists: In the Name of the Sword
Argumentation is pointless: The jihadists of the “Islamic State” eliminate all limitations which we have internalised in the course of the civilisational process. Combat allows them to give in completely to their instincts.
by Leon de Winter
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine
Translation: Rembrandt Clancy
20 August 2014
Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev” is among the masterpieces of cinema. It tells the true life story of an inspired icon painter and priest. The film is set against the background of 15th century Russia. In one scene, Tartars raid the city of Vladimir. They slaughter whomever crosses their path: they mutilate, rape, steal. Tarkovsky shows masterfully the feeling with which these Asiatic hordes apply their procedure — they kill with great abandon.
In the close-ups of the murderers, we look in horror at the ardent excitement in their faces. These men, having discarded all civilising inhibitions, can yield to the most primitive of their urges and impulses. They have achieved the ultimate liberation. Because they are completely unfeeling and because they reduce other men to objects of lust and subjugation, they have reached the zenith of their sexual potency and are able to act quite openly like beasts.
The current television images and the jihad videos on YouTube remind me of this scene, one of the most arresting in the history of cinema. If we ask ourselves how the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century or the Mongols in the thirteenth century conquered and plundered the world — the “Islamic state” (IS) shows us how they proceeded. They were driven by the wild desire to destroy and conquer everything which fell to their inclination.
The liberating Jihad
The regular armies of modern times must discipline the destructive energies of young men and direct them into organised paths. The provisions of the laws of war are to be observed; one must not engage in brutal behaviour unnecessarily, and commanders must be aware of the proportionality of means and avoid collateral damage. None of these things are of any concern to the fighters of the “Islamic State”. By committing themselves to jihad, they throw off the bonds of civilized behaviour. We facing the gratified visage of naked savagery.
Whoever is possessed by jihad has exceptional power. In an orgiastic fever he can rape, kill and plunder. Owing to the brainwashing which he encountered, he knows that this course of action is legitimised by his religion. And when he dies, he will go straight to heaven, where seventy-two virgins are waiting to attend upon him for all eternity. The IS fighters are an incarnation of everything that was channelled [kanalisiert] in the course of becoming civilised; namely, the sexual and destructive energies of young men. Jihad, as we have come to see, can turn this process around, and the energies and urges which young men must suppress in a civilised society are given a new focus.
In the Western world of today every form of aggression is directly sanctioned as early as kindergarten. Our sons are constrained to grow up as placid girls and are allowed to act out their (sexual) energy only in sport and with aggressive computer games, during which they kill dozens of virtual enemies day after day. Jihad liberates young men from these restrictions, which is precisely why it is so appealing to young men even in the West.
No Respect for the Dignity of Others
Instead of sitting in front of the screen, they can live out their fantasies in real life, in real time, in a real theatre of war and under the banner of a divine mandate. Instead of sublimating the untrammelled reign of everything that is brutish — of everything that permits them to conquer, to kill, to destroy and to rape — jihad makes it possible for the believer to abandon himself completely to his ecstasy. The so-called unbeliever is only an object with which the jihadist can do as he pleases according to his whim.
There is no debating with jihadists, and that is why they frighten us. They speak of their divine mandate — the establishment of a worldwide caliphate — but their means go far beyond this objective. Their practise denies the humanity of the other and allows the ultimate victory of the perpetrator over the victim, of the believer over the unbeliever, of man over woman, of the lord over his slaves. The victim is deprived of all his rights: — he can only hope for mercy, a gesture from the all-powerful victor which is calculated to humiliate. Such mercy can be given in certain cases, when the victim converts to Islam; which is tantamount to a psychic rape.
Nowadays, these hordes appear not on horses, but in all-terrain vehicles and with grenade launchers, but the earth still trembles when they come. They hoist black flags and love death more than life; but only after they have tasted the flesh of enslaved women. They blow up statues, churches, everything that falls into their hands: the dignity of the other is not respected.
Moral Imperatives do not Apply
Their motives elude our understanding. Young men with solid future prospects join the jihadists. They abjure education and marriage in favour of fighting a war in which the beheading of the victim, his ultimate humiliation, becomes an initiation ritual. Young men who wield a sword no longer entertain any doubts, know no pity, no hesitation, and in so doing they free themselves from their last inhibitions. Dozens of jihadist videos provide evidence for this brutal Stone Age ritual.
The bystanders who witness this decisive moment — which breaks through all limitations — are nervous, because the killer is not always secure, and perhaps his hand still trembles. They cry “Allahu Akhbar” to strengthen him in throwing overboard, once and for all, the last remaining doubt that may still be in him. He guides the knife and makes of the prisoner a butchered animal. Henceforth nothing binds him any longer to a moral world. Now he can kill and find satisfaction in it, and his companions respect him. He has burst the bonds of civilization.
The English philosopher, writer and cultural critic George Steiner once remarked that the Jews are hated because they invented conscience and the ideal of moral and ethical wholeness [Vervollkommnung]. Man hates them for it, because he keeps trying to fulfil these moral imperatives, but he continually fails. He fails, because no one can fulfil these high moral commandments [Geboten]. The Islamic Jihad circumvents this existential problem.
The Ultimate Fighter
Jihad allows the believers to switch off the voice of reason and conscience. They can henceforth practise raw sexual violence. The voice of the horde is the voice of orgiastic lust. These hordes slaughter men and boys and turn girls and women into sex slaves. Once again man is as defenceless as he was for the tens of thousands of years before we abolished human sacrifice and began the slow and painful process of overcoming our brutal nature.
Jihad has so much power because it can disconnect the hard-won limits which we have internalised during the process of becoming civilised. Jihad brings to the world the ultimate fighter who no longer admits of any limitations. These people require no political or religious programme. They are not driven by any kind of social or economic disadvantage. Their absurd notion of a world-spanning Caliphate is just as much of a pretext as all the other senseless ideas which demand the killing of unbelievers so that a paradise of pure believers can arise. No, it is only about the wish to rape and destroy. Our culture has a name for that: evil.
Brilliant essay, thanks for sharing it here.
It is most unwise to dismiss the enemy as an unthinking savage. The armies of ISIS conduct their operations to a plan. Rank and file do not shoot their officers when disagreements arise. Officers do not neglect their duties for the boudoir. We face, not a wild horde, but an army.
This army may, if it suits the purposes of the high command, go on a killing spree, beheading and raping etc. And if that spree does not suit the purposes of the high command, well, those orders too will be obeyed.
One of the reasons these guys are dangerous is exactly that they are not slaves to their passions. The light of reason is twisted to serve an evil end, but it shines nevertheless.
A wise man once told me that the best way to think of Islam is as a way for extremely violent (including sexual violence) men to do what they feel like, while removing all remorse by saying “it is Allah’s will.” In other words, Islam is the opposite of religion in the sense that while true religion tries to remove the animal in man, Islam actually encourages it, and says “Allah wants to see that animal. Show him just how cruel you can be.”
It was a brilliant strategy. It won over the most cruel people of the time to Mohammed. And with them on his side, he could easily terrorise and subdue the remaining arabs (who were, by all accounts, a very decent people).
I highly doubt the Arabs prior to the arrival of Prophet Muhammed were much different. Religions tend to exacerbate existing tendencies rather then introducing alien behavioural patterns. Islam is merely Arab tribalism sanctioned by a false god.
Not sure about that—for example, what is today Afghanistan was once Gandhara–a cradle of Hindu-Buddhist-Greek civilization, and perhaps the most enlightened place on earth at the time. Today, after Islam has taken over, it has been rendered into a primitive barbaric society.
If we look at Islamic records itself about pre-Islamic arabia, we find a thriving mercantile multi-religious society that coexisted. Women seemed to have been at a high status (Mo’s employer was a woman businessman, who became his wife. The most respected poet in Mecca was a woman (who Mo murdered later), etc.) The few data points we have point to a civilized decent mercantile society. Jews and Christians too were part of the mix, without any record of persecution before Mo arrived on the scene.
Remember also that Meccans found Mo very very repugnant. That itself is evidence that Mo introduced a type of thought into that mix that was unknown before him.
Islam is not about arabs. It is about one man with deep psychological problems—Mad Mo.
Yep
Yes, that’s it exactly. Islam appeals to man’s worst and most base impulses. The first part of this satanic bargain is that men are able to enslave and rape women: their own wives, or enslaved infidel girls and women.
They don’t only kill boys and men. In Iraq, they recently beheaded a 3 year old Christian girl, and collected all her blood in a utensil. The video is available, though I did not watch it (I saw a few pictures from the video, and felt very sick).
These people are beyond evil. Evil is too weak a word for them. Remember, before they came, we used to speak of evil. Now we need a “better” word. Evil doesn’t quite cut it.
Perhaps ISLAM is that word? Islam is beyond evil.
Steven Sotloff’s mother makes an emotional appeal:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28958336
Let’s all pray that somehow Steven comes back home safe.
The Fourth Great Jihad has now physically manifested itself to all who are honest within themselves when assessing their observations, yet those who have authority over us still pretend that it is the radicals and extremists, but not the very real fundamentalists of Islam who are waging this civilizational war against us.
While political cowardice prevails and the inability of the free thinking citizen to answer the call to arms continues, Islam will remain dominant.
I am not usre one can agree with this essay. I think “ISIS” is a reaction to western decadence and arrogance. Thanks to Marxism and lazy Relativism, the West has totally abandoned morality-Christian morality that have kept the world and society safe for so long. It might not be a perfect “safety” but it had limits-moral and physical limits.
Now the “Post Modernist” “elite”- all in fact “Champagne Commies” as a friend calls them are quite content to encourage family destruction, [homosexual] marriage “consumated” by [unnatural conjunction], gang rape by Islamic thugs in the former United Kingdom, indeed “anything goes” in this Gramscian Hell.
I think I am a well read philodopher and one thing that stands out, especially in Kant- my favourite, we live in a clearly defined “Moral Universe”, in which Duty is the highest act of all and calling. Kant was stating that Nature or “God” placed strict definitions and borders on all intelligent beings-morally driven beings.
These Laws- and they are Laws apply to all and form the basis of civilisation. If we overthrow them the wiles of Nature itself will react in equal and opposite manner. ISIS, apparently created by the US and Saudi Arabia and now out of control, is to me a fitting response to our own disgusting immoral behaviour.
As folk know I am no “Moslem lover”….I am sick of them, especially as a Bishop. However, in ISIS we have seen the Frankenstein of Western “Post Modernism”- The Beast within unleashed, like the painting of Dorian Grey- that is ISIS and the Near East is the canvas upon which it paints.
Once again, a hand-wringing apologist for Islam, seeking a way, any way, to blame the West for the same evil rampage that has never truly abated for 1,400 years.
Can’t you just conclude, based on 14 centuries of history from Nigeria to Norway to the Philippines, that Islam promotes and encourages sadistic and evil behavior?
Seconded, Matthew. The true measure of a person’s moral character (Left or Right, believer or doubter) is how they behave when others have behave badly around them.
Please ignore “have”!
The only reaction from ISIS to the West’s decadence, as you have put it, is I believe, due to the perception we have become weak in leadership while upholding that women must have their equal place, even within leadership positions, which I suspect, would be like waving a red rag to a bull when considering what Islam stands for.
The West was of a very moral character for nearly 2000 years, the morality of which did not restrain the advances of Islam. No, it is because we are non-believers in their Devil’s religion that we are now targeted, and not because we can be considered to decadent, which by the way I do agree – we have allowed ourselves to become way too illiberal to maintain a hold on our civilization and things must necessarily change back to what they once were, if we wish to survive.
A “deity” that sanctifies the worst of human nature and most brutal of behaviors is properly called a demon, or Devil.
Making Allah essentially Satanic, ~verses and all.
An anti-civilizing Impulse, a retrograde Force, followed by those whose bestial bent seeks absolution and reward.
Islam is ‘submission’ to monstrousness.
And attracts the lowest type of being.
By liberating their worst traits.
Praising cruelty. Cheering brutality. Glorifying the gruesome.
A criminal’s “faith”.
That is not ‘morality’, and its values are no more ‘objective’ than a craving for an apple is. In fact, they are not even ontologically distinct from the latter, but merely physically differentiable. Not to mentiont that what preserves life might vary from situation to situation, and so is not absolute as the laws of God are, nor that these values all fall away for anyone who does not share this subjective valuation of ‘life’.
Re blogged here
http://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/
The US is the only force with enough kindness and love and morality left in the world to stop these medieval cancers. We have to lead. We have to cajole, to force, to bully, to be the world’s policeman. It’s time to reverse course, stop trying to lead from behind, stop trying to please and reason. We need our muscle and testosterone once again.
We have to take these folks out. They have to disappear…as civilization is teetering and we are losing that thin layer that separates us from animals.
It’s very dangerous for us to incrementally get used to beheading or torture or any such violence. Eventually this will begin to change us. It’s time for a just war once again.