|
|
|
Jewish World Review July 18, 2005 / 11 Taamuz, 5765 Burnt offerings on the altar of multiculturalism By Diana West
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Only one faith on Earth may be more messianic than Islam:
multiculturalism. Without it — without its fanatics who believe all
civilizations are the same — the engine that projects Islam into
the unprotected heart of Western civilization would stall and fail.
It's as simple as that. To live among the believers — the
multiculturalists — is to watch the assault, the jihad, take place
un-repulsed by our suicidal societies. These societies are not
doomed to submit; rather, they are eager to do so in the name of a
masochistic brand of tolerance that, short of drastic measures, is
surely terminal.
I'm not talking about our soldiers, policemen, rescue workers and,
now, even train conductors, who bravely and steadfastly risk their
lives for civilization abroad and at home. Instead, I'm thinking
about who we are as a society at this somewhat advanced stage of
war. It is a strange, tentative civilization we have become, with
leaders who strut their promises of "no surrender" even as they
flinch at identifying the foe. Four years past 9/11, we continue to
shadow-box "terror," even as we go on about "an ideology of hate."
It's a script that smacks of sci-fi fantasy more than realpolitik.
But our grim reality is no summer blockbuster, and there's no
special-effects-enhanced plot twist that is going to thwart "terror"
or "hate" in the London Underground anymore than it did on the roof
of the World Trade Center. Or in the Bali nightclub. Or on the first
day of school in Beslan. Or in any disco, city bus or shopping mall
in Israel.
Body bags, burn masks and prosthetics are no better protections than
make-believe. But these are our weapons, according to the powers
that be. These, and an array of high-tech scopes and scanners
designed to identify retinas and fingerprints, to detect explosives
and metals — ultimately, I presume, as we whisk through the
automatic supermarket door. How strange, though, that even as we
devise new ways to see inside ourselves to our most elemental
components, we also prevent ourselves from looking full-face at the
danger to our way of life posed by Islam.
Notice I didn't say "Islamists." Or "Islamofascists." Or
"fundamentalist extremists." I've tried out such terms in the past,
but I've come to find them artificial and confusing, and maybe
purposefully so, because in their imprecision I think they allow us
all to give a wide berth to a great problem: the gross
incompatibility of Islam — the religious force that shrinks freedom
even as it "moderately" enables or "extremistly" advances jihad —
with the West. Am I right? Who's to say? The very topic of
Islamization — for that is what is at hand, and very soon in Europe
— is verboten. A leaked British report prepared for Prime Minister
Tony Blair last year warned even against "expressions of concern
about Islamic fundamentalism" (another one of those amorphous terms)
because "many perfectly moderate Muslims follow strict adherence to
traditional Islamic teachings and are likely to perceive such
expressions as a negative comment on their own approach to their
faith." Much better to watch subterranean tunnels fill with charred
body parts in silence. As the London Times' Simon Jenkins wrote,
"The sane response to urban terrorism is to regard it as an
avoidable accident."
And while the penalty is not death — as it is for leaving Islam
under Islamic law — the existential crisis is to be avoided at all
costs. Including extinction.
This is the lesson of the atrocities in London. It's unlikely that
the 21st century will remember that this new Western crossroads for
global jihad was once the home of Churchill, Piccadilly and Sherlock
Holmes. Then again, who will notice? The BBC has retroactively
purged its online bombing coverage of the word "terrorist"; the
spokesman for the London police commissioner has declared that
"Islam and terrorism simply don't go together"; and within sight of
a forensics team sifting through rubble, an Anglican priest urged
his flock, as The Guardian reported, to "rejoice in the capital's
rich diversity of cultures, traditions, ethnic groups and faiths."
Just don't, he said, "name them as Muslims."
Their faith renewed, Londoners soldier on.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here. © 2005, Diana West |
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles | |||||||||||
