I fear that we are losing the battle to protect and defend western culture.
Not out of ignorance. But fear.
I went to public school. In those days excerpts were read from the Bible but were not taught from a particular religious perspective. When I was in grade 10, my English teacher talked about God and perfection. He told us that only God is perfect. We will never be perfect, he said, but we can aspire to perfection by trying to live up to the high expectations of ethical monotheism, the underpinnings of Western civilization: we are all created equal and we are to care for “the other.” Sounds simple, but we have a long way to go.
We are blessed to live in a culture that teaches “Love and Life” and the need to balance personal rights with public responsibilities so beautifully summed up by the words of Rabbi Hillel…. Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14
Today, though, we are facing a culture that doesn’t believe in equal intrinsic values of all citizens. A culture that doesn’t believe in welcoming, tolerating, including or accommodating “the other.” Yet, there is pressure on many of us to be quiet. Pointing out differences in cultures is politically incorrect. The truth is, there is a false belief that all cultures are equal. If it makes you feel better to call them equal, go ahead, but they are totally different.
And we are in the midst of a clash of cultures. Yes, President George W. Bush was correct. And it is not a case of two different cultures in two different lands. It is a clash of cultures within western culture countries.
This was London, England in 2013
Summer of 2014 a Muslim mob in Uppsala, Sweden, attacked and severely beat a Jewish mother of four, for wearing a Jewish Star of David necklace.
There is an increase in rape in Europe. Not only rape, but gang rapes. The rapists tend to be Muslim.
Gang rapes of British girls were kept quiet for fear of offending the offenders.
“In a letter to the German government, women’s rights activists described how some men in refugee camps “regard women as their inferior and treat unaccompanied women as “fair game”. In Germany, women were advised not to travel to and from the train station unaccompanied to avoid physical and sexual harassment.
Life in Luton, Britain, has radically changed.
British Muslim women in the presence of young children were heard attacking the “filthy Jews,” accusing “filthy Jews” of killing innocent Muslim women and children, and telling young Muslim women that Britain is waging war against them. In a secretly filmed two-hour lecture, one woman says the “good days have already begun” because a Khilafah (Islamic State) has been established. In a clear reference to the attacks against ISIL, she added: “It’s not the first time nations have plotted against the believers.”
Young Muslim men coming to the West do not lose the morals they have been taught. In Rotterdam, a woman was accosted: “You dress like a #.”
Hamas’s TV channel has warned Israelis that “[we] love death more than you love life.” Or as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has put it: “The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.” Or as a 16-year-old Taliban warrior declared, “War is our best hobby. The sound of guns firing is like music for us…. The Americans love Pepsi Cola, we love death.”
PA TV Preacher: “Allah, punish Your enemies, the enemies of religion, count their numbers and kill them to the last one, and bring them a black day. Allah, punish the wicked Jews, and those among the atheists who help them. Allah, we ask that You bestow upon us respect and honor by enabling us to repel them, and we ask You to save us from their evil.” [Official PA TV, April 22, 2016]
Just as importantly, we must listen to what Muslims say about their own culture. in 2015 Daniel Greenfield wrote about the Syrians’ response to terror. Twenty-nine percent listed Iran as the greatest threat, 22% picked Israel and 19% picked the USA. Only 10% considered Islamic terrorism as a threat. A poll this summer showed 1 in 5 Syrians support ISIS. One third support Al Nusra Front which is affiliated with Al Qaeda. Greenfield reports that, “In places where the Syrian refugees come from, support for Al Qaeda groups climbs as high as 70% in Idlib; 66% in Quneitra (on the border with Israel); 66% in Raqqa; 47% in Derzor; 47% in Hasakeh; 41% in Daraa; and 41% in Aleppo.” And about one third of Syrian refuges oppose US air strikes on ISIS and its destruction.
Greenfield also reports that the majority of Syrian refugees support Hamas whose charter describes “a struggle against the Jews.”
When these refugees come to Canada they will be greeted by people of all religions, but in all probability will turn to the mosques for support where they will hear Imams like Abdi Hersy of Abu Bakr Musallah in Calgary, Alberta, and a prominent voice in Calgary’s Somali community talk about marriage.
“The husband has many rights on his wife… first and foremost, she has to obey you… when he calls you in the bed, stop what you are doing, quit…You have to choose either Allah, the most glorified, the most high, or Canada.”
Imams in Canada teach that it is permissible to beat your wife.
The National Post cited an intelligence report warning that teenagers are being exposed to Islamist extremism in Canadian high schools.
In Saskatchewan, Muhammad Mustafa Mustaan preaches,
“Democracy is nothing else but something which gives you the right to choose anything. The biggest shirk [Arabic term for idolatrous and heretical polytheism] is when you give your own self the right to choose whatever you want. So, democracy, in no terms, is compatible with Islam.”
He spoke in Saskatoon public schools, including Walter Murray Collegiate Institute, a high school of 1,300 students
Imam Mazin Abdul Adhim, London, Ontario-based Imam a senior cleric of Hizb ut-Tahrir, recently called upon the Muslim Ummah (Nation) to unite in order to establish the global Islamic state, also known by its Arabic name the Caliphate. He teaches:
“What our identity is? We are Muslims, strewn about all across the planet without anybody who represents us. We are Muslims who are actually belong to the Khilafah [Caliphate]. The Khilafah [Caliphate] represents us and it was destroyed in 1924. We are responsible for working to re-establish it. So this is the first thing. We must work to establish the Khilafah [Caliphate].”
In Scarborough, Ontario, Egyptian born Imam Hindy from the Salaheddin Islamic Centre describes himself as a fundamentalist not an extremist. Yet, Hassan Farhat, a former member, left Canada to join an al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq, where he allegedly commanded a squad of suicide bombers.The RCMP refers to Hindy as a “focal point for Toronto area Islamic radicals.”
Tahir Gora, secretary general of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Hindy has made “humiliating remarks” about homosexuals, and had tried to make the case that it didn’t matter if Canada accepted homosexuals because Islam did not. Mr. Gora is a writer who fled Pakistan after his critiques of religious intolerance brought death threats. Gora said “He should respect Canadian values.”
And so we come back to values. There is no such thing as universally accepted values. That’s the attitude of those who live in the world of Kumbaya and Lennon’s Imagine. It all sounds lovely, and it is lovely. But it is far from reality.
Yes, as a country that is so very blessed, we are obligated to care for others, especially those fleeing terror. But we have obligations, too, to our citizens to maintain our hard-won Western values. How do we in the West circle the square between those who believe that all life has equal intrinsic value, that we are to care for “the other,” and those who don’t? Do we not have obligations to answer that question before we bring thousands of people into this country who do not value our values?
Do we not owe that much to those who died to protect our freedoms?
Take up our quarrel with the foe
to you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
I first posted this in 2015.
I fear that we are losing the battle to protect and defend western culture.
Not out of ignorance. But fear.
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
