Apologists For Silence

We in the West live in a civilisation, in which women are declared as equal to men, in which we are free to not bend to any religious dogma, where freedom of expression is or should be an absolute imperative, where freedom of thought should be be non-negotiable, and the freedom to speak out against tyranny or threats is a baseline.

 

Sheikh Harith al-Nadhari - 'Limit To Free Speech'

So while no one is suggesting that everything Charlie Hebdo drew, or wrote was funny (especially outside of France, where most French humour falls flat) ... but defending their freedom to say, draw and write what they wanted, is fundamental to what we are, or rather were, until we were asked by many to change our way of life, to accommodate one new group migrating into our civilisation .... but now "the danger within" (as one German security source has described them), is likely to force us to either react, or submit (accommodation is simply not an option). 

 

A senior leader of Yemen branch of al-Qaeda (AQAP), Sheikh Harith al-Nadhari is reported to have said "some in France have misbehaved with the prophets of God .... " and that "God's faithful soldiers" had taught them "the limits of freedom of speech".
 
Of course some of the left liberals in the west, such as the Liberation newspaper in France, are still trying to pin the tail on the donkey of criminal 'terrorism', rather than the creed that nurtures these acts .... "All republicans... will identify the adversary as terrorism not Islam" and see their Muslim compatriots as "the first victims of fundamentalism, who are with us in this ordeal". Really? Was it a liberal or left-wing satirical Muslim newspaper under attack?

Raif Badawi ~ 10 Years And 1,000 Lashes For Blogging

If there were any doubts left about what 'freedom of speech' actually means for parts of the world .... in Saudi Arabia, the blogger Raif Badawi, was the co-founder of a website called the Liberal Saudi Network, which was banned, he was arrested in 2012, and later found guilty of a range of offences including cyber-crime, and insulting Islam, in an anti-terrorism court. Part of his sentence was 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail. 

 

His first public lashing was carried out recently after Friday prayers in Jeddah, when he was whipped 50 times. He will get 50 lashes a week until he dies, or has received 1,000 in all .... so let no one pretend that they don't know what will come if we let this creed win .... but I hear none of the semi-apologists for the violent responses to cartoons, acknowledging this truth.  

TV showed Storming Of Supermarket In Paris in Second Siege...

We also constantly hear that every attack and outrage was carried out by people who don't represent Islam, but if not Islam, what is it, or who is it, that the terrorists do represent? They come out of the same mosques in Europe that all the others come out of, they listen to the same sermons .... so why are they so different .... why is their version of Islam not any more valid than any other version? After all early Islam spread out of Arabia under the sword, so why not the gun?

How have we allowed a situation to develop in Europe, where veiled and not so veiled threats, grenades and bullets, are the reply to satire or mockery ... where people are killed simply for drawing a picture?

What annoys me most, is that when asked by the press for a comment, the various Muslim Organisations or individuals replying invariably 'condemn the violence' as 'un-islamic', and then also invariably say 'but' ..... its the 'but' which is their slippery escape route. The 'but' in this case is that 'but you shouldn't insult, criticise or mock' the religion of peace or its prophet, with the unsaid threat that 'or else bad things will happen' ... which of course is not in the spirit of Islam'.

Around the world its reported that some Arab newspapers such as 'Al-Atan' in Egypt, have even blamed France for having "contributed to the growth and spread of terrorism", that "could strike at any other country and is hitting Arab countries every day" .... ah, so its our 'liberalism' in allowing millions of Muslims to live here freely, that's to blame for ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Shabab etc.

Another London based Arab newspaper (why are they based in London ... oh, no free speech in Muslim lands ... I forgot), 'Al-Quds al-Arabi', apparently fears the possible "persecution of innocent Muslims" during security measures, not to mention an "expected wave of racist attacks on mosques and Islamic centres", while another Iranian paper suggests that the incident "will help strengthen right-wing extremism ahead of the 2017 elections, and heat up the debate against Muslim immigration to Europe".

Of course the real nut jobs of the Islamic world, have already turned this attack into evidence of a 'global Zionist conspiracy' to 'defame Islam', as if it doesn't defame itself every week (they made much the same claims about 9/11 and all the other atrocities since) .... for example in Iran, the religious paper, 'Hemayat' questions how the attackers left the scene "so easily", and sees this as "important evidence", of co-operation between the extremist group Islamic State and Israel, in pursuit of "that regime's goals throughout the world."

And, somewhat ironically, the Iranian newspaper 'Sharq' asks "how the terrorists could reach the centre of Paris with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in their hands", and advises the West to avert similar incidents by "reviewing its policies towards the Islamic world and the Middle East" ...... a review many of us would like to take place as well, but possibly not in the same way they are thinking.  Obviously they mean, don't upset Muslims anywhere, and maybe they will let us live under just the threat of attack.

Just to remind ourselves of how far the unrepresentative Islam has spread, in the very same week as the Paris massacres (because of course another Islamic gunman and his female accomplice killed a police woman, and then another four Jewish hostages at the very same time as the police killed the first two jihadists in raids on both siege sites), the following events were also in the news:

• In Nigeria .... Boko Haram assaulted the town of Baga again .... so far this Islamist group have displaced at least 1.5 million people, while more than 2,000 were killed last year alone. ~ they are fighting to create a caliphate in West Africa. 
• In Somalia .... Islamist sect Al-Shabab claim to have executed four 'CIA and Ethiopian spies' who were just African soldiers fighting under the UN umbrella ~ they are fighting to create a caliphate in East Africa.
• In Iraq .... Islamist sect Islamic State militants have attacked Iraqi security forces in the central city of Samarra, killing two people and injuring 28 others ~ they are fighting to create a caliphate in the Middle-East. 

So remind me again ... who exactly is not representing true Islam?

 

Update: Sheikh Harith al-Nadhari was killed by a US drone strike in the south of the country on the 31st of January 2015 in Shabwa province. Karma at work I guess.