“And Turned Unto Fables”
Vol: 82 Issue: 24 Thursday, July 24, 2008
A proposed ad campaign envisions having one thousand of NYC’s 6,200 subway cars festooned with advertisements promoting Islam.
New York University’s Imam Khalid Latif, a cleric who is promoting the project in a YouTube video created by the Islamic Circle, explained:
“The idea is to evoke certain thoughts in the mindset of the person who is looking at the ads and get them to a point where they can reflect upon certain words that one could define as hot words or keywords that get thrown around a lot but are not necessarily defined in the most proper context,”
Another of the backers of the advertising campaign — which will launch in September to coincide with the monthlong Islamic holiday of Ramadan — is Siraj Wahhaj, imam of a Brooklyn mosque.
Wahhaj was a character witness for convicted 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Wahhaj also appeared on a list of 170 potential unindicted co-conspirators in the 1993 bombing case.
The New York Post reacted strongly to the ads by running a cover photograph of Wahhaj on Monday with the headline “Jihad Train” and posting an article on its Web site with the headline “Train-ing day for jihadists” and the first paragraph saying, “Allah aboard!”
Islamic Circle spokesman Azeem Khan called the situation a “perfect microcosm” of what the ads seek to address: that Wahhaj’s portrayal in media reports is similar to how Islam is often depicted.
Assessment:
It is a matter of historical fact that not all the Nazis were personally killers. Not every Nazi during WWII was capable of murdering innocents, even if they were sympathetic to the Final Solution.
Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, never directly killed anyone, so far as is known. He was so squeamish that he would turn away from the killing. Still he bears a greater share of guilt than do his execution squads.
Think of it this way. Lots of people eat beef. Very few people would be willing to kill the cow. But they are just as complicit in its slaughter.
One could make the same argument for the Nazis who DIDN’T directly participate in the Holocaust. They willingly subscribed to the Nazi ideology as outlined in Hitler’s mandatory-for-Party-members “Mein Kampf” (interestingly, “My Struggle” in English, “My Jihad” in Arabic).
Even if they didn’t personally pull the trigger, they were just as complicit in the slaughter of innocents.
There were two kinds of Nazis, we learned after the war. There were the fanatics, like the SS, and the ‘moderates’ who, although nominal Nazis, claimed no knowledge of what was being done in their name.
Whether they personally murdered any of the Nazi-identified untermenchen (sub-humans) or not, they agreed with the premise that they had to ‘go’.
Even if they didn’t know where they ‘went’, they didn’t ask and they didn’t care. Even non-Nazis dared not risk the ire of the Party for fear that they would come for them next.
The subway ad campaign is therefore analogous to 1944 New York City running ads in its subway system promoting Nazism. Even if one divides Islam into the categories of ‘fanatic’ and ‘moderate’ — both are inspired by the same ideological source.
Once a ‘Party’ member, studying that ideology is mandatory, and those who disagree with that ideology keep quiet about it for fear of reprisal from their co-religionists.
Those outside the ‘Party’ — particularly Christians and Jews, run the risk of arrest if they fail to go along.
A Dutch filmmaker named Geert Wilders recently released a short film entitled “Fitna”. I watched the film yesterday, and I was impressed with the way that Wilders allowed Islam to speak for itself through news footage and the statements of Islamic leaders.
Not once did Wilders interject an opinion of his own, insofar as I could tell. The film was essentially newspaper headlines, news camera footage and Islamic-produced film clips strung together to form a narrative.
The CBC reported the film’s release under the headline, “No Prosecution of Dutch Politician for anti-Islam Film” — as if, in the CBC’s view, prosecution were warranted. Indeed, the next headline, displayed right below it read, “Wilders Escapes Prosecution for Fitna.”
However, Jordan is planning to prosecute Wilders and has informed Interpol that Wilders is wanted to face charges in that country. So, Wilders cannot leave the Netherlands without risking arrest and deportation to Jordan.
Again, I saw the film. Prosecution for what? Being the bearer of bad news? Wilders didn’t mock up the news footage — it was real. I saw much of it when it was happening.
Wilders didn’t invent the clips of Islamic leaders waving swords and calling for the beheading of infidels. Wilders didn’t invent quotes from the Koran, he simply quoted what it said.
What Wilders did was no different than if he had made a film using Holocaust clips, quotes from “Mein Kampf” and clips from speeches by Nazi leaders.
Yet he barely avoided prosecution in his own nation and is now an internationally-wanted Interpol fugitive. For allowing Islam to define itself by its deeds.
It is illegal in Europe and Canada, and quasi-illegal in the United States to say in public that Islam is responsible for the actions of its adherents.
In fact, political correctness demands that NY promote the ideology that forever changed its landscape in 2001. It isn’t a question of forgiveness — forgiveness must be sought before it can be extended.
Islam has never asked forgiveness for 9/11 — it simultaneously denies responsibility and offers justification for its commission. Instead, the attack was the opening salvo in a war that continues to this day.
But political correctness forbids lumping all Muslims together under the banner of ‘Islamic’ as ‘racist’ — which, like most PC thinking, defies logical analysis. Islam is a religion, not a race.
And not lumping all Muslims together under the label ‘Islamic’ is like differentiating between fanatical and moderate Nazis. The basic duty of all Muslims is the same — to convert the infidel to Islam.
Fanatics point to the Koran and say those who refuse should be put to the sword. Moderates lean toward the Koran’s teachings on ‘dhimmi’ status for non-Muslim religions.
Reality is what reality is. The choices are convert, lose your life, or lose your freedom. The Koran makes allowances for no third option that doesn’t leave Islam in the position of supremacy.
That is the ideology being promoted by New York City in the name of “political correctness.”
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “delusion” thusly: M“false psychotic belief regarding the self or persons or objects outside the self that is maintained despite indisputable evidence to the contrary; also : the abnormal state marked by such beliefs”
One could define political correctness as; “a delusional state in which unpleasant truths are modified according to the sensitivities of the listeners, in defiance of clear and indisputable evidence to the contrary”.
The Apostle Paul writes that during the Tribulation, God will allow the world to embrace a ‘strong delusion’ that will allow them to believe ‘a lie’ that ultimately permits the antichrist to seize control of a global religious system and install himself as its head. (2nd Thessalonians 2, Revelation 13)
But before that, Paul writes to Timothy:
“the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2nd Timothy 4:3-4)
This isn’t a screed about Islam. (THAT would be illegal.) But there is a relevant truth here that HAS largely been turned into a fable.
We’re still free to express politically incorrect opinions without fear. I’m expressing mine, right here and right now, but I can assure you, it isn’t without fear.
I’m not that delusional.
Omegaletter 