Don't tell me. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear the attacks in Paris have nothing to do with Islam. Because here's the rub. Any man shouting Allahu Akbar as he blows himself to paradise is an adherent of the same religion and scriptures children are forced to learn, repeat and regurgitate by Muslims clerics the world over.
Or, as Peter Quinn, the CIA hitman from Homeland, put it in a remarkably prescient episode from the current series broadcast six weeks ago: '(ISIS) has a clear strategy. A strategy which includes beheadings, crucifixions, and the revival of slavery, and it all derives from their fucking book, the only book they ever read.'
In fact the scene when he tells the CIA and US military top brass the brutal truth about ISIS is worth reading in full: (Video at the end of this article.)
CIA official: You said a program should be renewed. I'm asking is our strategy working?
Peter Quinn: What strategy? Tell me what the strategy is and I'll tell you if it's
working. [Silence] See, that right there is the problem because they - they
have a strategy. They're gathering right now in Raqqa by the tens of thousands,
hidden in the civilian population, cleaning their weapons and they know exactly
why they're there.
CIA official: Why is that?
Peter Quinn: They call it the end times.
What do you think the be-headings are about? The crucifixions in Deir Hafer,
the revival of slavery? Do you think they make this shit up? It's all in the
book. Their fucking book. The only book they ever read - they read it all the
time. They never stop. They're there for one reason and one reason only: to die
for the Caliphate and usher in a world without infidels. That's their strategy
and it's been that way since the seventh century. So do you really think that a
few special forces teams are going to put a dent in that?
CIA official: Well what would you do?
Peter Quinn: Are you offering me a
promotion?
CIA official: I'm offering you a hypothetical.
Peter Quinn: Two-hundred thousand American troops on the ground indefinitely to
provide security and support for an equal number of doctors and elementary
school teachers.
CIA official: Well that's not going to happen.
Peter Quinn: Then I better get back there.
CIA official: What else? What else would make a difference?
Peter Quinn: Hit reset.
CIA official: Meaning what?
Peter Quinn: Meaning pound Raqqa (ISIS’s stronghold) into a parking lot.
No wonder that clip’s going viral. Quinn's advice to the packed briefing room? Pound Raqqa into a parking lot.
As with 9/11, 7/7, the Charlie Hebdo massacres, and the public beheading in the UK of drummer Lee Rigby, the race to find the Paris killers has been equalled only by the rush of the usual liberal fluff-muffins to distance ‘moderate’ Muslims from the ideology of the terrorists.
The writers behind ‘Homeland’ are acutely aware of the vast gulf between what the population thinks and what the politicians would have them believe. What we are not allowed to think is that anything intrinsic to Muslim culture perpetuates these atrocities. And what politicians would have us believe is that in no way are the acts of suicide bombers linked to a religion which encourages exactly that.
And yet parallels are easily drawn. If 27% of British Muslims had sympathy with the Charlie Hebdo attacks and 100% think homosexuality should be banned, just how wide is the gulf between mainstream Muslims and ISIS stalwarts throwing gay men from buildings or emptying Kalashnikov’s into the crowds.
One hundred lying dead on the floor of Bataclan Theatre. |
Obama looks like a man stalling for time until he can hand over the keys of the White House to someone with the stomach for a fight. Hollande said the terrorist attacks in Paris were an act of war. And I believe he is right
Obama looks like a man stalling for time until he can hand over the keys of the White House to someone with the stomach for a fight. Francoise Hollande at least rightly said the terrorist attacks in Paris were an act of war.
Even after Paris Obama looks like a man stalling for time until he can hand over the keys of the White House to someone with the stomach for a fight. Obama is talking a good game—of standing shoulder to shoulder with France.
Francoise Hollande said the terrorist attacks in Paris were an act of war. And I believe he is right. But are we gathering the armies of the European Union to help them? No. Leaders of the free world are busy tweeting empty words and taking selfies of their sad faces. But no one is coordinating a unified defence of Western freedoms. We have singularly failed to bridge the vast gulf between sympathy and action.
And if Muslims want to distance themselves from the extremists lurking at the periphery of their religion, they would be wise to walk in a different direction, to speak out against the terror behind this 'religion of peace'. Where is this show of defiance? How often do we hear Muslim clerics denounce the actions of terrorists in their ranks? The answer is: nowhere and not enough. Declare yourselves. Whose side are you on? Theirs or ours? Are you looking for shelter? Or harboring hate?
Liberals would like us to believe we are part of a vibrant multicultural society. The reality is that we are not a blend of cultures living together harmoniously. We are a culture on course to be eradicated by a more determined one.
Quinn says his strategy for Syria would be two-hundred thousand American troops on the ground indefinitely to provide security and support for an equal number of doctors and elementary school teachers.
Personally, I prefer his alternative option: ‘Pound Raqqah into a
parking lot.' (Or just nuke them to oblivion like US did to Japan at the tail
end of WW2.)