Is stealth jihad behind ground zero mosque?

Washinton Times

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 – Art and Politics by El Marco

The virality of information in this galloping technological age was brought home to me the other day, when I received an e-mail about an article by Bill Kelly in the Washington Times Communities that contained some photographs I shot back in June.

I thought it might be a good idea to elaborate on that story and share more of what I saw and heard on that day.

Consider an interesting historical antecedent. In 1993, a controversy similar to the current one unfolded when residents of a Washington, D.C., suburb sought to use zoning laws to shut down the local mosque, ostensibly on grounds that it was a traffic nuisance.

“Worshipers of many faiths said closing the popular mosque . . . would amount to discrimination against one of the area’s fastest growing religions,” the Washington Times reported at the time.

The mosque in question? None other than the Dar al-Hijra, later to be known as the “9/11 mosque.” So, were the petitioners who sought to shut it down bigots? Or is it that they got a whiff of its extremism, and didn’t like the smell?

Here, of course, the argument will be made that Rauf really is a moderate. And that might well be so — by the standards of his native Kuwait.

But a man who claims to condemn all forms of terrorism yet refuses to call Hamas a terrorist group is not a moderate by American standards, which happen to be the relevant standards when trying to build a mosque two blocks from ground zero.

Abdul Rauf’s supporters will have to choose between defending him on grounds of his alleged moderation (in which case his views are relevant) or on the principle of religious liberty (in which case they’re not). They can’t have it both ways.

Meanwhile, politicians of every stripe are staking out turf or digging foxholes to hide in. One politician who in my opinion rises above the rest, former NYC mayor Rudy Gulliani, strikes at the heart of the issue with these words directed as a challenge to Rauf and his gang:

“This project is divisive. This project is creating tremendous pain for people who’ve already made the ultimate sacrifice. All you’re doing is creating more division, more anger, more hatred…The question here is of sensitivity, of people’s feelings, and are you really what you pretend to be. If you want to claim to be the healer, then you’re not on the side of the person who’s pushing those divisive issues.

“I was the first person on Sept. 11 to step forward in the heat of battle and say, ‘No group blame, do not blame Arabs, it’s a small group’. But the reality is that, right now, if you are a healer you do not go through with this project. If you’re a warrior, you do.”

At 3 p.m. Sept. 11, Geller will lead a second rally in New York against the mosque proposal.

Above: The Freedom Tower slowly rises in New York City.

El Marco distills life and politics into art at Looking at the Left.com and Art and Politics Blog.com Enjoy El Marco’s photography at Looking at the World.com.

Citizen Warrior: Twelve Tactics of Taqiyya

from Citizen Warrior

FROM THE inimitable Trencherbone, creator of the single greatest resource about Islam known to man, Everything You Need to Know About Islam, here is a list of twelve taqiyya tactics used by orthodox Muslims with great success against their enemies in Western democracies. Below is an edited version of Trencherbone’s article. Here is the original Twelve Tactics post.

Allah is “the best of deceivers” (Quran 3.54), and since the prime directive is to spread Islam by any means whatsoever, it should not be surprising that deceiving unbelievers is acceptable behavior if carried out for the benefit of Islam.

This “sacred deception” is known as taqiyya. It can take many forms, including outright lies, feigned moderation, and condemnations of terrorist attacks to the non-Muslims while celebrating the attacks with fellow Muslims.

Here are some of the ploys, arguments, logical fallacies and diversionary tactics used by taqiyya tacticians:

1. Taqiyya about taqiyya. Muslims deny that taqiyya exists, or that it is used to deceive infidels. “There is no such thing as Taqiyya.” Or “Taqiyya is something I never heard of and I had to go and look it up.” See here and here for refutations.

2. Playing the race card and guilt by association. An accusation of racism is such a trump card that jihadists will play it whenever they can. Despite Islam not being a race, any criticism of Islam immediately gets the knee-jerk retaliation of “racism.” For example, “You are expressing the same views about Islam as racists, therefore you are a racist.” This is similar logic, “Communists believe two and two make four. You believe two and two make four. Therefore you are a Communist.” Read more about why criticizing Islam is not a racist activity.

3. Godwin’s Law. A special (and inevitable) version of guilt by association with racism used in online discussions, whereby the first person to invoke Hitler or the Nazis wins the argument. The “logic” is something like this:

CRITICISM OF ISLAM = RACISM = NAZISM

Therefore, if you criticise Islam you are a Nazi.

4. Circular reasoning. The Quran says it is the word of God. So whatever it says must be true. Therefore it is true that the Quran is the word of God because it says so.

5. The infidels’ quotes from the Quran are always taken out of context. For example, “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” is taken out of context, and really means “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them setting fire to your house” — or something similar. Read more about this objection. And also here.

6. Infidels can’t understand the original Arabic of the Quran. So “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” is actually a Medieval Arabic expression meaning “Help old ladies across busy streets and remember to feed the birds in winter.”

7. Tu Quoque (you also). “We blow people up and behead them but you do the same.” Normally this is used in attempts to refute arguments that Islam is intrinsically violent. Often people refer back to the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc. Also “There are equally nasty parts in the Bible.” Yes, there are violent episodes in the Bible, but the Bible is descriptive of battles and massacres long ago, whereas the Quran is prescriptive of battles and massacres yet to come. Read more about this here. And here.

8. “Abrahamic and monotheistic faith” false kin argument. This scam usually takes the form of “Islam is just a further development of Christianity, a brother Abrahamic or monotheist faith.” Of course it isn’t. Islam is a travesty and perversion of Christianity in many respects, and Jesus would probably have advised the pedophile Mohammed to tie a millstone round his neck and jump into the sea (Mark 9:42). In Islam, stoning of women is still a major spectator sport, whereas Jesus forbade it (John 8:7). Human sacrifice is an abomination in Judaism and Christianity, but is encouraged in Islam. Read more about the differences in basic doctrine here.

9. Quoting abrogated verses from the Quran in order to appear moderate. A favorite one is “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” This verse and many like it are actually null and void and disregarded by all Muslims (though not by gullible infidels). They are peaceful Meccan verses which are completely cancelled by later and much more violent Medinan verses. Read more about abrogation here. And here.

10. “You owe us a debt of gratitude because Islam is the basis of Western civilization.” This sort of statement is usually backed up by revisionist arguments that Muslims invented everything and were responsible for the Renaissance. In some ways this is a rather pathetic quest for significance. Muslim culture has been moribund for the past 600 years, whereas the West has forged ahead. Muslims now want a stake in the success story by claiming they were somehow responsible for the West’s development.

11. “A third of the world’s population believe in Islam, so it deserves respect.” But not so long ago a third of the world’s population believed the earth was flat. Numbers don’t mean anything, especially when the Islamic population is the most backward and illiterate on earth. Muslims are very keen on “respect,” but someone should tell them that respect needs to be earned.

12. “We are victims of Islamophobia.” Muslims are always playing the victim, if not of racism then of the even more heinous thought-crime of Islamophobia. Of course there is no such thing as Islamophobia, since a phobia is an irrational fear, whereas fear of Islam as a clear and present danger is a totally rational reaction from any infidel.

Learn more about taqiyya and how it is used here.