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Writings and Publications by Joseph B. H. McMillan
Part 6 of "Free Speech, The War on Terror and Islam" by Joseph B.H. McMillan
The Problem Identified; Debate or Debacle; Arabs, Islam and the Nazis; Islam and the Dark Ages; Civilization and Tolerance under Islam; Conservatives "calling it as it is"?; Free Speech and Debate; The Consequences; A Solution?; Footnotes
Conservatives "calling it as it is"?
Even the so-called 'neo-conservative cabal' shy away from tackling the issue head on. Messrs Frum and Perle, in their recently published book, An End to Evil, refer to the “war against You-know-who” because, like the wizards in Harry Potter, Western Leaders "dread pronouncing out loud the enemy’s name”.(64) The Islamic stranglehold on freedom of speech is so complete that even Messrs Frum and Pearl restrict criticism to “militant Islam”. This is also variously referred to as “fundamentalist Islam”, “hijacking of Islam” etc and inevitably contrasted with “moderate Islam”. Messrs Frum and Perle state that "President Bush was right to insist that the United States has no quarrel with Islam …. but … a radical strain within Islam has declared war on us." (65) However, Messrs Frum and Perle do go further than many in identifying this “militant Islam” as having originated in Saudi Arabia. Others restrict themselves to claiming that this is an aberration peculiar to the likes on bin Laden.
What they all seem to agree, however, is that ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ is of recent origin: a late twentieth century phenomenon.
Like most every other received ‘fact’ regarding Islam, that too is a myth. So-called fanaticism has been an integral part of Islam from the start, as demonstrated above. And consider these instances, some of the many recorded by Joan Peters:
On the 15 November 1937, a Colonel MacKereth wrote to a Mr Rendel in the British Foreign Office. He said “The situation in Palestine is not at present a political revolt … but a state of terrorism started by the Mufti and his party and now continuing of its own momentum, one with a background, not of Arab Nationalism, but of Islamic fanaticism.” (66)
“The trouble about the Arab is that his ruling classes … can easily inflame the Moslem masses, who add to a religious fanaticism an inborn if latent hatred of the Jew.” (67)
Instances of so-called Islamic fanaticism can be traced from the massacres of Jews in Mohammed’s day, through every century, to 9/11 and the present day. There is no new phenomenon, just a continuation of an “age old tradition”, only with different actors.(68)
That is not to say that every country which has a majority of Muslims practices such atrocities today. Those that do not are mostly secular democracies, not theocracies or dictatorships.
Click here to read Part 7 of this article, "Free Speech and Debate".
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