AFDI Geller Fellow Nonie Darwish weighs in on the futility of relying on "moderate Muslims," on which the entire West is betting its future:
One of the reasons that the so-called “moderate Muslims” have become irrelevant and incapable of helping themselves or the West against Islamic terrorism is that over the centuries they have become tolerant of Islamic terrorism and considered it as part of normal life. Average Muslims have been led to believe that they are victims of the outside world and not Islam, and that is why many are either silent or sympathize with jihadists and even terrorists as having a legitimate cause; but they tell the West they don’t approve of using terror as a solution, even though Islamic books do support terror as a solution.
Just by reading mainstream Arab newspapers, the West should have known by now that Islamic culture has justified terrorism as legitimate to advance its cause. Muslim leaders who refuse to engage in the game of jihad are accused of treason, not considered to be good Muslims, and are often the victims of a coup or assassination attempts.
After 9/11, many moderate Muslim friends of mine from inside the Middle East told me with bizarre logic in Arabic: “Let the West get a taste of the terror we live in daily. Why only us?” What struck me was the way they viewed terrorism; to them it felt like a natural disaster or part of life that must be tolerated and dealt slowly with. To them, they must never openly reject or upset the terrorist.
Like the moderate Muslims, President Obama appears to have an approach of denial and tolerance of Islamic terrorism and is encouraging Americans and the media to do the same. He is advocating ignoring the threat of Islamic terror and denying it exists by not even calling the threat by its true name, “Islamic terrorism.” Obama puts on an air of being wise and honorable for doing that, and anyone one who does not agree is called racist and bigot. But this approach of forcing the victims of Islamic terrorism to tolerate terrorism as part of life is exactly what Islam wants from the West. It is Islam’s preferred technique to conquer and enslave.
That strategy by Islam rarely failed in its 1400-year history. The only nation that stood up to Islamic terror and enslavement was Israel. Historically, most nations in the Middle East caved in to Islam and abandoned the Jews. Eventually former Christian nations like Egypt and Turkey were given the kiss of death by the Dracula of Islam, but the Jews of the Middle East either escaped or lived under Islamic terror, but never compromised their beliefs. Muslims since the 7th century hated the Jews for that. Islam to this day uses its favorite tool, terrorism, to conquer and enslave, and that tool is working today on the last bastion of freedom, Western civilization. Terrorism works on both individuals and nations who become paralyzed like a lobster slowly cooking in heating water.
President Obama seems not to fear bringing inside America thousands of Syrian refugees who could be sympathetic toward and tolerant of ISIS, if not active members themselves. He recently told the American people: “the vast majority of these refugees are victims of the same violence and terror we have seen in Paris.” As though the Middle East is divided between the good victims of terror and the bad perpetrators of terror.
I have news for Obama. Everyone in the Middle East was or is the victim of terror; terrorists have themselves tasted Islamic terror, like Dracula tasting the blood of its victims. ISIS members who are Sunnis have lived in and tolerate terror, and use it on others as the solution of choice. Sunnis terrorized Shiites, and vice versa. Life under Sharia itself is a life under terror. Being a woman in the Muslim world is living in terror. Being a child strapped with explosives by your own parents is life of terror. If you read the Quran and Hadith, you are commanded to do and live by terror and dream of the great afterlife if you kill yourself and others for the sake of Allah.
Obama, like moderate Muslims, want us to tolerate Islamic terrorism instead of fighting and rejecting it, as Israel has done. That is perhaps why Obama hates Benjamin Netanyahu, not because of a personality clash, but because Netenyahu symbolizes the rejection of living as a slave under Islamic terror. Obama is obviously not on the side of Israel, because Israel will not tolerate Islamic terror and look the other way, as Obama is doing. Obama is most passionate when he defends Islam and ignores terrorism. He wears it as a badge of honor. To Obama, ISIS is contained, is no big deal, we can live with it and we must be cautious not fall into stereotyping Muslims. With no shame, he constantly lectures American citizens, especially Christians, not to judge Islam and Muslims.
But worse than just denial, Obama is forcing Homeland Security and Americans to regard obvious Islamic terrorism on American soil as just normal acts of workplace violence, or crime on the streets that can be handled by the courts. That is the same attitude that moderate Muslims want to force on us, to convince us that Islam has nothing to do with terrorists, that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam, while in their hearts they say that it is America’s turn to suffer terror as well; why only us?
The pathological tolerance of terror is just the beginning of the road to life in Islamic tyranny and humiliation. The next step will be forcing Americans to feeling guilty for rejecting Muslim refugees. Then the leftist American do-gooders will consider taking a look at and considering Muslim grievances against American society and its unjust Constitution as a legitimate religious right that should be given equal time by the media. Then a movement will develop defending the causes of the terrorists that might not seem legitimate to Americans but are considered legitimate by the Left. After that, some terrorists will become heroes and even adored for their bravery and courage.
That is not too far-fetched: Rolling Stone magazine portrayed the Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsamaev like a rock star on its cover a few months ago.
Before we know it, our children will be living in a full-blown Arab spring right here in America and Europe.
Nonie Darwish is the author “The Devil We Don’t Know” and president of “Former Muslims United,” a program of the American Freedom Defense Initiative.