A cunning plan

Whenever I want to get a sense of how the left is going to spin something I pop over to sites like Dr. Dawg’s. There you can see the left’s talking points being test driven.

On the Paris atrocity the first round was that the atrocity was horrible but only to be expected given how rude to Islam Charlie Hebdo was. Collateral to that was the idea that reprinting the cartoons would cause needless offence.

Then the lefty spin, faced with hundreds of thousands of people in the street in support of free speech and the right to cartoon without being murdered, became “this can’t have anything to do with Islam and if you make it about Islam the terrorists will have won”. A sub-theme to this is that only an Islamophobic racist bigot could think that Islam was in any way connected to the atrocity. The left loves to be able to “play the man” rather than actually thinking outside its comfort zone.

In this narrative the terrorists had rough lives which left them vulnerable to people who, themselves had a preverted understanding of Islam, and who recruited them to commit acts which real Muslims cannot condone. This narrative is very much in line with the political spin of both the political class and their media enablers who solemnly pronounce on what is and is not “Islam”.

The unenlightened ordinary people seem a bit resistant to the “nothing to do with Islam” line. Stupidly they have fallen for the literal meaning of phrases like “we have avenged Allah”. And, not unnaturally, they are flocking to support people like Le Pen and Farage who are openly skeptical of the “nothing to do with Islam” line being touted by serious politicians of both the right and the left.

The media chorus sings from the “come together in the wake of tragedy” hymn book as if the murders in Paris were some unforeseeable, unpreventable act of Nature. Of course, commentators and politicians are as one in urging restraint and the avoidance of even a hint of Islamophobia. (And the elites are working very hard to ignore the celebrations the murders were greeted with in Algeria. (And possibly other parts of the Muslim world.))

For the bien pensant ignoring the possibility that the Paris murders are part of a bigger problem, namely Islam itself, is the essence of political respectability. Averting one’s gaze, being deeply civil, searching for clues and root causes, ignoring pretty much the entire sweep of Islamic history and pretending that the wars in Syria and Iraq and the allure of IS are irrelevant is a full time intellectual occupation. Mental busy work to avoid thinking about less attractive possibilities.

Keeping the lid on is what the lazy, distracted, denialists of the political and media classes do best. Not for them to notice the complete absence of headscarves at the Je Suis Charlie rallies. The fact the Jews are fleeing France to emigrate to “that shitty little country” and North America is easily dismissed. No go areas where the law of France does not run? Only a racist bigot would suggest this has anything to do with Islam – it is poverty and prejudice all the way down. In lefty land there are only a few acceptable root causes and Islam is not one of them.

The more the politicos and media tout this “nothing to do with Islam” line the more divorced from reality and public opinion they become. You can gauge the pushback be reading the comment streams when this sort of silliness is being peddled. And, tellingly, in many instances comments are not being allowed at all on Charlie Hebdo stories.

Twenty years ago political elites and their media enablers could largely control this sort of political story. They could demonize dissent by referring to dissenters as “racists” or “bigots” knowing that this label would be echoed in the monopoly media. The internet has smashed that monopoly. The mobile phone records the ineptness of the cops and the Islamic battle cries of the terrorists:the people draw their own conclusions.

Hollande, Cameron and Meikle look feckless in the face of militant Islam. They make their impotence, their lack of creative solutions, their irresolution painfully clear. If they remain in denial of the essentially Islamic nature of this week’s barbarism they will be rejected by their more clear eyed publics.

Denial is not a long term strategy. Pretending that terrorism is not deeply rooted in Islam is a poor idea. Ignoring the support in Muslim communities for sharia law and cultural repression of women and girls is precisely the sort of anti-progressive hypocrisy which makes the media and political classes so easy to mock.

Faced with the political problems created by badly thought through massive Muslim immigration, the political classes are desperately trying to change the subject. It won’t work.

Lefty litmus test

Assorted lefties are falling all over themselves to support the freedom of the press.

Warren Kinsella has had a come to Jesus conversion and is in full support of Charlie Hebdo. I commented that he might want to apologise to his Sun colleague Ezra Levant for failing to stand with the Western Standard when it published the Motoons and that he might want to strike hate sniffer general Richard Warman off his Christmas list. The coward Kinsella deleted the comment a few hours later. The Jackal we know and love.

Over at Dawg’s one of his regular commenter took exception to my suggestion that mosques be closed. I responded at length. Two things:first, my comment and several responses are still up and there is a reasonable conversation occurring. I don’t think the lefties at Dawg’s are going to agree with me but, unlike the Jackal, they are prepared to engage.

Poor Warren is still trying to get the hang of this free speech thing. He might ask Ezra or Mark Steyn how it’s done.

Useful Horror

But it is Islam

The murder of a dozen people is, simply, horrible. It does not matter why they were murdered, the fact of their massacre is the horror in itself.

Even as the terrorists are still on the loose there are things which are clear about these murders. They were committed by Muslims in the name of Islam to shut up people who mocked Islam.

There is no room for Western liberal spin about lone wolves and metal illness. This was murder by and for Islam.

It was, if further demonstration was needed, proof that Islam is not compatible with liberal democracy. There may be individual Muslims who can meet the demands for tolerance and non-violent liberal democracy imposes;but Islam the religion/cult/ideology as it is presently constituted cannot. A fact underscored by President Sisi’s recent speech to the religious in Egypt.

Collective punishment is also contrary to the tenents of democracy;but that does not mean France or any other civilised nation needs to allow Islam to continue to undermine our Enlightenment values.

The first thing to do in the wake of these murders is to strip Islam of its status as a religion. Recognize that in its unreformed state Islam is a political cult and treat it that way.

Close the mosques. Once Islam is recognised as an essentially political cult there is no reason to allow it to preach it’s hateful doctrines which rely on the Koran which is, itself, a manual of incitement and justification for murder. Closing the mosques would send a clear message to the Muslims that their brand of hatred and violence was not welcome in France or anywhere else in the West.

Prohibit all immigration from Muslim nations by Muslims. Of course the poor Christians and others should be allowed to come but for a decade or two Muslim immigration to the West needs to end.

Third, systematically look at every recent Muslim immigrant and, if citizenship has not been granted, send them back to where ever they came from on the basis that the danger of Islam increases as it’s numbers increase. Once the non-citizens have been deported, look at the recent citizens and determine if their pledge of loyalty to their new country was honest or if loyalty to the political cult of Islam made taking such a pledge sincerely impossible. Look for evidence of conduct. Participation in radical activities, keeping women in bags, evidence of female genital mutilation would all suggest that loyalty to the cult made taking the citizenship oath honestly impossible.

The faint hearted will object that this program would deny Muslims the right of free speech and the right to freedom of religion. Even the most passionate advocate of free speech will draw the line at incitement and treason or sedition. At its core Islam incites murder, advocates treason and promotes sedition – silencing it does no damage to free speech. Recognising that Islam is a political cult puts it outside the protection extended to religions so the issue of religious freedom does not come up.

The murder of a dozen people by Islamic terrorists is a horror but it is the sort of atrocity which reminds people of how dangerous Islam actually is.