{"id":8401,"date":"2015-05-11T05:42:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T12:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=8401"},"modified":"2015-05-11T05:42:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-11T12:42:36","slug":"the-failed-tactic-of-flattering-islam-wont-go-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-failed-tactic-of-flattering-islam-wont-go-away\/","title":{"rendered":"The Failed Tactic of Flattering Islam Won\u2019t Go Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why admiring the Muslim world won\u2019t stop the bloodshed.<\/em><\/h3>\n

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photo via FrontPage Magazine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The recent attack in Texas against a \u201cdraw Mohammed\u201d event ended up with two dead jihadis and widespread criticism of event organizer Pamela Geller for \u201cinciting\u201d or \u201cprovoking\u201d the assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. The hypocrisies and ignorance behind such criticism have been amply documented<\/a> [2]<\/sup>, including by some on the left<\/a> [3]<\/sup>.\u00a0But there\u2019s another argument against actions and events like Geller\u2019s that needs dismantling. This is the received wisdom that we should avoid criticizing Islamic doctrine or Mohammed because it will alienate moderate Muslims who otherwise would help us against the so-called \u201cextremist\u201d jihadists.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Geraldo Rivera on Fox News invoked this rationale in his hysterical attack on Geller for \u201cspewing her hatred and making us all look like the intolerant jerks they are saying we are in the Middle East and elsewhere.\u201d In other words, most Muslims dislike the jihadis, who have \u201chijacked\u201d and \u201cdistorted\u201d their faith,\u00a0and want to support our efforts against them.\u00a0But they are put off by\u00a0our \u201cinsults\u201d of Mohammed and our \u201cintolerance\u201d of the wonderful \u201creligion of peace,\u201d all of which serve to \u201crecruit\u201d new jihadists. Even Bill O\u2019Reilly and Laura Ingraham skirted this notion, advising\u00a0against making any image of Mohammed, and thus in effect ratifying the legitimacy of the shari\u2019a law against any\u00a0<\/i>representation of Mohammed, good or bad.<\/p>\n

Consistent with this notion that flattery and respect can change Muslim behavior, many in the foreign policy establishment, including conservatives, have for decades counseled flattering \u201coutreach\u201d to Muslims as a tactic in winning\u00a0the \u201chearts and minds\u201d\u00a0of the supposed large majority of Muslims angry at the jihadists\u2019 \u201cdistortions\u201d of their faith.\u00a0Even before 9\/11, Bill Clinton\u2019s Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, called Islam \u201ca faith that honors consultation, cherishes peace, and has as one of its fundamental principles the inherent equality of all who embrace it.\u201d Even after 9\/11 confirmed Islam\u2019s traditional theologized violence\u00a0and intolerance, George Bush claimed\u00a0in his first address after 9\/11 that Islam\u2019s \u201cteachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.\u201d In 2005, administration officials encouraged this tactic of false flattery as a way \u201cto support the courageous Muslims who are speaking the truth about their proud religion and history, and seizing it back from those who would hijack it for evil ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course Obama, who has serially groveled before Muslims and praised Islam, has continued this sorry practice. After his administration blamed the Benghazi murders on an obscure Internet video, he lectured that \u201cthe future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.\u201d The 2 gunmen in Garland Texas obviously agreed.\u00a0 His quondam Secretary of State and now presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is on record extolling Islam\u2019s \u201cdeepest yearning of all\u2013\u2013to live in peace.\u201d How is that going in Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan? Worse of all, training materials used by our military and security services have excised any mention of jihad, which Western infidels\u00a0have redefined as \u201ca quest to find one\u2019s faith in an external fight for justice,\u201d as the New York Times<\/i>\u00a0put it in 2008. So Obama identifies the 13 slaughtered at Fort Hood to the traditional jihadist cry of \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d as victims of \u201cworkplace violence.\u201d Never mind the Koranic command to \u201cslay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush\u201d\u2013\u2013exactly what various jihadi outfits are doing today across the Middle East, and tried to do in Garland Texas.<\/p>\n

Two decades of such flattery and admiration have failed to prevent nearly 26,000 violent jihadist attacks since 9\/11, for they are based on Western bad ideas rather than on an accurate understanding of Islamic doctrine\u00a0and the Muslim mentality. Behind our delusions is the peculiarly arrogant assumption that traditionalist Muslims\u2013\u2013by which I mean those who take seriously the doctrines and precepts of their faith\u00a0has practiced for 14 centuries\u2013\u2013do not have their own motives and aims, but can only react to our bad behavior. Besotted by our own materialist superstitions and failure to take religion seriously, we reduce jihadist behavior to material and psychological causes: wounded self-esteem, resentment of \u201ccolonial\u201d and \u201cimperial\u201d crimes, disrespect of Islam, or the lack of jobs, political freedom, or even sexual access to women.<\/p>\n

Thus despite consistent polling data<\/a> [4]<\/sup> showing widespread Muslim support of illiberal shari\u2019a law\u00a0and its draconian penalties like death for blasphemy, we won\u2019t accept that millions of Muslims actually believe what the Koran, Hadith, and 14 centuries of jurisprudence teach\u00a0about the superiority of Islam and their right to use violence in order to bring the whole world under the sway of the superior social, economic, and political order that shari\u2019a represents.\u00a0In the guise of \u201crespecting\u201d Muslims, then, we patronize them as little more than children who can only \u201cact out\u201d violently in the face of injustice instead of \u201cusing their words.\u201d Having reduced our own faith to holidays and comforting slogans, we simply can\u2019t believe that Islam endorses violence and cruelty in the name of Allah, or that otherwise loving and kind people, as bin Laden was said to have been by all who knew him, can at the same time slaughter and brutalize innocents in pursuit of spiritual aims. No, either they are \u201ccrazy\u201d or \u201cevil,\u201d or they are traumatized by our bad behavior.<\/p>\n

This dubious pop-psychological assumption is usually accompanied by a catalogue of the historical crimes against Muslims perpetrated by the West, from the Crusades to the wars against the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. These depredations, so the story goes, also fuel anger and resentment,\u00a0and help to incentivize otherwise peaceful Muslims into turning jihadist.\u00a0But this narrative is belied by the facts of history. For what history tells us is that the record of Muslim conquest, occupation, colonizing, slaving, raiding, and killing of Christians far surpasses the alleged crimes of the West against Islam. We recently marked the centenary of the Ottoman genocide against the Christian Armenians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, a crime being duplicated today by ISIS in northern Iraq. Recently our historically challenged president whined about the Crusades and the Inquisition, with nary a word about the centuries of Muslim invasion, occupation, colonization, and brutal suppression in Christian Spain, Sicily, the Balkans, and Greece.<\/p>\n

Or what about the 1066 pogrom in Granada, the alleged paradise of \u201cpan-confessional humanism,\u201d as an ignorant Wall Street Journal<\/i> editorial claimed a few years back. Those tolerant, humanist Muslims slaughtered 5000 Jews, equaling\u00a0the toll of dead during the whole existence of the Inquisition.\u00a0But can anyone name one Muslim religious leader\u00a0in the Middle East\u00a0who has publicly\u00a0and consistently\u00a0apologized in Obama fashion for these 14 centuries of slaughter? Who has justified our defensive wars in the region as an understandable reaction to that history? Who has chastised Muslims for destroying and desecrating churches, and blamed\u00a0them for inviting violent reactions? Muslim Turkey won\u2019t even own up to its copiously documented slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians.\u00a0If anyone has a historical grievance that justifies payback, it is Christians and Jews.<\/p>\n

Finally, if Western insults and crimes against Muslims are really the reason jihadists\u00a0want to kill us, why do they let Russia off the hook? No Christian power has killed more Muslims or occupied more Muslim lands than has Russia, from the siege of Izmail in 1790, when 40,000 Muslim men, women, and children were slaughtered, to the invasion of Afghanistan, which killed a million, to the brutal wars\u00a0against Muslim Chechnyans,\u00a0which killed at least 100,000. Or how\u00a0about\u00a0the 10 million Muslim Uighurs oppressed by China and forbidden to fully practice their faith?\u00a0 Is Russia or China the \u201cGreat Satan\u201d? Are they the constant targets\u00a0of jihadist attack\u00a0and thundering denunciations by the mullahs of Iran? Are \u201cmoderate\u201d Muslims \u201calienated\u201d by their behavior\u00a0and rushing to join\u00a0the jihad against them?<\/p>\n

The obvious answer is no, for the simple reason that Russia and China are contemptuous of such juvenile psychological blackmail, pursue their national interests without regard for criticism by\u00a0the \u201cMuslim community,\u201d and respond with brutal force to violent attacks. Meanwhile the U.S. has rescued millions of Muslims in the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan from brutal dictators, ethnic cleansing,\u00a0and psychotic autocrats, yet is deemed \u201cIslamophobic\u201d because we exercise our Constitutional rights\u00a0in our own country. Worse yet, we grovel and apologize and demonize those\u00a0like Pamela Geller\u00a0who practice\u00a0their right to free expression at a private function, and we vainly believe despite all evidence that if we just act nice to Muslims\u00a0and join them in demonizing their critics, they\u2019ll ignore their spiritual beliefs, the traditions of their faith, and the model of Mohammed\u00a0and his credo to \u201cfight all men until they say there is no god but Allah.\u201d<\/p>\n

To paraphrase Cicero and Orwell, there are some things so stupid that only rich, arrogant Westerners will believe them. If we let this president continue to predicate his dealings with Iran on this same delusional belief in the power of flattering engagement\u00a0and \u201cmutual respect,\u201d\u00a0we will soon find out the high cost of this stupidity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n

[1] Image: http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Palestinian_militant_with_rifle.png<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[2] documented: http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/2015\/robert-spencer\/je-suis-pamela-geller\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[3] left: http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2015\/05\/10\/the_left_has_islam_all_wrong_bill_maher_pamela_geller_and_the_reality_progressives_must_face\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

[4] polling data: http:\/\/www.pewforum.org\/2013\/04\/30\/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia\/<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2015 FrontPage Magazine. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why admiring the Muslim world won\u2019t stop the bloodshed. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine The recent attack in Texas against a \u201cdraw Mohammed\u201d event ended up with two dead jihadis and widespread criticism of event organizer Pamela Geller for \u201cinciting\u201d or \u201cprovoking\u201d the assault on our First Amendment right to free speech. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[28,225,59,842,22,285,46,230],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2bv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-lefts-selective-outrage\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":0},"title":"The Left’s Selective Outrage","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine You know liberals are edging toward a full Jonestown-style meltdown when someone as smart as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman starts losing it. Last week Friedman worked himself up into a paranoiac frenzy over the tone of some of the criticism Obama and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8475,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/progressive-academics-shocked-that-their-creatures-turn-on-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":1},"title":"Progressive Academics Shocked That Their Creatures Turn on Them","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When the cult of sensitivity begins to eat its children. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Recently several progressive professors have publicly complained that their students are hounding them for failing to consider their tender sensibilities by straying beyond the p.c. orthodoxy on sexual assault, sex identity, linguistic correctness,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8093,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/sloppy-thinking-about-torture\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":2},"title":"Sloppy Thinking About \u2018Torture\u2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine\u00a0 Torture is one of those topics that often overwhelm sober reason with lurid emotion. Even people who usually are clear-eyed and rational sink into sloppy thinking and incoherent argument when it comes to torture. Peggy Noonan\u2019s recentWall Street Journal column about the Senate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Terrorism"","block_context":{"text":"Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war-on-terror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"photo via FrontPage Magazine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mccainfein-450x282.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8377,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/republican-senators-and-the-battered-wife-syndrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":3},"title":"Republican Senators and the Battered Wife Syndrome","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"What the confirmation of Loretta Lynch really means. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ Front PageMagazine [1]For 6 years Barack Obama in word and deed has battered the Constitution and slapped around the Republicans. Abetted by his Luca Brasi, Harry Reid, he has run roughshod over the separation of powers and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8244,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/make-the-isis-caliphate-a-jihadist-kill-zone\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":4},"title":"Make the ISIS Caliphate a Jihadist Kill Zone","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine President Obama\u2019s proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force against ISIS comes at a time when Iran and ISIS are fomenting disorder and destruction throughout the Middle East. Despite the enmity between these two species of jihadism, both pose serious threats to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via FrontPage Magazine ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/isis-427x350.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8077,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hillarys-bad-politics-and-worse-ideas\/","url_meta":{"origin":8401,"position":5},"title":"Hillary\u2019s Bad Politics and Worse Ideas","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine Once again Hillary Clinton has given the Republicans some suicidal soundbites they should stash away for 2016 in the likely event she is the Democratic candidate for president. A review of some of her recent statements reveals that Clinton is not just entitled,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Contributors"","block_context":{"text":"Our Contributors","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via FrontPage Magazine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/141124111023-hillary-clinton-new-hampshire-story-top-450x344.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8403,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8401\/revisions\/8403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}