Sept 11, 2001
I am in Canada – in a backpacker’s hostel on the West Coast
I have just hitched a ride to this small town, and watch the scenes of sept. 11 being played over on the Hostel TV.
I take a shower, in shock. Then I find myself sobbing in the shower, under the water.
I sob for the victims in the towers, for the terrorists brainwashed by radical texts into their hatred for the infidels, who died committing such a crime.
It strikes me at the time that they were like a child breaking another child’s toy in spite “I envy you your toy, so I’m going to break it, so there”. An infantile rage of primitive Islam against the far more successful and opulent modern western world.
Later I learn that 100 different nationalities including Muslims, artists’ lofts, import-export companies, bankers, philanthropic societies were present in the towers – a Babel of modern enlightenment, artistic and business creativity and diversity.
In Islamic radicalism, a new satanic death-cult of grunting gargoyles has risen, foaming with hatred and rage and vowing to destroy everything that does not convert to it’s zombie culture.
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New York: the metropolis which prefigures the future: a multi-ethnic melting pot, all citizens under a simple constitution, which enforces democracy, the rule of law, accountability of rulers, the right to eject them from rule, using militias in the last recourse – should the ruler become a dictator. And which elevates the freedom to pursue one’s fancy , whether it takes one to riches, or to rags – “the pursuit of happiness” as above the state’s diktats, or comfort, or predictability, or the stifling pursuit of a levelling equality which has sapped the spirit of the French and done so much harm (and has led it to the the-state –owes-me-a-living and stuff everyone else , suicidal chaos which it it presently experiencing).
As one French entrepreneur living in NY at the time said:
No state safety net here, but that very fact is a statement: we believe in you; you can do it, providence and your hard work will see you through.
The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. And try again.
The USA is the melting pot of the world – a new world consciously created by the founding fathers to be the freest country in the world – a misunderstood quantum leap away from old Europe, it’s wars, it’s ideological death machines: Nazism and Communism. And it’s attempt to enter stasis (no change) via nanny-state smothering socialism which ends up making many of it’s citizens feel as alive and self-directed as Zombies.
And now the death-cult of radical Islam, which worships suicide as a weapon.
Which challenges the last man standing to a high noon confrontation. Will Bush follow the Europeans’ advice and not respond ? should he follow their advice and be like the beaten wife who seeks to be nicer to her ogre so that he might beat her less (fat chance) ?
He does not, and the vitality and backbone of the US and some allies will be on display in the years following 9/11. Much to the hatred and bile of those in the west who purport to be sophisticated in their contempt of western civilization (whose branch they are sitting on and cutting off) , and particularly that independent entity which does not bow to their elitist pseudo-thought – that entity which values personal freedom above enforced equality, the USA.
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I spend the next few years reading articles and books, trying to understand the enemy and how we can defeat him.
I did not buy into the self-flagellating ideas that were bandied around by some, that 9-11 was punishment for… what exactly ? stopping the genocide of the Kurdish Muslims in Kosovo ? Stopping Saddam H. invading Saudi Arabia (one of his ambitions) ?
or helping that tiny country , Israel – if 10 of thousands of arabs jews were fleeing persecution in arab lands and other jews from Russia etc were also fleeing persecution, where exactly were they supposed to go ? onto Mars, maybe. And the arabs have never cared much for the Palestinians – Egypt refused to give them part of the Sinai, which is huge. No, the real problem with Israel is that it is not a tribal Islamic society: it is cosmopolitan, women wear shorts and fight in the army ! imagine that! And it is successful – as Egyptian president Nasser said in the 70s:
how can we tolerate that they make the desert flower when we can’t even get close ?
Envy and tribal hatred, nourished by the radical islam of Hamas and company, which even Palestinians are become tired of. And the national socialist (Nazi) Baath party in Syria. (and in Irak under Saddam)
And say Israel was handed to the lions, what has that conflict got to do with the persecution of Buddhists , Hindus and Christians worldwide by radical muslims ? or blowing up a secondary school in Beslan (Russia is not exactly an ally of Israel) Or the Mumbai attacks ? or some UK preachers saying they are in favor of the death penalty for homosexuality ?
or… the thousands of death threats, bashings, murders worldwide.
It was clear to me we were up against some sort of conquering ideology, but I wasn’t quite sure what they wanted to impose on us.
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Over the years, I link other events together – the destruction of the Buddhist statues by the Taliban, The beating up of gay queens in Amsterdam’s gay pride day by groups of Muslims, the killing of Theo van Gogh in Holland, the Beslan massacre where radicals blew up a secondary school with kids in Russia (which led me into cold fury), the Bali bombings, the civil war against radical Islamists I remember occurred in nearby Algeria in the 90s, the riots in Paris in 2005, where mostly Muslim rioters torched schools and buses with cries of “Allah akbar” – “God is great” , the muslim enclaves in Sweden where no-one dares to go…
I read “Londistan” by Melanie Philips, and see how radical preachers start the conveyor belt which led middle-class cricket-playing British Muslims to hate the modernity and diversity of their country and blow themselves up in the tube in 2005.
And of Sayyid Qutb, who wrote in the 1930s, mixing Islam with Marxism, and was the inspiration for the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, and then of Al-Quaeda, together with Wahab (founder of Wahabism – Saudi-style radical Islam).
Should I travel to America, and become flimsy, and ordinary, ... Is there other than Islam that I should be steadfast to in its character and hold on to its instructions, in this life amidst deviant chaos, and the endless means of satisfying animalistic desires, pleasures, and awful sins? [23] Finally, Qutb offered his own explanation in Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq, arguing that anything non-Islamic was evil and corrupt, while following
Sharia as a complete system extending into all aspects of life, would bring every kind of benefit to humanity, from personal and social peace, to the "treasures" of the universe.
[24]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid_QutbOn returning from a trip to the USA, Qutb said “the world is one big brothel !”.
I read arab-american writers such as
Faoud Ajami, who point out that Irak is far more important to Al-Quadea than Afghanistan. The latter being just out of the stone age, and having few resources, whereas irak has the oil, and is the historic seat of the Muslim kingdom (Baghdad).
(Hence Obama is being simplistic when he says that we should have just focused on Afghanistan. Once the war in Irak became a fight against al-Quaeda, pulling out would have been suicidal – as Bernard Kouchner ex-boss of doctors without borders (MSF) was bold enough to say from France).
I read of Somalian-born
Ayan Hirsi Ali, who speaks out against the radicalisation of Muslims in Holland, and against the non-intervention of the law in Muslim enclaves where women are beaten (and form most of the population in Dutch women’s shelters) and are even killed in Honor killings.
The killer of film-director Theo van Gogh pins a note on him, addressed to her. And now she is under permanent death threat.
The gentle and cultured Europe I grew up in has become a civil-war zone.
Grenoble 1999: I watch in rage as on the football pitch below, a young fit muslim 14 yrs old or so, kicks a be-spectacled jewish looking lad in the shins, down to the ground, makes him beg , then kicks him again to make him get up. And repeats, encouraged by a small crowd of other young muslims.
I realise years later this is a age-old religious hatred of jews playing itself out. He has probably heard his father talk of jews as pigs and apes.
A short while later, this alpha male stops kicking his ball for a moment to kick a young Peruvian-looking lad in the shins. The jew was serious fun to hate, but social Darwinism, Nazi-style is always fun.
Elsewhere in France:
And then the Muslim women I see being screamed at and sworn at by their husbands in public, as docile and passive as lambs.
I see teenage girls being intimidated.
In Paris, from my office window, I see a 5 yr old muslim girl walking along with 2 muslim boys her age, and an eastern-european looking mother with a pram. The 5 yr old girl is playful, and wants to play with the boys she does not seem to know well (I assume to be cousins or friends of her family). Then one of the boys wants her to know the score – to know that spontaneous fun is not what is expected of her, rather : fearful submission is what is expected. He punches her in the stomach in an uppercut movement. She bends over, winded, shocked, and shouts. He looks on with satisfaction. Then they move off, the woman wearing a perverse smug look – I assume she has gotten similar treatment.
In France, I see this kind of thing being played out on a street level, everywhere.
I also work and talk with decent and humane Muslims, but I realise there is something in Muslim culture which pushes some to these fascist and misogynistic behaviours.
I being to realize that if the US pulls out of irak, and hands a victory to Al-quaeda’s irak Chapter, the radicals in Europe and all over the world will become much emboldened and things will become much worse.
As a terrorist said after a French oil tanker was hit in the gulf:
We would have preferred a US tanker, but they’re all infidels anyway
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I become disgusted by the democrats in the US and the most of the chattering classes in Europe, who obviously want Irak to fail, and to hell with the millions of Irakis who want democracy, freedom and a decent life, so long as the defeatocrats can score points against Bush.
I want to grab them by their lapels and shake them out of their suicidal narcissism and blindness. If Irak is handed to al-quaeda, we are all in trouble ! this isn’t a game of point-scoring, your attitude can have disastrous consequences. I want to say to them.
As Bernard Kouchner said in 2007 or so:
The future of much of the world depends on what happens in Irak
In 2001-2003, I wanted to be part of it. I would have gladly volunteered to go and kick Saddam’s rotten ass in Irak. But I was in France, and I knew the French army would not go in. Not until Chirac had seen that the Americans and their allies had done the dangerous work, that is. I did briefly consider the UK army, but was concerned I wouldn’t fit in to the British culture, which I knew was fairly unique and not really me, having lived there in 2003.
I was beginning to realise I was not a European, in many ways – my way of thinking fit more into the New World : America, Canada, Australia. Pioneering, quick to adopt new and more efficient ways of doing things, unhampered by much historical baggage or a hankering for a once-was empire. Optimistic and forward looking.
And I was tired of the knee-jerk anti-Americanism I saw in Europe. The US was dammed for toppling a Stalin-like dictator in Irak, but then also dammed for not intervening in Sudan. But the Europeans, for the most part, intervened nowhere at all… not even in their own countries where entire urban sections were becoming violent Muslim enclaves.
They were like kids throwing small stones at builders working hard, risking their lives to build and protect a building which also protected the kids….
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I am encouraged by the small number of courageous Muslim leaders who are speaking out against terrorism:
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Saudi Grand Mufti speaks out on al QaedaArab News:...
Al-Asheikh called on young Saudis not to be enticed by militants. He further demanded coordinated action from Saudis and residents to uncover members of the group.
In a nine-point statement, the mufti said the criminal acts planned by the militants would not come from the mind of a true believer, adding that these militants were acting as tools in the hands of the enemies of Islam and Saudi Arabia. Al-Asheikh, who is the Kingdom’s highest religious authority, said Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people. He also cautioned Muslim youth against deviant ideologies whose proponents want to undermine the Kingdom’s security.
“You should be aware that these militants, who claim to work for the cause of Islam and defend Muslims, actually hide their vested interests and vicious objectives,” he said.
Al-Asheikh warned Saudis and residents against providing protection and refuge to militants.
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