The killer of French schoolchildren and soldiers turns out to be a man called Mohammed Merah. The story can now proceed according to time-honored tradition:
Stage One: The strange compulsion to assure us that the killer is a right wing conservative extremist, in the words of NRO commenter ExpatAsia, echoed by Chrisman and Galts Bain. Up north, this view was shared by Canadas most prominent establishment Jew and the Liberal Party attack poodle Warren Kinsella (whom NR readers may recall from my free-speech cover story, which mentioned the groveling apology he was forced to make to the Chinese community after an unfortunately sinophobic cat joke). The insistence that the killer was emblematic of an epidemic of right-wing hate sweeping the planet is, regrettably, no longer operative. Instead, the killer isnt representative of anything at all.
So on to Stage Two: Okay, he may be called Mohammed but hes a lone wolf. Sure, he says he was trained by al-Qaeda, but what does he know? Dont worry, folks, hes just a lone wolf like Major Hasan and Faisal Shahzad and all the other card-carrying members of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves. All jihad is local.
On to Stage Three: Okay, even if there are enough lone wolves around to form their own Radio City Rockette line, its still nothing to do with Islam. Im sad to see the usually perceptive Ed West of the London Telegraph planting his flag on this wobbling blancmange.
And then, of course, Stage Four: The backlash that never happens. Because apparently the really bad thing about dead Jews is that it might lead to dead non-Jews: French Muslims Fear Backlash After Shooting. Likewise, after Major Hasans mountain of dead infidels, Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army. Likewise, after the London Tube slaughter, British Muslims Fear Repercussions After Tomorrows Train Bombing. Oh, no, wait, thats a parody, though its hard to tell.
Look, pace Ed West, isnt it just a teensy-weensy little bit to do with Islam? Or at any rate the internal contradictions of one-way multiculturalism? No, its not a competition. Most times in todays Europe, the guys beating, burning and killing Jews will be Muslims. Once in a while, it will be somebody else killing the schoolkids. But is it so hard to acknowledge that rapid, transformative, mass Muslim immigration might not be the most obvious aid to social tranquility? That it might possibly pose challenges that would otherwise not have existed for uncovered women in Oslo, for gays in Amsterdam, for Jews everywhere? Is it so difficult to wonder if, for these and other groups living in a long-shot social experiment devised by their rulers, the price of putting an Islamic crescent in the diversity quilt might be too high? Whats left of Jewish life in Europe is being extinguished remorselessly, one vandalized cemetery, one subway attack at a time. How many Jewish children will be at that school in Toulouse a decade hence? A society that becomes more Muslim eventually becomes less everything else. What is happening on the Continent is tragic, in part because it was entirely unnecessary.
#4
Don't forget Beslan. There the MSM bent over backwards and even did a few backflips in order to give the followers of Islam cover. Calling them 'gangsters' and 'hostage takers' - anything except Islamists or Muslims.
And when that breaks down they roll out the old 'lone wolves' BS.
#9
Monsieur Merah took himself off to Pakistan to get training in the arts of jihad, which some jihadi group or other gave him...twice. His family was apparently involved in his little escapade. If we define the forward scouts of an invading army as lone wolves because they are not striding forward in the midst of the mass of their fellows, shoulder to shoulder and all that, then Mr Merah and Major Dr. Hasan, PhD are also lone wolves.
[Dawn] IT is a matter of national shame that the polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... virus still threatens the children of Pakistain, despite several years of intensified eradication efforts. It reflects poorly on the Pak state and society; perhaps the reason for the campaign's failure is that the state has not treated polio as the crisis it is. The World Health Organisation has recently warned that a polio outbreak is imminent in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... . Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, where security forces are battling the hard boys, has, in fact, had no vaccination campaign since September 2009 and is the only place in Asia where type-3 polio cases were reported in 2011 and 2012.
As highlighted by the WHO warning, the volatile security situation is perhaps the main imperative behind immunising children in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, particularly in the province's conflict zones, as well as the neighbouring tribal belt. Yet there are other factors as well, such as lack of satisfactory coverage in areas not considered conflict zones. While the anti-polio policy might appear effective on paper, its implementation leaves much to be desired. The WHO suggestion that checkpoints be set up at locations where families fleeing the conflict pass through should be implemented so that vulnerable children can be immunised, while countrywide efforts should be made to target mobile populations. Four polio sanctuaries have been identified in Pakistain -- Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , Quetta, Qila Abdullah and Pishin. Concentrated efforts are needed to immunise children under five in these regions, especially in Bloody Karachi and Quetta, where accessibility is not generally an issue. Successive governments have failed to involve mosques and schools in anti-polio campaigns; this shortcoming must be addressed, as the persuasive powers of the pulpit are considerable in this country. If semi-literate holy mans can spread baseless propaganda about the polio vaccine, legitimate scholars can surely be brought on board to emphasise the necessity of getting children vaccinated. Public figures in general should get involved in anti-polio efforts, while men should be convinced about the need to vaccinate children as they are the decision-makers in most Pak families.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2012 00:00 ||
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Provided they can be objective, members of a civilization are often best placed to critique that civilization. Accordingly, the following article, which recently made the rounds on various Arabic websites, is a good example of honest criticism of the Islamic world, by one of its own. Written by the late Dr. Ahmad al-Baghdadi (died 2010)one of Kuwait's best known liberal activists and scholars (he held a PhD in the philosophy of Islamic thought and taught political science)the article recounts how Islamic civilization is the eighth, and greatest, wonder of the world. We quickly discover this is not a compliment, as the article highlights some singularly troubling aspects of the Islamic world, from a liberalin this sense, "rational"point of view. For the record, Ahmad al-Baghdadi is not the first Muslim to portray Islamic culture as a fantastic anachronism that has outstayed its welcome; the prophet of Islam himself, Muhammad, made a similar prophesy in a canonical hadith: "Verily, Islam started as something strange, and it will again revert to being strange, just as it began, and it will recede between the two mosques [Mecca and Medina, birthplace of Islam] just as the serpent slithers back into its hole" (Sahih Muslim 1:271).
As we know, the wonders of the world are seven; but there is an eighth "Wonder -of-Wonders" not counted among the seven: this is the "Muslim nation [umma]." I specifically did not say the "Islamic [or Islamist] nation," for within this Muslim nation are wondrous matters not witnessed by any other nation since Allah Almighty created Adam. Here are some of these wonders:
1. It is the only nation that believes it is in the rightin every waywhile all others are wrong;
2. The only nation that exonerates or lightens the punishment of an indicted criminal if he is Muslim and has learned some Quranic verses;
3. The only nation where a cleric evades indictment for inciting murder if he describes one of his adversaries as "an apostate";
4. The only nation that does not penalize a murderer if he kills "an apostate";
5. The only nation that shows leniency and assuages punishments for the "honor killing" of a sister or a wife;
6. The only nation whose holy book [Quran] starts with the word "read" [iqra'] and yet it is among the least nations that reads books, if any at all;
7. The only nation that still uses the word "infidel" [kafir] against those who oppose its clerics or religious groups;
8. The only nation where the ruling of a fatwa [religious edict] upstages the ruling of the lawand yet it brags about being a nation that upholds the "rule of law";
9. The only nation that does not contribute to the modern eranot even by producing a tooth brushand yet brags about its extinct civilization.
10. The only nation that insults and condemns the Westyet lives as a parasite relying on the West in every way.
11. The only nation that incarcerates intellectuals for practicing freedom of expression.
12. The only nation that claims to be religious and guards its piety on both the official and the public levelyet there is nothing righteous about it.
13. The only nation that grants its students a PhD in religion [?];
14. The only nation still governed by the writings of those who died a thousand years ago;
15. The only nation where clerics serve as sycophantic toadies to the rulers, remaining silent about their transgressions, even when they goes against Sharia;
16. The only nation that does not acknowledge the International Human Rights Declaration;
17. The only nation that forbids all human arts except calligraphy;
18. The only nation that believes in one religion [Islam]yet its various religious groups cannot agree on the exegeses and directives of that one religion;
19. The only nation where clerics blabber endlessly, only to conclude by saying, "Allah only knows" (as if people were not already aware);
20. The only nation that believes in exorcizing Jinn from humanseven if by killing the person;
21. The only nation that has armiesand yet its lands are occupied and it fears combat;
22. The only nation wherein the Almighty Creator's description applies"thou wouldst think they were united, but their hearts are divided: that is because they are a people devoid of wisdom" [Quran 59:14];
23. The only nation still inquiring about religious matters and looking for satisfactory answers for over a thousand years;
24. The only nation that asks more about sex than about worship during its one month of fasting every year;
25. The only nation that believes anything and everything its clerics say without question or verification.
This nationwith all these unique traitsdoes it not deserve to be described as the "Wonder-of-Wonders"?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] IT is a matter of national shame that the 
