Re: The Real Terrorism

Submitted by Reuben Horne (Australia), Oct 15, 2005 at 00:57

Dr Pipes,

George W Bush shows insight that rarely appears in the modern political field. It is a pity that then the media is more focused on other things such as his staged media exercise with the soldiers from Iraq. But as you suggest, his analysis is far from complete.

I have a few comments/observations:

(1) The empire Islamists envision is far broader than just Spain to Indonesia. Indonesia has in particular espoused a strategy of obligatory education of students in its public system that teaches them they have a moral and historical right to Australia and all of her surrounding territories. Operationally this strategy manifested itself recently in the light of the Bali Bombings March 2 in which several Australian's died. The bombings were the handiwork of Jemah Islamia (JI) a religious entity which embraces terrorism and is led by Abu Bakar Bashir who recieved only 1 year in jail after the last Bali Bombings and is due for release soon. The Indonesians have refused to ban this organisation let alone punish its members. The official reason is the use of the term on many mosques and for many other informal unrelated organisations. The real reason however may be that the organisation has stated goals that are broadly similar to those embraced by the Indonesian government itself in terms of imperialist aggressive expansion. That having been said it would be inconsistant for the Indonesian government to push an Imperialist agenda and then punish those who act upon it albeit prematurely. So they don't.

Indonesian military expansion is on track however - after the Dili Massacre in East Timor they couldn't secure American weapons and so they have turned to the Russians to purchase additional warplanes and attack submarines. Note that though it is the Russians who are supplying them as they do so many other problem countries it is very likely that it will be the Americans who get blamed when they work up the nerve (or the geopolitical situation changes in a manner that corrodes the USA's power suffienciently) to invade Australia and Papua New Guinea which they call East and South Irian respectively. They have already unsuccessfully attempted an invasion in the past - a piece of modern history that is fairly uncommon to possess and is largely whitewashed over by PC embracing liberal teachers in public schools and elsewhere.

Australia's policy in the light of this is to adopt a hear no evil see no evil stance - the new Indonesian President despite embracing all the aforementioned Imperialist goals is a fairly amiable chap with far better diplomacy than his predecessors and so the illusion is comfortable one. In fact even rogue former MP Pauline Hanson who railed against the "asianisation" of Australia was on public television making excuses on behalf of the Indonesians for their failure to ban JI. The atmosphere of fear was palpable. A recent scandal in Australia posited this kind of apologism in the defence intelligence community where a report linking the Indonesian military and by logical extension the government to the militias in East Timor who were performing the atrocities was suppressed before it reached the Prime Minister. Pathetic. It seems as though these idiots who run our country and the media believe that by being extra nice to the Indonesians if later they are capable of invading our country and enslaving its people that they will not on the basis of our record of consistent appeasement. Not only is this unlikely in the broader context of history but it is doing a treasonous disservice to our country.

A better course of action would be to call a spade a spade and from a position of strong national defence demand that the Indonesians renounce their Imperial ambitions both officially and privately plus change the curriculum that teaches this aggressive rot. Failing this it is always better to have an inevitable conflict occur on your terms rather than your enemies and the largest Islamic state has in the past always been quick to demonstrate its enmity if not publically then privately for Australia when it has been strong enough to do so. It is apparently however much easier to hide from the truth than to frame policy around it. But returning to my original point if the Islamists do get their dream it will involve far more than simply intimidating my country from the field of world affairs.

(2) Secondly whilst in academic terms Dr Pipes' distinction between Islamists and Muslims is semantically useful, it may not be politically useful or expedient. Apart from terrorism Islam embraces a number of other forms of abberant criminality that operate on a lower, more banal, level than the macroscopic goal of political expansion and enslavement of the infidel. I made the point of the recent gang rapes in Sydney by Lebanese Muslim youths some time ago. The incident was repeated recently by a group of Pakistani brothers who absconded with two teenagers recently in Australia and raped the girls at knife point. They recieved a minimum of 22 years in jail each. Their reaction to being arrested, charged and jailed was bewilderment. In northern Pakistan there is a broad acceptance of this cultural practice - in fact an ongoing human rights fiasco involves a woman who was raped by another family's men as a punishment dictated by village elders against her family when she was not involved in the alleged transgression on any level apart from being related to the offending family. Her attackers have yet to be punished though she has taken the matter to an international court.

The Pakistani brothers raised correctly in the context of a multicultural society the defence that their culture being regarded as morally equal to all others entitled them to engage in such conduct and that at least their sentences should be reduced. To read the "enalties and Sentences Act"of my state and assuming that other states have broadly analogous legistation (which generally they do) this argument while morally reprehensible is legally valid. It demonstrates once again multiculturalism's tension with the rule of law - to have one is to renounce the other. To refute the Pakistani brothers argument one would have to knock down a fundamental ideological pillar of our society - fortunate then that there are individuals such as myself who have the backbone to reject this left wing travesty (not to blow my own Horn too loudly in a manner of speaking - *crude attempt at pun*).

The media coverage of the Pakistani brothers rape of the young girls was instructive. Instead of a "defence of religion or culture" they called it a "defence of race". But the issue the brothers were raising in the court had nothing to do with race but philosophy, ideology and culture all of which were inextricably linked to years of religious conditioning. They crossed over to a young clean cut ridiculously unrepresentative Pakistani youth spokesperson who told us all of how unacceptable rape was considered back home in Paki-land both religiously, legally and culturally reprehensible. For those of us who were stupid enough we were to consider ourselves duly reassured.

Prosecutions for this form of conduct are notoriously hard to secure in western states where such conduct occurs concommitant with a strong muslim populations like for example France or the Netherlands or even Canada. The result of a heavy influx of Islamic immigration into western countries is this steady erosion of hard won rights particularly that enable females to make their way in the world without molestation. The prospect of fighting the same battles over again with large domestically situated Islamic communities that violently resist change is not a pleasant but a likely one.

Consider the aforementioned in the light of my own personal area of expertise. The Thesis I am writing at present involving illicit economies and criminality within the western OECD context seeks to address the failure of economic theory to account for the high levels of compliance with tax laws and business regulations and criminal codes. The chances of getting caught and the sanctions that are imposed are not sufficently high as to explain the apparent lawfulness of the present configuration of the western population. The explanation instead is to be found in cultural norms and other sociological and psychological factors that are as their namesake suggests centered around the dominant culture and cultural group of the day. The cultural transformation of the population is therefore something that needs to be treated seriously. Consider also the fact that many of the muslim and other migrants Australia and other western countries come from situations where even honest traders participate in an informal economy where no taxation is paid. The results of this for said societies are a lack of funds to put in place infrastructure and run health services - a decrease in the standard of living. Much of the willingness to comply with taxation laws is also based upon a respect for the rule of law and value of the public goods offered by the government - and we know that the rule of law just went out the window with the rest of the values hithero known as western. Immigration has been a strong correlate of growth in the underground/underworld economy both in Australia and overseas. When Muslims commit such heinous acts and openly express their disrespect for our society just after coming off the boat it makes for a grim anecdotal confirmation of my suspicions.

All of these attitudes one might be tempted to connect to this abstract construct known as Islamism but they have more to do with mainstream Islam. Where then does Islamism begin and Islam end. Academic distinctions when ordinary Palestineans are dancing in the street and handing out chocolates to the image of the World Trade Centre imploding and thousands of western men, women and children dying. But the spectre of terrorism's comparatively low mortality street theatre relative to the prospect of living in fear as a second class citizen in ones own country - having all of the institutions and rights you fought so long to build torn down in a couple of generations pales in comparison. And the possibility of the latter is due to the alarming growth and presence of Islam within our society not necessarily any abstract Islamism. Unless of course you are calling them one and the same. I am.

Cordially,
Reuben Horne.

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