Common sense questioning
I often resist being called a this or a that, given some label and dumped in with a lot of characteristics that do not define me. Some labels are necessary and unavoidable, but there are others that are very important to resist because they brand their wearers with flawed generalizations and associations that create identity error.
It has been reported in our news that a visiting left-wing British MP, George Galloway, is in the country to speak to the issue of Islamophobia. It is written that Mr Galloway said he flew half way round the world for the weekend to counter talks by “crazed fundamentalists from Australia who are here to whip up hatred against the 45,000 Muslims resident in New Zealand”. One can read this story here. The report lists a number of one and two line statements that sound quite alarming, such that I wonder who is whipping up hatred against whom.
Mr Galloway comes from a country where there is a growing problem from a process of Islamisation, where there are serious threats and acts of Muslim terrorism, and yet he recommends that we follow that country’s political policies to stop “Islamophobia” (which he defines as racism against Muslims) developing here in NZ. I find that something akin to inviting a non-swimmer to teach swimming lessons. It also stands out as a rather bizarre message in the light of another report published today in Germany…
POPE Benedict XVI's private secretary has warned of the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and demanded that the Continent's Christian roots not to be ignored.
“Attempts to Islamise the west cannot be denied,” Monsignor Georg Gaenswein was quoted as saying in a copy of the weekly Sueddeutsche Magazine published today.
”The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness,” the magazine quoted him as saying.
Gaenswein also defended a speech Pope Benedict gave in Regensburg, Germany, last year linking Islam and violence, saying it was an attempt by the Pontiff to “act against a certain naivety.”
In the interview with the respected German weekly, Gaenswein confirmed that the Pope wrote his own speeches and that the remarks had not been edited.
He said: “I believe that the speech from Regensburg, as it was held, is prophetic.”
Asked if the idea of a serious dialogue with Islam that exists in the real world was naive, given that it was a religion where human rights were trampled under foot, he said: “Attempts to Islamize the West cannot be denied.
“The danger for the identity of Europe that is connected with it should not be ignored out of a wrongly understood respectfulness.
Mr Galloway creates a link between Christian fundamentalists and those who promote this supposed Islamophobia, but where in the equation would he dare to place Pope Benedict? After all, that lecture at Regensburg considerably upped the antagonism from the Muslim clerics who objected to Allah being seen as promoting violence. But Pope Benedict, far from preaching Galloway’s “wrongly understood respectfulness” of Islam, was warning against “a certain naivety” that recognizes the reality. Maybe, just maybe, Mr Galloway is denying the facts and stirring up hatred against those (usually Christians) who actually recognize them for what they are - stark reality.
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There are some other points that need to be made:
1. Islam is both a political ideology and a religion - some would say a marriage of both, and more correctly the former simply cloaked in the latter. It is not a race, therefore talking in terms of racism only demonstrates a confusion in terms and meanings.
2. Islamophobia is a fear of Islam. However, the term is being used to describe a hatred towards Muslims, this creating further confusion due to imprecise meanings.
3. Teaching the truth about Islam is not “Islamophobia” anymore than teaching the truth about Christianity is Christophobia. If that was so, then we should be asking serious questions about Church Sunday School classes as well.
4. The common sense asking and answering of questions, dealing with facts and reality, is not fear-inducing unless there is very good reason that fear arises from such facts. It is not whipping up fear where none needs to exist. Neither is it whipping up hatred towards a race of people or adherents of a particular religion. Those who equate the teaching of facts with such an emotion-laden term are the ones employing psychological means to push an agenda.
5. It is fashionable and trendy to label sane level-headed Christians as “Christian fundamentalists” whether they are or not, vilify them, mock their religious beliefs, and accuse them of deluded and distorted thinking. Apart from this being an ad hominem attack that does not deal with the facts of the issues, it also involves creating straw man arguments into the bargain.
6. In connection with the previous point, it would be more sensible to separate the message from the messenger. It may be that Christians, being those in the firing line for persecution by Islam, have a sharper view of what Islam is about, but the facts need to be considered objectively. The connection with, and vilification of, Christian fundamentalism has prevented an objective appraisal of reality. The baby is being thrown out with the bath water.
The supposed “crazed fundamentalists from Australia who are here to whip up hatred against the 45,000 Muslims resident in New Zealand” include names I recognize as very well-balanced and educated authors who do not hide the truth of Islam.
One is Dr Mark Durie who is vicar of St Mary’s Anglican Church in Caulfield, Melbourne. He is also a senior associate of the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne, with the honorary title of Associate Professor, and was formerly head of the Department of Linguistics and Language Studies. He has written several books on the language and culture of the Acehnese, an Islamic people of Indonesia, and was elected to the Australian Academy of Humanities in 1992 for this research work. He served as a member of the Council of the Academy for a term during the 1990's.
Another is Dr. Daniel Shayesteh who was deeply involved in the Iranian Fundamentalist Revolution (1979) as a leading Muslim political leader and teacher of Islam. In addition to English, he speaks three middle-eastern languages (Farsi, Turkish and Azerbaijani) and is an accomplished poet and classical middle-eastern musician. He is an author and studied in one of the universities in Tehran and later in Turkey and Australia. His doctorate is in international business. He is now a Christian, Director of the Exodus from Darkness ministry, and a National Evangelist for the Christian and Missionary Alliance of Australia.
And another is Australian Baptist pastor, Stuart Robinson, author of “Mosques and Miracles”. Dr Stuart Robinson has been the Senior Pastor of Crossway in Melbourne since 1983. Together with his wife Margaret, they worked for fourteen years in South Asia, where Stuart pioneered church planting among Muslims and thus gained the knowledge and experience which enabled him to author his best selling book.
These people have had considerable experience of Islam and know all of its facets. They are concerned for the future of Western civilization, knowing the Islamic mission of bringing about universal submission to Allah. There is nothing “crazed” about their writing and teaching, but it seems that “whipping up hatred” is the term Mr Galloway and his associates prefer for the teaching of facts that we all need to know. As Christians, they are also committed to the teachings of Christ who would have us all love our neighbour as ourselves. There is no teaching that we must hate Muslims.
Now I have a question to ask. Why is it so important to Mr Galloway to come all the way around the world to tell us this message, or to his associates who have brought him out here? Why must we not hear the truth about Islam? Why must the facts be messed up with a lot of ad hominem attacks on Christians and straw man arguments? No one is hating the peace-loving Muslims living in NZ, those getting on with their lives and not causing anyone any upset. But should we not be aware of the dangers that some may bring to our shores, and if numbers increase as they have done so in Britain and Europe, then that we may be subject to similar concerns for ourselves?
A friend of mine recently returned from a quick trip to London and told me how, as she was waiting in the queue at Heathrow to board her flight back home, there were about a dozen young Muslim men lining up as well. Being a friendly person, she spoke to them but got back some awkward looks. One of their number came up to her and, in halting English, explained that none of the group spoke any English except for himself. During the flight they spent most of their time reading from their Qur’ans, and later in the flight the young men were having a problem filling out their immigration cards. The one who could speak a little English approached my friend for assistance. It transpired that the whole group were coming for 3 years. They were all going to attend NZ universities - 3 to Otago, 3 to Canterbury, 3 to Victoria, and 3 to Auckland. But wait… how could they study at a NZ university if they could not speak, read or write the language? Oh my! It really does make one wonder for what exactly 12 young Muslim men are coming all this way here to New Zealand.
I think we should ask common sense questions, and we should be given truthful answers that match all the facts. It is only common sense after all.
This is an excellent piece, Judah. Excellent, as always.
Galloway is not a very impressive character. Isn’t he the one who allegedly received bribes from Saddam Hussein and his henchmen?
Why, I wonder, should a person from a (nominal) Christian background find it necessary to fly half way round the world to defend Muslims? Muslims, having conquered so much terrirtory over the centuries, are quite capable of defending themselves. They certainly don’t need the likes of Galloway to defend them. One is left asking oneself the question: What are his personal reasons for doing this?
As for Islamophobia, I am sick to death of people harping on about it. A phobia is a persistent, abnormal, irrational fear of something. People’s fears of Islam are neither abnormal nor irrational. It is perfectly normal to fear someone or something which wants to destroy your way of life; and fearing such is not irrational either. Indeed, it would be irrational NOT to fear Islam, given that its stated aim is to take over the world. As for people being persisent in their fears, well that is because Islam is persistent in its objectives of wanting to Islamize the world.
I was heartened yesterday to learn that Georg Gänswein, the urbane personal secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, has made public the Vatican’s fears of the Islamization of Europe. It is particularly heartening to learn that he joins me in my message, a message, as you know, I have been stating for many years now.
The West is in trouble with Islam. Our leaders have allowed so many Muslims into the West over the past decades, without knowing or understanding the Muslim mentality. As a result they have got themselves, and us, into a fix we do not know how to get out of. Would that they might have studied the mentality of the followers of this ‘political ideology clothed in a deity’ before letting such a huge number of them into the West. Now, it is up to the powers that be to find a solution to the thorny problem they have created. Politics is never a stage for the faint of heart; from here on in, it will require a steeliness and courage which politicians hitherto, especially in the decades since World War II, have not had to display.
If we cannot get politicians to lead us who both understand the problems we face, and the courage to do something constructive about it, then I fear that the West cannot survive. Soon, if things go on as they have been, then the West will be no more! Christianity will be subsumed into the darkness that is Islam.
Comment by Mark Alexander — July 29, 2007 @ 1:42 amYes, this Mr Galloway is the same one who allegedly received bribes from Saddam’s government. See here. However, those charges were dropped as apparently unsubstantiated.
This NZ story goes back earlier in the year when a Baptist pastor in Christchurch, in response to questions being raised about Islam, decided to invite Dr Stuart Robinson and the other mentioned “crazed fundamentalists” to a conference to speak about Islam. That would seem a perfectly appropriate invitation from one Baptist pastor to another, especially to one who had been a missionary in an Islamic country and who had authored a book on the subject.
You can read more of the story here as it made the pages of Robert Spencer’s Dhimmi Watch website. The conference was due to take place this month, but under pressure from Muslim interests, it was cancelled at the Christchurch venue. That in itself is something to be concerned about. (Note: but has since gone ahead at Auckland and Wellington venues).
The Residents Action Movement went on the aggressive and organized a conference, inviting Mr Galloway as main speaker, to counteract this one that has been cancelled. There is a huge list of names supporting this counter-conference. Who is whipping up hatred for whom?
Yes, it is good to see Pope Benedict “still in there” pointing out the very real concerns we should have about the intentions of Islam. You are up there with the best, Mark - or should I say, so is the Pope?
Comment by Judah — July 29, 2007 @ 2:15 amWell, thank you for that compliment, Judah! You’ve made my weekend!
Oh, I find all this talk about Islamophobia so, so tedious. As if Muslims would care about being Christophobic (which they often are), and Judeophobic (which they always are)!
We are in a war to the death here. It may or may not be a conventional war, though if it’s going to be up to the likes of OBL, it most certainly will be a conventional one, albeit in the form of terror. But even where and when the bombs are not being ignited, there is a battle going on for the soul of the West.
Many people are still quite unaware of what is at stake here: They go about their daily business insouciantly. The rude awakening is coming to meet them, however, and they don’t even realize it! It will smack them in the teeth one day.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Comment by Mark Alexander — July 29, 2007 @ 7:18 amMr Javed Iqbal Khan (President of the Islamic Associations of NZ) sounds an intelligent and reasonable chap when I have heard him speaking on the radio, and one of the objectives of his organization is to “promote and explain the message of Islam to the wider New Zealand community”. But the Baptist pastor did not seek him out to do that for this planned conference, and maybe the following statement by Mr Khan is the reason why:
This statement simply does not tally with the reality that we are experiencing of Islam. There is something inherently untruthful about it. There are very clear passages in the Qur’an that do espouse such violence towards non-Muslims, and they cannot be truthfully interpreted into non-existence. Mr Khan calls this understanding of the Qur’an “perverted interpretation”. He holds up the good behaviour of our small number of Muslims as proof of his words, and they certainly are ordinary decent folk causing no problem. This is then accepted as proof by the ordinary person, who then quote him in defiance of everything else we are learning about Islam. It all sounds so good, but the problem is that it simply doesn’t match the facts of Islam where it is practised in Islamic countries.
Furthermore, the website of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ gives an account of the Life of the Prophet, portraying him as a man of peace, and giving no account sowhatever of his (anything but peaceful) activities of the Medina period. Of course, we can resort to the history books for all that, but its glaring omission is simply another deception. We are being treated like children, not being allowed to know the whole story. Thus Mr Khan does not place himself very well as an educator of Islam, not if one wants to go deeper.
The Christchurch Baptist pastor obviously wanted to go deeper, and being a Christian, he looked for other Christians with knowledge, experience, qualifications, and able to teach more on the subject. The credentials of Drs Durie, Shayesteh, and Robinson, are hard to beat. The truth needs to cover all facets of Islam, and explain how it is that we have peaceful Muslims (like those in NZ) just as much as we have the others who are not. But that has not been allowed. It caused a heavy reaction. Ad hominems flew, attempts to discredit, accusations of hate speech and “whipping up hatred”, and so on. We are not permitted to seek the truth, the whole truth, but must stomach the PC fare instead.
Yes, this is a battle going on for the soul of the West, as you put it. It is a battle going on for the souls of all men, including the practitioners of Islam who are badly deceived. The degree and extent of denial is incredible, certainly to those of us who are not in this state. If nothing changes, the world sure is hotting up for the spectacular.
Comment by Judah — July 29, 2007 @ 1:07 pmThis man, Javed Iqbal Khan, is dissimulating, dissembling, deceiving, and prevaricating. He must know full well that Muhammad preached violence, and nothing but violence, until the whole world kneeled in submission to Islam. As far Jihad being what Javed Iqbal Khan says it is, well, that’s a load of tosh, baloney, poppycock, and twaddle! Who do these idiots think they are kidding?
Comment by Mark Alexander — July 30, 2007 @ 3:16 amAnd he is regarded as the spokesperson on Islam in this country!
However, not all are fooled, and there are “Letters to the Editor” of our newspapers written by readers who will dispute Mr Khan’s version of Islam. Some have indeed read their history books and know when they are fed tosh, baloney, poppycock and twaddle.
For a quick summary course on Islam: Islam 101
Comment by Judah — July 30, 2007 @ 10:04 am