THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 196, November 9, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ISLAMIST PERFIDY & WESTERN NAIVETY:
WHICH IS MORE LETHAL?
By Raymond Ibrahim
THE MEANING OF "JIHAD" & THE WILLFUL IGNORANCE OF WESTERN LEADERS: HOW THE WORD "JIHAD"
CONTINUES TO BE EUPHAMIZED IN THE WEST -- WHEN THE TRUE MEANING OF "JIHAD" IS IN PLAIN SIGHT, WHY DO
AMERICA'S LEADERS & MEDIA FAIL TO DISCERN IT? WHY DO THEY CONSISTENTLY EMBRACE THE SPECIOUS
DEFINITIONS PEDDLED BY ISLAMIST PROPAGANDISTS? SOURCE OF THE ULTIMATE THREAT OF ISLAMISM:
WESTERN NAIVETY, RATHER THAN ISLAMIST MACHINATIONS
FULL STORY:
In a blog entry for Islamist Watch, David J. Rusin shows how the word "jihad" continues to be euphemized in the
West. Despite Islamic law's unequivocal portrayal of it as a military endeavor to empower Islam, jihad is still being
peddled as "nothing more than a student laboring to pass algebra, a mom driving her kids to soccer practice, or, in the
words of the Cambridge study, a civic-minded person engaged in 'lobbying, activism, and writing' — a community
organizer of sorts." Rusin concludes by observing:
"Why Islamists peddle such specious definitions should
be clear. More baffling and disturbing is why they gain
traction among so many Westerners."
Indeed, therein lies the irony: Islamist perfidy is only to be expected; Western naivety, on the other hand, which, if anything,
should have begun to dissipate in our post-9/11 world, has burgeoned to the point of nearly making the former unnecessary.
For while there is no doubt that Islamists (and their misguided Western cronies) distort the meaning of jihad, increasingly,
even when the true meaning is in plain sight, America's leaders and media still fail to discern it. In other words, apathy — or
willful blindness — regarding jihad has become so deep-seated in the West that Islamists need no longer actively dissemble.
Consider: When President Barack Hussein Obama addressed the Islamic world from Cairo on June 4, 2009, he said:
"As the Holy Koran tells us, 'Be conscious of God and
speak always the truth' [Sura 9:119]. That is what I will
try to do — to speak the truth as best I can, humbled
by the task before us."
Let us, for the moment, put aside the fact that Sura 9, from whence Obama quotes, contains the most violent and intolerant
exhortations in all the Koran (which is saying something). The problem here is that the original Arabic text of Sura
9:119 says absolutely nothing about "speaking the truth." The word "speaking" is nowhere in the text, and "truth," as an
abstract, is a wrong translation for sadiqin, which refers to people. The verse most literally translates as "fear Allah and be
with the truthful." In other words, Muslims should stand firm with fellow Muslims ("truthful" serving as a Koranic epithet
for "Muslims" the same way "believers" often does). It is, as ever, a call for divisiveness — of Muslims (the "truthful")
versus infidels (the "false").
Had Obama or his Mideast advisors and speechwriters simply bothered to read this verse in context — verse 9:111, a jihadi
all-time favorite, looms just above, promising believers paradise in exchange for their killing and being killed — or if they had
bothered consulting mainstream Muslim exegeses, they might have known that this verse is part of a Koranic segment that
deals exclusively with fighting infidels: Muhammad and several Muslims were preparing to invade Byzantine territory; some
Muslims wanted to stay behind. It was then that Allah/Muhammad threatened them with this verse to "fear Allah and be
with the truthful" (i.e., join ranks with your fellow Muslims on the warpath). Sentences later, this exhortation culminates in
one of the most famous calls to violence in all the Koran, regularly evoked by modern-day jihadis: "O you who believe, fight
those infidels who dwell around you, and let them find harshness in you!" [9:123].
Incidentally, the infidels mentioned here are the Christians of Byzantium (or in Arabic, al-Rum, "the Romans"). That
modern-day jihadis, such as Osama bin Laden, often liken the United States to Byzantium, which, for long, thwarted the
caliphate's expansionist designs into Christendom, makes Obama's choice of verse — "be[ing] with the truthful" — further
ironic.
Speaking of infidels and irony, here is a more recent, a more comical, anecdote: On September 11, 2009, NPR ran a story
called "For NYC Muslims, a New Kind of Police Attention," which tells of how "the NYPD hosts an annual Ramadan program,
during which the police get to know members of the Muslim community and Muslims are free to speak their minds." Lest the
theme of this story eludes you, words such as "outreach," "diversity," and "building bridges" predominate.
Here's the problem (first brought to my attention by the Washington Times' Diana West): In the audio version of this
report (around 0:25-0:50), the NPR narrator says that "there was not an empty seat to be had at the NYPD's auditorium
at One Police Plaza. NYPD brass, Muslim clerics, and community members all stood and listened to the cadences of the call to
prayer from the NYPD's imam," Khalid Latif. While this is being said, you can hear part of the imam's Arabic recitation from the
Koran in the background.
The narrator's enthusiastic talk of NYPD brass standing in awe of the "cadences of the call" makes it difficult to discern exactly
which verse is being recited. Only the last few words — qawm al-kaffirin, "nation of infidels" — are crystal clear, raising red
flags. Thanks to my trusty Arabic-Koranic concordance, I have placed this phrase as part of Koran 2:286, which
supplicates Allah "to make us [Muslims] victorious over the nation of infidels." Bear in mind that, from an Islamist point of
view, the United States is the "nation of infidels" par excellence.
And there it is: From an American president who publicly defines his mission by quoting a jihadi-related verse, to
American-Muslim leaders who publicly pray for the subjugation of non-Muslims (in the middle of an NYPD auditorium, no
less), it is clear that the ultimate threat comes more from Western carelessness and indifference — in a word, naivety — than it
does from active Islamist machinations. In short, Islamists peddling misleading interpretations for the word "jihad" is but the
very tip of the iceberg.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum and the author of The Al Qaeda Reader,
translations of religious texts and propaganda.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Pajamas Media, November 9, 2009, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/2496/islamist- perfidy-western-naivety)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
November 9, 2009
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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