Don't be fooled! - Islam has more than one face.
The western world may be in the biggest challange since the Second World War; but it is a different type of war Europe is in. The islamic attacks know no mercy, don't stop before gender or age, don't even stop sacrificing their own lives for the ideology of the Koran, hence Islam.
The Brandenburger Tor in Berlin is lit up in the colors of the French flag, and thousands of flowers are layed down in silent thought of the victims in Paris. The debates continue, and the defence of Europe, its values, its citizens and its democracy is top priority.
Europe seems helpless and lame. Yet the terror wave and the continious refugee influx have to be dealt with hard and strikt. Democracy mostly seeks for debate and compromise, and the applause of its citizens. Islam however doesnt know that. There are limits to freedom, tolerance and democracy, even to humanism and and the costant thrive wanting to do all good, a good for others in this case, instead of ones own people.
The message from Paris is: We have to defend our values with all constitutional and democratic means. This includes a new immigration law, which continues to provide asylum to refugees from war zones and existential distress, but economic refugees and immigrants from safe third countries consistently must be rejected. On top of that, everyone immediately identified as someone who violates the rules of the constitutional state.
To stand by general expressions of commitment to their own degrees of freedom, as millions of French impressively sent into the world after the terrorist attacks of January on "Charlie Hebdo", cannot and must not remain the only message this time.
French President Francois Hollande seems to be clear. He spoke of "war" to "an army of terrorists" against France and further responded, that this will lead to "mercilessly" and "appropriate action at all levels".
The often drawn comparison to 11 September 2001 in New York and Washington therefor received a dramatic concretization: Hollande sounded like George W. Bush. But in times when the Europeans, with the American formula of "war on terror", are displaced, Europe has to make an approach out of their own view of morality and direction, rather than with the recipe of others.
If the attacks on Paris, an attack on the heart of Europe, will be of the nature of a wake-up call, and on the strength of the West, the fortified pride in education, rule of law and human rights and their active defense, then something good can emerge from the horrors. If not, and with the open borders, it will be the start of the end.
However, important is not to be fooled. Within the solidarity towards the victims of Paris we can even observe Muslims. The bombings and shootings of Paris throw once more the question about how much of Islamism actually has to do with Islam. Just like after the terror attack on the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in January, currently many devout Muslims distance themselves from the assassins and condemn the atrocities sharply. In the social networks the hashtag "#NotInMyName" has returned to trend.
We yet have to be honest and outspoken, that it has a lot to do with Islam, and it is important not to look away from that. Muslims come in different forms, yet Islam follows one goal - World domination and violence takes a great part in the Koran. The Koran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.
Often non-Muslims and Muslims tend to excuse or water down the religion by saying its all about interpretation or basically raison picking (we can observe this raison picking in Christianity too of course). Yet the Koran uses clear words, and those words are not subject to interpretation:
Quran (3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority".
Quran (9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"
Quran (48:29) - "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves"
We have different tribes in Islam and different expressions. We say to have moderate and hard liner Muslims, passive and active ones, liberal and extreem ones. In the worse case scenario, the extreem Muslims, Islamists (the word Islam is a part as we can see), think that they literally have to follow the Koran and use violence to spread the religion. The moderate group of Muslims, either support these attacks or ISIS silently, up to those who condemn violence, yet who do follow Islam in a way that comforts them, still supporting the grow if Islam through head count, hence higher birth rates. As moderate a Muslim can be, most still would agree that women are worth less, homosexuals, if not to be killed, but should be outlawed, or at least not enjoy equal rights, young underaged girls should be married, and only men can have four wives and not one woman have four men for example; further that dags are evil creatures and pigs should not be eaten. Islam knows how to act when a minority, but also how to act when a majority. Saudi Arabia is a barbaric state, and even it has western allies, and seems clean and neat to the outside, the latter mentioned is enforced, even other religions and non religions cannot be practices and alcohol is banned. Executions are done "clean", hence not on the streets where the hands of the thiefs are chopped off, but they are operated off; executions remain executions.
There is no need for the West to interpret Islam, but more to listen to the leading Muslims who give us the answeres already:
Speaking at Kanal D TV”s Arena program, PM Erdogan commented on the term “moderate Islam”, often used in the West to describe AKP and said, “These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.”
Source: Milliyet, Turkey, August 21, 2007
This is also where Europe and the USA needs to be set into two different shoes. As even the USA has states where people are executed, and crimes against humanity have been done till now. Europe is outstanding, as it has no death penalty, and Human Rights are, at least to a high end, respected and implemented. But Europe has lost pride, identity and strength. 70 years after the second World War, it faces a challenge of redefining tolerance, liberality and democracy. Angela Merkel has proven, that democracy can be levered easily by one person. Germany has a strong responibility in Europe, but it doesnt act that way.
It is time to redifine. Time for the people to speak and re-elect. Time to be honest about Islam, and high time to save the continent by protecting it and acting as a sovereign nation.
Enough is enough. Europe is at war!
By Thomas Fleckner
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