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18
August 2007
An
Attack on Freedom
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Islam
Awareness Week, a government sponsored initiative that is
designed to “promote
greater unity among the diverse peoples who call New Zealand
home”, has just passed. Orchestrated through the Office of
Ethnic Affairs and the Human Rights Commission, one of the key
activities has been school visits by secondary school students
to mosques so that they can learn about Islam.
Dr
Daniel Shayesteh, this week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator asks
why it is that western countries like New Zealand welcome into
their midst a religion that seeks to destroy their fundamental
values of freedom and democracy:
Why
are some leftist groups and individuals standing alongside
radical Islamic leaders in order to fight democratic values in
the West? Why are
many western leaders, politicians, media and various groups
silent towards the threat of Islam against their societies?
What is keeping these people quiet in such a
significant time when a religious group challenges not just
their democratic values but additionally forces them to
surrender to their bondage?
Why are free people prepared to surrender to those who
would place them in bondage?
I
first became aware of Daniel, a former radical Muslim
revolutionary, when he was interviewed on Radio NZ. His
warning about the danger of Islam was so powerful that I
contacted him and invited him to share his story and his
concerns with us. In his article the Islamization of the
West - including New Zealand, Daniel describes how Muslim
children are indoctrinated from a young age, being taught that
Christians and Jews are unclean and that Islam must take over
the world. He explains how at 19 years of age he joined a
radical Muslim students’ movement aimed at overthrowing the
pro-Western King of Iran:
Under
the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, we overthrew the most
powerful government in the Middle-East; the king escaped and
we captured and ruled the country according to Islamic
Shari’a. I was
initially called on, by several influential Muslim leaders, to
develop a revolutionary army whose aim was to capture Israel
and destroy America and their presence in the world.
Those who were involved with this military preparation
were called “Hezbollah”, which is a Qur’anic word
meaning “the party of Allah”.
Subsequent
disillusionment with Sharia law saw Daniel becoming a threat
to Khomeini's political group who wanted to govern at any
cost, and he was kidnapped by their Revolutionary Military and
placed in a death cell to await a death sentence. Daniel
was able to escape and now, many
years and many changes later, he is appalled at the West’s
folly in welcoming in a movement that seeks to destroy it:
Why
are mosques, Islamic schools and colleges springing up in
every corner of non-Islamic countries to indoctrinate
thousands of young people, when it is illegal for non-Muslims
to practice or spread their religions and beliefs in Islamic
countries? What is
allowing Muslim leaders to teach Qur’an’s hate and killing
verses in the mosques in non-Islamic countries?
Why do Muslim leaders in the West have freedom to speak
against democracy, the social fabric of western societies?
What has brought the West to this shocking stage when
it is producing its own Muslim terrorists, who carry out their
terror operations in the West (their own countries) and abroad
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Israel, Morocco and Russia?
(To read Daniel’s article, click here
>>>)
British
journalist and author Melanie Phillips sheds some light on why
Islam is seeking to destroy the West in an article entitled Liberalism
v Islamism:
The
founding ideologue of modern Islamism, Syed Qutb, made clear
in his writings that … his governing impulse was the fear
that the instinct for liberty was so powerful it would spread
to and infiltrate the Muslim mind unless it was checked by the
most repressive possible form of Islam. The Islamist goal is
to destroy the virus of freedom and modernity before it
infects the Islamic world, and to replace it with Islam. That
is the core of the profound threat it poses to the west, a
threat mounted through the pincer movement of both terrorism and cultural
takeover.
As
Melanie explains in her article, this cultural takeover of the
West was planned almost 30 years ago. The strategy involves
establishing Muslim communities in western countries and then
lobbying the host country to grant Muslims recognition as
separate religious communities. This is seen as “a step
towards eventual political domination”.
It
is important to state that many Muslims around the world are
deeply opposed to the motives of radical Islamic
fundamentalists. The problem is however, that the radicals are
making huge inroads into western societies as the violent
protests that followed the publication of the Mahommed
cartoons in 2005 clearly showed. What also became clear during
those turbulent times was the fact that rather denouncing the
actions of the radicals, many so-called moderate Muslim
leaders marched in their support.
The
problems faced by western countries like New Zealand is that
our governments have imposed the ideology of
‘multiculturalism’ onto society: “In
response to New Zealand’s
growing ethnic diversity, the Office of Ethnic Affairs was
established in 2001 by the Department of Internal Affairs to
promote strength in diversity and capture the benefits
multiculturalism offers to our country”.
While
multiculturalism sounds reasonable enough in terms of being
tolerant to all cultures and religions, it actually demands
that all cultures are regarded as equal. That means that the
home-country culture cannot be allowed to dominate. This
creates a significant problem by sending out the message to
minority groups, that there is no need to integrate into the
home culture. It then becomes only a small step for minority
cultures to demand segregation and self-government.
Muslim
groups around the world are pressuring governments to
introduce Sharia law under a dual system. Sharia which
strictly decrees that women are the property of husbands, that
polygamy is accepted, that adultery and gay relationships are
punishable by death or stoning, that aposty – converting to
another religion – is forbidden, and that free speech is
outlawed, is an anathema to western values.
According
to Melanie Phillips, some Muslim communities in Britain have
however been successful in paving the way for the introduction
of Sharia law: There
are now areas of the country under the informal parallel
jurisdiction of sharia law. A blind eye has been turned to
honour killings, forced marriage and polygamy – now
polygamous men settling in Britain are even receiving welfare
benefits for their multiple wives. We have sharia-compliant
mortgages; our tax authorities are considering recognising
polygamy for inheritance tax purposes; and the government is
encouraging London to become the global hub of Islamic
banking, despite the fact that such arrangements will force
those who make use of them to conform to sharia law. (To
read the article click
here >>>)
Already
in New Zealand the Ministry of Economic Development have been
involved in a project to investigate the introduction of
Islamic banking in accordance with the principles of Sharia
law, and there will undoubtedly be other moves in other areas
underway. (To read the article click
here >>>)
In
2005 Muslim leaders pressured the Australian government to
introduce Sharia law, but as Treasurer Peter Costello
explained: “This is a country, which is founded on a
democracy. According to our Constitution, we have a secular
state. Our laws are made by the Australian Parliament. If
those are not your values, if you want a country which has
Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for
you”.
Daniel
Shayesteh finishes his article with a warning, which I believe
deserves some serious thought: Many
middle-eastern background men and women, who live in the West,
clearly understand the subtle lies of Muslim leaders who claim
to be moderates. Unfortunately,
many of them keep quiet and do not speak out for religious,
cultural, political and social reasons. They know it is these
so-called moderate Muslim leaders who pave the way for the law
of Islam and radicals. If
these so-called moderate leaders did not teach the Qur’an in
the West, the jihadist groups would not exist in the West and
would not be able to succeed and advance.
Our
hope is that people in the West would wake up to the subtle
threats of Islam for the safety of their own nations’
future. It is
painful and alarming that many people do not believe or take
seriously what we, as those who were once radical Muslims,
have to say. At times, some western people stand against
us or charge us with vilifying Islam and Islamists anytime we
speak out. This is
because Islam’s approach is so subtle, masking its
insincerity.
It
may be worth reflecting that no Islamic country has displayed
the democratic values which have become synonymous with
Western society. Therefore,
we should approach the issue of Islam with caution and
well-informed knowledge in order to appreciate and effectively
uphold our own values within our society.
The
poll this week asks: Do you believe that Islam poses a
threat to Western culture? Go
to Poll >>>
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