It seems we have yet another head-in-the sand column regarding the radical Islam and the threat it poses to the United States, from one Juliette Kayyam, a lecturer from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Last week, soon after authorities in London announced the arrests of a group of people allegedly plotting to bomb a number of airliners, commentators and experts were marveling at how the British disrupted the attack and asking whether we needed to be more like them, with their less restrictive surveillance laws, a domestic intelligence agency, almost no rules against watching and tracking Muslims in mosques or community centers, and no First Amendment. But those would be the very lessons we ought not learn from this week's events.
First, Britain has been the target of three serious homegrown attacks, either successful or attempted, since Sept. 11, 2001 — and all since the Iraq war began. The suspects are all from immigrant families, all young men who appear to have felt no allegiance to their nation or the freedoms they enjoyed. Their alienation was so complete that they sought to kill their own countrymen.
Second, the disruption last week of the bomb plot occurred because of very good human intelligence: a person's infiltrating the terrorist cell, convincing the plotters that he was part of their plan and then turning on them when they started to get serious....
Immigrant groups feel themselves part of America, and our success is that we have made them feel that they have a role in the nation's destiny. Tougher surveillance, profiling or efforts that risk alienation might give us a sense that we are doing something, but the long-term legacy of such efforts could well prove self-destructive.
Where to start, where to start...
How do we know how many immigrants are here who have the same mindset of the ones accused in the British plot? I think it's quite dangerous to assume that just because no plots have been uncovered here in the United States means they're not here. Also, this threat does not come only from alienation, and it's a textbook example of ostrich-type behavior to chalk such a desire to kill, to that. We all should know by now why the Muslim fundamentalists want to kill us -- it's not because of alienation, or our freedoms, or any of that. They want to kill us, quite simply, because we don't worship their god, or follow the teachings of said god's prophet, and, well, there ain't much peace upon ole Muhammad these days. Chalking the radical Muslims' grievances up to something like alienation seems to me to be little more than a product of the same mindset that chalks up the actions of killers, child molestors and rapists to their bad childhood. And it's just as dangerous, if not more so.
As far as immigrants to the United States feeeling like they're part of America, well, all we have to do to answer this bit of sophistry is point to the spring protests of the Hispanics as the illegal immigration issue came to the forefront. Those weren't American flags the protestors were waving. "Si se puede" is not an English phrase. Does the term "balkanization" ring a bell here? We may not be experiencing it to the extent our neighbors across the pond are, but if those in charge don't wake up and call this muiti-culti touchy-feely tripe out for exactly what it is, then we are in for some dark days. You owe it to yourself to read the entire Brussels Journal article, but following are some excerpts:
...In many countries across Western Europe, Muslim immigrants tend to settle in major cities, with the native population retreating to minor cities or into the countryside. Previously, Europeans or non-Europeans could travel between countries and visit new cities, each with its own, distinctive character and peculiarities. Soon, you will travel from London to Paris, Amsterdam or Stockholm and find that you have left one city dominated by burkas and sharia to find… yet another city dominated by burkas and sharia.
For some reason, this eradication of unique, urban cultures is to be celebrated as "cultural diversity."...
"Asian youths," a British euphemism for Pakistanis and Muslims from South Asia, in parts of Oldham are trying to create no-go areas for white people. One of them told: "There are signs all around saying whites enter at your risk. It's a matter of revenge." However, it’s not just the white natives that are targets of Muslim violence, but other non-Muslims, too. A report on Hindus being driven out of the English city of Bradford by young Muslims was described by some Hindus as "ethnic cleansing." Some of them want to leave the city to escape the "Talibanization of Bradford."
...In France, Muslims already have many smaller states within the state. Criminologist Lucienne Bui Trong wrote that: "From 106 hot points in 1991, we went to 818 sensitive areas in 1999." The term she used, "sensitive areas," was used to describe Muslim no-go zones where anything representing a Western institution (post office truck, firemen, even mail order delivery firms) was routinely ambushed with Molotov cocktails. The number was 818 in 2002, when the French government decided to stop collecting the statistics.
In some of these areas, the phenomenon of gang rape "has become banal." Violence against and pressure on women is part of daily life in the suburbs, where boys can dictate how girls should dress. Pressure is mounting for Muslim women to wear veils. In 2002, a 17-year-old girl was set alight by an 18-year-old boy as his friends stood by. The support group "Ni Putes, Ni Soumises" ("Neither Whores nor Submissives") says the number of forced marriages has risen in recent years, with roughly 70,000 girls pressured into unwanted relationships each year in France. A leaked study conducted between October 2003 and May 2004 under the auspices of France’s inspector-general of education, Jean Pierre Obin, described an educational system where Muslim students regularly boycotted classes that concerned Voltaire, Rousseau and Moliere, whom the students accused of being anti-Islamic. Orbin’s report cited Muslim students’ refusal to use the "plus" sign in mathematics because it looks like a crucifix; Muslims boycotting class trips to churches, cathedrals and monasteries; and forcing wholesale changes in school lunch fare to accommodate their religious practices.
Are we going to be so naive as to think we're going to be immune to the problems the Europeans are facing with the Muslims in their midst? I would surely hope not, especially given the separatist attitudes of a good portion of Hispanics in this country. Some of the comments to the article were spot-on, though (emphasis mine -- ed.):
I am quite sure many of you are tired of American solutions, but seriously, people in Europe need to protect themselves. A few dead punks would put a quick end to some of this thuggery where these animals pick on lone women and men....
I think we'd see a drop in the level of Islamo-fascist thuggery if some of their intended female victims were armed and trained, and started dropping a few of these twits.
This is what actually keeps the number of home invasions down in the US. Would-be raiders don't know when they would be confronted with superior firepower so it remains a marginal crime.
It might be interesting for France or Denmark to try legalizing concealed-carry permits...
Now, I am not so bold as to state with absolute certainty that the relative tranquility of the United States has everything to do with our attitude toward arming the general population, but I will say it would be foolish to discount it. As far as the opinion piece first quoted, taken with the second and looked at in the context of what's going on in our own country with the Hispanics, I will also say that we would be absolute fools not to keep better tabs on American Muslims. Just because the bombs (figuratively speaking) haven't gone off yet doesn't mean some jihad-bent malcontent doesn't have his finger on the detonator.
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