Raheel Raza tackles Islamist extremists and what needs to be done in this feisty, no-holds-barred, post-Brussels analysis in The Clarion Project
by Raheel Raza, March 27th, 2016.
Following the Brussels attacks, I’ve been glued to mainstream media listening very attentively to political pundits, intelligence agencies, experts and analysts. Something in what they are saying sounds familiar. Oh yes – it’s the same rhetoric that we heard since 9/11. Fifteen years down the road from the first mass attack on the West, and all we seem to be able to do is parrot the same questions.
- Why do they hate us?
- Why are there so many siblings involved?
- Why is there lack of co-operation from ‘the community’?
- Where are the moderate Muslim voices?
For the fiftieth time let me take it from the top.
- They hate us because they don’t want to accept their own inadequacies and failures. They hate that we have freedoms they do not have and they hate us most because we are a successful liberal democracy while they have not invented or created anything new in the past 100 years. So they fall back on grievances – real and imagined to create a monster they call the West. Also they have declared the West as the land of war (not my words) and they feel justified to attack us. Even Achmed the dead terrorist gets it when he says “I will keel you” But you don’t.
- Why is the question of sibling involvement so hard to comprehend? Siblings and close friends are the easiest to radicalize because they are close to you and open to your ideas and suggestions. In case of the San Bernardino terrorist couple, we know the wife radicalized the spouse. This is common in close knit communities. So when groups are ghettoized and shut themselves off from the mainstream, this is bound to happen.
- The community has also been brainwashed by invoking Colonial oppression, invasion of Muslim lands, Afghanistan, Iraq and of course the lightening rod which is the Arab-Israeli conflict. None of these by the way have any bearing on why the radical Islamists are attacking the West because there are few terrorists that come from Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan has not been invaded, yet there is a direct link to this country in terms of radical Jihadists.
- Where are the moderate Muslim voices? Well let me tell you that reform-minded and progressive Muslims have been speaking out since 9/11 and telling you that there is a global Islamist jihadist insurgency that will invade and attack us unless we wake up and smell the coffee.
So let me ask you. We are speaking out but what are you doing? What actions have the law enforcement agencies, the governments of the Western world and its leadership taken to stem the ideology that is being exported to the West?
We have explained time and again that the Islamists (ISIS and their ilk) are not Muslim fanatics like most people think. They are criminals. Their ideology has nothing to do with the spiritual message of Islam. It’s a politically-charged message infecting the minds of millions of Muslims.
You say that’s too high a number? Well watch the documentary By the Numbers and you will know better.
So ranting about the Quran and Mohammad has really no value in how to deal with the problem at hand. Ignorance and bigotry will not solve the problem of radical Islam. In fact knee-jerk reactions and racist remarks only fuel the Islamists and justify their ideological mandate that the West is against Islam. We must have a more intelligent, in-depth and long-term strategy.
The Islamist ideology comes from one of three sources:
2. Wahhabi/Salafi doctrine from Saudi Arabia
3. Khomeni-ism
It’s frustrating to hear the Boston chief of police say they will use sniffer dogs at airports. Sniffer dogs can’t sniff out an ideology. Speaking of dogs – when a dog gets rabies and bites someone, the victims need injections to get rid of the venom. This radical ideology is the venom that needs to be treated. But how are we going to do that when you are not able to isolate the poison and call it what it is?
So I have a challenge for the experts and political leaders of the West. Why did you allow no-go zones to exist in the first place? In Toronto there is an almost no-go zone at Thorncliffe Park where the mosque runs a madrassah. In the same area, Friday congregational prayers are offered at a public school where girls having their periods are lined up at the back of the room. A local Islamic school was exposed spreading ant-Semitic literature. Were they charged? No – because we are such nice people.
Why are we not exposing these problems and eradicating the spread of this ideology? If we know about the imam who spreads hate and anti-Semitic rhetoric, why don’t the intelligence agencies know about this? And if they do, why haven’t they done something about it, like deport him? Why are 80 sharia courts allowed to operate in UK? We can only expose the problems – it’s up to policy makers and law enforcement to make the change.
The West has caved in to the Islamophobia industry and panders to the Islamists’ cause over and above a concern about the security and safety of the land in which we live.
Regarding law enforcement, we spent time with a regional police force suggesting we enlighten them about where the problems lie and help them identify the people and places where the Islamist ideology is spread. No response. Yet this month they are hosting a conference on Islamophobia with the very same organization that has ties to CAIR, which has been labelled a terrorist organization by The United Arab Emirates. The organization hosting this event with the police force has recently changed its name but that doesn’t change who they are.
The West has caved in to the Islamophobia industry and panders to the Islamists’ cause over and above a concern about the security and safety of the land in which we live. What we should be discussing at round tables is why public places like airports are so porous and easily accessible? Last time I travelled (which is not long ago) I see that the domestic arrivals lounge at Toronto’s Pearson airport has a door with no security, which allows anyone to enter the domestic baggage hall.
Have we not learnt anything in the past decade? Whose responsibility is this? Not the moderate Muslims surely.
Please be assured that these attacks will continue unless action is taken. It’s time to stop the ad-nauseum analysis and do something. Our enemy is the ideology. Take action to stop the flow of these messages and foreign funding into our organizations and places of worship. We know where the ideology is coming from and yet we have opened the flood gates and have allowed this ideology to flourish and foment in our very midst. Why?
These ideas are not politically correct but they will save lives.
Before asking where we are, let’s examine where all of us are on this urgent issue. We are speaking out. Now it’s YOUR turn to take action.
