In the Beginning Was the Fatwa

Wolfgang Bruno breaks down the stages of jihad for us. Taking his cue from Mark Gabriel, an ex-Muslim turned Christian, he divides the stages of jihad into these three:

1.The first is the weakened stage. This is when Muslims are in a small minority and have to dissemble regarding their intentions. Think of Mohammed before Medina.

2.The preparation stage begins when Muslims are a large minority. Here, they have the beginnings of real power and are able to make headway in the political marketplace. Think of Europe and the unrelenting positioning for place and voice in the public debate.

3.This marks the true jihad stage. This is the point at which Muslims begin the process of full scale armed assault. Remember how the Muslim minority in India created Pakistan? There you have the paradigm for jihad.

But it doesn’t end in Pakistan. As Mr. Bruno points out, Islam currently makes up ten percent of the population in France. However, thirty three percent of all babies born in France are Muslim babies. He predicts that when some critical mass is reached – somewhere between fifteen and thirty percent – France may experience civil war just like Lebanon did. All they have to do is wait; demographics are on their side.

Do you think he’s unnecessarily pessimistic? Remember Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses? Who could forget that book? For many of us, it was the dawn of the age of Islam. “What is a fatwa?” we asked one another? To our bemusement, and to Mr. Rushdie's terror, it turned out to be a death sentence. That fatwa was issued sixteen years ago. In 1989 it seemed exotic and not terribly germane to our lives. Sure, some novelist or other had his problems with some religious extremists, but what did that have to do with us? Earlier this year, the original fatwa, issued by the long-gone Khomeni, was re-issued by his political heirs. And now it no longer seems exotic. Now it seems familiar and up close.

Mr. Bruno says that the Japanese translator of Rushdie’s work was assassinated in 1991. Lots of people have died because of the Muslims’ reaction to that book. But as we have also learned, Muslims die for rumors about books.

So far, in America, Islam in is the first stage. But it won’t stay that way unless we stay vigilant. If we go the way of Europe – vacillating, apologizing, excusing terrorists and refusing to call them by their right name – the second stage will be here shortly. Already, for fear of appearing incorrect, we refuse to profile Arabs at airport terminals. What next on the slippery slope to dhimmitude?

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. We already knew that, but now we're having to learn it by heart and the hard way.

It's just a matter of time.