Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Government is Not Your Friend

An Altercation, by Gustave DoréI promised myself that I wasn’t going to post anymore about the necessity of working with “moderate” Muslims. With the amount of heat I’ve been taking, who needs the grief? After all, it’s not like I’m going to change anybody’s mind.

But I must have a masochistic streak. At the risk of starting another knock-down drag-out fight, here goes.

After my “Changing the Venue” post a reader sent me the following email:

Dear Baron,

If we are the leaders of this movement — the anti-Jihad movement — the first thing we must realize is that NOBODY follows a leader who’s pessimistic about his mission. At least not willingly. It’s more accurate to say that there isn’t any obvious sign that the anti-Jihad message is catching on, not that there’s no prospect for a decade or more. Soon after the election you began to display the most desultory attitude on your site — I sympathize with your frustration — but truth be told — the message will NEVER go out to a broader audience if the messengers succumb to despair. We can’t afford to despair — no matter how insurmountable the odds may seem. To do so is GUARANTEED catastrophe for all.

Buck up. Don’t give in to despair. That’s not gossamer castles in the sky. It’s strategy for war.

Sincerely,
A Fellow Anti Jihadist.

Unfortunately, my fellow anti-jihadist has confused my jaundiced view of the federal government with pessimism. Just because I think government is less helpful than a pitcherful of warm phlegm doesn’t mean that I’m not optimistic.

Last month’s election freed me up from any attachment whatsoever to the government as an active force against the Great Jihad. Here’s the way I see it:

  • The legacy media control the view that most of the public has of what happens in the “War on Terror”.
  • They want us to lose because Republicans are in charge.
  • Therefore they threw the election to the Democrats.
  • Thus we will get what we voted for from our elected officials: retreat, denial, passivity, appeasement, and dhimmitude.

But that’s just the government that I’m talking about, and the government is not where the action is now. The synchronicity of the election and my involvement with the 910 Group has opened a view into a whole new way of doing things. If we wait for the government to do things, we are doomed. If we expect the government to follow the prudent course and prosecute the Counterjihad with the appropriate zeal, we are living in a fantasy world.

The government is constrained by political reality, and political reality is conditioned (if not generated) by the MSM, so we are stuck with a useless government. Eventually the new media will supplant the old, and our viewpoints will become more like the norm. At that point elections might start to reflect what the majority of people really feel about Islam, multiculturalism, and illegal immigrants (a.k.a. “undocumented Democrats”). But we’ve got at least another ten years before that happens.

In the meantime, our Western governments — with the possible exception of Denmark and Australia — are going to be more of a hindrance than a help in fighting the information war against the Jihad. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, we’re on our own.
- - - - - - - - - -
But that’s our big advantage. Getting the government to react to an info-attack from the terrorists (via their media or CAIR surrogates) is like trying to turn a battleship to avoid a torpedo. As we form our networks we create new response mechanisms which can assess and counter the enemy’s offensives at the same speed at which the enemy operates.

Watching the U.S. government’s response (or non-response) to all the fake stories and doctored photos coming out of the different theaters of this battle shows how useless the government is in the information war. A top-down command structure. Time-servers and CYA experts making the decisions. The utter intimidation of our leaders by Big Media. Entrenched and antiquated ways of thinking about the war… How can we expect bureaucrats and members of Congress to tackle this struggle effectively?

The best and the brightest don’t wind up in the civil service, nor are they elected to office, nor are they found in academia or the media. Those places are reserved for brown-nosers, organization men, sinecure-seekers, and leftist ideologues. To get into politics it helps to be greedy and ambitious, but brains are not required.

The most intelligent people are in business and the military. Not surprisingly, these two groups are over-represented within the new networks that comprise the Citizens’ Counterjihad.

I’ve had a lot of trouble making my point heard. This idea — using privately-based fourth-generation warfare to fight this war, in lieu of the government — seems to be so far out of the box that many people have trouble keeping it in mind.

Consider this comment from PD111 on the “Uncle Joe Redux“ thread:

Any alliance with Muslims, will of necessity require us to make some political concessions to moderate Muslims. What are these likely to be? Any concessions that further Islam will just be another success for the overall Jihad.

[…]

Placing the future of Western civilisation in the hands of Muslims by making alliances with Muslims, moderate or otherwise, will be a great mistake, as future peace will be dependent on the good will of the moderate Muslims. In other words, we would have taken the first steps to dhimmification by making such an alliance.

We have to do this on our own, otherwise we will lose.

Your idea of an alliance would be fine if the enemy was outside the city walls, as Stalin was, and not within the Gates as it is now.

We have to do this on our own.

That’s what I’ve been saying. But when I say we, I mean “We, the People”. When I say “on our own”, I mean “without the help of the government.”

The government will not do it for us. We have to do it ourselves; the problem is to figure out how.

Now back to the “moderate” Muslims.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

The Ranting ManUp until a couple of months ago I was just another blogger shouting from the sidelines. My job was to bring information and opinion to this forum, package it for distribution, and hope that it might do some good. Cast your bread upon the waters

I’m still doing the same job here, but I’ve got another one as well. Ordinary people are now networking their resources in order to pursue a common goal: fighting an information war against the Jihad at the grassroots level. I’m part of that effort now — not just talking, but doing.

Being involved with the 910 Group has given me a crash course in what it takes to actually get something done. A “pure” blogger has the luxury of sticking by his principles no matter what, never compromising on an issue, and always taking the moral high road. But when you work with a large number of people to try to reach a common objective, you don’t always have those options.

If your thinking leads you to the point where you say, “All Muslim immigration should be stopped,” then you’ve run up against that wall. What you say is true — it should be — but it ain’t gonna happen. That’s a government function, and we have no control over immigration policy. We will have to fight without that weapon in our armory.

Similarly, if you say, “We need to deal forcefully with Iran,” you’re right; we certainly do. But “we” — i.e. our elected representatives — are not going to deal forcefully with Iran. They’re not going to deal with it at all, if they can avoid it. Our leaders are going to waffle and procrastinate and prevaricate and pretend their way down the road to Armageddon. We have to deal with that fact.

So what can we do?

Obviously, I’m not advocating revolution. The 910 Group is predicated upon non-violence and lawful behavior in the pursuit of worldwide liberty.

What we’re doing is forming conduits of information and methods of organizing to combat the propaganda initiatives that the enemy is mounting among us every day. As I’ve often said, “the enemy within” is our biggest problem.

Intelligent and skilled people are even now building the infrastructure to respond to CAIR and similar organizations, to fight for our First Amendment rights under the coming onslaught against them, and to monitor and report on the activities of the mujahideen in our midst whilst the media ignore them. The tactics we use can be as simple as a targeted mass letter-writing campaign to a newspaper or a congressman, or they can be immensely complex.

The point isn’t any particular action, but the structure of the network. The network needs to circulate information smoothly and quickly, and react like lightning when a crisis hits. It needs to be robust and effective, able to withstand the inevitable lawsuits and threats that will come from the Jihad groups.

It will be some months before we reach this ability, but it is definitely coming.

Part of this network formation involves reaching out to Muslims who show by their words and actions that they share the same objectives. Take, for example, the case of Bassam Tibi, a German Muslim who was brought to our attention by a reader, who says this:

This is the man who challenged me to understand what was going on with Islam when I met him in June and July 2001. We were staying in the same hotel. He is shifting shortly to the States. As is Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

I note, too, in their latest newsletter, that the NZ Director of the Barnabas Fund is moving to Washington in January. Given that Patrick Sookhdeo (Director of the Fund) was dropping broad hints earlier this year about shifting to the States, it could be things are even worse in Europe than we realize.

The effect of existing and pending EU and national laws limiting free and frank expression on political and religious issues must surely be a factor here. Not to mention actual threats and physical danger to those who speak out.

So it seems that the opposition to Eurabia is gradually draining into this country. That’s good; we will need those people here.

Our reader pointed us to a Jihad Watch article about Bassam Tibi, which in turn points to a Globe and Mail article. The latter requires not just a subscription, but actual payment to be able to view the article. I’m a cheapskate, so you’ll have to make do with some of the Jihad Watch excerpts:

Dr. Tibi, a Muslim born in Syria, is persona non grata there.

He’s not too popular in Germany either, where he has been accused of inciting Islamophobia. “It is most disturbing to see how writers who try to warn about the totalitarian character of Islamism are defamed as racists,” he says. “This wrong-headed political correctness prevents any honest discussion about the subject.”

This is not the message you will hear from any Muslim leader. The standard line is that extremism has been exaggerated, the media are to blame, and that the real problem is that Muslims have been unfairly targeted. But long before 9/11, Dr. Tibi began warning Europe had become dangerously vulnerable to radical Islamists. Today, many of these movements have their logistics, as well as their support systems, in Western Europe. In the name of multiculturalism, Muslims were encouraged to build parallel societies. Now, many have no intention of integrating into the mainstream.

[…]

Dr. Tibi is impatient with the endlessly repeated nostrum that Islam is “a religion of peace.” “When you study religion, you do not study texts, you study social facts. A Muslim boy is torching cars and he is thinking he is waging jihad. Religion has nothing to do with terrorism. But you can use it to legitimate terrorism. There is a conflict — it is social and economic, but it is articulated in religious language.” And the quest of converting the entire world to Islam, he insists, is an immutable fixture of the Muslim worldview.

[…]

I asked Dr. Tibi how many of Germany’s 3.2 million Muslims share his progressive, secular views. “Maybe a few thousand,” he said.

A few thousand. You know, it would be good to have a few thousand Muslims on the ground in Germany, or any other Western country, networked into the Citizens’ Counterjihad and ready to contribute to it.

Recapitulating what PD111 said: Your idea of an alliance would be fine if the enemy was outside the city walls, as Stalin was, and not within the Gates as it is now.

But the gates open both ways. They are inside ours; why can’t we be inside theirs?

Yes, we have watch out for practitioners of taqiyyah, to beware of the double agent and the provocateur. But that’s already part of the job we’re doing.

And it’s a good thing that the government isn’t doing this job, because the first thing it would do in the face of provocation would be to compromise, appease, and submit. That’s the way to creeping shari’ah.

But we don’t have to do that. A citizens’ network can insist that its affiliates and individual members adhere to its principles. If they don’t, they’re removed from the network.

The core principles include:

  • A commitment to representative government.
  • Non-violence except in immediate self-defense.
  • Freedom of speech.
  • Freedom of religion.

None of these is negotiable. None can be compromised for the sake of “respect for Islam” or to avoid “hate speech”.

If you demonstrably adhere to these principles, the network invites you in.

If you abandon any of them, you’re out in a flash.

The uncomfortable fact is that we are unlikely to find a huge number of Muslims who are willing to accept these principles and aid us in what we do. There just aren’t that many of them; the vast majority seem to be passive, or in tacit support of the Jihad.

But we need all the help we can get. It doesn’t matter whether any Muslim is sincere or is practicing taqiyyah, any more than it matters whether a murder is also a “hate” crime.

By their fruits ye shall know them. If their fruits are good, they belong with us.

This doesn’t mean that taqiyyah isn’t an issue; internal security is always going to be an issue in a network like this. It’s fortunate that we have people on board who are experts in the field. They’ll make sure the job gets done right.

After all, the government is incapable of doing it.

23 comments:

jillosophy said...

While I wish I could share the belief with 910 that we can defeat Islamofascism with idealistic prinicpals, relying on methods of non-violence, honor, respect and goodfaith, I do not believe it is possible.
Islam has set it up just so.
They cannot be enlightened. They cannot be persuaded. They cannot be deterred. Everything that Mohammad (may God fry his soul in hell for all eternity) taught is designed to make certain it is all Islam or nothing. There is nothing moderate about Islam at all. It is a system of totalitarian government and medieval laws. It is not a religion. It is not a philosophy. It is a blueprint for war, blood, superstition and destruction. And idealistic free people will never be able to defeat it.
It is us or them. This is the way they see it, and we cannot change that. It is us or them. And this is the way they want it. It was designed to be thus so.
"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid" - General Dwight D. Eisenhower

Anonymous said...

I don't think you can defeat Islamic Fascism without government support. It is going to be too costly to defeat Islam. I think your concept is too timid. First, we must begin to think about a viable third party, the Republicans have shown themselves to be only baby steps from Socialists and way too attached to the public tax font. They are also too timid on war fighting and don't stand up to the media. Your idealistic non-violence just won't work when faced with violent Islam, just as it wouldn't have worked against Nazis or imperial Japan.

CM said...

I fully endorse the four principles, and the attitude the writer takes to moderate Muslims is the only one possible if you take the principles seriously.

The key task is to enlighten the wider public about what mainstream Islam has in store for us. It is that wider public that wil change the government. So, first things first.

it is essential to make a start somewhere, instead of getting in a panic.

kepiblanc said...

Information war....Hmmmm...Take a look at Copenhagen Tonight

ramcclain said...

I agree that we are well past the time for a 3rd party. Let's do it! Just not sure how, but just talking ain't gonng hack it!

Faultline USA said...

I came to the 910 Group through reading your fine blog! I agree with what you wrote,
“What we’re doing is forming conduits of information and methods of organizing to combat the propaganda initiatives that the enemy is mounting among us every day. As I’ve often said, “the enemy within” is our biggest problem.”

Yes, yes, yes! But we need to get a concerted effort going right now– just start somewhere – targeted mass blogging in concert, mass e-mailing media etc. – but with a central issue – the issue of the day.

I’ve seen this work with NumbersUSA, and and it needs some central structuring and leadership to work.

Baron Bodissey said...

rob/d/bob, CM, ramcclain --

It's good to hear the ideas and enthusiasms. The way to go is to join a group like 910, one that networks widely with other groups, and put your ideas into the mix. If they are worthwhile they will be picked up, expanded, modified, and become part of the group plan.

If you disagree with my program, that's fine with me. But I want to see people with different ideas try to put them in to practice, as I have done (at least minimally). Then I'll argue with you.

If it's 910 you want, send an email to 910-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Baron Bodissey said...

Kepi -- I wish I knew what was going on in that video! Who is throwing the rocks?

Baron Bodissey said...

Faultline USA --

...it needs some central structuring and leadership to work.

There is leadership, and the structure is being formed. The whole thing is only two and a half months old, so it's just forming now.

I can't talk too much about specifics, because I'm not in charge. I'm just the emeritus, a figurehead, a blog conduit, and a liaison with other bloggers.

Better minds than mine are at work on all of these things.

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

"...the opposition to Eurabia is gradually draining into this country."

It reminds me that the opposition to the Japs in the Phillipines was "gradually draining" into Corregedor in April 1942. Our opponents are divided into two main groups: The useful idiots who think they can "ride the tiger" into power in our society and the "libertarians" among us whose hatred of Bush is so great they cannot see the elephant in the parlor. Lew Rockwell is a case in point. He is so anxious to ignore the islamist threat that he has asked me to stop writing him. They appear so obsessed in weakening the conservatives that they are willing to countenance such jerks as Cindy Sheehan.

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, some of the local youths were observing one of their events of cultural significance by firing pistols into the air outside my house. I called the police, and asked the watch commander to send an officer out to take a look. After I told him that there were people firing weapons in the street outside, he said something that I will never forget.
"So?"
Of course, they never showed up.
To this day, I keep the bullet holes in my living room window as a reminder that the government is not really interested in protecting us.

Papa Ray said...

Looking to the government for value from your tax dollar is ok and should be expected.

But never forget that your last line of defense against anything is you.

BTW, has anyone in the 910 group contacted the The Loyalists Party to see if they might reinforce each other some way?

Of course the Loyalists plan to make the two party sysem hickup by dividing the vote like Perot did twenty some odd years ago.

Or not, wouldn't it be something if someone like SANTORUM. got on their ticket and actually won?

Never happen of course, but dividing the ticket, running a "spoiler" might give good results...

Or Not.

Clintoon might have been having his sex somewhere else than the White House, if Perot had stayed home.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Speaking of government, Paul Weyrich recently advocated refounding the House Un-American Activities Committee to look for Islamic sympathizers in government (A Congressional Challenge. Not gonna happen with a Dem congress sadly. The day after the next 9/11 maybe.

Not seen too often in the West, but its beautiful to see the full power of government coming down on the unrighteous like a ton of bricks.

F. Germain said...

I'm glad that I'm seeing more and more people understand the importance of a 3rd party against Islam. Beleive it or not, none existed until a month ago. But since we've started, the response we've received is phenomenal.

I'll make sure we get in contact with the 910 people.

FGermain

www.loyalistparty.com

Extremism is our only Hope

"Hunter" said...

Baron- These last couple weeks have made for great posts and comments. I think we are making progress in the cauldron of ideas known as blogs. Regardless if it may not appear so at this given time. I think these formative years of the movement are going to be an up and down roller coaster ride, but that's the nature of it.

rob/d/bob & ramcclain- Focus is one of the most important aspects to an interest group like the 910 group. Talk of starting a 3rd party is naive and way out of our scope and ability. I really do sympathize though and will support them on the periphery. Remember we are very small and at an infantile stage at best. So let's focus our limited resources on getting an anti-jihad organization up and running. Then on to even larger endeavors.

So here is my internal debate that I am having with inclusiveness in this formative time: We should try to be inclusive with moderate muslims because they have the potential to be great allies "behind enemy lines". However there should be no shying away from confronting them on the versus in the Koran or fellow muslim actions. (No PC talk because we don't want to offend) This will hopefully lead to cognitive discourse in the reformation process of Islam. That being said I struggle to think if we took this approach to Nazism and Mein Kampf what would have happened. It would be almost impossible to lead, from the outside, a reformation of that religion. But unlike the 1940's we are not fighting pitched battles with standing armies. Plus there are 1.3 billion Muslims, so maybe containment is best. We as a resistance group are not even close to taking on 1.3 billion people.... That is my internal debate and let the best ideas prevail.

kepiblanc said...

Baron, as Phanarath says : "the video video has nothing to do with Islam". - And yet it has. Those "youths" are not Muslims for a change, but spoiled children of "upper-middle-class, 1968-left-overs from Copenhagen's red-wine-belt who consider themselves "gutmenschen" (authorized German term for : good-doers)". In short : "moonbats".

This morning the police has arrested 273 fools, a substantial part of them coming from abroad, like Sweden, Norway, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. And some skinheads. They will appear in court today.

What the MSM don't report is : While the police was busy with the potheads in central Nørrebro other "youths" from Brøndby, Ishøj and Taastrup (no-go, Islamic ghetto's) immediately showed in town looting, plundering and vandalizing all over.

So, here we have an example of home-grown, useful kid-idiots acting in concert with the Muslims. Look at it this way : The Muslims cannot organize anything themselves, so they get "riot-instructors" from moonbat-kiddies to show them how. And the police gets training.

The upside of this is : apart from a microscopic fraction of Danish society they've lost any sympathy they might have had. Another shot in the foot.

kepiblanc said...

Phanarath, take a trip to downtown Copenhagen and Nørrebro and talk with the citizens there. Even the moonbat daily "Politiken" can't avoid a PC notice : "Uroen bredte sig -Urolighederne fik også unge fra Blågårds Plads til at udnytte situationen til hærværk mod lokale butikker og bygninger i kvarteret". (unge = youths).

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Presumably just an irrelevant coincidence, but about half the Copenhagen riot photos are attributed to AP Photo/Tariq Mikkel Khan.

R-W D-S said...

While I applaud the efforts of the 910 group, what I want to see are public demonstrations. I attended the "Hang Osama in Effigy " rally in Los Angeles earlier this year. I wore my prophet mo cartoon t-shirt and at least had the satisfaction of physically doing something in the public arena. The demonstration made the local TV news that night and also garnered international coverage. In case you didn't hear about it, it was organized by the United American Committee and took place outside the King Fahd mosque where two of the 9-11 hijackers had worshipped. Provocative public demonstrations of this type will show the average American that there are groups of patriots that not afraid to give voice to the vague apprehensions that I believe most of the public holds about Islam and Muslims. It also puts the Muslims on notice that there are Americans who publically oppose the creeping Sharia and Islamification of our culture. Sitting here alone in front of our keyboards provides a psychic satisfaction of sorts, but the time has come for public demonstration. We can drop all the precision-guided cyber munitions we want, only "boots on the ground" and the attention of the media will wake the slumbering public.

kepiblanc said...

Phanarath, I just heard from my police friend that there's still "trouble" going on ? - Nothing in the MSM though.

BTW, I can't for the sake of me understand why the police doesn't start with shutting off power, water, heat, telephone , cable and block the sewers to that house. And jam the cell phone system too...

Papa Ray said...

"Boots on the Ground"

Sometimes I wonder about the younger generations.

It doesn't take a rally or a demonstration or a riot to make people aware of problems and potential solutions or at the very least some facts and your opinion.

Talk to people, don't be afraid to talk to strangers. Pick the right time and place, be polite, ask questions then give your speel or at least offer some facts.

Back them up with websites, books, papers or blog addresses.

City or county or PTA meetings is where you will meet people that don't have a clue about Islam. B-B-Qs, school functions, you name it and it is an oppertunity for you to spread the good or the bad word, however you want to look at it.

Get out more, like someone said, only one or two percent of Americans even know about blogs.

They use their computers for porn, recipes and getting the "What's showing" at their local movies.

Baby steps such as telling someone about this blog, the 910 group, the Loyalists Party or such is how you get people involved.

Americans (except left wing nuts) aren't going to just jump up and go to a rally, demonstration or riot.

That crap usually either puts them off or scares them.

Unless they have been informed about the situation before hand and know what's going on.

Then you might get more public support.

It starts with a conversation between YOU and someone who is illinformed or misinformed.

Just be prepared to back up your statements.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

Papa Ray said...

Talking about blogs. Here is one I try and read each day. He has facts and has sources.

It's an interesting blog
anyway you look at it.

Papa Ray

F. Germain said...

Most middle class Americans will not go in the streets and protest Islam, the way Islam or our own country's liberals protest us. We are not unemployed vagabonds looking for an exuse to throw things and chant stupid slogans. However, we can start a movement without these protests. Protest really don't accomplish much anyway, other than get a little press.

We in the Loyalist Party are going to spread the word by focusing on the new media. We will pick one state (Right now New york is high on this list), and advertise on talk radio. We'll just state what much of the public secretly feals. Then we will make headlines.

F. Germain