Monday, May 04, 2009

Can Prayer be a Political Act?

Effective resistance to the Jihad requires an important conceptual shift, as has been frequently emphasized by Geert Wilders and others: Islam is not a religion, but a totalitarian political ideology.

The “stealth jihad” has had great success in the West thus far by playing on the hallowed principle of religious tolerance. Our traditions require us to turn a blind eye to the preaching of violent jihad in mosques. Decorum demands that we ignore the fomenting of sedition by radical clerics. These are religious sites and religious men, and enjoy immunity from interference.

Thus we are reluctant to confront what is happening in our midst, out of a misplaced fear of being exposed as “intolerant”.

However, mosques are much more than houses of prayer. They are churches, city halls, armories, and military recruiting centers, all rolled into one.

So whenever Muslims gather en masse to pray, it is not simply a religious occasion. It is also a political act, no matter how many of the worshippers have nothing more than prayerful supplication in their hearts.

Bear that in mind when you read the news story below from The Times of Malta about the salubrious “intolerance” of ordinary Maltese citizens concerning praying Muslims in their midst:

Muslims Gather in Prayer Along Sliema Front

About 50 Muslim men took their prayer rugs to the Sliema front yesterday after the planning authority sealed off their place of worship. The Muslims said the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had locked them out of their flat in Sliema where they used to pray, so they decided to take their cause outside.

“We are not here to protest or threaten violence but to express our fundamental human right to gather in prayer,” Bader Zina, one of the leaders, said. According to Mepa, a number of complaints had been received by neighbours and the flat did not have a licence to be used as a place of worship.

The Muslims, many of whom Maltese, were dressed in traditional clothing. They had a permit and police protection and said this might become a regular appointment until their flat was reopened.

This behaviour did not go down well with a group of Maltese onlookers who warned that if this happened again “there will be trouble”.

“Malta is a Catholic country. They have no right to come here and pray in front of us. I don’t care what they do in the privacy of their own home but not here,” one Maltese woman said.

More power to this “racist and Islamophobic” woman for identifying the ominous nature of what was happening!

Muslims who gather for prayer as a group in a public place in an infidel country are making a political statement: By our prayers we have sanctified this ground. Our actions have made it Waqf. One day a mosque will stand here, and it will be the nucleus for the imposition of Islamic law. To do this is our natural right and moral obligation as servants of Allah.

To many Westerners, conditioned as they are by decades of training in religious tolerance, interfering or objecting to such things seems impolite and repugnant. But not all Maltese have been completely indoctrinated:
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“We’ve had enough. If you were to do the same in their country they would stone you. I can’t understand how they could have been given a permit for this, including police presence and all!” her husband added, visibly disturbed by what he saw.

“They should go to a mosque. That is where they belong. Or in some hole somewhere. But not here where I get my children to eat and have a good time. I would have had no problem if they were Catholics praying… in Malta we are all Catholics so it’s not a problem, but not them. Even the tourists were disgusted,” he claimed, as his teenage son nodded in agreement.

However, some local residents found the praying Muslims to be harmless:

The owner of a nearby kiosk said she had no problem with them and some were her friends and clients. But she acknowledged that their presence lost her a lot of business yesterday. She said they should be allowed to remain in their flat where they would not be disturbing anyone.

And here’s a reminder of the cultural void that Islam stands poised to fill:

Another man said the praying did not disturb him and it was less noisy than he would have thought. “I don’t see what the problem is. These are Maltese people with a different religion. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to pray quietly outdoors if we can have noisy feasts and drunken brawls?”

In modern Europe (and most of the rest of the West), the only alternative to the ostensible piety of Muslims seems to be “noisy feasts and drunken brawls”.

What happened to a reverential hush in front of cross on the altar? Is that no longer available to hold up as a superior ideal?

Is hedonistic revelry the only remaining Western value?

As long as the playing field is leveled as a purely spiritual one, the hosts of Mohammed have the advantage:

Mr Zina said they did not want to anger anyone: “All we want to do is praise God”.

[…]

“Since when do you need a licence to pray? I don’t see anyone closing down other prayer groups. And, anyway, I would rather have a group of Catholics singing praise to God next to my house than a bar,” Mr Zina said.

Without any robust spiritual alternative, and lacking a community-based education program in what the practical application of sharia will involve, Mr. Zina and his congregation will prevail. Their mosque will eventually be built, and new migrants who make their way to Malta from North Africa will be drawn to it as a social center and political forum. When their numbers are sufficient, the political demands will begin.

The shape of Malta’s future can be seen all over Europe, for those whose eyes are willing to look.

Last but not least comes the inevitable veiled threat:

Although he condemned any type of violence or revenge, he said that if people were discriminated against and hurt, it would become impossible to control a backlash.

Nobody wants violence, but it will happen anyway. A “backlash” is bound to occur if Muslims are not accommodated.

Muslim violence is like a tornado or an earthquake. Nobody causes it; it just happens somehow.

It’s time for the people of Malta to get acquainted with Eurabia.


Hat tip: PEJ.

13 comments:

X said...

It depends how you define prayer. Christian prayer is a conversation between man and god and can be done without any outward appearance Sit, close your eyes and look like you're taking a nap and mumbling to yourself. Most people wouldn't even notice that.

Islamic prayer is political by its nature. It is obviously ritual, obviously an action declaring separation from the surroundings, meant to stand out; and it declares allegiance to a foreign power, by orienting toward an earthly location. Islam is physically focussed on a power other than the local authority. That makes everything it does a political act.

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

English is the first language on Malta isn't it? Perhaps we could find some maltese forum or blog as to support them moraly? To tell them, that they're not alone. Point them towards other forums and blogs outside their own country so that we all stand united under the threat of islam.

Abu Abdullah said...

"The Muslims, many of whom Maltese, were dressed in traditional clothing."

Traditional clothing? Whose tradition? So the Islamic virus has turned native Maltese into Allah's zombies too?

Papa Whiskey said...

When one considers that Malta was once held by a crusader order, the Knights Hospitaller, which successfully defended it against a Turkish horde in 1565, the political aspect of the Muslims' demonstration becomes apparent. How about a counterdemonstration in which participants recite Psalm 144?

Profitsbeard said...

A people who do not remember their past battles will lose every future one.

Charlemagne said...

I watched the Turkish siege of Malta on 'Warriors' on the History Channel just last night.

laine said...

People in the West don't understand even the first thing about Islam. It is a totalitarian ideology cloaked in religion that allows it to seep everywhere under Western tolerance for religions.

But this public prayer is with the same intent as if Communists paraded through the streets waving the hammer and sickle and singing the Internationale or Nazis goosestepped on the public square with their swastikas.

Some Maltese retain their instinctive revulsion because they sense the hostile intent. Others are blinded by the religion disguise.

The other thing that needs to be published are the aggressive rules, like the "right" to build a mosque (It's not like a church, it's a fort) wherever Muslims choose to pray, the huge footprint they manipulate disproportionate to the size of any congregation because the land it occupies belongs to Allah and also the technicality that if any land was conquered by Muslims for even a nanosecond a thousand years ago, that land is permanently consecrated to and belongs to Allah, ergo all of Spain etc.

PatriotUSA said...

Let us hope the maltese are true to their words, and do net let the mussie rabel pull off this stunt again. Purely politcal in nature, masked under the false disguise of religion. islam is not a religion, and I agree that it is a totalitarian political ideology with the nastiest of intentions. So typical of muslims to do something like this. Playing the victim and sympathy cards(sigh...)
out in public.


They had a permit and police protection and said this might become a regular appointment until their flat was reopened.

Maybe their "flat" was closed off to them for good reasons? Most mosques, as duly noted are
used as a front for many
unsavory plans and actions.
I hope their flat is never reopened to them. The short
term gains the mussies may garner by going out into the public will wear itself thin with the city and police. I do not have much knowledge of how the climate is in Malta. But if muslims are there, problems are guaranteed to show up. Problems always come with mussies. We are here, so let us shove our "religion" in your face and down your throat. The west is very guilty of just turning that old blind eye of tolerance way too much. I see it here in the States and it drives me crazy. So I speak out against it, do what I can. I refuse to sit still while the muslisms attack us on ALL fronts.
I hope that the Maltese will stand strong and take the risk that needs to be taken or the mussies will come back for more. They always do and that is the problem. islam needs to be stopped at the gates before it gains any kind of ground, period!

Homophobic Horse said...

Pamela Geller has pictures of the rally. Look at the flags, they are mainly EU and Pali flags, probably expains why the reaction to the EU and Islamisation has been so ethnic.

spackle said...

A small, sort of on topic comment and confession. For the first ten years of my life growing up in Brooklyn I lived next door to a Mosque. One of my best friends was a Turkish boy who lived there. It was a small group of Muslims who would pray in the backyard and Genghis and I would often play in the Mosque while trying to avoid the very stern Imam.

What was interesting was that as a half Jew I was let in the Mosque at all. The Imam knew my religious background. At about the same time I was denied access to a WASPy health club in Brooklyn because I was Jewish. Something I could not quite grasp at the time. My point here is that it was a pretty laid back atmosphere at the time when their numbers were small.

Flash forward to today. There are now so many Muslims at this Mosque that they are out on the street (down half the block) with their prayer mats. Even the lefty neighbors find this spooky (though probably not political) and no Jews are welcome anymore with the exception of the usual "outreach" charade. The difference between when I was a kid and now? Numbers, numbers, numbers.

Anonymous said...

Just a quick bit of history about myself. My father is English and mother is Maltese. I live in the U.K. I am very proud of my Maltese ancestry. My mothers maiden name can be traced back to a man called Captain Luca Briffa of the Maltese royal cavalry. Who was named in the after battle reports by the Knights of St John for the Great siege of Malta 1565,along with other maltese men and the people.(This is only time ever this has happened in that religous Knighly order). Maltese people like all Europeons are made to feel ashamed of their history. We are told that we are nothing but war mongers. If you read this report it makes out the maltese to be hateful of muslims. But if people know maltese history, they would understand them and why they don't trust them and their faith. Also malta is being invade by muslims on the quiet from north africa by illegal immigration. Maltese people are very welcoming to anyone, but i feel that this is starting to push them to a point that even they will not stand for.

Anonymous said...

To profitsbeard
A people who do not remember their past battles will lose every future one.

I remember it and a lot of others with maltese heritage do and will not forget it.

Hesperado said...

There's an intertextual paradox, if not a contradiction, in Baron Bodissey's interlinear commentary and analysis:

First, he calls for the conceptual shift that would stop seeing Islam as a religion and start regarding it as a "totalitarian political ideology".

Aside from the problem of the Either/Or fallacy which plagues this view (as though an organization cannot be both a religion and a totalitarian political ideology, and as though there is not massive evidence that this fusion of the two does not adequately characterize Islam), it is the second observation and proposal Baron Bodissey makes that tends to contradict the first, glimpsed in a couple of remarks:

He mentions "...the cultural void that Islam stands poised to fill..."

What cultural void would that be?

He then notes the attitude of an ostensibly typical secular European who contrasts the public piety of Muslims with their Western alternative in secular spectacles of irreligious fun.

Baron Bodissey concludes:

"As long as the playing field is leveled as a purely spiritual one, the hosts of Mohammed have the advantage..."

But if, according to Baron Bodissey's first proposal (the conceptual shift we have to make to stop regarding Islam as a religion and instead regard it as a totalitarian political ideology), Islam is not a religion at all, then it does not follow, as his second proposal implies, that the only way for us to counter the growing intrusion of Islamic culture into the West is to counter it with a "spiritual alternative" -- i.e., on a religious level.

Another way to counter Islam would be on a political-cultural level, i.e., without having to revamp (if not compromise) our secularism through some kind of religious revival.

Thus, Baron Bodissey's second proposal assumes what his first proposal proposes to dismiss.

I am not here trying to argue that secularism is in no need of "spirituality", nor that secular laws do not derive their nourishment from our religious history. I only am pointing out that a religious revival is not the only way to counter the infiltration of Islam. Our secularism has all the conceptual and pragmatic tools it needs to counter Islam. What stands in the way is the mainstream dominance of PC MC, which in this context may be seen as a pathological excess of Western progress -- the disease of taking good things too far.

60 years ago, for example, the West under similar circumstances as today would have had the disposition to behave rationally in the face of a menace of Islam manifesting as it does now. The West 60 years ago was not significantly more "religious" than it is now. What changed is that PC MC has become dominant and mainstream in the intervening decades, not that we somehow lost Religion.