Thursday, May 01, 2008

Notes From Denmark

Our Danish correspondent TB emailed us yesterday with observations about recent events in his country. He gave me permission to post his remarks, but asked me to include a caveat: “Please remember that these are my subjective opinions and that the descriptive part was taken from my memory and perception of the debate. I have no written notes from the meeting; I was just an eye/ear witness.”

Bearing that in mind, here’s the latest from TB:

Carsten Juste — the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten — has resigned and been replaced by a new editor. Juste will keep writing editorials for Jyllands-Posten.

But it’s kind of sad. I really liked this guy, but he is retiring.

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I went to a meeting yesterday at Trykkefrihedsselskabet [the Free Press Society]. They had a debate involving, among others, Hans Bonnichsen (the former chief of the Secret Service in Denmark), Helle Merete Brix (who has just published a new book describing the Muslim Brotherhood), and Lars Hedegaard. The last two clearly won the debate. Brix and Hedegaard are really admirable.

The debate was about Brix’s book and had the subtitle: What is most dangerous? Islamic terrorism or the silent takeover?

Hedegaard did an excellent job trying to make his opponents change their way of looking at the phenomenon called Islam, from our normal, rational way of studying things, and instead take the approach from within irrational Islam itself. More specifically, to try to make the point of origin the jihad itself.
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If you do that you will see that what is important is not the tools, be they conventional terrorism, intimidation, or halal meat in kindergartens (and then try to divide Muslims into groups of moderates, extremists, Islamists and so on).

What is important to realize is that these are all just tools to achieve the one and only goal: the Khalifa, or world domination. Just from different angles or perceptions of what will do best in the current situation. The Muslim Brotherhood is an expert in this discipline.

He was of course immediately attacked for being an illusionist. That it was just another conspiracy-theory. That it was simply too much to think that there was somewhere in the desert a central command giving orders about who will do what and when.

What Hedegaard meant was of course that there exists a common interest among all Muslims about achieving the goal of world domination. But also that they are very good at coordinating the whole thing.

Anyway, it was, as usual, a very interesting meeting. I wish you were able to participate in these meetings. They are truly inspiring.

5 comments:

kepiblanc said...

This guy, Bonnichsen, has always puzzled me. When appearing on TV he looks and talks like an imbecile dhimmi, but on the other hand he actually was head of the Police Intelligence agency for some years. So, is he just pretending to be daft and dumb in order to confuse the enemy? - Otherwise, Allah help us...

Steen said...

In the debate, at least Bonnichsen knew his limitations, in contrast to the academic from Syddansk University.

TB - I quess my video of the meeting will come online, it contains some excellent remarks.

Conservative Swede said...

Lard Hedegaard is right of course. A culture is the way in which the people in a society are programmed. Religion is the very kernel program (operating system). Christian societies might have thrown out God and Jesus and church going, but the kernel program remains; the Christian ethics.

Muslims are literally commanded by Muhammad through the Koran and the Hadiths to conquer the world for Allah. No central command giving orders from the desert is needed.

Looking at it superficially you might get it all upside down. In a discussion between two friends--a Catholic and a Muslim--the Catholic was amazed how Islam lacked the hierarchies that exist in Catholicism; with the Pope on the top. In her perception it appeared as something much more free.

Catholicism needs this politicized hierarchy since the interpretation of Christianity is so unclear. But the interpretation of the Koran is very clear. No worldly hierarchy is needed, their common hierarchy exists all in the transcendent sphere. This makes the hierarchy of Islam much more solid. It's in their culture, i.e. it's in their kernel program.

The mass of Muslims, as all people, gravitate towards an ordinary peaceful life. And if the Khalifa is weak, and especially if they live in its periphery, they can have good opportunities to do so. The golden age for the average Muslim was between the 1920s to the 1960s when the Khalifa was at its all time low (officially dissolved by Atatürk and not yet revitalized). But when the Khalifa grows strong again, they get the message through the local imam and the madrassas. The code has been latent in their kernel program all the time, and just needs to be reinvoked. No worldly hierarchy on top of the local imam is needed. The only coordination at play are the money and imams sent out from Saudi-Arabia and Pakistan to the peripheries of the Muslim world.

Even a Muslim who wants to oppose the message, and there surely are tens of millions, don't stand a chance against this. The best they could do is dissent in silence.

The same type of mechanism --ostracism etc.--is at play in the Christian sphere, but with less dire consequences. Our kernel program (the Christian ethics) condition us to altruism, self-sacrifice, fear of the strong, protection of the weak, and if it's taken far enough: civilizational suicide. Christianity is complex so what I just wrote needs further explanation, which there is not room for here. But the short version is that Christianity worked fine before, but fail in the Industrial Age. Western/European civilization is even more complex, since Christianity is only one of its many components. Anyway, my main point here is in how we also have a kernel program facilitating that certain type of arguments always win (liberalism/leftist is deeply rooted in Christian ethics), and how the others are are left to dissent in silence.

One of the best things, however, with Christianity (compared to Islam) is how weak it is. And since the West has many other cultural components (Roman, Greek, Germanic, ...) to fall back on, we will be able to fight this. Christianity needs to leave the megalopolis and the political sphere, but it will surely remain in other spheres; at the country side and in the private sphere.

Anonymous said...

Steen wrote:
TB - I quess my video of the meeting will come online, it contains some excellent remarks.

Looking forward to that. There sure was some great comments to remember.

kepiblanc said...

Not very OT.