its difficult not to respond emotively and angrily. I, like many Australians, regard myself as a rational and reasonable person, but have felt at many times, a degree of hostility towards the Muslim community. I am sure I am not alone in that. Many of us are sick of the lies, the excuses and the state of perpetual victimhood. What is obscene is the fact that the this state of victimhood is encouraged and nurtured by the the left.
Not just the left I fear but leaders of governments from the conservative side of politics: George W Bush after 9/11, David Cameron (and Boris Johnson) after the Rigby beheading and now in Australia (Abbot and his ministers such as Brandis and conservative state premiers such as Newman an d Barnett). It has been said that what people in the former Eastern Bloc hated most was not the poor standard of living or the lack of a vote but the constant stream of lies about how wonderful conditions were. Same here. It is not Muslims doing their thing which is the problem and I don't feel hostile any hostility towards them but towards the lies being told and not even so much by the Muslims (principally in their keeping Mohammed under wraps) but by the so-called conservative politicians. Why do they do it? I think it is a primal fear and this military adventure and other huffing and puffing (e.g. by Cameron) are distraction mechanisms.
I am a bit puzzled by Mark Durie's conclusion. He seems to be saying that the problem we have is fear. That's reminds me of FDR saying there was nothing to fear but fear itself. Does it just mean we should stop being afraid and accept our fate? Or does it mean we should fight back fearlessly? It seems to me that dropping bombs on the Islamic State, killing as many combatants as possible and disabling their infrastructure would indeed make us a bit less afraid. After all, we fought Muslims for nearly 1,400 years; we lost when they invaded us taking advantage of our weakness, and quite a few times we won. When we didn't fight much, as in the earliest invasions catching us by surprise, they occupied half of Christian territory and only stopped when we finally fought back. That made us a bit less afraid. It seems to me the
I think Dr. Durie is saying that the Muslim community that we have in the West includes a good number of people who have the same supremacist religious/political ambitions as the jihadis in the Islamic State and the Ottoman Empire. What people fear isn't the Islamic State overseas, but the True Believers, the sleeper cells, in our midst. What are we going to do about that?
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its difficult not to respond emotively and angrily. I, like many Australians, regard myself as a rational and reasonable person, but have felt at many times, a degree of hostility towards the Muslim community. I am sure I am not alone in that. Many of us are sick of the lies, the excuses and the state of perpetual victimhood. What is obscene is the fact that the this state of victimhood is encouraged and nurtured by the the left.
ReplyDeleteNot just the left I fear but leaders of governments from the conservative side of politics: George W Bush after 9/11, David Cameron (and Boris Johnson) after the Rigby beheading and now in Australia (Abbot and his ministers such as Brandis and conservative state premiers such as Newman an d Barnett). It has been said that what people in the former Eastern Bloc hated most was not the poor standard of living or the lack of a vote but the constant stream of lies about how wonderful conditions were. Same here. It is not Muslims doing their thing which is the problem and I don't feel hostile any hostility towards them but towards the lies being told and not even so much by the Muslims (principally in their keeping Mohammed under wraps) but by the so-called conservative politicians. Why do they do it? I think it is a primal fear and this military adventure and other huffing and puffing (e.g. by Cameron) are distraction mechanisms.
DeleteI am a bit puzzled by Mark Durie's conclusion. He seems to be saying that the problem we have is fear. That's reminds me of FDR saying there was nothing to fear but fear itself. Does it just mean we should stop being afraid and accept our fate? Or does it mean we should fight back fearlessly? It seems to me that dropping bombs on the Islamic State, killing as many combatants as possible and disabling their infrastructure would indeed make us a bit less afraid. After all, we fought Muslims for nearly 1,400 years; we lost when they invaded us taking advantage of our weakness, and quite a few times we won. When we didn't fight much, as in the earliest invasions catching us by surprise, they occupied half of Christian territory and only stopped when we finally fought back. That made us a bit less afraid.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the
I think Dr. Durie is saying that the Muslim community that we have in the West includes a good number of people who have the same supremacist religious/political ambitions as the jihadis in the Islamic State and the Ottoman Empire. What people fear isn't the Islamic State overseas, but the True Believers, the sleeper cells, in our midst. What are we going to do about that?
Delete