All you have to do is read few items a day on ISIL, Hezbollah, or the Taliban to realize Islamism winning against us. By Islamism, I mean the extreme and violent Muslims we all love to hate.
I am not talking about military wins (Even though we have seen some in the last year in Iraq), nor am I talking about the destruction Islamism is causing across Muslim lands with its barbaric terror and assassinations. Whether it is Hezbollah assassinating Rafiq al-Hariri, Assad gassing his own people, AQ and ISIL beheading Danny Pearly and James Foley, in addition to countless number of Muslim women and non-Muslims, Islamism is forcing us to read about, analyze, discover, and re-visit a side of humanity we all believed we entombed in the last century.
We all heard the term “our way of life”, which refers to laws, traditions, and a social order that provides us with a comfort zone, an umbrella if you like, to protect ourselves from the mistakes of history. Extreme Muslims embrace a seventh century Islam, but when did you ever hear westerners, of any religious denomination, seek to return to the times of The Inquisition? The social order America, and the West, created for their citizens prevent us from such folly.
Peaceful countries, like Saudi Arabia, need to understand fully this phenomenon because as long as Islam, and those entrusted with its message, does not create a “comfort zone” for all Muslims, on an equal basis, Islamism will remain a charging bull for a long time to come.
Islamism winning knows it is encroaching upon our way of life. By forcing upon us the coverage it seeks, be it through acts of violence, or simple actions that take us back in time, Islamism is appropriating our energy. It is forcing all of us to fill our precious time with readable ink or responsive actions that otherwise could be better utilized to serve humanity. [tweet “Our attention span for things that matter is under assault because of Islamism.”]
The same is true of cyber terrorism, an industry that, according to The Council on Foreign Relations, is estimated to cost our economy up to $1 trillion annually. This begs the question: How much does Islamism cost us in productivity, preparedness, and direct military and non-military intervention? Every dime affects “our way of life”. This is why Islamism winning is one of the highest burden ever to face us.
Ignoring its atrocious behavior is not an option either. Peoples across the world need to unite against Islamism even though the solution lies anywhere except in its appeasement. Barack Obama appeased Islamism in Egypt in 2009, yet the results clearly show an increase in violence across the Arab world since 2009. No “genius on-board” for this wagon.
In addition to hard Dollar costs, how much is Islamism costing us in terms of our own freedom? Does anyone remember the times it took us 15 minutes from parking-to-assigned seat when flying? Does anyone remember when the business terms “data mining” referred to the extrapolating and cross-referencing of information for better marketing, and not for spying as it is used today? Does anyone remember a time in our history when an American mother fearing for the lives of her son or daughter even though he or she live on US bases, on US soil?
Here is a story from the UK that will rock you out of your slumber. Their teachers may also become part-time spies now. Not too far from our pilots carrying guns and playing James Bond. What are the long-term effects these type of protective reactions are to our societies?
The damage of Islamism is immense in terms of time, capacity, opportunity costs, and a direct assault on our way of life. We suffer from Islamism in the form of higher taxes, less freedom, and a constant fear in the center of our own comfort zone. Nothing could be any worse. Islamism winning is the truth.
This is why we must unite to uproot Islamism without any apologies and regardless of political correctness, or political convenience. The cost is just too high to play nice or to be patient.
Islamism winning
COMMENTS