|
07 June 2011 By Juan Cole Catholic anti-Muslim polemicist and hate blogger
Robert Spencer was in Germany once again at the
invitation of the Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (BPE). We
exposed the supremacist and fascist nature of the BPE
in a previous article, Robert Spencer Teams up with
Euro-Supremacists Once Again: Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa Looking at the BPE site reveals that it is just
another organization using the title and badge of human
rights to add an air of legitimacy to the real
intent behind their work: demonization and
marginalization of Europe's Muslims. Thanks to one of our German readers, Morakot,
we were able to see for ourselves the true nature of
this group that Spencer attempts to trump up. It is
a group whose aims are undifferentiated from those
of neo-Fascists like Geert Wilders and the BNP. In "Der Verein" (The Association) section of
their website they claim that they are not
"anti-Muslim" but the facts speak otherwise. Similar
in substance to neo-Fascists and Euro supremacist
groups, they take up the mantle of proclaiming
themselves to be the vanguard and champions of
"European Culture." They define this as being "exclusively
committed to the preservation of the
Christian-Jewish tradition of their European
culture" and opposed to the so called
"creeping Islamization" of Europe, which is
nothing less than the perpetuation of the debunked Eurabia
and Muslim Demographics conspiracy theories. Their solutions to the so called problem of
"creeping Islamization" are elucidated in a document
they released titled De-Islamization program which
states amongst its main points, - Organizations of islam critics as
well as of people who left islam shall be funded
by the state and have an adaquate say in the
media. Lets think about this for a second. They want the
state to reward critics of Islam (who defines
"critics of Islam?" Would anti-Muslim Geert Wilders
of "tax-the-hijab-fame" be considered an acceptable
"critic?") and people who leave Islam with funding,
essentially lobbying the government to take an
official position in opposition to Islam. Does this
not cross the boundary of separation of Church and
State, and the fundamental tenets of secularism? It
seems the "Christian-Jewish values" that this
organization wants to protect bears more of a
resemblance to a theocratic "Holy Roman Empire"
rather than a pluralistic Democracy. -All islamic organizations following a
political instead of a religious agenda and/or on
behalf of a foreign governement shall be
disbanded. Who will decide if an "Islamic organization is
following a political agenda?" This is really a
concealed attempt to disband all Muslim
organizations. Everything the BPE represents
indicates that they agree with a Geert Wilder-esque
concept that 'Islam is not a 1500 year old religion
at all but rather a political movement,' so no
matter what you do as an organization you will be
labeled a political organization. It also highlights the double standards they
advocate: on the one hand you have the Christian
Democrats (CDU) led by Chancellor Angela Merkel,
which is "Christian-based, applying the principles
of Christian Democracy and emphasizes the ‘Christian
understanding of humans and their responsibility
toward God.'" CDU is a political party which heads
the German government, imagine the firestorm that
would be created if Muslims even attempted to create
a party which "emphasizes the ‘Muslim understanding
of humans and their responsibility toward God." -Persons supporting djihad or
installment of sharia in Germany shall undergo a
de-islamization training or must suffer severe
sanctions. Who would define what "supporting djihad" or
installing "sharia" consists of and what would be
the scope of these definitions? As we well know
Robert Spencer and the advocates of the conspiracy
theory of Eurabia believe that many law abiding
Muslims, by the very fact of their increasing
presence and visibility in the West, are pushing a
"stealth djihad." For example there are people in
Europe who think wearing a headscarf, or
installation of footbaths is an act of "djihad,"
would such acts entail implementation of the "severe
sanctions" being proposed, and of what would these
"severe sanctions" consist? - Quran-schools are to be forbidden. They should just go a step further with their
fascistic ideas and follow their brethren in Europe
who have called for the Quran to be banned. If in
some fairyland-Democracy-minus-religious-freedom
envisioned by these jokers this is okay, then why
are: Bible schools, Torah schools, Bhagavad Gita
schools not similarly forbidden? - Islamic head cloths are to be banned
in kindergardens, schools, campusses, workplaces,
public buildings and events. This was another predictable point, the obsession
with hijab for Islamophobes is unending. Not only
have laws been proposed such as the above (and
passed in places like France) infringing on a
woman's right to wear what they want and follow
their conscious, not only have proposals been made
to tax it, but it also has led to violence such
as murder and assault. - Parents who submit their children to
forced marriage or deny them proper education have
to be deprived of child custody. Everyone can agree that forced marriages are
terrible and have to be fought, and many Muslims are
leading the fight against the practice. It is
curious though that this issue is being painted as
springing from Islam, which condemns the practice.
It is also a phenomenon that is not peculiar to
Muslims but rather affects women and men from
Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Christian and Gypsy backgrounds
and cultures. As far as the vague idea of "deny them proper
education," what does that mean? Knowing what we
know from the above proposals, would a family that
taught their children the Quran be considered as
"denying a proper education?" Would they then
advocate the child be ripped from their family for
studying the Quran? - Mosques are to be built only with
approval of the neighbourhood. Minarettes and the
call of the muezzin are to be forbidden. Sermons
are to be held solely in German. It is usually a good policy to have the
involvement of a neighborhood when any religious
structure is built, as it will become a major
landmark bringing in more traffic and people into
the area. It goes without saying that religious
groups should prioritize good relations with their
neighbors, something all religions believe in
because they all teach the golden rule. However, the wording in this proposal is very
confrontational and seeks to legislatively limit the
construction of the traditional mosque with
minarets; it is an attempt to make the Muslim
presence in essence invisible. What is the
difference between such proposals and what goes on
in some of the theocratic Muslim nations that
Islamophobes regularly complain about when facts
seem to indicate that they are two peas in the same
pod? This time Spencer and his friends in the BPE were
in Stuttgart, Germany where we are told by Spencer
they held a "well advertised" event that was to have
"Middle Eastern Christian musicians," and other
anti-Muslim "activists," all gathering together to
"fight the jihad." So what happened? Did thousands of newly
"enlightened" and "awakened" Europeans show up to
signal their solidarity with the BPE and Spencer and
"fight" Islam and Muslims in the guise of a new front
against the phantom threat of "jihad?" No. In stark contrast to the much propagated idea
pushed by xenophobic Islamophobes that "the West is
waking up to the ‘threat' of Islam," it seems more
people are waking up to the threat posed by
anti-Freedom activists and Euro-supremacists such as
the BPE and Spencer. Thousands of anti-fascist protesters showed up at
the event and stood down the hatred that was being
promoted on Spencer's side (video coming soon).
Spencer was clearly shaken up as his side only
attracted a few dozen aging fans. He likened his
experience to "looking into the pit of hell." For this, Germany has received Spencer's diagnosis
of being a country on the "brink." The brink of what
you may ask? Well, full blown
radical-Islamization-jihad-creeping-sharia-evil-darkness-take-over
of course. Spencer spells this out in an interesting lecture
he gives a few days after the failed BPE event in
Stuttgart. The lecture is about "Islamization" and how
he now doesn't believe "Muhammed" actually existed (a
regurgitation of age old Orientalist arguments such as
those of Klimovich): Robert Spencer: The process of
Islamization is of course very advanced. And we are
now entering into a different stage of it, and we
saw this two days ago. In the Quran there are three
stages of development, as many of you no doubt know,
in the doctrine of Jihad. And the first is when
Muhammad first became a prophet and preached in
Mecca that he was the new prophet of the One true
God. Most people paid no attention, he got a small
band of followers together. The Quraish, they were
the pagan Arabs of Mecca and the Quraish leaders did
not like what he was saying at all because it
challenged them, they had the Kaba, it was there at
that time too before Islam and it was full of idols,
360 pagan idols, and the Arabs from all over Arabia
would go there to venerate their gods. So the
Quraish had a shrine, you know if you've ever been
to Rome or Jerusalem or Fatima or Lords you know its
a big tourist trap and so was Mecca and the Ka'ba,
and so they didn't like this…but in any case at that
time he taught tolerance and peace and whenever you
see the Imams on TV talking about tolerance and
peace they are quoting from a time when Muhammad was
weak and his enemies were strong and he had no
military or political power. So he was not preaching
tolerance and peace for non-Muslims, he was
preaching tolerance and peace for them, he was
asking to be tolerated. Man from the crowd: same as what
happens now… Robert Spencer:
Precisely, that's the stage we are in now in Europe
and America…So in other words when there is a small
group of Muslims without military or political power
then they preach tolerance and peace, just like
Muhammad did when he was a small group in Mecca,
when they gain more political and military power
then they get more aggressive. I believe now we are
moving from the first stage to the second stage in
Europe and in America to a lesser degree. And
ultimately of necessity there will come the third
stage as well and this will be open warfare. Its a
very sad situation but if we stand it down now then
the game is already over. (emphasis added) In the bolded portion above Spencer makes no
distinction between Islam and Muslims, nor does he
speak about "radical Islam" or "radical Muslims." He
speaks clearly, dropping all caveats and says Muslims
are the problem and can't be trusted, "when there
is a small group of Muslims without military or
political power then they preach tolerance and
peace…when they gain more political and military power
then they get more aggressive." Spencer tells us that "it isn't too late for
Europe." Islam and Muslims can still be stopped with
the help of anti-Muslims like the BPE, René
Stadtkewitz and his new Freedom Party, etc. Hollow words from a shallow man on the losing side
of history.
|