Boreal

Terrorism Works

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror ..."

Bukhari 52.220

An American Example

In March 2015, New York City announce that, henceforth, students in its public school system would get the day off in recognition of the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan and the holiday celebrating the end of the Hajj.

New York City public schools to close doors on two Muslim holidays

Under the new policy, the city’s 1.1-million-pupil public school system will close for Eid al-Adha, which is also known as the Festival of Sacrifice (celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice a son) [and] Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

The Associated Press, Mar. 04 2015.

The city of New York would never have shown this level of respect for Islam had it not been for 9/11.

A British Example

The British have shown that terrorism can be extremely effective at changing a society— for better or for worse depending on your point of view— for example, curtailing freedom of speech and expression.

After the London bombings of July 2005, the British government saw to it that no serious discussion about the Book or the man, which were the inspiration for the slaughter of 54 British citizens ever took place by silencing critics of Islam with threats of fines and imprisonment.

The British government, in effect, sought to appease would-be cold-blooded mass-murderers through a Munich-like Faustian bargain in the face of opposition from Muslims themselves.

We also recognize that a free society must have the scope to debate, to criticize, proselytise, insult and even ridicule belief and religious practices in order to ensure that there is full scope – short of violence or inciting violence or other criminal offences - to tackle these issues.

From a plea by an alliance of Muslims, Christians, humanist, secularist urging the British Parliament to reject legislation limiting the rights to criticize religious beliefs and traditions.

A tacit bargain was struck between the British government and those for whom terrorism is a scripturally sanctioned mean to impose Allah’s Will on the unwilling. Put away your bombs and your guns and you will be allowed to recruit largely unopposed in our corner of the Land of War (anywhere the Sharia is not the law of the land).

Almost from one day to the next, the country that fought a world war to preserve us from fanatics simultaneously became a more tolerant and intolerant society: more tolerant of violence-prone religious zealots and less tolerant of their critics. An illustrative caution from a British publisher who considered taking on Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice before the subway bombings:

With the new race and religious hate laws coming through [after the London bombings] it could be considered illegal if Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice is deemed an attack on a person’s religious belief.

A French Example

On Friday November 13, 2015, 130, mostly young people attending a concert in Paris, were murdered by terrorists. After that massacre, France closed 20 of 2,500 mosques for allegedly preaching a radical interpretation of Islam.

In July 2016, 86 people, including 10 children, were crushed to death in Nice by a 19-ton transport truck. The following month, France's Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced that his government would be working with the French Muslim Council to launch a foundation to help finance mosques within France using the fiction that terrorism on French soil was a result of mosques built with foreign money.

The slaughter in Paris caused a halt to what the Nice massacre reversed. The murder of children in such a horrible manner was perhaps enough to convince the French government that what the county needed was more mosques.  More proof that terrorism works if you are willing to be brutal enough.

Bernard Payeur