Apologia:	Quotes of the Day

Update.   The present postings were begun as a response to the "We had it coming to us" blather that began emanating from America's intellectual and cultural elites even as the fires of 9/11 still burned. Since then, much has changed: Afghanistan, no longer a terrorist staging ground, has been liberated, without, one might add, the predicted slaughter of innocents. Terrorist cells at home and abroad have been smashed; senior members of al-Qaeda are in custody; and America stands poised to take down a regime that, quite beyond its purported links to the terror that struck us, provides horrific reminder of the fact that unmitigated evil is alive and well on planet earth. Most important, the follow-on strikes, to which the attacks of 09-11 were widely feared to have been anticipatory, have thus far not materialized. Not surprisingly, these developments, French duplicity and the hypocrisy of "Old Europe" notwithstanding, have met with widespread domestic approbation. But not on America's campuses. There, the unrelenting drumbeat has been America, the greedy; America, the bellicose; America, the aggressor. What a crock!

W. M. Schaffer
03/18/2003

09-11-01.   On September 11, 2001, thousands of Americans were murdered as they went about their workaday affairs. To this atrocity, the academy's response was predictable: While the rest of country rallied in support of retribution, America's intellectuals indulged themselves in the rhetoric of moral equivalence: fixing blame on the nation which gives them freedom of expression and offering excuses for those who would destroy it. That their compatriots were cremated still living, that the deed was perpetrated without warning on men and women engaged in peaceful commerce; that the attackers' confederates subsequently made clear their desire to continue the killing - these particulars proved uninteresting to a professorial class which fears resurgent love of country as inimical to its own political agenda.

The present sampling of information and opinion is offered as antidote to the execrable nonsense which permeates our colleges and universities. In particular, we call attention to the section entitled Root Causes and to the articles by V. S. Napaul (Nobel laureate for literature) and various Muslim commentators. Collectively, these essays give the lie to the truly despicable assertion that "we got what we deserved." More importantly, they call the reader's attention to the fact that war between peoples of the once "fertile crescent" and the West is an ancient affair. Indeed, it is restoration of the caliphate, not hatred of America per se, that the present events are principally about - witness bin Laden's own anachronistic blather about the tragedy of Andalusia."

The unpleasant nature of America's enemies, their goals and motivation, are discussed in the articles linked to in the section entitled Face of Evil. These topics are also the subject of a series of profoundly disturbing essays by Daniel Pipes. In The Danger Within: Militant Islam in America, the latter author observes:

"One who is not among them," [the Islamists] "is Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of the relatively small Islamic Supreme Council of America. In Kabbani's reliable estimation, 'extremists' have 'taken over 80 percent of the mosques' in the United States. And not just the mosques: schools, youth groups, community centers, political organizations, professional associations, and commercial enterprises also tend to share a militant outlook, hostile to the prevailing order in the United States and advocating its replacement with an Islamic one."

And how would such a replacement be accomplished? According to Pipes, the strategy entails

"doing everything possible toward creating an Islamist environment and applying Islamic law."

Activities under this heading fall into various categories.

"Promoting Islamic Rituals and Customs in the Public Square. Islamists want secular authorities to permit students in public institutions, for example, to recite the basmallah (the formula "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate") in classroom exercises. They also want the right to broadcast over outdoor loudspeakers the five daily Islamic calls-to-prayer. Similarly, they have agitated for publicly maintained prayer facilities in such institutions as schools and airports."

"Privileges for Islam. Islamists seek public financial support for Islamic schools, mosques, and other institutions. They also lobby for special quotas for Muslim immigrants, try to compel corporations to make special allowances for Muslim employees, and demand the formal inclusion of Muslims in affirmative-action plans."

"Restricting or Disallowing What Others May Do. Islamists want law-enforcement agencies to criminalize activities like drinking and gambling that are offensive to Islam. While seeking wide latitude for themselves, for instance when it comes to expressing disrespect for American national symbols, they would penalize expressions of disrespect for religious figures whom Islam deems holy, especially the prophet Muhammad; punish criticism of Islam, Islamism, or Islamists; and close down critical analysis of Islam."

Farfetched? Perhaps, but here are the words of the late Ismail Al-Faruqi, whom Pipes describes as "a Palestinian immigrant who founded the International Institute of Islamic Thought and taught for many years at Temple University."

"Nothing could be greater, than this youthful, vigorous, and rich continent [of North America] turning away from its past evil and marching forward under the banner of Allahu Akbar [God is great]."

and those of Siraj Wahaj, "a top figure in the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Alliance in North America, and the Muslim Arab Youth Association,

"I have a vision in America, Muslims owning property all over, Muslim businesses, factories, halal meat, supermarkets, all these buildings owned by Muslims. Can you see the vision, can you see the Newark International Airport and a John Kennedy Airport and La Guradia having Muslim fleets of planes, Muslim pilots. Can you see our trucks rolling down the highways, Muslim names. Can you imagine walking down the streets of Teaneck, [New Jersey]: three Muslim high schools, five Muslim junior-high schools, fifteen public schools. Can you see the vision, can you see young women walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and long dresses. Can you see the vision of an area ... controlled by the Muslims?"

Such a vision, so antithetical to American plualism, is a matter which self-styled objectivists, pacifists and other "advanced thinkers" would do well to ponder - if only because their own freedom of speech and action would fare in such a world much as a snowball fares in a furnace. Beyond that, their activities are an affront to G-d and country, even as they disgrace themselves, their profession and their respective institutions. This sad fact, turning as it does, the final verse of Yale University's alma mater on its head, is well appreciated by the public at large for whom America's cultural and intellectual elite have the proverbial fine contempt. Ultimately, the chickens will come clucking back to their roost.

W. M. Schaffer
10/16/2001