Eye On Islam Arrives At Twitter!

As you might have noticed, posting isn't exactly non-stop around here these days. This stems in large part from my own laziness, as well as lack of time. But it also comes down to the fact that there are so many great anti-jihad websites out there already, that it is difficult to post original material that hasn't been already covered in extensive detail by one or many of the other great commentators on the subject that are out there.

That said, I really do want to keep sharing content with the anti-jihad movement, even if I can't post detailed articles every day, or even every week. And so, for that reason, Eye On Islam now has a Twitter account. I am aware there is already an account with a similar name out there, and hopefully it won't cause any confusion.

Tweeting will allow me to post links to external stories and analysis on a more regular basis (i.e. every day), since it doesn't take long to do, and it will also allow me to interact a bit more with the anti-jihad community, as well as the world's various Islamic apologists, who will be receiving hefty doses of reality from me whenever they post deceptive nonsense for the credulous to swallow.

I will still post here when I can - and when I feel the subject is worthwhile - and will link any new blog posts to the Twitter feed. So if you are one of the single-digit count of people who read the blog, please feel free to follow me (I already have one follower!) and let's go out and spread the word.

Newsweek Smears PEGIDA Leadership As "Far-Right"

Warriors of truth will be needed in the war to come

This recent article at Newsweek abut the PEGIDA phenomenon spreading across Europe is just bizarre.

Its headline is: "ANTI-ISLAM ORGANIZATION PEGIDA IS EXPORTING HATE ACROSS EUROPE".

And yet, despite this inflammatory and misleading headline, the article itself takes nowhere near as hostile a tone throughout (although don't get me wrong, it's still rather hostile), and fails to substantiate the premise it sets out at the beginning.

The author's attempts to prove that PEGIDA are a far-right hate-filled group fall short every time he tries. Take this paragraph describing the recent PEGIDA rally that took place in the UK:

It’s not often you see the words “Trump is right” on protest banners in Britain, whose Parliament recently debated banning the Republican front-runner from entering the country. But as the freezing rain drives down on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Birmingham, what stands out above a huddled mass of silent marchers are dozens of iterations of Donald Trump’s lurid visage, born aloft and plastered with the slogan. Another popular banner reads, “Protect our children.” A third: “Nazism=Islamism.”

If we assume that the "Trump is right" banners were referring to his call for a moratorium on Muslim immigration to the West, then as I have written here before, that call had absolutely nothing to do with racism or bigotry against Muslims, and everything to do with national security concerns. Trump was indeed right. And what about "Protect our children"? Even the mainstream media could not sink so low as to declare that sentiment "far right", could they? As for "Nazism=Islamism", the two ideologies do indeed share a close ideological affinity, dating back to Adolf Hitler himself. I plan to write in more detail about this here some time in the not-too-distant future.

In other words: no, there is nothing "far-right" about any of this. It is all simply the truth.

The article later quotes Tommy Robinson - who seems to be regaining his anti-jihad credentials after an ill-advised flirtation with the Great Enigma Maajid Nawaz - thusly: “I’m not far-right. I’m just opposed to Islam. I believe it’s backward and it’s fascist,” Robinson, 33, says. “The current refugee crisis is nothing to do with refugees. It’s a Muslim invasion of Europe.”

Again: all true (Islam as a totalitarian ideology - see here; the "refugee crisis" as an invasion of Muslim economic migrants - see here), not hateful, and not far-right.

Another of PEGIDA’s leaders in Britain, Anne Marie Waters, is also quoted, and Newsweek shamelessly editorializes that she is "keen to present [PEGIDA's] arguments as almost moderate. [emphasis mine]"

“It is what we share as Europeans, as Westerners. Democratic civilization, that is what we’re there to defend,” she says.

"Almost moderate"???? Still Newsweek has not demonstrated that anything about PEGIDA's UK branch is anything but moderate and democratic. It simply presents the words of the group's leaders as if they are self-evidently extremist - and implies that even when what they say is perfectly reasonable and harmless, well, that's just what they want you to think. Thus it quotes an "expert on the far-right" as saying that “They immediately make themselves look more legitimate.”

Maybe that's because they are legitimate, and not "far-right"? Newsweek doesn't want you to consider the possibility.

Anyway, we also get a summary of some of Robinson's other positions:

Robinson, meanwhile, is keen on segregating Britain’s male prisons into Muslim and non-Muslim inmates; he has alleged that during his own prison stay, Muslim inmates threatened and physically assaulted him. He also wants to close down any Islamic courts operating in Britain. (No legally binding Sharia courts exist in Britain, but an estimate in 2009 by British think tank Civitas said there were at least 85 Sharia bodies offering religious guidance, family mediation and other services.) Rather than try to prevent British jihadis from leaving for Syria and Iraq, Robinson would cheerily wave them off: “Send them all, mate. I'd be chartering jets for ’em.”

Clearly, the death camps are just around the corner.

The piece adds near its conclusion: "One quiet protest does not make a revolution, or even a Trump-sized political movement. But PEGIDA hopes that a new wave of anti-Islam dissent will swing the political conversation its way and attract the moderate supporters that a traditional far-right group could never hope to gain."

Maybe that's because PEGIDA is not a traditional far-right group, or in fact a far-right group at all. But Newsweek doesn't want you to consider that.

Don't Believe Your Lying Eyes

First, read this insubstantial, evidence-free piece of puffery published today at the Independent:

"You don't need to look much further than the Quran for proof that Islam is a peaceful religion"

Then read the following extracts from the Qur'an itself:

2:191-193 – “And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers...And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.” 

4:95 – “Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward.” 

8:38-39 – “Tell those who disbelieve that if they cease (from persecution of believers) that which is past will be forgiven them; but if they return (thereto) then the example of the men of old hath already gone (before them, for a warning). And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah.” 

9:5 – “Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” 

9:29 – “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book [Jews and Christians], until they pay the Jizya [non-Muslim poll tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” 

9:111 – “Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth...”

Game over.