Over at the Gates of Vienna, Fjordman offers his recommendation on what it will take for the West to regain its confidence and strength in the face of the Islamist challenge.
While the Posse is loathe to criticize someone posting at an Honorary Member's site, we belive Fjordman's solutions are incorrect.
For one thing, it is entirely too statist. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that the first thought of a European to solving a problem is to get the state involved but the "root cause" Europe's current plight is that the state is too involved in just about everything.
Europe's culture only began to decay when it replaced its nations with states - when governments became more important than people.
The good news is that radical Islam can be defeated entirely by the will of the people. The bad news is that this means that effecting this change can be far harder than a mere act of Parliament.
The Posse believes that the ground work for the West's restoration is already being done. The most important element is the mobilization of the people. Most westerners are indifferent to the thread of militant Islam, believing it is too distant to matter much. They listen to their music, drink their booze and ignore the news.
So the first step is to raise popular awareness of the threat.
In this exercise, the primary weapon of the enemy - Muslim "outrage" - is also its greatest weakness.
As the Pope has demonstrated, you can say almost anything and get a violent response. This needs to be expanded upon.
If Islam truly is the religion of peace, it can take some satire. When enough authors go into hiding, when enough reporters are threatened or forcibly converted, the word will get out.
The West has slipped into cultural eclipse largely because the process was so painless and incremental. The key is to speed up the tempo of change so that people recognize exactly what is at the bottom of the slippery slope.
In short, we must make it clear that freedom itself is at stake. Only then will the West rouse itself.
People, not governments, are what will decide this war. For 60 years Europe has turned to government regulations to solve its problems and they have only multiplied.
Reduced or halted immigration will not assimilate the radicals who are already within our midst, nor will it persuade those beyond the borders to stay away.
What Fjordman advocates is for the West to accept a siege - a siege without hope of relief. Locked within its citadel, childless, friendless and without confidence in its own future, the West will inevitably fall.
But if it is roused and reasserts its culture by demanding freedom, the West will penetrate into the very heart of the enemy's realm.
We wish to make this clear - we do not believe that all humans crave a secular republican form of government. But they do crave personal freedom. Once free of the burqa, who among women will desire to put it back on? Once freed, slaves rarely return to their chains.
Thus we must remind ourselves of what is great and good about Western civilization - and contrast this with the message of hate and domination spread by our enemies.
This is the second step.
Again, we must force this contrast. Let the cab drivers of Minneapolis refuse to transport liquor-laden passengers. Broadcast this - and explain that the choice is between the freedom to purchase what we wish or to submit to a minority's version of Islamic law.
Hitherto, the choice before us has been disguised. That time has how passed.
How will this play out in the end? It is hard to say. There may indeed be mass deportations of the unassimilated and fighting in the streets - as some in the comments at Gates of Vienna suggest.
But there is also another possibility - that when confronted by strength, radical Islam will recoil. This is what it is doing before the Pope, who has not backed off.
Thus we reach the third and final step: For the West to realize that its culture does have virtues, that they are threatened and that they are worth defending.
Border controls are meaningless if the officials are too fearful to enforce them. We have already seen that substantial parts of Europe are free of government control. What good will more laws do in these already lawless areas?
To summarize:
1. We must make clear the nature of the threat.
2. We must then reassert the virtues of freedom.
3. Finally, we must make it clear that we are willing to fight to defend freedom.
The government cannot do these things for us. Only the people can carry this burden.
A clear picture for all. Agreed. A priority requisite.
Pulling together requires that North Americans have a clear concept of this quickly moving advance of the enemy.
Unlike the sixties, MSM today is a fragmented flood mix of news and fluff events gushing at us in a big jumble.
There is not enough *connecting of the dots* and people are watching Friends or Bart Simpson instead of Fifth Estate or Passionate Eye.
Without a clear picture for everyone, we have a major problem.
Al Jazeera has provided a clear and unifying picture for the antagonized Muslim world.
Muslim gangs killing Police in France in more frequent clashes.
Gendarmes request armored vehicles and battle equipment
http://tinyurl.com/pjdx6
Clashes occurring now in the Windsor area UK.
http://tinyurl.com/o249o
Musharraf allows Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan; completing muti-Billion$ pipelines to China and Iran both.
China has longstanding worries about insecure sea delivery of life-blood energy. [check Al Jazeera ]
North Americans should be made aware of the quickening rate of growth of our problem.
Must we wait for a big [nuclear] bang; the interruption of all programming, and a message from the president? = TG
Posted by: TonyGuitaro | October 08, 2006 at 02:27 AM