Religious Terrorism

September 8th, 2014

Thus afternoon, the TV news reported that an auction for Islamic aims was held at the community mosque at Liverpool. The story referred to the auction of a copy of the flag used by the Islamic State religious terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. The flag sold for $2000, the proceeds to be used to support the mosque. But an attendee posted a video of the auction, along with a masked picture of himself and a promise to kill the Syrian president.

What struck me most forcibly was the denial of a spokesman for the mosque (?) that the auction of the flag was in any way to be taken as support for Islamic State, and that the flag was an old Islamic symbol that had be hijacked by Islamic State. This implied that the Islamic moderates who supported this auction were either incredibly stupid, or thought that Australian society as a whole was incredibly stupid.

There is no doubt that non-Muslims have seen this flag or anything similar as supporting Islamic State and its religious terrorism. There is no doubt that any Muslims or Arabic speakers would see this flag as definitely supporting these terrorists, regardless of any devout religious connotations it might have, and thereby showing that the moderate Muslims running the auction overtly supported the terrorists.

And if at least some of the religious moderates who attended the auction did not support the barbarism of Islamic State, how was it that at least one was able to attend the auction, record it, and post the recording and his own message of hate and murder on-line?

If any of those organising the auction were sincere in their protestations against the methods of Islamic State, or in their professed knowledge of the feelings of the bulk of western society about such barbarous behaviour, then they would have shown at least some small diplomacy and not included this flag in the auction. Instead they demonstrated a lack of understanding of the psyche of Australian society (and contrary to the pricks of the Labor Party, our society does not pander to Muslims of any persuasion). They demonstrated a possibility that they lied about not supporting the aims of Islamic State, if not its methods. They demonstrated to other Muslims that the unofficial line of the mosque was to tacitly support Islamic State.

Worst of all, the organisers fostered in the children of Australian Muslims, needing some guidance in a confused world, that murder in the name of religion was acceptable.

In spite of the either insincere or misleading protests by Muslim spokesmen recently, I was disposed to tolerate people who felt it OK to support the destruction of my society (I admit it could do with reform, but nihilism is the name of Allah and proposed by unrepresentative and unelected psychotics, does not promote my tolerance). My view is now that Muslims anywhere are no longer worthy of the benefit of the doubt, and doubt, under any circumstance, and if they object they can are welcome to go to Allah directly and let Him sort it out.