http://worlddefensereview.com/esman042707.shtml
Published 27 Apr 07 By Abigail R. Esman World Defense Review columnist <http://worlddefensereview.com/includes/esman042707pr.html> When does it stop? There are occasions when I genuinely think, "Why don't we just all convert right now, or start taking lessons in slitting our own throats?" There have been an unusually large number of such days lately, what with announcements of the rise in European recruits to jihad, of the increased number of women eager to blow themselves to pieces for Allah, with a German judge upholding Sharia mandates for violence against women, and now most recently, news that many teachers in the U.K. no longer offer classes on the Holocaust, lest it "offend" certain students who deny it ever happened. I remember a few years ago, when teachers in the Netherlands contemplated a similar change in their curricula, but their reasoning was different: Muslim students, they reported, had threatened violence if they didn't. I'm not sure, in fact, what the final outcome was: once the media got through headlining the story (and reporting on the attacks some teachers had already endured), the subject kind of disappeared. I hope, however, that the teachers eventually proved brave enough to take the side of truth. But if things like canceling comedy shows because of certain jokes (see Who's Afraid of the <http://worlddefensereview.com/esman030607.shtml> Muslim Joke?), or refusing a domestic violence victim an expedited divorce because of the Koran, or pretending that the Holocaust never happened are worrisome and distressing, the sum of them together is more terrifying in many ways than terrorism in itself: it is, in a word, capitulation, and nothing more nor less. It is surrender. It is a signal of just how powerful a weapon fear - terrorism - is. In the end, whether out of compassion for a self-proclaimed victim or out of fear for our own lives, we give in. And isn't it ironic that "submission" is what the word "Islam" really means? Take another recent story out of Germany: a Muslim organization petitioning for Islam to be taught alongside Christianity in the schools. "Islam," not "world religions," mind you, which could have been a very good and generous idea. No, they want Islam taught in state-sponsored educational institutions, essentially as a national religion. But it is not a national religion. Only 3.7 percent of the German population is Muslim, according to the CIA World Fact Book. And while Turkey has banned headscarves from government buildings, Germany entertains a government endorsement of Islam. (Apparently the separation of church and state we in the West so declaratively advocate hasn't quite reached that portion of the Rhine.) I realize this may sound a bit alarmist and over-the-top. The free world is still in relatively good shape, all things considered. But if we continually waive such "alarmist" pronouncements away as flights of hysterical propaganda, we will soon find we have not only lost ground; we're sunk. Increasingly already, those concerned about the current situation are afraid to speak, afraid that what we do or say will have horrific repercussions - and often enough, they do. (The list of examples is long and growing: Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Oriana Fallaci; French philosopher and author Robert Redeker; the Danish cartoonists; Theo van Gogh.) And so we say nothing. We rewrite history (as one Dutch historian just did recently in the Turkish translation of his latest book), eliminating those parts that might be seen as "offensive," or lead to violence of a sort. And it's that quiet that frightens me. I have yet to hear much outcry, for instance, in response to an utterly preposterous list of demands issued by the Muslim Council of Britain regarding Muslim schoolchildren - a document that opens with the very statement that should indicate its absurdity: that Muslims form "the largest religious minority" in the country (emphasis mine). Among the demands: separate kitchens for the preparation of halal foods. Teachers should make allowances for Muslim students who fail exams while fasting for Ramadan. Muslim students should be excused from classes for prayer and for time to wash beforehand. Separate changing rooms and showers should be installed, as nudity in front of others, even of the same gender, is unacceptable in Islam. (Please note that the Muslim Council does not offer to defray the costs of such facilities.) Teachers must grant Muslim pupils exemption from sex education classes, which are deemed irrelevant, since Muslims (they maintain) don't date. (In fact, on a lighter note, the number of Muslims in the UK, according to the 2001 census, was 1.6 million, or 2.7 percent. The number who claim "no religion" was over 9.1 million, or 15.5 percent. Perhaps it is time for a countermovement: houses of worship should be shielded from public view. Ban Bibles from the libraries and schoolrooms. Everybody must eat pork. Or perhaps it's not such a light note, after all: what does it say that the BMC distorts the numbers to legitimize its demands? Or do those who claim "no religion" not count as a "religious minority" - or, worse, just not count at all?) In any case, one can only hope that the UK school systems will not concede to these demands - not only because they are expensive, ludicrous, and unhealthy (the highest number of abortions in the Netherlands - and I'd wager the UK as well - is preformed on Muslim girls who literally didn't know that sex could get them pregnant, or what birth control even is); but because they further alienate the two cultures from one another, rather than uniting them. Moreover, this last - the excuse from sex ed - can have further implications, and they aren't good. Should you, as a Muslim parent, want your child to attend sex ed class, you risk being branded an infidel, or at best, not a "true Muslim," and the backlash against this can, as we all know by now, be fierce. By logical conclusion, then the British school system could conceivably be held responsible for violence perpetrated against a Muslim moderate, simply by virtue of acceding to the demands of Muslim fundamentalists and those who, evidently, support them. In this way, they endanger exactly that portion of the Muslim population Westerners need most. Bravo. Of course, there's not much new in any of this: they're just more examples of the same theme, further illustrations of the Islamization of Europe and the slippery slope that goes with it. I've written about this here before. Unfortunately, I will inevitably write of it again. The insurgency is rising in Iraq. The Taliban is returning to Afghanistan. Shikh and Hindu girls in Britain - and most likely elsewhere - are being forced by young Muslim Romeos to convert to Islam against their will. New Al Qaeda training camps are emerging between the Pakistan-Afghan border. We can't control all these things, of course, but much of it, we can. When, exactly, will we start? - Abigail R. Esman is an award-winning author-journalist who divides her time between New York and The Netherlands. In addition to her column in World Defense Review, her work has appeared in Foreign Policy, Salon.com, Esquire, Vogue, Glamour, Town & Country, The Christian Science Monitor, The New Republic and many others. She is currently working on a book about Muslim extremism and democracy in the West. Abigail R. Esman can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit Esman on the web at abigailesman.com <http://abigailesman.com/> . C 2007 Abigail R. Esman [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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