Rita Panahi: Atrocities are now the new normal
LONE wolf attacks are now depressingly familiar but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to call out and denounce the forces of radical Islam, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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THE most depressing thing about the London attack was its predictability. Islamist terror, a horror the Western world has imported and allowed to fester, is becoming the new normal.
With chilling regularity we hear about “lone wolf” attacks in places such as Paris, San Bernardino, Orlando, Berlin, Nice, Brussels and London.
Islamist terror rarely touched the West 20 years ago. That is no longer the case. Though Muslims remain the biggest victims of Islamic extremism, Western nations are increasingly being targeted by jihadis.
By now there’s a familiar pattern to these once exceptional events. Even as the latest manifestation of this backward savagery unfolds, we flood social media sites with our expressions of shock and grief.
Such well-intentioned but largely pointless outpourings of prayers and declarations of solidarity may make us feel better in the short term but they do nothing to address the root cause of this horror: Islamism.
SEVEN ARRESTED OVER LONDON TERROR ATTACKS
HOW THE LONDON ATTACK UNFOLDED
Changing your profile picture to the flag of the latest country attacked or starting a hashtag campaign won’t stop the next incidence of terror.
What we are seeing is the clash of civilisations: Western secularism that values freedom, equality and democracy versus the extremes of a religion that demands not only piety but total submission.
Mouthing platitudes, empty or otherwise, on social media is all well and good but it needs to be accompanied by meaningful action. As it stands, we settle for gestures like lighting up the Sydney Opera House in the colours of the French flag instead of tackling the problem.
And you can’t address a problem if you don’t acknowledge it exists and mark any discussion, no matter how reasonable, as “hate-speech” that enables “Islamophobia”.
The best description of that oft-misused term remains: “Islamophobia is a term created by fascists and used by cowards to manipulate morons.”
It’s a slur used by Islamist apologists and appeasers who don’t like facts challenging their sloppy thinking. Global terror isn’t inspired by climate change, Brexit, Donald Trump, marginalisation, Islamophobia; it is extreme Islamism.
There is nothing Islamophobic about identifying what motivates jihadis, nor should it be taboo to discuss the merits of importing centuries-old hatreds into cohesive societies.
We have already become desensitised to Islamist terror in much of the world. There is barely any coverage of regular suicide bombings, mass killings and human rights abuses in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Egypt and Nigeria to name just a few. The plight of the Yazidis gets scant coverage despite those peaceful people being ethnically cleansed and enslaved by Islamic State monsters.
SLAIN COP A HUSBAND AND FATHER
LONDON TERROR ATTACK IN PICTURES
We have watched Christians and other minorities become victims of religious genocide in the Middle East and parts of Africa with barely an objection.
Yet those with the courage to expose extremism are attacked. Muslim writer and activist Maajid Nawaz, who has called for liberal reform of Islam, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who fights for the rights of disempowered women in the Muslim world, are labelled “anti-Muslim extremists” by Leftist cowards.
We give a platform to Islamist apologists who maintain that the evil perpetrated in the name of Islam has nothing to do with, er, Islam. On Thursday, Hirsi Ali again warned of the dangers of moral relativism and self-loathing: “In the West, what we see is apologetic attitudes to Western civilisation … it portrays a weakness that invites aggression.”
The self-loathers among us need to belatedly open their eyes and decide whether they want to live in an open, free, peaceful and prosperous society or whether they want to import sectarian violence that threatens our very way of life.
The perverse alliance between Islamists and the Regressive Left may be politically expedient in the short term, but it will lead to progressive tears before too long.
LONDON A REPEAT TARGET FOR TERRORISTS
LONDONERS FIND THEIR VOICE ONLINE
They are two groups with vastly different goals; indeed, the only thing they share is a hatred of conservatives, cartoonists and Western civilisation.
In Australia we have been fortunate that authorities have foiled multiple terror plots since the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney, the knife attack against counter-terrorism officers in Endeavour Hills and the Islamic State-inspired killing of police accountant Curtis Cheng in Parramatta.
Terror attacks foiled by police include those planned for Anzac Day, Mother’s Day and Christmas Day, the last of which was allegedly intended to unfold in prominent locations around Melbourne.
But we aren’t going to remain lucky forever.
The West needs to support genuinely moderate Muslims who want to reform the religion and rid it of its themes of submission, bloodlust and domination.
Those who highlight the violence in the Old Testament are right — except that Christianity reformed and thousands aren’t dying every year at the hands of Christian extremists who believe the Bible justifies their actions.
And let’s remember that the Crusades ended in the 13th century.
Islam is in desperate need of reformation. It is the only hope of reining in the extremes of the religion and tackling global jihadism.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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