West must rise up to do battle with evil of Islamist extremists

THE West is beginning to learn that appeasement and cowardice only strengthen Islamist extremists, writes Rita Panahi.

Mourners at a memorial to those killed by a terrorist in Nice.

THE West is beginning to learn that appeasement and cowardice only strengthen Islamist extremists.

If you’ve never lived under Islamic law, then it’s easy to be blase about the oppression and brutality that is the fate of millions around the world.

It may even be tempting to bury your head in the sand when you hear about Islamist acts of terror in cities you’re familiar with: Paris, Brussels, Boston, Orlando, Istanbul, London and Nice.

Islamist apologists who rationalise this evil are akin to fools who feed a crocodile, hoping it will eat them last, if I may borrow a phrase from Winston Churchill.

Those apologists, and sadly we have many of them in public life in this country, refuse to acknowledge the terror threat, let alone dare question the extremist ideology motivating deadly attacks around the world.

This spineless timidity is galling for those of us who fled Islamist regimes and value the liberty, equality and opportunity that is synonymous with life in the West, particularly Australia.

Western civilisation and its core values should be a source of pride, and yet among the political and media class, the West is continuously trashed and blamed for the ills of the world.

Self-loathing Australians, Britons and Americans would rather blame the victims than acknowledge that perhaps extremists are killing us for the very reasons they have repeatedly explained: we are infidels from “nations of disbelief” and therefore considered enemy combatants.

But blaming the West remains the excuse du jour of the regressive Left, which thinks such vacuous obfuscation counts as a nuanced response.

Sadly, all it does is play into the hands of Islamic State and other extremist groups, who loathe the West with a murderous rage — it only justifies and feeds that hatred.

Australia’s isolation is a blessing but we cannot afford to be complacent.

Europe must serve as a warning of what can happen when countries lose control of their borders.

There are some parallels between the horrifying Nice attack during Bastille Day celebrations and the foiled Anzac Day terror plot in Melbourne.

IS couldn’t be any clearer in explaining the reasons they do what they do.

A man and woman comfort each other at a memorial in Nice.

They’ve also been explicit in encouraging their followers around the world to use any means possible to kill the enemy and that means all of us, including the wilfully blind cowards who refuse to take a stand against evil.

In a call to arms, senior IS leader and official spokesman ­Abu Mohammed al-Adnani explained that civilians were considered as guilty as military personnel.

“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah and kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” Adnani said in 2014.

“Do not ask for anyone’s advice and do not seek anyone’s verdict. Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same ruling. Both of them are disbelievers. Both of their blood and wealth is legal for you to destroy. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him.”

The day after those statements were published in Australia, Melbourne teenager Numan Haider armed himself with a knife and launched a vicious attack against two police officers before he was shot dead.

Since then, there’s been a spate of “lone wolf” attacks around the globe with guns, bombs, knives, cars and now a truck used to kill and maim innocent people.

At some point, the media and political elite will figure out the unending violence isn’t because of Western imperialism, the Iraq War, Israel, marginalised youth, Islamophobia, Donald Trump, gun laws, Brexit or whatever convenient excuse they can conjure up to avoid the elephant in the room.

Those who don’t like reality intruding on their fantasy world, where every culture is equal and murderous fanatics can be reasoned with, will continue to cry Islamophobia in an attempt to silence debate.

It’s not Islamophobic to point out that extremist ideology is utterly incompatible with Australian values.

We must value and protect our way of life, not be ashamed of it. The spurious argument that discussing Islamic extremism will lead to more extremism is insanity.

Did we shy away from exploring the issues within the Catholic Church for fear it would drive more priests to become paedophiles?

Do we now recoil from discussing the root causes of domestic violence because it could incite more men to bash their partners?

True progressives wouldn’t allow the Left’s bigotry of low expectations and eagerness to infantilise the Muslim population to silence debate.

The general public is growing ever more weary of the weasel words of politicians and media commentators who treat them with disdain. Brexit showed that screeching “racist” and “bigot” can no longer be employed as a strategy to silence the masses.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

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