| Submit your comments on this article |
| Fifth Column |
| BelmontClub: A Voice of Their Own |
| 2006-08-21 |
The Guardian describes the tide of young Muslim men coming to see an unnamed "prophet" in East London. It recalls if nothing else scenes from Christianity's apostolic age. It features a man discoursing in an exotic language simultaneously translated into many tongues for eager listeners. The gathering is thronged by a crowd from all walks of life, eager to start a pilgrimage about which little is known -- except that salvation lies at the end of it. Men who would never have acknowledged each other socially gather and share a makeshift meal together. This is radical Islam in the heart of the West. [..] After an hour the preacher concluded with a call for followers to join the effort and commit to a trip away. "We must leave our houses, our businesses, our families, for a short period of time, and follow the path of Allah and practise the ways of the prophet, going from mosque to mosque," said the interpreter. "Then [the behaviour] will become second nature to us. We shall go to India and Pakistan for four months to follow these ways." What Tablighi followers call "the effort" - travelling around the country for three days or 10 days, depending on their level of commitment - is key to the organization. Once they have completed the first stage, they may undertake a 40-day trip, which is likely to entail travel around Europe. ... [..] Ben Stein's key insight, one which he unfortunately does not pursue, is that while liberalism is willing to leave anyone "out there all alone to die" at the sign of the first inconvenience, there are components of the West -- and the non-Muslim world -- willing to stand in front of the iceberg. And the willingness to resist tyranny grows proportionately to the cultural distance from liberalism. Yet liberalism has and continues to set the West's agenda in the fight against Islamic fascism [..] Head over to the club and read. |
| Posted by:3dc |