harmonicminer

Dennis Prager makes a very clear point that if the goals of the Mumbai terrorists were centered around the India/Pakistan conflict, there was no reason to go out of the way to murder Jews.

Why would a terrorist group of Islamists from Pakistan whose primary goal is to have Pakistan gain control of the third of Kashmir that belongs to India and therefore aimed to destabilize Indias major city devote so much of its efforts — 20 percent of its force of 10 gunmen whose stated goal was to kill 5,000 — to killing a rabbi and any Jews with him?

The question echoes one from World War II: Why did Hitler devote so much time, money, and manpower in order to murder every Jewish man, woman, and child in every country the Nazis occupied? Why did Hitler — as documented by the late historian Lucy Dawidowicz in her aptly named book The War against the Jews — weaken the Nazi war effort by diverting money, troops, and military vehicles from fighting the Allies to rounding up Jews and shipping them to death camps?

From the perspective of political scientists, historians, and contemporary journalists, the answer to these questions is not rational. But the non-rationality of an answer is not synonymous with its non-validity.

For the Islamists, as for the Nazis, the destruction of the Jews — and since 1948, the Jewish state — is central to their worldview.

If anyone has a better explanation for why Pakistani terrorists, preoccupied with destabilizing India, would expend so much effort at finding the one Jewish center in a country that is essentially devoid of Jews, I would like to hear it.

With all the Pakistani Islamists hatred of Hindus, they did not attack one Hindu temple in Indias major city.

With all their hatred of Christian infidels, the terrorists did not seek out one of the 700,000 Christians in Mumbai.

To reinforce my point, imagine a Basque separatist terrorist organization attacking Madrid. Would the terrorists take time out to murder all those in the Madrid Chabad House? The idea is ludicrous. But no one seems to find it odd that that Pakistani Muslim terrorists who hate India and want it to give up control of Indian Kashmir would send two of its 10 terrorists to kill perhaps the only rabbi in Mumbai. As Newsweek reported during the siege, Given that Orthodox Jews were being held at gunpoint by mujahideen (sic), it seemed unlikely there would be survivors. Newsweek, like just about everyone else, simply assumes Islamists will murder Jews whenever and wherever possible.

They are right.

For years I have warned that great evils often begin with the murder of Jews, and therefore non-Jews who dismiss Jew-hatred (aka anti-Semitism, aka anti-Zionism), will learn too late that Jew- and Israel-haters only begin with Jews but never end with them. When Israeli Jews were almost the only targets of Muslim terrorists, the world dismissed it as a Jewish or Israeli problem. Then it became an American and European and Filipino and Thai and Indonesian and Hindu problem.

Two final points:

One is that it is exquisitely fitting that the same week the murders in Mumbai were taking place, the United Nations General Assembly passed six more anti-Israel resolutions. As it has for decades, the U.N. has again sanctioned hatred for a good and decent country as small on the map of the world as the Chabad House is on the map of Mumbai.

Two: Statements from Chabad in reaction to the torture-murders of a 28-year-old Chabad rabbi and his wife called on humanity to react to this evil with random acts of kindness. Evil hates goodness. Thats why the terrorists targeted a Chabad Rabbi and his wife.

Others have made the point that Jews are like canaries in a coal mine… when they start to die, the rest of us are likely to be next. Even if you have no particular concern for Jews (even if you are so immoral that their murder does not concern you), simple self-interest should lead you to want to fight the terrorists, before it’s too late.

Tags: Islam, terrorism

New York City is worried and taking extra precautions at hotels.

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, have prompted authorities in New York City to beef up security at large hotels and Jewish centers, including the Lubavitch headquarters.

Accrording to WCBSTV.com, the New York City Police Department had already been on high alert over concerns of a possible strike over the Thanksgiving holiday. But the attacks in India, which claimed about 200 lives, prompted enhanced security.

I’m glad, of course, that NYC is thinking about this, and I suppose other large cities are as well, although there is an element of “fighting the last war” in this kind of planning. Why defend hotels when restaurants, ball games, city buses, schools, churches, Rotary Club meetings, etc., all have similar vulnerabilities?  Let’s be really clear about exactly what the situation is.
Continue reading “Some things can’t be stopped by “increased security” or “intelligence””

Tags: Islam, terrorism

Powerline has some cogent observations.

If you doubt any of this, you really, really need to read the books I listed a day or two back.

Tags: Islam, terrorism

In India, there are 143 200 known dead (!), and 700 wounded, with the death toll rising, as more bodies are found and people die of their wounds. There will be lots of investigation and speculation, but in the end, there isn’t much doubt that Islamic fascist terrorists are behind it.

There has been one claim of responsibility: a group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, which e-mailed news organizations on Thursday claiming it had carried out the attacks. The group, previously unknown, may be connected with (or even an alias of) the Indian Mujahedin, which claimed responsibility for several terrorist strikes earlier this year. Indian terrorism experts say that both are likely to have connections to, or simply be renamed versions of, older Indian militant groups such as the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba or the Students Islamic Movement of India. (See pictures of two days of terror in Mumbai.)

Yet the scale and sophistication of the Mumbai attacks – which appear to have involved dozens of militants using assault rifles, grenades and explosives to simultaneously attack multiple targets – raise suspicions of involvement by more than one group, which would involve an unprecedented level of coordination.

“This is an operation of a very new type in India,” wrote Walid Phares on his well-respected Counterterrorism Blog. “The ’emirs’ have sent these armed elements in their 20s to strike at Indian psyche. One goal is to sink the Pakistani-Indian rapprochement … The goal is to target India as a power engaged in the war on terror but also to further destabilize the region, including Pakistan and its neighbor Afghanistan.”

So, my suggestions for reading, if you really want to understand the threat:

The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright

America Alone by Mark Steyn

The Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond Ibrahim

World War IV, by Norman Podhoretz

The Nuclear Jihadist by Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins

These are each very different kinds of books.  Between them, they provide a reasonably rounded picture of the challenge.  If you have not read these books, and if you get most of your news and understanding about Islamic extremism from TV and the major media, you are probably ill informed about the situation we face.  Do you have enough imagination to foresee the possibility of an event in Los Angeles or Chicago paralleling recent events in Mumbai?  Or something worse?

The analysis of threats involves the same thing as a murder investigation: means, motive and opportunity.  The national security types think in terms of “intentions” and “capabilities”, i.e., there is little threat to the US from Great Britain’s military, even though it has significant capability, because it does not have the intent to attack the USA.

These books, between them, will help you understand the historical background and current status of Islamic extremism, identify the major players and their connections, and understand the steps that have been taken so far to prevent them from further success, as well as chronicling failures and identifying probable future threats.

Or, instead of finding out what’s really going on in the world, you can just hope the government is taking care of it, and that the New York Times is really telling you all you need to know.  Ignorance is bliss, for awhile.  Maybe if we just send more aid, and withdraw all American troops from the world, then they’ll just leave us alone.  Or not.

If, after reading these, you find that you have the desire to read more (and there is a LOT more), you can send email to me at harmonic@harmonicminer.com.  If there is interest, I’ll post another list.

UPDATE:  In response to a reader email, here is a counterpoint to what some see as the “too even-handed” approach to Islam by Bernard Lewis.  I guarantee you will learn some things.  Do you know what the Islamic doctrine of “abrogation” is?  If not, you need to read this book, because there’s probably a lot more you don’t know, and don’t even know you should be asking.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades by Robert Spencer

Tags: Islam, terrorism