Radical Islam and the Survival of the West

[Guest guest]

Radical Islam and the Survival of the West

By Ron Banerjee

Friday, February 17, 2006

 

 

[An editorial by Ron Banerjee, director of the Hindu Conference of

Canada, published yesterday in Canada Free Press.]

 

The global reaction to the recent cartoons of Muhammad in Denmark is

part of a familiar pattern. In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker named van

Gogh was shot dead by Islamic fanatics because he made a film which

dared to question the treatment of women in Islam. Similarly, global

violence and death threats accompanied the publication of Salman

Rushdie's book, the Satanic Verses. His Norwegian publisher, William

Nygaard, was shot by Islamic fanatics in his own country. Every

supposed `insult' to Islam leads to violence, murder, and threats.

 

Other communities, particularly the Hindus, have also suffered their

fair share of inaccurate and demeaning assaults on their religion

and traditions in the west. In late 2005, the Toronto Film Festival

and Canadian media bestowed awards and honor on Deepa Mehta,

director of the movie Water. This movie featured a bizarre plot

involving widows in the holy city Varanasi (which is equivalent to

the Vatican or Mecca) being forced into prostitution by Hindu

priests. Despite the fact that the movie was extremely demeaning and

depicted practices virtually unheard of in India, Hindus in the west

did not resort to violence or murder to express their displeasure.

 

This was not the first time that Hindus have been unfairly

stigmatized. In 2003, the Toronto Star, which bends over backwards

to flatter and please some of their favored minority groups,

published a nude picture of a revered Hindu goddess. Again in 2005,

the AIDS Committee of Toronto put on a fashion show which featured

semi-nude transsexuals dressed as Hindu deities. In both these

cases, the large Hindu community in Toronto and the Western world

did not burn buildings, destroy public property, or attack

Westerners. Instead, they used democratic and peaceful means to

voice their protest.

 

To understand what gives rise to these divergent reactions, we need

to examine the historical record. Unlike Hinduism, Islam was imposed

on adherents of other faiths through conquest and subjugation. In

South Asia, Islam was spread through a brutal conquest, which began

in the 8th century AD. In fact, famed historian Will Durant has

referred to this conquest as the bloodiest story in history. During

this period, many Hindus were enslaved and millions were massacred.

Fear of death, subjugation, and enslavement forced hapless Hindu

victims to convert to Islam. Fanatical Islamists, who exercise

significant power and influence, continue to nurture these notions

and ideals. These elements are responsible for the violence and

murder that follows each perceived insult of Islam throughout the

west.

 

Apologists, whether in the West or India, often attempt to justify

the acts of Islamic fanatics by arguing that such acts are

legitimate means of protest against discrimination or imperialism.

This argument is untenable: Islamist fanatics are not victims but

rather champions of imperialism and bigotry. Their utter disregard

for people of other faiths and their desire to Islamize, through

conquest, the non-Muslim world, including India and Europe, clearly

demonstrates their imperial designs.

 

Democratic societies, both in India and the West, can dissuade these

fanatics only by demonstrating that legitimate means of protest are

more successful than violence and murder. Fanatical Islamists

receive tremendous incentives to continue their behavior when they

find that their methods are more successful than those employed by

groups which utilize democratic means.

 

A just democratic society should reward good behavior and penalize

negative conduct. Western democracies, when dealing with radical

Islamists, appear to be doing the precise opposite. The West, for

its own survival, ought to reconsider this curiously self-

destructive attitude.

 

Radical Islam and the Survival of the West

SOURCE: Canada Free Press

URL: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/banerjee021706.htm