The West is completely naïve about the evil it faces in fundamentalist Islam. Like a foolish virgin, it believes it can convert an evil and murderous psychopath into a compassionate soul. It will take further tragic lessons to learn that it is facing pure evil, and that it is in a war for its very own way of life.
Now, whether the politically correct accept it or not, United States President Donald Trump has the correct instincts when it comes to the evil of brutal Islamic terrorism. Mr. Trump understands and recognises that Islamic terrorism is a culture of homicide and death. It is part of the culture of radical Islam.
Mr. Trump further understands the only reason the US has not been hit as hard as Europe has nothing to do with US intelligence — Britain possesses one of the world’s most professional intelligence services — and everything to do with geography. The US is separated from the rest of the world by two vast oceans. It is also surrounded by friendly neighbours.
Terror is not unique to Islam. However, terror finds a welcome home in the culture of the religion’s radical fringe. Why? That is one the theologian and scholar must answer.
Now, good and evil will never mix. Oil does not mix with water. Certain cultures are simply antithetical to each other. One loves life; the other glories in death. One is tolerant; the other is not. One believes it is superior to the other; the other is humble enough to accept the values of others. The face of one is always vexed and angry; the face of the other is always willing to believe the best in others.
Value battles
This writer stated months back that the battles of the future will be based on values and culture differentials — not the pursuit of economic or military power. And those culture wars will never dissipate or end. Why? Because hate is so deeply ingrained in the psyche of specific cultures that it cannot be erased by rationality. It can only be destroyed.
Britain today is reeling from an attack on its most vulnerable citizens: its little children. The loss of a child is an unimaginable tragedy. The parents will mourn for the rest of their life. The empty cradle becomes a shrine for the grieving mother. The screams of their babies, as they were cut to pieces by bolts, nuts and steel balls from a homicide bomber will follow mom and dad to their graves. The sounds of their babies dying will be heard throughout all eternity. There is no greater tragedy than infanticide.
British Poet Tony Walsh, “also known as “Longfella,” could not have put it better in extolling the virtues of the Mancunian culture. Manchester is the ideal model of western culture.
Manchester was the place, he said, that in the northwest of England brought the joy of music to the globe’s millions. The Mancunian is the very opposite of the hate-filled Islamic terrorist, who sings the songs of death and destruction.
Manchester, the poet added, is a place of innovation that made things from steel and cotton, while the Islamic terrorist manufactured fratricide and misery.
The terrorist lives among the compassionate and tolerant. In his hate-filled enclave, he festers with hate. He sees his Christian, Jewish or atheist neighbours as inferior beings. But he knows deep down that he is mistaken.
Manchester
Walsh described Manchester as the city where a girl named Emily Pankhurst, from the streets of Moss Side, led a Suffragette City with sisterhood pride. Manchester began the emancipation of women. On the other hand, the ugly Islamic terrorist puts his women in shackles, keeps them under lock and key, and beheads them for simply looking at another man. His women are slaves — personal property.
Manchester is that greatest of cities. It was a society that applied science to everyday life. It was the place that gave the working poor and downtrodden libraries, health and education — a far cry from the Islamic terrorist, a beast who establishes schools that teach students to hate and that glory in sending kids to their deaths in suicide vests.
Yes, Manchester was that place that built the first railway station, that invented computers, where Henry Royce crafted the Rolls, and where goal-setters and go-getters knew they had a chance. Contrast that to the terrorist’s sick culture, which has nothing to offer but hatred, violence and death.
That is the difference. Manchester is a place of love and compassion, and a city that tolerates all newcomers, notwithstanding their ethnicity and culture.
Evil vs. good
However, evil needs good to thrive. Evil looks for the most vulnerable to destroy. That is why the world is at war. Whether it accepts it or not, the West is at war with fundamentalist Islam. Sadly, it will take further acts of murder and infanticide to understand the nature of the beast.
Thankfully, Western naivety about radical Islam is coming to an end, albeit slowly. If NASA can monitor billions of galaxies with digital technology placed in powerful telescopes, surely Western society can monitor specific demographics and cultures using technology.
The time has arrived for vulnerable countries to adopt a national ID card system. This must be a card with a chip that uses GPS technology to monitor human movement and communication — a smart card linked to powerful databases that throw up algorithms that detect and define terrorist activity. The system will be managed by legislation and powerful regulation.
The time has come for citizens in free and compassionate societies to pool their freedoms, to ensure the ability to dig out these rats before they spread their deadly plague of death.
As technology advances, so does the ability of the terrorist to spread his mayhem. Imagine you are on board a flight from some exotic destination with your loved ones, and the passenger sitting in a nearby seat possesses a laptop with an explosive device.
Imagine too that this passenger’s activities are being monitored by a system that is proactive and intrusive, and that sets up a sequence of assessments that enable law enforcement see through the plot from behind a powerful computer, enabling interdiction and arrest before the bomb goes off. Your family is saved from a devastating event.
This writer does not agree with Mr. Trump on most matters. However, when it comes to radical Islam, the US president has got it right.
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