The Banality of Terror

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The attack in Nice, France – which resulted in the death by crushing of over 80 innocent civilians – has hardly caused a ripple on social media.

After the news had come through the place-name ‘Nice’ trended on Facebook for little more than an hour or so, after which it rapidly tumbled out of the ranking, replaced by such stories relating to the appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary to the UK government, speculation over Donald Trump’s VP choice, and the latest gossip relating to the Palin family.

There have been no diaphanous tricolours draped over the profile pictures of my friends this time around. Few have chosen to mention the incident in a status update, or even to share a relevant news story. And I have been no different.

I just can’t quite bring myself to be angry over this latest atrocity. I am not shocked, frightened, or agitated by it. The news of the attack has hit me rather like a report of sleet in Scotland, or wind in Wales. Terrorism, especially terrorism in France, now seems ordinary, banal, unremarkable.

This attitude (which is largely involuntary) is especially disturbing when one contemplates the gruesome manner in which the victims of the Nice attack perished. Unlike the more professional attack of last November, the victims this time were not put out of their happiness by a painless bullet to the head. They were crushed by several tonnes of metal and rubber; flattened, deformed under wheels. As banal as the observation might be, this must have been a hellish way to die.

But still, I’m not outraged – only bitter and depressed. I want all this to stop, but I really don’t think it will. And if an anti-Islamist blogger is becoming desensitised to terrorism, how on Earth can we expect the average Joe to maintain the required level of interest?

The man suspected of carrying out the Nice truck attack: French-Tunisian – Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel

The official response to Nice has been just as lacklustre as the public reaction. Boris Johnson, (whose appointment as Foreign Secretary must rank as the worst national embarrassment in years), has expressed little more than sadness at the news. In America, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton offered only cheap, hollow solidarity on her personal Facebook page. Even Donald Trump has been more muted than usual.

The only exception to this icy disregard has been (or seemed at one point to be) former US house speaker Newt Gingrich, who used the aftermath of the attack to suggest a very sensible policy by which the US would quiz individual Muslims upon entry to America on their views of Sharia Law.

Unfortunately, if also inevitably, when this commonsensical notion received the usual abuse from the usual abusers, Gingrich promptly drained the idea of its force, over-clarifying the concept to the point of retraction. How pathetic; how telling.

The reaction of the Western media (or at least the UK/US media) was to dampen out any loose sparks of anger that might have escaped the general apathy described. The ever-reliable ‘don’t panic’ libertarian Simon Jenkins, for example, hot-footed it into the Guardian offices to inform us that: “A Nice truck driver does not remotely threaten the security of the French state, any more than such acts do the security of America or Britain. The identification of the nation state with random killings of innocent people has become a political aberration….The implication that leaders can somehow prevent such attacks by armed response is a total distraction from the intelligence and police work that might at least diminish their prevalence. It nationalises and institutionalises public alarm. It leads governments into madcap adventurism abroad and “securitises” the private lives of citizens at home…What has happened in France is tragic and calls for human sympathy. Beyond that, there is nothing we can usefully do – other than make matters worse.”

Though this argument has the flavour of reasonableness, the implication of it is surely that we should do absolutely nothing in response to terrorism; indeed, that we should actively prevent our governments from doing anything about it – on libertarian grounds.

Someone should really inform Mr Jenkins that Western states in fact need little encouragement to under-react to terrorist atrocities. Doing nothing has been standard operating procedure ever since the twilight years of the Bush administration.

I personally have no doubt that Francois Hollande’s bungled security measures (including his declaration of an extended state of emergency) will end up doing more harm than good. Nevertheless, the general preference of the public must surely be for the state to do more to address this threat, not less. Jenkins and his ilk appear obsessed with getting the masses to calm down and to put things in a rational, non-emotional, context. We have been doing that for over a decade. A bit of non-rational rage really wouldn’t go amiss at this point.

French President Francois Hollande

All things considered, Nice has been an unmitigated triumph for ISIS. Not only have the swinish degenerates managed to send dozens of unbelievers to perpetual hellfire, they have also further diminished the life-force and rage-reflex of the continent on which they resided.

(On a side note  – It is worth noting that Westerners have not become incapable of getting angry about anything. We are still liable to go ape over the unlawful killing of gorillas and lions. It is only the value of human beings, and of Western culture, that is collapsing. One might justly speculate that if a dog or a cat had been caught under the wheels in Nice the reaction would have been rather more vigorous.)

Europe seems ever more like a wounded animal, yelping and moaning, bleeding and weakening. The old spark, the energy behind colonisation and empire, has been all but exhausted. The deathly prefix ‘post’ is now attached to every formerly noble concept: post-modern, post-national, post-racial, post-Christian etc… Everything is watered down and submissive enough that even the most barbaric challenger can overcome it.

I have nothing original to say about Nice. I will simply close by reiterating that Islam does not belong in Europe and never will. It is backward, violent, boring and false down to the letter. It must be resisted with everything with we have.

If indeed we still have anything at all.

D, LDN

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ISIS, London, 2015.

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America, BBC, Brit, Britain First, Civilisation, Cops, Counter-Jihad, Counterjihad, Defend the modern world, Demographics of Europe, Facebook, guns, ISIS, ISIS GB, ISIS London, Islam, Islamic State, Jihad, Jihadism, Multiculturalism, No to Turkey in the EU, Police, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Rihanna Muslim, Twitter, UK, United States

In case you are unaware – and it’s possible that large numbers of people are unaware given the lack of reportage in the media – ISIS Jihadists are clearly preparing to attack the British capital.

Three stories in particular lead me to this conclusion.

On Armed Forces Day (the 27th of June) a plot by ISIS fanatics to bomb a military parade in the borough of Merton, South London was foiled by police working in league with an undercover agent. A week later, on the 4th of July, Pakistani intelligence reported the capture of 3 militants in Peshawar, among whose possessions were detailed maps of London, ISIS materials and documents describing the most heavily populated areas of the city. And finally, about a week ago, a man (as yet unidentified) was photographed carrying a large ISIS standard down a street opposing the Houses of Parliament.

You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to put the pieces together here. We are due for a bloody nose; something along the lines of 7/7 and possibly worse. And as efficient as our security services have proven over the past ten years, if ISIS are determined to strike London, there is little that can be done to stop them. Eventually they will succeed. And then what?

If or when the attack comes, what will be the aftermath? I truly hope it’s more substantial than the passive aggressive silence that followed Lee Rigby’s slaughter. That is far from a given though, and so, if they are needed, here are some suggestions:

1. Surround and protest the Mosques connected with the perpetrators and petition for their closure/destruction.

2. If you have any Muslim friends on social networks who do not condemn the attacks, delete them and encourage friends to do the same with their own contact lists. Be brave and inform them why they are being shunned.

3.  If you haven’t already, ‘like’ the LibertyGB and EDL facebook pages and share their messages.

4. Talk to a liberal friend about Islam and provide them with the Quranic verses promoting violence against non-believers (and introduce them to this blog or like-minded sites like VladTepes, Gates of Vienna etc…).

5. Send a (polite, non-aggressive) email your local MP favouring hard and immediate measures against any organisation or ‘charity’ connected to Jihad. I have emailed MPs many times. All of them read and replied to my messages. It is worthwhile. Even if your MP is a sponge-brained liberal, they cannot ignore the majority indefinitely. It is vital to make use the power of the majority while we still have it.

6. Befriend an ex-Muslim.

7. Support local campaigns against the construction of Mosques.

I strongly believe that these measures over time can yield tangible results.

I understand that none of them have the thrilling glamour of civil war or terrorism, but then the defence of the status quo is always less glamorous than the initiatives of revolution.

We are at war with madness. A consistent and boring stupidity, unwilling and unable to recognise its ugliness and distance from the truth. The glamour it possesses is the glamour of the vandal; the dazzle of the rough and dreadful destroying the precious and worthwhile. It is not a glamour worth having.

D, LDN.

Bad Rubbish: If ‘Brits’ Go to Syria, Let Them Stay There.

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BBC, Britain First, Brits deported, Brits going to ISIS, Defend the modern world, EDL, EU, ISIS, Islamisation, Jihad, Jihad in Syria, Jihadi John, Jihadis going to Syira, london, Paul Golding, Syria Yazidi, The Beatles Terror Cell, Traitors, Turkey, Turkish border

Yet again, Muslims with British passports have sought to cross the Turkish border into 6th century Syria with the intention of joining the international jihad.

According to the newspapers, these three ‘youngsters’ have now been apprehended by the Turkish authorities and are now awaiting deportation ‘back’ to the United Kingdom, where they will be treated (bizarrely) as ‘traitors’ and be tried in a court of European law.

This is obviously ridiculous, and all the comments beneath the articles in question are willing to say so.

“We don’t want the cretins back!” – said one.

“Keep them there. They’ve made their decision. If you make your bed, you lie in it!” – said another.

And this is altogether the right way to think about these matters. If you, a passport-holding British citizen, are willing to join a society filled with headless dissenters, thumbless thieves, invisible women, raped Yazidis and crucified Christians, you are not welcome, you were never welcome, and you will never become welcome in this United Kingdom.

D, LDN.

Kill it Before it Grows.

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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda, Amputations, Beheading, Bin Laden, Bomb, Bombardment, Iran, Iraq, ISIS, Islamisation, Jihad, Missiles, Muslims, Saudi Arabia, Sharia, Syria, Violence, War, WWIII

Talking of the Middle East, the conquest of this region by the Stone Age lunatics ‘ISIS’ continues apace.

An Islamic caliphate has now been officially declared and the loyalty of every Muslim in the world formally demanded. The shaggy beatnik ‘Caliph’ of this empire (Abu-Bakr Baghdadi) announced these initiatives in a public speech in which he also justified a global war aimed at making the borders of his hell-state globally circular.

“I am the wali (leader) who presides over you” he stated “…God gave your mujahedeen brothers victory after long years of jihad and patience… so they declared the caliphate and placed the caliph in charge… This is a duty on Muslims that has been lost for centuries.”

Despite the hypocritical resistance of states like Saudi Arabia and Iran, this is actually the logical endpoint of Islamic politics. Consequently, it will find a worryingly large audience if left to advertise itself with this kind of propaganda.

It is my view that we must act and that it is better to act now.  

The New Caliphate, although already notorious for its cruelty and martial zeal, is small and poorly organised; it has no economy that couldn’t be torn down by the most elementary measures, and – most vitally – it is surrounded by states who (officially at least) answer to our leadership.

Little stands in the way of action except cowardice.

So, as a Fox News anchor was stupidly ridiculed for suggesting, bomb them. Annihilate them from the air, not only to cripple this threat in its youth, but to prepare a message for those which may appear in the future.

Since 9/11 we have become so wearily accustomed to the spectacle of bearded revolutionaries prophesying our death or enslavement, that we no longer seem especially concerned by it.

More often that not, our strength justifies this indifference, but it may not forever. A Caliphate encompassing the angry youth of the Muslim world is not something to be brushed off from the imagination like a threat from the glorious military of North Korea. These people are closer. Much closer. Via Turkey, they can very easily infiltrate our continent.

To allow the enemy a base of operations and training only miles from the EU is a death wish, and many lives can be saved by acting sooner rather than later.

D, LDN.

ISIS: al-Qaeda on Steroids.

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Al-Qaeda, America, American Liberty, Barack Obama, Beheading, Civilisation, Counterjihad, Cultural Marxism, Defend the modern world, Desert, Europe, Failed State, Iraq, Iraqi Army, ISIL, ISIS, Jihad, Jihadism, Kurds, Obama, Salafism, Soldiers, Syria, Terrorism, Terrorist

The status of al-Qaeda as the leading edge of Islamist terrorism is at an end. Enter ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (al-Sham loosely denoting the Levant). It is no exaggeration to say that this organisation, a military in all but recognition, is the gravest manifestation of Jihad in modern times.

For the past few months, ISIS has swept through deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia, beheading anyone who opposed them, and mutilating anyone who fell short of its understanding of Sharia law. The formerly Iraqi city of Mosul was for a period of days subjected to the meanest hell. It takes energy even to imagine it – the bleeding necks and purple heads, the screaming children and crackling gunfire.

Al-Qaeda wouldn’t have dared to dream this. No effort of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or a thousand other outfits has conquered this size of territory, acquired this much modern weaponry, or achieved this level of consistency in battlefield success. What we are witnessing is unprecedented.

In Slate magazine, Daniel Byman described the accomplishments of ISIS as follows:

“The territory already under its control is larger than (the State of) Israel, and it is not some barren desert: It includes oilfields, electrical grids, prisons, small manufacturing centers, and the weapon depots abandoned by the Iraqi military, including arms provided by the United States. When ISIS fighters conquered Mosul, they seized the central bank—and its reported $425 million. By comparison, al-Qaida’s budget before 9/11 was about $30 million—and we called it rich.”

Those who have ever wondered what society would be like under a Bin Laden-approved government need wonder no more. The pre-medieval has returned, but – like a steampunk horror movie – the barbarian hordes now posses M16s, Jeeps and video cameras on which to record their deeds.

To list all the macabre events individually would be a Marquis De Sade novel and end up just as long (and unreadable), so let’s isolate a few especially horrid cases:

Yesterday, a video emerged of ISIS fighters spraying gunfire at random civilians from a Humvee on their entrance into Iraqi villages. The organisation also boasted of killing 1,700 US trained Iraqi soldiers during the same invasion. Since then, it’s been reported that an ISIS member has posted a photo of a decapitated head on twitter along with the devilish caption “This is our football. #Worldcup2014”.

That should be enough to communicate the point. These truly are a new breed of monster, lacking in whatever qualities separate us from animals.

What is all this cruelty aiming at exactly? Well, the Independent Newspaper has helpfully translated a manifesto published locally by ISIS fighters.

• “People have tried secular rule – now it is time for an Islamic state.
  
• Women should wear loose-fitting clothes and leave home only when necessary.
  
• Shrines and graves should be destroyed.
  
• Only flag allowed to be carried is the ISIS one.
  
• Places have been opened for police and soldiers of the ‘unbelievers’ to repent.
  
• Drugs, cigarettes or alcohol (are) banned.
  
• Tribal leaders must not become traitors by working with the government.
  
• All Muslims (are) to pray at the mosque at the correct time.
  
• Money we have stolen from the government is for the public. Only the imam of mosques can spend it – thieves will have their hands cut off.
  
• We are the soldiers of Islam and we have taken on the responsibility of re-establishing the caliphate.”

This is fairly generic Islamism. A gun-sight trained on all that makes life worth living. 

So what are we to do? Obama and Cameron have so far behaved like headless chickens. It is likely that there will be drone strikes at some point. Boots on the ground are unlikely. Iran is offering help, but this should be declined.

A fundamental impotence confronts the West, largely of our own making. We simply haven’t got the military bases or the number of personnel to engage ISIS directly. Only the US base in the Gulf is well positioned enough for Western intervention. Other possibilities are mostly wishful thinking. Israel  – for example – could conduct (heroic) air raids, but this would probably result in protests from our effete ‘leaders’ and the harem of anti-logic that is the United Nations. Turkey meanwhile is not our friend, has never been our friend, and will never be our friend where it counts. Jordan isn’t strong enough to repel an army the size of ISIS, and finally, Britain’s army has been stripped to its bare bones and cannot conceivably act alone.

We are left in the position of a mere observer to world-history. That is what happens when military budgets are decimated.

In the unlikely event that Downing Street telephones me for advice, my policy would look something like this – We should be dropping thousands of explosives on any ISIS position cleanly separated from civilians. In Syria, a massive bombing campaign should commence against the ‘rebels’. Assad should not be armed further by NATO but the creaking equipment he has employed thus far will need spare parts, compatible ammunition (only Russia can supply this) and fuel. NATO should not obstruct the supply of these materials.

Although in reality none of us will ever be consulted for our views on this unsightly morass, we must nevertheless stay interested in its outcome.

The ISIS climacteric is fundamentally a pitched battle between the future and the past. Only a fool would say we have no dog in that fight.

D, LDN.

On Reading Sayyid Qutb.

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Counter-Jihad, Islam, Islamic Fundamentalism, Islamism, Islamist Terrorism, Jihad, Multiculturalism, Sayyid Qutb

The other week I was walking in London and stopped into a second-hand bookshop. As is tradition, I went first to the history section, then to the politics stand and then (since nothing was found to buy from the first two) on to the religion and spirituality section. As I scanned across the Bibles and prayer books, imagine my surprise to find three books by Sayyid Qutb. These were volumes from his ‘In the Shade of the Qur’an’ – a massive, sprawling series of books analysing every aspect of Islam’s central text. I know how influential Qutb is, and how dodgy and rare it is to find one of his books for sale, and so I picked one, paid for it and left.

On the tube back to my place, I felt like I’d purchased some horrific pornography. I was petrified lest it fall out of the brown paper bag I carried it in, land on the carriage floor face-up and a Mossad snatch squad emerge from nowhere and fly me to a ‘black spot’ to extract information.

To those unfamiliar with Qutb – he was an Egyptian Islamist philosopher whose works (in particular his tract – ‘Milestones’) provided the theological basis for the creation of al-Qaeda. Bin Laden was noted as a long-time fan of Qutb’s books, devouring them in his youth. Anwar al-Awlaki, the articulate American cleric, also praised Qutb as a formative influence on his life and religious views. The leftist Paul Berman writes about him substantially in ‘Terror and Liberalism’, calling him the “Philosopher of Islamic Terror.”

When I got home and started to read the book, I was struck first by the quality and lucidity of the writing. Qutb was certainly no fool. His writing is of a high standard, and his points – however barbaric – are deftly, sometimes even humorously made. After flicking briefly through the work, I noted references to Nietzsche, Sartre and Marx. This is certainly not what I expected. I expected an inarticulate drawl of religious devotion, crude hatred of modernity and infidels, anti-Semitism and Hitler-worship. But Qutb makes the parts of Islam he discusses incredibly clear, almost reasonable specifically (and this is a point to remember) to a Western reader. Most of the references are drawn from Western history, or illustrated through concepts easily translated to Western ones.

I can well imagine a young, impressionable Muslim in the West finding the words of Qutb quite electrifying.

The book I purchased is book 7 in a series of great length (varying in number of volumes depending on the edition). The series examines each and every chapter (Surah) of the Qur’an. Each book covers one Surah. Some Surah’s of the Qur’an are less than two paperback pages in length, but even these are exhaustively analysed. Qutb begins each chapter with a line from the Surah under consideration. The lines on their own seem devoid of complexity, until he unravels them into lengthy and sometimes impressive philosophical points, drawing in World War 2, atomic weapons, Shakespeare, Zionism and economics.

I won’t deny I quite enjoyed reading the book. The volume I selected dealt mainly with Jihad (before you snigger, most of the books in the series deal with other things like marriage, death, the nature of belief and prayer etc..), and the necessity of it against the perennially ‘aggressive’ (ha!) Christian (crusader) world. It’s always enjoyable and rewarding to see things through the eyes of the opposition. But nevertheless, it is correct that such books are not distributed widely (or legally) in Britain. Those Islamic bookshops which do stock Qutb are often exposed by the media and forced to shut down. The books can be ordered via Amazon of course, and most Jihadists are able to operate a credit card (even other peoples), so there is no danger of Qutb ceasing to be an influence.

Still, for those non-Muslims looking to understand the Islamist phenomenon more concretely they are also recommended reading.

D, LDN.