the jihad world war

The Jihad World War
by Stephen J. Kohn
Feb 18, '04 / 26 Shevat 5764

It is uncomfortable linking together events that put us all at risk anywhere on our planet, but ignoring them is far worse. And "all" is not Jews or Russians or Australians or Americans — it is all of the developed nations and all that want to develop. It is all civilization as we know it that is at risk. It is also Iraqis who want to change over to a democratic society.

What is at risk is the preservation and promotion of rights that have emerged as a standard of behavior over millennia, as well as perhaps our survival. The rights of freedom, of equality, of tolerance, of the ability to think freely and act within limits of decency – whether defined by traditional religious values or common sense. At risk is our ability to wake in the morning and return in the evening without fear that our lives will be taken from us by the blind ferocity of those who hate the advances in civilization and all those, including fellow Moslems, who do not share their views.

When we hear that a leading Pakistani nuclear scientist has spread his knowledge to other governments, with malice and greed his objectives, the wise recognize that it is essential to initiate, to continue and to combat this scourge. The ignorant can bury the fear with the acceptance of an alien philosophy. But we will be burying the bodies of those whose deaths have been caused by an inability to face the reality of a war now underway.

It is hard to think of a common enemy that can chase us, relentlessly, but this enemy exists, and we have been too polite in defining its dimensions and potential horrors. It has been abetted by a blind Western mentality of know-nothingness, which justifies the death of innocents when it meets seemingly loftier goals. Goals not built of tolerance, but of blindness. Not of acceptance, but naivete. Not of enlightenment, but irresponsibility.

It is hard to hear of subway trains being blown up in Moscow, buses in Jerusalem, nightclubs in Bali, the Twin Towers in New York, American embassies in Africa, houses in the Philippines, or Iraqis in Baghdad and threats of future attack that seem to be unending. It should be hard to ignore the common links between them. It should be hard to ignore them because these assaults on humanity all have two - all too clear - common elements.

Firstly, in almost all cases, they are aimed at innocent civilians whose only common characteristic is that they fall into some ethnic group other than that of the Moslem terrorists that set off the bombs. It is racism at its most profound level.

Secondly, increasingly, there are links between the terrorists and a number of countries that allow them to operate with growing freedom, explicitly or implicitly. It is "non-collusive collusion" — the independence of the groups, but their shared goals joining them together – to create a lethal force that we cannot ignore.

The link to Moslem terrorism joins all of this together. While Moslem terrorists spread, with glee, the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the reality is that the Moslem nations act as a bloc in encouraging and propagating hate and violence, not only of Jews, not only of Western civilization, but of all that stands in their way. The Moslem nations assembled in Kuala Lumpur recently applauded wildly as the outgoing prime minister of Malaysia unleashed a torrent of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. The Moslem nations, collectively, voted to challenge an antiterrorist barrier to prevent Moslems from killing Jews (and Israeli Moslems as well). The Moslem nations appear to evaluate the events of the world not based on what many of us had assumed were commonly accepted and collective standards of decency, but rather based on the impact of these events on themselves alone. A separation from the group of truly civilized nations.

Yet, this was the theme of the counterfeit anti-Semitic tract, still widely quoted – that Jews act collectively and without regard for any other loyalties. In this environment, no matter what the Jews give up in Israel or the Americans do for political correctness, the beast called terrorism will never be mollified. The counterfeit Protocols, prepared in the 19th century to describe how Jews ruled the world, increasingly sounds like today's reality. But it is not the Jews who have written the protocols of the contemporary world, but the deeds of Moslem terrorists that reflect a more sinister, destructive and collective view of the world.

That quislings in the modern world have become a propaganda arm of these terrorists is pathetic, since the Moslem terrorists' views are so against the liberal view of the core Rights of Mankind. Those same individuals in the West who protest wildly on issues such as capital punishment, animal rights or women's rights, ignore the desecration of human life that has become the hallmark of Moslem terrorism. It is a sickness, whose cause is unfathomable. The arguments in the United States and United Kingdom regarding whether a terrorist dictator willing to kill his fellow citizens - and those anywhere in the world - earned the destruction of his terror machine are cynical and so colored by domestic political issues that their absurdity is manifest.

The time has come for Moslem nations to choose their path openly. Some have, but all too silently; some are increasingly realizing the risks we collectively face, recognizing now that the terrorist bombs can as easily explode in Riyadh as in Tel Aviv. Others, near outlaw states and gangs of thugs, need to be branded and treated as such, without any form of succor.

There can be no equivocation, rationalization or justification for blind hate and terrorism. There can be no pretending that Jews or Americans or Russians or Frenchman or anyone deserves to be blown up. There can be civilized debate. There can be arguing, but there cannot be a license to murder the innocent.

The opening skirmishes of this war have long since occurred. Some nations have taken a stand, others equivocate, and yet others, sometimes surreptitiously, support the hatred and death. We must stop pretending and start recognizing reality, and fighting The Jihad World War without equivocation.

This is the time for collective wisdom and judgment to declare that any manifestation and glorification of The Jihad World War must be fought, unceasingly and aggressively. To lose this war may indeed mean the end of civilization as we have known it, and perhaps the deprivation of immeasurable others who would otherwise have the opportunity to experience it.