For those of us who are alarmed by the march of the Media Class across Western Society, it is a tragedy that one of the world’s great Religions has become tainted by a fanaticism that would return us all to the Middle Ages. I have many Muslim friends from Iran and elsewhere and their civilised values are no different than my own (Christian based) ones, probably better. Some, like me, do not actively practice their religion but their good behaviour in society is based on their attachment to the traditional values of Islam. Sadly, they are mostly silent on the crisis for Islam which the current terrorism is surely unfolding.
For many years it has been possible to view Islam as one of the bulwarks against the domination of the hedonistic and amoral Media Class and its allies. I remember many years ago being in Tunisia during Ramadan and feeling a sense of awe at the piety and dignity of the people, especially the poor. Here was a society where the hordes of men, on their way each evening to the Mosque to pray, seemed to be immune to the shallow preoccupations, vanities and narcissism so prevalent in the West. Family life, too was a serious business and men everywhere shouldered their responsibilities as fathers. The drift into terrorism by Muslims in Palestine, I put down to the actions of a desperate people who had been elbowed aside in their own lands.
It now turns out that the bloodthirsty and barbaric practices of the fanatics are central to the Koran’s teachings and that Islam is a religion quite different from the other great religions of the world, lacking any kind of toleration. If Muslims want to be a part of the civilised world (though not the shallow hedonistic world of Hollywood), they are going to have to be outspoken in rejection of the intolerance embedded in the Koran. They need to act quickly.
At the present time, the Media Class and its allies in the West are happy to give comfort to Islam by downplaying the dangerous intolerance at its core. New laws in the UK and elsewhere are making it impossible for people to legally organise resistance to Islamic penetration. The Media and its Leftist allies would be delighted to see our troops defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan and for Islamic extremists to overthrow the emerging democratic movements there. This is not because the Media Class and its Leftists have become enamoured of Islam, but because they wish to see Bush and his Christian supporters humiliated and Christianity relegated to the fringes of society. No doubt they believe they can destroy Islam in the more distant future. This is a dangerous strategy, but the Media Class has a hatred of traditional Christianity that is irational, and Bush has become a focus for their hatred. Unfortunately, Church leaders in the UK and many other places have long lost the ability to defend their Faith and instead line up to make pronouncements that will please the all-powerful Media, even as Islam over runs their domain.
The Islamic fanatics will not easily bomb their way to power, because ordinary people will resist, even if the political and religious elites will not. But many innocent people will die along the way, just as they have in Ulster and other places when dealing effectively with terrorism has been compromised, by a Media Class with its own self-centred agenda. It would have been better if the Great Religions had been allies in resisting the Media Class and its social agenda, but that now looks impossible unless civilised Muslims can purge Islam of its fanatics and Christian leaders can be found who are not afraid of the Media Class.