UK Official Pilloried for Asking Imams to Reject Extremism

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“Doublespeak” involves manipulating language to deliberately disguise or distort words and their meaning. It is a subterfuge a speaker utilizes to leave a listener confused. In the U.K., Muslim advocates have perfected it to an art form.

Author Soeren Kern monitors Islamic-related news stories in the U.K. on a monthly basis. His report for January includes mention of an action taken by the U.K. government that caused quite a stir among Muslim activists.

Some background is needed to put what happened into context.

Following the January 7th Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris, a poll disturbingly revealed 27% of British Muslims believed the attack justified as victims had insulted Islam.

Domestic imams, such as hate-monger Anjem Choudary, quickly promoted this justification saying that same day:

In an increasingly unstable and insecure world, the potential consequences of insulting the Messenger Muhammad are known to Muslims and non-Muslims alike…So why in this case did the French government allow the magazine Charlie Hebdo to continue to provoke Muslims, thereby placing the sanctity of its citizens at risk?

In a later interview, Choudary praised the attackers, adding: “May Allah accept (the attackers) in Paradise.

Clearly, such outrageous public Muslim support in Britain for the Paris attack concerned the U.K. government. Seeking to address this, U.K. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles distributed a letter to over 1,000 imams across the country. He sought their assistance in fighting extremism, requesting they discuss with their followers the compatibility of being both Muslim and British.

The letter was written in terms that should not have offended a rational mind, especially in view of a very vocal Muslim community supporting violence.

Pickles’ letter stated in part:

We must show our young people, who may be targeted, that extremists have nothing to offer them. We must show them that there are other ways to express disagreement: that their right to do so is dependent on the very freedoms that extremists seek to destroy. We must show them the multitude of statements of condemnation from British Muslims; show them these men of hate have no place in our mosques or any place of worship, and that they do not speak for Muslims in Britain or anywhere in the world…

You, as faith leaders, are in a unique position in our society. You have a precious opportunity, and an important responsibility: in explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity…

As responses from the Muslim community came in, the Secretary found himself in a real pickle—accused of being Islamophobic.

One Muslim leader said he could not understand—despite a clear Koranic mandate for violence—if Pickles was “really suggesting…that Muslims are detached from mainstream society.”

Demands were made Pickles apologize.

The Secretary’s carefully worded letter was simply a call for imams to downplay extremism. Their response was predictable—at least to those of us who understand how Muslim advocates play the game. It was predictable because what Pickles was asking involved changing the unchangeable.

Many of Islam’s basic tenets conflict with British culture and law. But most disturbing is that, when such conflict results in human rights abuses under U.K. law, they go unchallenged by authorities, fearing they be called Islamophobic.

Such is seen in regards to the crime of child sexual exploitation.

Kern cited findings in the August 2014 Alexis Jay report that noted, in the town of Rotherham, hundreds of new cases had emerged of child sexual exploitation. Muslim gangs orchestrated most of the crimes, but political correctness concerns swayed authorities from taking action, lest the Islamophobia flag be raised.

Additionally, Female Genital Mutilation, despite being a crime in the U.K., is known to be prevalent as numerous victims have sought medical care afterwards. Hundreds of new cases have emerged this year.

Despite Muslim prayers being inherently bigoted towards non-Muslims against whom Allah sanctions death for offending him, those challenging Islam’s violent tenets are Islamophobic.

For non-Muslims, the lesson to be taken away from radical Islamists’ message is simple: Accept Islam’s violence and die anyway.

Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war. He is the author of “Bare Feet, Iron Will–Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefields,” “Living the Juche Lie: North Korea’s Kim Dynasty” and “Doomsday: Iran–The Clock is Ticking.” He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.

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