Among his other coy evasions, President Obama described tonight's events as "an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share".But in fact -- as I learn from a roundup of reports on the Paris attacks at London's Telegraph -- peaceful French Muslims were targets of this attack as well:
But that's not true, is it? He's right that it's an attack not just on Paris or France. What it is is an attack on the west, on the civilization that built the modern world - an attack on one portion of "humanity" by those who claim to speak for another portion of "humanity". And these are not "universal values" but values that spring from a relatively narrow segment of humanity. They were kinda sorta "universal" when the great powers were willing to enforce them around the world and the colonial subjects of ramshackle backwaters such as Aden, Sudan and the North-West Frontier Province were at least obliged to pay lip service to them. But the European empires retreated from the world, and those "universal values" are utterly alien to large parts of the map today.
And then Europe decided to invite millions of Muslims to settle in their countries. Most of those people don't want to participate actively in bringing about the death of diners and concertgoers and soccer fans, but at a certain level most of them either wish or are indifferent to the death of the societies in which they live - modern, pluralist, western societies and those "universal values" of which Barack Obama bleats. So, if you are either an active ISIS recruit or just a guy who's been fired up by social media, you have a very large comfort zone in which to swim, and which the authorities find almost impossible to penetrate.
"I take my morning coffee here every day," said Tania Press, pointing to Le Carillon bar and hotel, where the gunman burst in staying the evening's clientele with bullets....Also:
She pointed out the awful irony of suspected Islamist terrorists targeting Le Carillon - which is owned by Algerians and staffed exclusively by waiters of North African origin.
"All Muslims who work here and own this place," she said. "But that seems to have made no difference to these people...."
The owner of Paname Restaurant and cafe, just down the road from [a] Cambodian restaurant [that was also targeted], said he saw five dead bodies after the attack.Steyn says Muslims in the West "either wish [for] or are indifferent to the death of the societies in which they live." That's garbage. People live and work and take care of business in their own lives. Steyn wants them to be heroes and intervene in activities about which they may or may not have the slightest inkling, at great risk to themselves, and wants to damn them as traitors to the countries in which they live if they fail to stop terrorist attacks that even the police and intelligence services can't seem to stop.
Karim Kachour said he heard the gun shots from his cafe around 9.30pm....
"I saw five dead bodies on the terrace, it was awful. A terrible situation....
"I am a hard-working Muslim but these terrorists are not Muslims - not in my name."
The Paname Restaurant opened this morning at 11am and Karim said he would not let the terrorists scare him.
"We have opened as normal," he said. "We won't let them stop us from carrying on with our lives."
I feel solidarity with these restaurant workers. The West I want to live in is a West that's both peaceful and multicultural.
Iyad El-Baghdadi, an Arab Spring activist and opponent of radicalization, tweeted this:
ISIS's goal from their own publication. A black & white world. What they call "grayzone" is our coexistence zone. pic.twitter.com/dDPqigam4t
— Iyad El-Baghdadi (@iyad_elbaghdadi) November 14, 2015The restaurant workers live and work in the grayzone. The grayzone is what we need to sustain.
The jihadists want to destroy the grayzone. Mark Steyn thinks we're deluding ourselves if we think we can sustain the grayzone.
The grayzone is real. It can endure. It can win out -- but only if we prevent the jihadists and the Mark Steyns of the world from working hand in glove to destroy it.
The Paris attackers were drones with faces. Difference without meaning.
ReplyDelete""The Barbarians Are Inside, and There Are No Gates""
ReplyDelete------------------------
He's absolutely correct. The republican base and the politicians appeasing them are barbarians. They are trying to destroy this country from within in accordance with their fanatical ideology. They do not follow the Christ they "bleat" about constantly, any more than they respect the Constitution they claim to revere. What is the difference between them and ISIS other than degree?
Ok, finally home two months after reconstructive ankle surgery and rehab, and have consistent internet service.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading when I could.
In a lot of pain, still, but healing!
Another two months in a huge metal cast that looks like it was put together by a child with spare Lego parts.
On this subject, please alert me when Mark Steyn gets up off of his fat bigoted ass and does something to stop a white supremacist group from carrying out its terrorist plot in the US.
Until then, he can stfu!
Victoire,
ReplyDeleteCela causerait des visages pour exprimer la surprise, peut-être que xénophobe né à l'étranger, Steyn, vous êtes devenu le leader intellectuel et moral de l'oracle de la bigoterie raciale Premier américaine.
Qu'il ne parvient pas à le faire que, appuie la conclusion que la bigoterie et la xénophobie dormir dans le même lit.
Welcome back, Victor! We missed you -- hope you feel better soon....
ReplyDeleteI'm about to be thankful, again, for using a dubya-deep anonymous online ID. Why? Because this risks being criticized as a quibble - with which I, as always (tho who can know for sure?) take issue.
ReplyDeleteI've read a fair amount of what Iyan El-Bagdhadi has published about salafist jihadism. Suffice to to say, he's laid out, numerous times, a compelling case that it's a byrpoduct of SUNNI Islam, and among the phenomena which sustain its particular virulence is that each of it's two distinct flavors - radical religious Salafist jihadism, and government and/or rulng class (in KSA and in KSA's ME oil market enabling satellites, Kuwait & Dubai included), acts to support and sustain the oteher.
But note, he, too, AGAIN, for whatever reason, makes the overly common error of conflating ISIS with Daesh. The NYTimes today, in its lead story, does the same, as it does routinely; indeed, the Times puts the term as coming from the mouth of President Hollande when it in fact did not. Hollande's statement specifically state "Daesh", which certainly has a claim to being largely indistinguishable from ISIL. But he does not and did not say ISIS - tho the Times, the Grey Lady, the so-called register of history, records that he did.
The more we throw all of Islam into one big bag, the more we risk popular confusion and THUS political response turning anti-Islam. Salafism, and the return of the Caliphate, are SUNNI delusions. There was not a single Shi'a participant in the 9/11 attacks - not one; all of them were Sunnis, and all born in countries that are and have historically been allies of the US, or contiguous with those allies: principally, Saudi Arabia, Eqypt, Yemen & Jordan.
The second S in ISIS stands for Syria. The L in ISIL stands for Levant. This Salafism is unarguably IN Syria, just see the war; but it isn't oriented to Syria, rather it is oriented to the entire Levant, and from there out into the world of easy terror targets. As much as anyone, it's rich Saudis who own soccer teams and shop in London, who are backing Daesh, & the same who largely backed 9/11.
Fuck me: this will do not good at all.
Oh for the love of ... even the MSNBC translator did it. Hollande said "Daesh". but the freaking TRANSLATOR says in English, "ISIS". And the MSNBC chiron goes along, as well as the MSNBC host/news reader, and Mediaite, and so on down the disordered turtles.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it did good.
ReplyDeleteIt helped me to better understand the underlying issues.
So, thanks!
You're objectively pro-ISIS, Steve. Steyn, on the other hand, nails it. Islam is not a religion of peace, and the multiculturalism you espouse is national suicide. It's already happening in Europe. You want it to happen here. Hopefully progs will be the first to be struck down when we have our Mumbai.
ReplyDeleteOut in the hinterlands there is already a sizable collection of dot connections drawing a consensus that this is yet false flag staged by those with a vested interest in the ongoing war and genocide in the middle east and in a position to get away with it.
ReplyDeleteIS, a quasi-state at war with numerous parties, has claimed responsibility for the attack, and stated it was in retaliation for French bombing attacks on IS. The explanation is eminently plausible and I see no reason to go into the Steyn/Geller sewers looking for more exotic ones.
ReplyDeleteLet me help Mark Steyn out here:
ReplyDeleteAnd then Americans decided to allow millions of guns to be unregulated in its society. Most of those gun-owners don't want to participate actively in bringing about the death of diners and concertgoers and soccer fans, but at a certain level most of them are indifferent to the death of the societies in which they live - modern, pluralist, western societies and those "universal values" of which Barack Obama speaks. So, if you are either an active Open Carry proponent, an NRA nut, or just a guy who's been fired up by social media, you have a very large comfort zone in which to swim, and which the authorities find almost impossible to penetrate.
Donald Douglas, we've already had our Mumbai. We have a Mumbai every year. Here's the list for 2015:
ReplyDeletehttp://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015
Aunt Snow, no, don't conflate gun deaths with Islamic terrorism.
ReplyDeleteI swear, leftists lose their minds when it comes to Islam. You people are afraid of your own shadows. You're afraid to face facts, that we are at war with Islamism, and they're going to bring it home to mainland U.S.A. It's not a "gun control" issue. It's a jihad issue. Please make a note of it.
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ReplyDeleteNo, Donald, it's the Regards that are the pussies, scared of childhood boogymen, scared of shadows.
ReplyDeleteYou want to step outside? I'm no lefty, no peace freak. I'm just against War, based on personal experience. I would be happy to meet with you.
Donald, you aren't making senses. Leftists aren't showing fear, it's you conservatives that fear The Other - your own comment is an exhibit of that, evoking Mumbai and saying they'll "bring it home" to the mainland.
ReplyDeleteIt is you conservatives, the ones that demonize Islam, who are afraid of their own shadows. You live in fear on a daily basis, stocking your homes with arsenals that are more likely to kill your own family members than any assailant.
And gun deaths ARE terrorism. The motivation of the guy who goes into a movie theatre to kill innocent strangers in order to appease whatever grievance he has against the world is EXACTLY the same as the motivation of the guys who shot up the Bataclan.
If you can't see that, you are blind.
Could be a sign that this blogsite has really 'arrived': now it's got a persistent case of the crabs, uh, little troll dude.
ReplyDeleteThere's only one thing anyone needs to say in response to Donald Douglas: sasquatch israel.
ReplyDeleteUnknown,
ReplyDeleteD. DouglASS lurks here and at other sites all of the time.
Every once in a while he comes out of his armed shack in the basement at the JuCo where (unbelievably) he gets paid to ruin young minds, like some disfiguring, but not terminal, STD.