Must-See TV: Allen West Slams Islamist Propanganda
BY Glen Tschirgi
13 years, 10 months ago
Via The Shark Tank comes this video of a town-hall meeting at which Rep. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Allen West responds to the familiar baiting by Council on American Islamic Relations’ executive, Nezar Hamze.
The video needs to be seen to be believed. West is the real deal. If half of our Congressmen and women could be so grounded in truth, it would make The Long War much, much shorter.
Enough said. Watch the video.
Notice what Rep. West does not do: he does not try to play the sickening political correctness games that pander to the sensitivities of those that wish to do us harm; he does not qualify his remarks; he does not equivocate. And notice the reaction of the crowd. They instantly recognize and respond to this singular man. It is like a long drink of ice cold Coke after an August two-a-day football practice. We owe the voters of the 22nd District of Florida our gratitude.
Can you imagine this man as C-in-C? What would he have to say to those Somali pirates who executed four Americans recently?
Lest anyone think that Allen West got off a lucky shot at Hamze’s expense, I invite readers to watch his inspiring keynote address at the 2011 CPAC convention in Washington, D.C., via The Right Scoop.
Leaders such as this give me hope that we may yet turn this thing around.
And this is precisely why the liberal media is going to go after West with everything they have.
Expect to see them digging up dirt everywhere they can find it, or, if they cannot find it, making up the dirt and endlessly repeating it. Expect the liberal media to run stories on West’s family, disgruntled soldiers who served under him, questionable command decisions he made in Iraq. Expect him to be accused of racism, sexism, islamophobia, homophobia and drowning kittens for fun. The liberal media goes for the jugular whenever a conservative stands up and talks directly, candidly and factually. The Left is already targeting him in 2012.
I am officially reserving my seat on the Allen West For President bandwagon.
|
|
On February 25, 2011 at 12:36 am, Rick said:
Glen,
Is it OK if I sit next to you on the bus. I have been watching Lt Col. West since before he ran for office and love what he has to say.
On February 27, 2011 at 12:06 am, anan said:
Glen, we disagree.
Allen West did not do a good job in that clip.
There are 1.5 billion muslims. There is a civil war in the muslim world. AQ linked terrorists have killed hundreds of thousands of muslims around the world. As part of that civil war, AQ attacked America, one of many many non muslim majority countries it has attacked.
The cheapest way to defeat AQ linked networks is to support and strengthen the large numbers of muslims who hate AQ linked networks more than we do. How exactly did Allen West do this in the clip you linked to?
Try to think about this from the standpoint of muslims. Osama Bin Laden killed thousands of muslim civilians in his first large massacre in Gilgit Kashmir in 1988. The world didn’t give a damn. After all they were “darkies” and “Kashmiris” and “Shiites.” Some said maybe the Kashmiris deserved Osama Bin Laden massacring them.
And then when the same Osama Bin Laden with many of the same allies attacks New York in 2001, again killing thousands, the world reaction is very different.
Why? Many muslims see it as hypocrisy and double standards. This is what fuels resentment on the part of many muslims towards Americans, the world’s 5 billion nonmuslims, and for that matter resentment against many fellow muslims.
Al Qaeda linked networks have many enemies around the world. If all of us coordinated better against our common enemy, the affect on them would be devastating.
Allen West needs to focus on defeating the greatest enemy first–the Takfiri extremists and all their permutations. He needs to put aside his conflicts with other anti AQ groups, in the interests of defeating AQ. Afterwards he can fight with anti Al Qaeda groups all he wants. [In some cases he has good cause for fighting Al Qaeda’s fiercest enemies. But this should be delayed until after Al Qaeda is defeated.]
One specific way he can help would be to visit Turkey and ask them how they can contribute more towards defeating AQ/Taliban in Afghanistan. Allen West heads the anti Turkish lobby in Congress. His going to Turkey could facilitate a larger Turkish commitment to Afghanistan.
On February 27, 2011 at 6:04 am, David M said:
Anan, I am not sure what anything you said has to do with West and how he addressed this representative of CAIR.
My conclusion is it has nothing to do with it whatsoever.
On February 27, 2011 at 10:57 am, anan said:
David M:
West said “You attacked us.” If he is going to use that language he should very explicitly clarify that “us” means more than 5 billion non muslims and most of the world’s 1.5 billion muslims. West should also clarify that “You” means the minority of small percentage of muslims that are at war with the large majority of muslims and the world’s 1.5 billion muslims.
West also appeared to be attacking the Koran in that clip in a way that would offend fiercely anti Al Qaeda muslims. Why?
The historic events West described did happen, but he could have presented them differently. West could have described the massacre of fellow muslims by Takfiri extremists from 632 AD to the present. He could have also mentioned the massacres of non muslims by muslim extremists that he cited and juxtaposed them together, describing the Takfiri extremists as anti muslims blasphemers that were a major threats to nonmuslims and muslims alike. West could have called for all of us to unite against our common shared enemy.
I don’t know Nezar Hamze, Executive Director of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), well enough to know if he was being authentic or trying to incite West by being a jerk. Let us assume Hamze was trying to be a jerk [which I am not sure was the case.] If so, West could have incited Nezar by implying that he was on the side of the Takfiri extremists who were trying to commit genocide against both fellow muslims and the world’s 5 billion muslims.
My perception of West’s clip was that he was implying that the Koran allows violent attacks against non muslims, as well as suggesting that there might be a broader conflict between muslims and non muslims.
Wouldn’t a better way to respond be to cite passages from the Koran that deplore violence and to insist that AQ linked terrorists and Takfiris were blasphemers insulting Islam by claiming to be muslims?
Also note how West says AQ uses the term “Allah Akbar” before engaging in terrorism . . .or “God is Great.” Well, didn’t the ISF fighting shoulder to shoulder with American GIs use the term “Allah Akbar” before charging the enemy in Iraq? Don’t ANA, and the many muslim other muslim allies in Afghanistan use the term “Allah Akbar” when they fight the Taliban? The problem isn’t that muslims say “God is Great.”
David M, try to see the clip from the perspective of a practicing muslim who doesn’t know or understand westerners.
Granted, you can say that the clip is out of context. True.
On February 27, 2011 at 7:46 pm, Glen Tschirgi said:
Thanks for the comment, Anan. I am not sure whether we truly disagree or not.
First, as you mentioned in your comment, the clip is a very short one, focused specifically on what I think can fairly be described as baiting by the exec. director from CAIR. Without seeing the entire town hall video, it is impossible to know, but it does not seem like Hamze was responding to anything West said, but was making a statement of his own, out of the blue with the idea of putting West on the spot. It was a cheap stunt. That is the perspective I am coming from and the one that I think West, ultimately, came from as well.
Second, if you listen to West’s entire response, he is very pointed in saying that he, personally, put his own life and limb on the line in Iraq defending muslims, so he should be given the benefit of the doubt that he is not “islamophobic” or anti-muslim or decrying all muslims everywhere without regard to distinction between takfiris and so-called “true muslims.” I think your sensitivity meter may be dialed in a little too high if you take such great offense at how West responded to an outright attack on his personal honor and integrity. Or, as West more colorfully put it, an attempt to “blow sunshine up my butt.”
I don’t disagree, Anan, that the best way to defeat the extreme islamofascist ideology is for muslims to rally against it themselves and anything the West can do to aid in that battle is worthwhile. But as long as you are talking about looking at things from the others’ point of view, consider the American perspective. While you claim that there is a massive civil war going on within Islam as a whole, most Americans do not see much evidence of it. What we see, if I may speak collectively for a moment as you do, is a group of terrorists whose philosophy seems to be that the Koran must be read and applied quite literally as it was in the 7th or 8th Century when muslims were triumphant throughout the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe. They believe that when the Koran says that the infidel must be subdued and brought under muslim rule, by whatever means necessary, they really mean it. And, furthermore, Americans see that this belief, far from being an isolated interpretation confined to cave-dwelling loons in the FATA of Pakistan is actually preached far and wide under the Wahhabi schools, all over the world. It is lavishly funded by the Saudis on one side and by the Iranians on the other. It is accepted and pronounced by perhaps the most influential islamic university in Egypt. It is the cornerstone of the Muslim Brotherhood that is no fringe group as you well know.
What do Americans see on the other side? Do we see anything like the kind of massive protests and vociferous denunciations that you would find if there was a group of people claiming to be christians who did the sort of things that the Islamofascists do? I am afraid not. I am not aware of a single march in the U.S. that unambiguously denounces Al Qaeda, Wahhabism, anti-semitism, anti-americanism etc… Americans do not see or hear of any muslim youth making strident condemnations of the muslim student groups that subscribe to the version of Islam advocated by the so-called “extremists.”
I find it offensive, Anan, that muslims, anywhere in the world, could doubt the good will and sincere intentions of the U.S. after the amount of blood and treasure we have sacrificed to free literally MILLIONS of muslims from oppression all over the world. If there is any country in the history of the world that can truly be called “good” by any reasonable standard it would be the United States. For you to suggest that muslims at large resent and hate the U.S. because it responded more forcefully to an attack on its homeland than it did to an attack by Al Qaeda against Kashmiris is, if at all true, an indication of just how out of touch muslims at large must be. I hope that you are wrong.
Americans would like to believe that most muslims do not support the Islamofascists. So far, however, in poll after poll, there is a small but still disturbing number of muslims that live in the West who do express at least sympathy with (if not outright support of) the terrorists.
So when I hear Allen West respond to a cheap stunt by CAIR to set him up by listing the reasons why it is not unreasonable for Americans to consider Islam to support violence and oppression, I applaud him for his courage and acumen. There is always time and other forums for West to talk about efforts to reform Islam into something that can live peacefully in the modern world and purge the evil of wahhabism, but that town hall meeting was not the time or place. Frankly, I think the burden is on muslims to prove their moderation and peaceful intentions by doing far, far more to stamp out the evils of wahhabism. It can start by purging every American mosque of any imam or other teacher who espouses anything like the wahhabist creed. I guarantee you that if there was any church minister in America that spouted the vile stuff of islamofascism they would be looking for work elsewhere (and having a tough time finding it).
On February 27, 2011 at 10:58 am, anan said:
“West could have incited Nezar by implying that he was on the side of the Takfiri extremists who were trying to commit genocide against both fellow muslims and the world’s 5 billion NONmuslims.”