Bud Talkinghorn: Jousting with Jihadis

In the deep end of the denial pool

Despite al-Qaeda reiterating that the reason they want to slaughter us is because we are immoral, decadent infidels, the left-wing media tries to find other 'root causes". It is our neo-colonial oppression, our cultural insensitivity, or our Iraq policy, they keep maintaining. However, all one has to understand is that al-Qaeda desires world-wide conversion to their primitive beliefs. This is why they have no compunction about killing non-Sunni Muslims or even moderate Sunnis. Just to prove that they have an never-ending list of enemies, they bombed Sharm al-Sheikh in Eygpt. While they could have targetted only the infidel tourists, they also chose to destroy a cafe loaded with poor Eygptian labourers and a hotel favoured by Arab tourists. The vast majority of the victims did not even agree with the Iraq war. Some of the European victims had probably even demonstrated against it. Part of the fundamentalist's reasoning' is to destroy the Eygptian tourist trade, this being the sixth attack on that industry. In their minds an improverished Egypt is fertile grounds for fundamentalism. Regardless of the evidence, the liberal press will still maintain that Bush and Blair are the cause of London's bombings.

I leave you with a final example of al-Qaeda's various twisted motivations. The Madrid train bombings worked magic in getting Spain to withdraw their troops from Iraq. Therefore, one would think mission accomplished, so they would leave Spain off their future target list. But no, within a week the Spanish found a huge railside bomb primed to go off and destroy another train. And when the police tracked down the major cell responsible, the terrorists blew themselves up with stored explosives. Their plans, found in the wrecked apartment, showed an imminent attack on various famous Madrid landmarks. The Iraqi appeasement was just a starter. The Spanish were still the same infidels who had driven them out of Andalusia half a millenium ago. The Muslim reconquist would take a lot more atrocities to obtain. The socialist Spanish government's response was to encourage more Muslim immigration from North African countries. Some might consider this a moronic response, or even a step down to an imbecilic response.

As Rex Murphy opined in The Globe and Mail of Saturday, July 23rd, George Bush was right about one thing, "This is a war." It is one that pits a regressive branch of Islam against the entire world of infidels. Be you a Thai, a Filippino, a moderate Jordanian ruler, a Brit, or a Canadian, you are the enemy. The civilized world must understand that nothing short of conversion to their twisted beliefs will spare them terrorism. Forget appealing to logical solutions to this curse, the enemy must simply be identified and eliminated. It will be a dirty war, fought with unconventional methods. Let the Israelis be our guide, as they have a proven track record of dealing with terroist-supporting nations all around them. And as Britain and France have shown, the enemy is right here amongst us. The terrorist cells, their missionaries, and their enablers, must be routed out, even if it means temporarily employing draconian laws. Canada cannot wait until we reach a state like England's, where a poll shows that the majority of its Islamic citizens consider British culture depraved and immoral, or where 6% polled believed the London bombings were justified.

© Bud Talkinghorn



Canada's imams--Between the rhetoric and the reality, falls the shadow

For years Canadians have been kept in the dark about what transpires in our Islamic mosques and cultural centers. Occasionally, we hear of al-Qaeda members being connected to this or that mosque, usually in Toronto or Vancouver. Then there are the statements issued by Mr. Elmasry, the head of The Canadian Islamic Congress, who thinks it is permissible to include all Israelis over 18 in suicide attacks. In The National Post (July, 25 A-14) there is a column by John-Turley Ewart which exposes the real beliefs of certain imams. Using a Toronto Star investigative report, he points out that Wahhabism, with its intolerant and misogynist doctrines, has invaded numerous mosques. It names the culprits. There is an imam of Toronto's Madina Mosque preaching that women must cover-up their entire bodies and that after the 9/11 attacks that "everyone must do what they can to help their brethern fight the struggle against the infidels." I wonder if this is one of the imam's that Jean Chretien commiserated with? "Similar messages were conveyed in a mosque in Markham, where one 18 year old said that liberal Muslims didn't understand that "fundamentalism is the true, intended practice of Islam." I don't think I would want to meet him on a subway. The most vocal and dangerous imam though is Aly Hindi of the Wahhabist Salaheddin Mosque in Scarborough. He has made various apologies for Islamic terrorism. He also refused to sign along with the other imams a declaration against terrorist attacks. His mosque has been implicated in sleeper cells and active al-Qaeda actions. Yet he is still allowed to carry on, probably through some warped sense of 'diversity'.

The Muslim community has come to its Rubicon. They left their benighted countries to come to a democratic, open society. It is their duty to embrace these principles, not to demand Sharia law be implimented here. One has only to read the barbaric edicts which are handed out under this legal code to realize that it has no place in Canada. Recently, the highest Sharia court in India demanded that a woman, who was raped by her father-in-law, must divorce her husband and marry him. Or that a raped woman must produce four male witnesses before her claim would be acted on. As one moderate Muslim in India said, "What is this? The Stone Age?" Most Canadians would echo his comment. The war against Islamic extremist thought is not only between the non-believers and the fundamentalists, it is also, more importantly, an internal war within the Muslim body itself. The cancerous tumours must be excised. Nobody more than the moderate Muslims knows where they are located.

© Bud Talkinghorn



India and Pakistan--a contrast in cultures and futures

It would be instructive for the Muslim extremists to guage the different levels of development in these two countries. India, which languished in the world's economic backwaters for most of the 20th century, has suddenly emerged as a dynamo of economic advancement. It is being heralded as a rival to China. That does not mean that there are not huge problems that still confront it such as the caste system and mass poverty. However, the new leaders see these problems and are trying to alleviate them--albeit, slowly. Still, there is a large middle class, well versed in technology, that has come on stream. Great efforts have been made to accomodate the various religious groups that make up the country, and thus end sectarian strife which hindered progress.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Pakistan. There you have a huge illiterate population that is ever more being seduced by the regressive ideologies of the fundamentalists. They supported the Afghani Taliban not only militarily, but spiritually, as well. Along with terrorist actions against the minority Shi'ites, cities like Karachi have sporadic violence between different Sunni clans. Many educated Pakistanis are fleeing to the West, where there is some hope of escaping the incipient collapse to come. The peasantry left behind are resentful, but are so indoctrinated with anti-Western / anti-progress beliefs that all they can do is lash out blindly at their fate. As they stew in their impotence, the demands to return to that good old time religion grow. The young men realize that they are going nowhere, so they plump up their egos by pushing their womenfolk into deeper subservience. Forget educating half your population, it is far better to shove them into a burqa and keep them indoors. Birth control, of course, is but another Western plot, so the number of kids born into dire poverty and ignorance continues to grow. From a fundamentalist viewpoint that is all for the good. A whole new pool of 'deadenders' is added to the pool of jihadis. General Musharraf is aware of all these omens and wants to thwart them, but it is an up-hill battle against Wahhabism and demographics. In a way, like the Saudis, they are now realizing their mistake in giving the Wahhabis free rein to proselytize during the Russian-Afghan war. It has returned to haunt them. Pakistan now joins North Korea nd Iran as the world's nightmare states.

© Bud Talkinghorn



Life in the moron lane

Our culture is being dumbed down at a rapid rate. The proof of this is evidenced on a daily basis. Newspapers admit that they have to present their information on a grade eight level. When asked why this was so, one editor said, possibly sarcastically, "So our university graduates can understand it." Of course when you have kids shunted from grade to grade so "they won't feel traumatized" by failure, then by extension, you have to have massive grade inflation at the university level. I am old enough to remember when Time, and Macleans used to produce articles that covered a page or two--that actually delved into the complexity of a subject. Now, however, we see these mini-articles that rarely get past the gist of the subject. Television, with its cluster bombs of senseless, male-bashing ads, is the perfect medium for people who have the attention span of a gnat. I suspect that one of the reasons that PBS has such a low audience is that it demands sustained attention for 50 minutes. Finally, stores are taking the immensely popular video game, Grand Theft Auto, taken off the shelves. Not, mind you, because of the mindless mayhem, but because they might contain sexual images embedded in them. Murders, carjackings, and assaults are fine entertainment for our youth, but sex will mar their tender psyches forever. Maybe I am a hopeless old fogey, but these violent video games are enough of a 'fear factor ' for me.

On the political front, will the morons stop equating the world-wide Islamic terrorism with the situation in Palestine? The Islamic violence in Thailand, Dagestan, India, Spain, and Algeria have nothing to do with that conflict. The Muslim world doesn't even want the Palesinians to win. They want to use them so their people can focus externally and won't look at the mess at home, which could lead to a revolt. Besides which, the West could not militarily side with either contestant without enormous reprecussions.

© Bud Talkinghorn--I think I will calm down by watching Dumb and Dumber.




Eternal terrorism

It makes you wonder what's next on the terrorist front. Will the Cargo Cult believers of The New Hebrides declare war on us because the sky god has stopped parachuting cases of spam to them from the heavens as they did in 1944-45? Without question it can be linked to that Satanic nation America. Will they be placated if we stop laughing at them, and drop crates of Cheetos instead?

© Bud Talkinghorn

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