There are many afflictions upon mankind that can be identified in qualified terms; corruption in politics, nihilism in philosophy, behavior in culture and everything from murder to simony in religion. Collectively, those areas of affliction could complement the fullness of society.
Today, we are looking at a predatory affliction that I see as a social affliction; a social disease, if you will. I call it Islamophilia. Given the ardor in negotiating against any examination of Islamic development, I look at this situation as a new chic - among some it has even become a radical chic; not unlike body piercing or tattoos, or the hirsuteness of the Sixties, and I term it impassioned Islamophilia. Let me emphasize I’m looking at its goal of totality.
Now, the last thing I’m going to do is look at Western History and let it off with five “Our Fathers” and five “Hail Mary’s”. But before historical mavens get all excited, let me remind us all that we have labored and campaigned to exorcise our demons; and we do yet. Clio, that Muse of History, bears a pretty hefty conscience.
And, before I sound as though I’m going to lecture, let me advise you, I have no such license.
In recent years we have been issued by the victim industry a new term: “Islamophobia” It’s been taken as the new secular sin. It is hurled about when one merely questions the appropriateness of the application of anything that is even remotely associated with Muslims as pertains to politics (world, national or provincial), philosophical, cultural or religious (again, I admit to my broad brush of the social). Even questioning text-books, mandatory diet inclusions to zoning ordinances in which the slightest inference of an Islamic factor is harshly challenged. It’s as though a fire was set.
Now, we’ll all rally to fight fires, but this victim element is pretty well lobbied. (They have contracted into their alarm systems professional “Jakes”.) We can look at the various associates that make up the advocacy for Muslims - From the Muslim Brotherhood subsidiaries to the corps of prison chaplains. And we can look at our fellows who find themselves unwittingly carrying their water.
I’m not going to fool myself in thinking that by the aforementioned some won’t already be arming themselves with constitutional arguments, UN mandates, and mollifications of noted clergy, sociologists, historians, intellectuals, the spiritual lottery players and cab-drivers.
Surely, it might appear that I’m brewing up a great storm cloud. So be it.
Go ahead. Indulge yourselves. Be outraged over “Islamophobia“. But remember, a phobia is an irrational fear, a sense of an alien terror that is not germane to reality. Fear, even irrational fear - phobia - is best defeated by courage. Are we afraid? Or are we just scared of our own prostituted system? Are we complacent in security or afraid to look at the vulnerability in our character and/or in our integrity (as we find it today)? (Interesting, we paved the country with diplomas and we misuse a simple term such as “phobia”.)
Again, “Fear, even irrational fear - phobia - is best defeated by courage.”
What I see as more at stake is the danger of impassioned, predatory and infectious Islamophilia.
Each qualifier I’ve used is familiar in day to day parlance. Impassioned: base drives that neutralize the sense of risk. Predatory: overpowering the unfit or weak; intellectually or bodily. Infectious: metastasizing progress that when unchecked, less than suitably scanned, or sourced (as in history) becomes the dominant pathology.
There is high risk to the uninformed, the impassioned, the addicted and the social climbing radical chic when encountering infectious maladies. By the mere factor of human fallibility, we accept these tendencies. (‘He who has the stones, sin first!’) And failing to look at the devastation of earlier plagues only enhances the odds to strike again. One can trace the devastations of social diseases to before Muhammad’s first wife’s first headache. From apathy to deraignment, from lesions to fevers; records have survived. It’s not always been the poor and ignorant to succumb. The royal to the clergy, as well have fallen. It’s the novel and the unusual; from pills to mushrooms, from the ceremonial to the furtive.
Today, Islamophilia is being both chaperoned and pimped by the mercenary and elitist elements. Their minions are pushing the virus multipliers, relaxing the anti-toxins, pushing coupons to the red-light districts of their mosques and cultural exchange banks, and sponsoring free concert tickets to hear the malodorous words of the Sura’s; so romantic. So impassioning, So chic. And so historical. But , a history we don’t have to relive.
Remember: 1. Blind passion has fostered, even incubated, many a social disease. 2. Again, “Fear, even irrational fear - phobia - is best defeated by courage.” 3. And this is critical: While we may express concern over all this; while it was developing right here, we were right here.
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