Support the civilized man

Pamela Geller, the executive director of the The American Freedom Defense Initiative, has it right. Her organization’s pro-Israel posters are in 10 New York City subway stations after a federal judge ruled that the city must put them up. The ads read: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”

New York’s MTA transportation agency barred the ads last year, citing “demeaning language.” However, a Manhattan federal court judge ruled in July that the MTA violated the First Amendment rights of AFDI, the group behind the ads.

Geller boldly fought for freedom of expression on CNN and blamed the network for being part of the problem. “Your position is emboldening Islamic terrorism and emboldening extremism because you’re sanctioning it...you’re blaming the victim,” she told Erin Burnett.

Burnett attempted to push the interpretation of “jihad” as a “personal struggle,” implying that Geller is taking an extreme stance in her ads. What Burnett and, likely, most CNN viewers do not get, is that “jihad” today is used in the context of “holy war” against non-believers. It may have been intended to be used in a more peaceful context, but clearly Islam has changed.

In an interview with The New York Times before his trip to New York, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said, “the US must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.”

It may have been Hassan al-Banna, the Egyptian intellectual, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, but it was Sayyid Qutb who took the organization’s ideology to the next level. After spending a few short years in the US, Qutb returned to Egypt with an inflated hatred for Western culture. His distaste for the Western way of life drove him and his followers toward increased radicalism.

In the National Review, Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, writes, “Islamists are inspired by Hassan al-Banna...who declared, simply and plainly, that ‘it is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its laws on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.’” Considering Morsi is a member of the Brotherhood, his words are chilling. This is a man who belongs to a group which, as its core belief, maintains that “Islam is the solution.”

Even more worrying is the West’s inability to gain a proper perspective and understanding of radical Islamic ideology. The West seems to believe that “most Muslims are peaceful” and, considering that there are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, this may just be the case. However, if just 10 percent of Muslims – 130 million people, that is – follow radical Islam, the world is in trouble. Put simply, radical Islam seeks to slowly take control of the world and bring it to submission.

THE LEVEL of hatred for the Western world, especially Israel, should be of great concern for all those who believe the Muslim world is changing for the better.

In August, numerous news outlets reported on the Egyptian show in which Arab celebrities and public figures had been invited under the pretense that they would appear on an Arabic-speaking German network.

When the deception began, the guests were unnerved after they were tricked into believing that the show airs on an Israeli channel.

The host fooled guests into believing she was of Jewish origin.

Some of the guests responded with anti- Israeli slurs and violence. When Egyptian actor Ayman Kandeel believed he had been tricked into appearing on an Israeli television network, he smacked the show’s producer and slapped the female host, throwing her into a corner.

And Morsy thinks the world should accept this “culture”? And CNN thinks jihadists aren’t savages? What culture maintains honor killings as a rightful practice? What culture becomes enraged by silly depictions of Muhammad but snores when thousands of innocent men, women and children are actually dying? Only a twisted, savage culture would operate in such a manner.

The world ignores wars fought between savages. Just look at Syria. Look at Africa.

IT IS this savage culture that the Western world is trying to appease. And it will fail.

Morsy is further attempting to manipulate the US by demanding that Washington help establish a Palestinian state in order to overcome anger directed towards it in the Arab world.

Given President Barack Obama’s past actions during his term in office so far, it is easy to assume that he will attempt to appease the Arab world by turning his back on Israel – an unwise move.

Rewind to March 2010 when Obama snubbed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, leaving him to sit alone in the Roosevelt Room. Clearly, Obama thought he could placate Israel’s enemies by displaying callousness toward Israel.

And the administration has recently made attempts to placate the Arab world by covering up radical extremism in Libya and Egypt.

Stephen F. Hayes, writing for The Weekly Standard, highlighted US efforts to spin what was happening in Libya in an attempt to trick the public into thinking the pre-planned attack was actually just the spontaneous act of individuals.

In “How to Send Egypt a Message” David Schenker and Eric Trager from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy outline what they believe is the correct approach to dealing with Egypt today.

They write: “Morsi’s reticence comes as little surprise. The Muslim Brotherhood has a history of antipathy toward the US and its allies. Morsi himself is a well-documented 9/11 ‘truther’ and, under his leadership, Egypt has made unprecedented diplomatic overtures to Iran... Morsi’s visit to the US is an opportunity for Washington to deliver a similarly unvarnished message: Inciting potentially violent protests against the United States is the act of a rogue, not an ally.”

May, Hayes, Schenker, Trager and Geller are all on the mark. As Geller says, any war on innocent civilians is savagery. The West needs to stop apologizing to the Muslim world, get behind Israel and defeat jihad.