Hat tip Vlad Tepes and Creeping Sharia
Molly Norris was the Seattle cartoonist who had to change her name and go into hiding a few years ago. If you have forgotten the story, Ezra Levant of Canada's Sun News has a reminder. He also interviews Robert Spencer on the question of why we cannot talk about the Islamist threat for what it is.
Speaking of Spencer, yesterday, I cross-posted an an article about the cancellation of his speaking appearance by Worcester, Massachusetts Bishop Robert McManus, who is one of so many Christian (and Jewish) clerics who don't want their flocks to hear the bad news about extremist Islam. Meanwhile, one cleric, in Russia, of all places, does have the courage to speak out.
.http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/moscow-patriarchate-if-we-ignore-islam-it-can-very-easily-bury-us-in-five-or-seven-years/
We need more voices like Archpriest Chaplin and Molly Norris (wherever she is) and less voices like Bishop McManus.
I view Molly Norris sort of like if a cartoonist in the 1930s or even the 1950s made snide, derogatory cartoons about a specific Mafia don, it would be brave in a way, perhaps, if they had a real point to make, and it would be wrong that anyone should be arrogant enough to threaten them with death, or strong enough to get away with it, but it would be understood to be the situation.
ReplyDeleteThe difference is, the Mafia was much more of a threat, then, than the jihadis really are, now, albeit both have managed to pull of some murders.
To say that jihadis (or radical/extremist Islamists, or whatever is politically correct these days) have managed to pull off "some" murders is quite an understatement, perhaps even a gross one. All you have to do is contrast how many murders they have been responsible for in the past, and are committing even today, with how many the Mafia ever even dreamed of committing. To credit Siarlys with the quote, that is comparing "apples and horseapples".
ReplyDeleteJihadis killed 3000 people in about an hour and a half on 09/11/2001 alone. Close to 10,000 U.S. troops have been killed, and MANY more wounded, in Afghanstan/Iraq alone to date. A significant percentage of these military casualties, possibly even a majority, are, I believe and understand, at the hands of jihadis.
It gets murky in that part of the world, and numbers and actors vary depending on who you read (Iraq Body Count, Iraqi government, United Nations, etc.), but something approximating at least 7000-10,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in both 2008 and 2013, with fewer (sometimes maybe half that number and sometimes more) killed each year between 2009-2012.
This translates to a probable civilian death toll in Iraq of something like 28,000-40,000 for 2008-2013, with of course additional thousands of civilian deaths occurring between the start of the war through 2007 which I have been unable to quantitate to my satisfaction sufficient to mention here. Again, I realize that not all of these deaths are due to jihadis (some are due to "friendly fire" and other causes), but a significant number certainly are.
If the Mafia was ever killing thousands of people a year, every year, in the 1930's-1950's, I certainly missed it. It is most certainly not happening now. Accordingly, I am unable to fathom exactly how the Mafia was more of a threat back then than the jihadis are now.
elwood, if you want to discuss international warfare, regular or asymmetrical, then we could compare the jihadis with the Khmer Rouge, or the Hutu militia in Rwanda, or "ethnic cleansing" in what used to be Yugoslavia.
ReplyDeleteBut Gary was talking about a conspiracy to take over the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Germany... and the threat of a breakdown in law, order and liberty from within our own borders.
Mixing apples and horseapples doesn't quite cover your confusion, since all of the above are serious violations of human decency and good order. But, are we talking about quasi-military actions across national borders, or are we talking about criminal conspiracy within a reasonably intact nation-state?
There is a difference.
Siarlys--I am not the confused one. I was not discussing international warfare or anything else that you mention, and wonder why you throw this stuff into the game.
ReplyDeleteMy point, which you appear to have missed (again), was that your statement relative to the Mafia being more dangerous at any time, then or now, than jihadis currently are, was inaccurate. That's all.