Bit by Our Own Dog - The Appearance of Terrorist 'Democracy'

International Affairs

Bit by Our Own Dog -
The Appearance of Terrorist 'Democracy'

Toby Westerman

Calls for "democracy" in Egypt and other nations in the Near East are being voiced both by those who actually want a free government, and by fundamentalist Islamic groups hostile to the very thought of popular rule. Islamic militants have already practiced manipulating the democratic process in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now they are ready to extend the process across the Near East.

Signs held high in the streets of Cairo

Catholics have suffered grievous persecution in Iraq since the "democratic" Iraqi government has come to power. In Afghanistan the constitution promises freedom of religion - but within the limits of Muslim (Shariah) law: a Catholic convert from Islam, for instance, risks death. As Egyptians fill the streets of Cairo seeking "democracy" and the radical Muslim Brotherhood is granted political legitimacy (largely thanks to the Obama administration), at least one Christian church has been bombed.

The actions of these militants demonstrate the folly of advancing democratic structures without recognition of the concept of individual human rights. As our Founding Fathers realized, the word "democracy" comes from the ancient Greek word that means both "rule of the people" and "mob rule." For this reason, the Founders included the Bill of Rights into the Constitution of the fledging United States. The majority does not have the unbridled right to inflict its will on the minority.

Ironically, the United States has unwittingly contributed to the undermining of the American concept of human freedom and played into the hands of those who, in reality, hate the idea of human freedom.

The dream of U.S. foreign policy during the administration of George W. Bush was to introduce Western-style democracy into the always simmering cauldron of Near Eastern domestic politics. Iraq was to be the staging area of this democratic offensive against authoritarian fundamentalist Islam.

The strategy worked, but not as we had planned.

After American and allied forces defeated the military of Saddam Hussein, Washington began to implement its plan to undermine authoritarian regimes throughout the Near East. Leaders would be elected, the people would have a say in how they were governed, tyranny was to be a thing of the past. The experts and policy makers in Washington were sure the idea of political freedom would ignite like a prairie fire across the region.

A laudable goal

From the beginning, however, America's dream for Iraq became a nightmare for Iraqi Catholics, one of the oldest Catholic communities in the world. Threats, beatings and killings by the Muslim majority accompanied the establishment of an independent, "democratic" Iraqi government, and drove the number of Catholics in Iraq from some 1.5 million during the time of Saddam's downfall to half that number today.

In the United States, little was said about the plight of the Iraqi Catholics. For the most part, their suffering did not fall into either "Conservative" or "Liberal" (Socialist) party lines. The destruction of the Catholics of Iraq was an embarrassment to the nation builders in Washington, and the Liberal/Socialist camp disdains any real form of belief, especially Christianity.

The remains of a car bomb outside a Baghdad Church

A car bomb explodes outside a Baghdad church

The martyrdom of Iraq's Catholics was a warning signal about the future of democracy in the Muslim world. Freed from the restraints of Saddam's authoritarian and de facto secular regime, fundamentalist Muslims quickly sought to suppress the nation's Christian minority.

The bombed churches, the beatings and outright murder suffered by Iraq's Catholics remains a stark but ignored warning of the dangers of an Islamic democracy influenced by fundamentalist Islam.

Fundamentalist Islam will not yield in its demand that Islam must dominate every established government, and every human being must be subject to Islamic law. These concepts go back to Mohammed (d. 632 A.D.), and those advocating these concepts will not shrink from any method whatsoever to assure Islam's victory.

The concept of "moderate Islam" is new, and arose only when Muslims came into closer contact with advanced and powerful Western societies, especially after World War II. Various Muslims found that they could both follow their religion and improve their lives by adopting Western attitudes of genuine toleration to and cooperation with non-Muslims.

Their fundamentalist co-religionists, however, continue to follow centuries-old traditions of aggression and subjugation of non-Muslims. The practice of subverting the electoral process is simply one more tactic added to the on-going strategy of subduing the non-Muslim world.

Centuries of militant Islamic victories

Mohammed spread his new religion by force of arms, and his successors continued the practice. Brilliant military successes resulted in the subjugation of populations extending from North Africa into Hindu India. Muslim conquests directed against Europe were not halted until 1683 at the gates of the city of Vienna, in the very heart of Europe. Muslim raids into south-central Europe, however, continued until the late 18th century.

Muslim extremists in the streets

The success of Islamic aggression throughout the centuries brought huge numbers of non-Muslim populations under Islamic rule. The skilled use of a combination of outright physical intimidation and subtle daily humiliation resulted in millions converting to Islam.

Revolts were mercilessly crushed, and those non-Muslims who submitted to Islamic law found that they lived as a subservient class, continuously enduring physical and psychological depredations - known by Western academics as "Muslim toleration."

The Near East, Asia Minor (generally, the area of modern Turkey), and North Africa, once centers of intense Christian devotion, eventually became Islamicized. Christians and Jews found that they could not build new places of worship, and often found it impossible to make repairs to older structures. Non-Muslims were not allowed to carry arms, not permitted even to own a horse, and not allowed to strike a Muslim - even in self-defense. A non-Muslim man could not defend his wife against Muslim attackers, and in court the testimony of a non-Muslim was not held against a Muslim.

The list of restrictions on non-Muslims is long and designed to either drive the non-Muslim to Islam, or obtain the complete physical and mental subjugation of the non-Muslim.

Violence as political tool

While fundamentalist Islam may not command the support of a majority of Muslims today, only the naïve would believe that the judicious use of violence and death cannot turn an election.

The Muslim Brotherhood and various other fundamentalist Islamic groups know that they are a minority, but they are betting that only the careful use of bombs and bullets separate them from the mantle of governing through the democratic process, as they proceed to the establishment of a new caliphate in the Near East and a continuing war against America and the West.

Democracy without something like the Bill of Rights leads to tyranny, and this time it is militant Islamic tyranny.

It's time to review the images of the attacks on the Catholic community in Iraq, and reconsider how the ancient and once-vibrant Iraqi Catholic Church came to ruin - and then look at ourselves.

We absolutely must not support a so-called "democratic movement" if it means bringing a fundamentalist Islamic tyranny to power. The blood of the innocent will be on our hands if we do, and our own national security will be placed in severe peril.

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Posted February 23, 2011

Toby Westerman publishes
International News Analysis - Today
An investigative, analytical, and uncompromising weekly analysis of the world situation

Contact T. Westerman at
www.inatoday.com
or P.O. BOX 5182, Rockford, ILL, 61125-0182

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