OPINION & EDITORIAL
Public must realize dangerous nature of radical Islam
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Also by Mike Hahn:
- Recent polls reveal... absolutely nothing (December 4, 2007)
- 'Right to bear arms' stands up to scrutiny (November 27, 2007)
- Democrats play dangerous game (November 20, 2007)
- The pitfalls of holistic admissions (November 13, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Weekend in Washington highlights Iraq war outrage (January 30, 2007)
- Democrats scare voters with draft (October 18, 2004)
- Anti-war events illustrate tragedies (January 31, 2007)
- Letters to the Editor (September 26, 2001)
- Public schools need open debate on intelligent design (February 23, 2006)
by Mike Hahn
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Yesterday's relatively small anti-war protest was disappointing. There was no massive demonstration judging by the size of the crowd as I walked by, and the calls to action by the speakers were the same old, tired rhetoric.
Apparently what passes for intelligent debate on the war is a chant of "Get the fuck out now!"
In all seriousness, though, the really sad thing about yesterday's protest is that it completely ignores reality and what is at stake in the war on terror — which itself is somewhat of a misnomer and would more accurately be described as the war against radical Islam.
What I mean is that the enemy in this war is not President Bush or Vice President Cheney or Halliburton or capitalism or the CIA or the military — all of which were blamed at the rally. In truth, the enemy in this war is a small minority of Muslims who have perverted the message of Islam and are determined not only to convert the world to their views, but to destroy any and all who dare stand in their way.
The enemy must be shown for what it is and that is why the College Republicans, along with Students for Prosperity, will be showing a documentary titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's war against the West" tonight at 7 p.m. in B130 Van Vleck. We are not doing this to cause a controversy or to besmirch a peaceful religion; on the contrary, we do this to expose the radicals for what they are and how far they are willing to go to achieve their goals.
The documentary makes the argument that today, we are engaged in World War III. We are still fighting fascism and extremism, but unlike the Nazis, our enemy today has no country, no uniformed military, and they will not fight in open battle. Even so, they are just as dangerous to our way of life as the Nazis were more than 60 years ago. The Islamic extremists we fight today do not care about innocent human life or whether someone is in the military or a civilian. All that they care about is whether we believe as they do.
What they believe is frightening.
In the United States and in Europe, we place value on human life and the equality of men and women and do not seek to place one religious belief over another in our laws. The extremists want the exact opposite. They view women as little more than property, and they seek to re-establish a caliphate throughout the Middle East. They are prepared and willing to kill themselves in service to their cause, and they will not hesitate to kill innocent women and children because they do not value life as we do. The extremists do not tolerate other religious views, rather they persecute or kill those who do not believe — and it is not simply non-Muslims who are in danger; moderate Muslims are just as much infidels as Christians and Jews.
This enemy will not rest, and they are prepared to die for their cause, so one may wonder: What good will come from our fighting them?
It is not enough to simply fight and kill them in Iraq and Afghanistan — there is no purely military solution for this war. Instead, it must be fought with economic and political reform and stability as well as military might. The poverty and despair that so often is the breeding ground for followers of radical Islam must be dealt with so that young men do not feel there is no other choice for them but to radicalize and become martyrs.
In order to fully realize and appreciate the danger that is posed by radical Islam, I urge everyone to come and watch "Obsession." It is an honest and upfront look at the terrorists we are fighting, not through our eyes or with our words, but with what they say about themselves and their goals. It is footage from their websites and their television stations.
Many may be reluctant to label the enemy for what it is. After all, our enemies in wars past have fought for their homeland or for conquest, not for religious beliefs. But simply because they claim to follow a religion does not make it true. They have disgraced one of the world's great religions and declared their war on us. Now we have but two choices: fade away and give in to the hope that they will be content to fight amongst themselves despite what has happened before or face them wherever they show themselves and fight for our values and way of life.
I pray that we choose the latter.
Mike Hahn (mhahn@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in history and political science.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 2:48am):
Stop watching Faux News. Stop misrepresenting Muslims and what they are fighting for...And please stop the war on Pronouns. so did bush declared the war on loners yet. still waiting for Faux news to publish it.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 2:50am):
"They view women as little more than property, and they seek to re-establish a caliphate throughout the Middle East. They are prepared and willing to kill themselves in service to their cause, and they will not hesitate to kill innocent women and children because they do not value life as we do. The extremists do not tolerate other religious views."
How is this different from the agenda of College Republicans?
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 3:03am):
Good column Mike.
Hopefully one day such extremism lies defeated. It remains despicable that the vast majority of Muslims, pure and good, must coexist under the same religion as purely evil men and women.
BTW for all those who are interested check out these links:
It's a Channel 4 and BBC documentary on radical Islam.
part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7R_Y...elated&search=
Part2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTpBA...elated&search=
Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKRKO...elated&search=
Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0UGr...elated&search=
-David Lapidus
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 3:40am):
@ 2:50am: It's different because College Republicans aren't willing to kill themselves in service to their cause - they send others to do it for them.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 7:24am):
"Stop misrepresenting Muslims and what they are fighting for..."
The Muslim agenda is simple and well documented:
SUBMIT OR DIE
The "war" in Iraq is just a small battle in a war that has been going on for a thousand years.
ps. The "vast majority of Muslims" believe in killing apostates and blasphemers, which I don't think is either pure or good. Christians used to beleive (and do) the same thing, but they seem to have toned that down over the centuries - the Muslims have not.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 7:35am):
No, the enemy WAS a small group of radical Muslims. Now, since we indiscriminately killed a half-million innocents in Iraq, we have pretty much pissed off the entire region.
In your opinion, what's so bad about a caliphate? Is it because this caliphate would happen to sit over the entire world's oil supply? Or, is it because you would rather that the region be Christian? Would our security be worse if there was a caliphate, rather than rogue bands of radicals?
Your arguments are weak, Mike. Your goal, like your media resources, is to scare the ignorant public into handing over more and more power to the executive branch. The peoples' branch obviously isn't kingly enough for you.
Nathan Ryan (April 19, 2007 @ 7:56am):
Exactly! Regardless of your opinion of Bush and his administration, or of the war, these extremists aren't going away. Now that the Dem's are in charge it would be nice if they proposed any type of plan to deal with this problem. Radical Muslim the new Nazi!
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 8:57am):
I don't think that the College Republicans agenda would support killing a couple for "walking together in public" (even if they were gay I still don't think so). I don't think that they'd "send others to do it for them" either.
***
According to the Supreme Court's earlier decision, the killers, who are members of the Basiji Force, volunteer vigilantes favored by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, considered their victims morally corrupt and, according to Islamic teachings and Iran's Islamic penal code, their blood could therefore be shed.
The last victims, for example, were a young couple engaged to be married who the killers claimed were walking together in public.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?ref=middleeast
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 9:31am):
This headline is outrageous. No one denies that there are radical factions of the Muslim religion, and that those fringe elements have tarnished the name of an otherwise peaceful religion (just as radicals of ANY regligion can and have done historically). But to argue that there is a radical "nature" to Islam is ignorant and incendiary.
Either its sloppy headline writing or a case of real ignorance.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 9:42am):
Yup, Muslims are just exactly like those horrible College Republicans:
Police detained five more suspects Thursday in the deaths of three men who were found with their throats slit in a publishing house that prints Bibles, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Christians in the mostly Muslim country.
Local media said five suspects detained Wednesday were college students who were living at a residence that belongs to an Islamic foundation. Some of those suspects told investigators they carried out the killings to protect Islam, a Turkish newspaper reported.
"We didn't do this for ourselves, but for our religion," Hurriyet newspaper quoted one suspect as saying. "Our religion is being destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/19/ap3629611.html
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:10am):
How can the liberals (cowards, traitors, pot heads, idiots) disagree with this article? Are you saying muslim extremists don't exist? Are you saying that everyone that has died in Iraq was due to U.S. gun fire? If we leave Iraq, do you think the terrorists will just stop killing innoncents?
The liberal mind set is childish: The military takes causalties fighting terrorists. Therefore, the solution to terrorism is to not fight. The democrats want us to get used to the idea of having a terrorist attack every couple years, because heaven forbid we fight back and "make things worse."
Remember that traitor yelling at Library Mall on Tuesday? He said Afghans were suffering due to the U.S. liberation. I guess he wants the Taliban back in power. At least when Afghan women were killed then, we didn't have to hear about it. How do you reason with people like this?
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:14am):
"How is this different from the agenda of College Republicans?"
Who cares? I hate both equally. Send 'em all back to the Middle-East and keep 'em there, Republicans included!
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:16am):
Good column Mike.
We need more like this one.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:16am):
What you say about Islam is not true. They are falsehoods. Allah is angry, JIHAD-JIHAD-JIHAD! WE KILL YOU! WE CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND PLAY HACKY-SACK WITH IT! ALLAH IS GREAT!
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:22am):
Dude,
Your headline sucks since it totally misrepresents your article. Your article clearly states that Islam is a peaceful religion with a radical minority.
Then your headline turns around and talks about the radical "nature of Islam" as opposed to its minority.
Either your ability to represent your ideas is pitiful, or you have a stoned editor.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:52am):
is there anything wrong with extremism, per se?
what's wrong with being an extremist for individual rights?
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 11:41am):
"Yesterday's relatively small anti-war protest.."
Sorry, I guess I missed the much larger continue-the-war protest. Where was that again?
Say what you want about these anti-war folks (and I'm sure you will) but at least they're willing to stand up in public for what they believe in. And that's something the ever-shrinking continue-the-war crowd has never been willing to do.
You remind me of the little boys who used to stand in the corner at the junior-high dance, mocking other boys who had the nerve to get out on the dance floor, because they couldn't summon up enough courage to do it themselves.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 11:52am):
"what's wrong with being an extremist for individual rights?" when that extremism means you kill people who think differently from you.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 11:55am):
This headline definitely could've been better thought-out, and doesn't really represent the reasonable tone of the piece. As someone who's never agreed with Mr. Hahn (or the College Republicans), I appreciate his effort to inform readers of his opinions in a much better way than any of his associates have yet managed. The headline completely misrepresents the substance of this editorial.
And to 10:10 -
I can't help but find it ironic that someone so concerned with the sanctity of our nation would accuse someone of treason for speaking out against a botched occupation. After the author's portrayal of dogmatic extremists with no respect for western values and freedoms, I can't help but wonder if you might be able to relate to this enemy he describes.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 12:14pm):
radical christians and radical muslims = bff
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 12:16pm):
Im' a muslim convert and never killed nobody. If the 2.5 billion muslims arround the world kill themselves with bombs since Islam started 1.400 years ago, everybody would be dead. Like the author says, that is a minority between us, like christians got a klu klux klan, and jews have radical sionist. I vote, pay taxes, and contribute everyday, so I demand as an U.S. citizen my freedom of religion, education and speech. please stop the witch hunting us, the muslims
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 12:23pm):
"what's so bad about a caliphate?"
Well, as a blaspheming apostate I would be killed immediately. That's the start of a long list of bad things. All gays would be subject the death penalty, even if they weren't blaspheming apostates. Honor killing would be the order of the day for any women that was raped but couldn't provide four male witnesses (but then would four men who watched a woman raped testify for her?).
You have to remember that the plan is that the caliphate would include the entire world, not just the Middle East.
SUBMIT OR DIE - this means you too, not just the College Republicans. In fact the College Republicans (if they were Christian or Jewish) could just pay an extra tax and live as second-class citizens. But the gays, athiests, blasphemers and apostates would be in REAL trouble in the caliphate.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 1:24pm):
you libs just have pure hatred for diversity of opinion (college repubs)
and pure love for people who are going to cut your infidel heads off.
read up on the koran a little. muslims have a duty to lie to non muslims. does it say that in the bible you christianophobes?
www.americancongressfortruth.com/ArchDetails.aspx?id=97
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 2:13pm):
So the antiwar protesters weren't putting a message you approve of? Not anti-muslim enough for you?
Here's an idea: why not hold your own "I hate muslims" rally and see how many people show up for that?
Seriously, if it's so vitally important that the UW campus be warned about those dangerous, dangerous muslims, why isn't it worth your time to organize a rally on campus to put that message out? Of course, that would require some actual effort on your part, as opposed to typing down some random thoughts you had as you walked past a rally organized by others.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 3:05pm):
11:41am smirked: "Sorry, I guess I missed the much larger continue-the-war protest. Where was that again?"
30,000 strong right here, hippie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wO3eSmWVo&mode=related&search=
Where's your video, you craven coward?
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 3:26pm):
"But the gays, athiests, blasphemers and apostates would be in REAL trouble in the caliphate."
Or if Pat Robertson was king.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 4:09pm):
Mike - nice to see a young guy that "gets it". Keep spreading the word.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 4:41pm):
I feel that Mike brings a completely legitimate argument to the table; we need more articles like this in a paper that claims to be "independent." We also need the people who, like myself, support these opinions to come out of the woodwork and start acting in a way that we know is right by supporting an effort that we know is warranted. There are very few who do it, but I am proud to say that I'm one of them.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 7:17pm):
the moral equivalency left.
ALL OVER THIS PAGE.
you guys are soooooooo smart for pointing out that we kill innocents too, just like terrorists (if ya wanna call em that!)
wow, i never considered that.
and screw the whole, 'intent' thing that we use in our justice system.
and wow, we have radical christians, and they have radical muslims.
hmmph.
i've been so shortsighted, thanks for the deeeep wisdom.
thanks moral equivalency left!
no go back to bringing down the country and the free world.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 9:38pm):
OK, so Joe and his friends are absolutely convinced that the U.S. is soon to become part of the Muslim Caliphate, with all the associated head-chopping and woman-veiling.
So what are you gonna do about it? I'm not just talking about the unwillingess of so many College Republicans to put their commodities-trader careers on hold and sign up, but your unwillingness to do, well, anything other than post juvenile name-calling messages here.
Willing to go out in public and tell people what you believe? Like those hippie protesters you denigrate? Didn't think so.
But maybe I'm wrong. Go ahead, tell us all what you're doing right here in Madison to defeat the muslim hordes. And please don't redirect us to a 3000-strong (3:05 pm really should learn about that whole powers-of-ten-thing) Freeper protest a thousand miles from here.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 10:41pm):
"Not anti-muslim enough for you?"
Nope!
It's been a while since the Christians killed everybody that wouldn't submit to Christ. Once the Muslims stop killing people who blaspheme, then I'll be less anti-Muslim.
"Love your neighbor" vs. "Submit or Die" - it's plenty of reason to be anti-Muslim.
Anonymous (April 19, 2007 @ 11:02pm):
"Here's an idea: why not hold your own "I hate muslims" rally and see how many people show up for that?"
Come now, surely you realize that one is only allowed to hate whites, conservatives, red-necks, honkies, Jews, Christians - certainly never blood thirsty, murdering muslims!
Anonymous (April 20, 2007 @ 1:12am):
My general opinion on this, although it's sad to say... If the Muslims in the Middle East want to kill each other, why don't we just let them kill each other? The only real consequence we'd see here is an increase in gas prices.
Anonymous (April 20, 2007 @ 9:27am):
Still dodging my question, I see...
Interesting that 10:41pm and 11:02 pm (probably the same person, although I wonder why it took him 21 minutes to come up with that lame second "response") STILL can't answer this simple question: if you REALLY believe we're about to be overrun by muslim extremists, what are you willing to do about it?
And, specifically, are you willing to go out in a public place here in Madison, Wisconsin and say this to other people, total strangers, even people who may disagree with you?
And please, no whining about how "political correctness" won't "allow" you to do this. What are you afraid of? People might say bad things to you?
That's why I know all this "the muslims are coming!" talk is bullshit. If you actually believed it, you'd be doing something about it, wouldn't you?
Anonymous (April 20, 2007 @ 10:27pm):
One of the commentators above asks why you don't organise on your own, Mike. I suggest that as something you might do. Stop in, if you will, at http://covenantzone.blogspot.com/ and leave us a note.
Yalla, Dag.
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