A Malaysian Journey from Darkness

By the Anti Jihadist

For most Americans and those reading this, the nation of Malaysia--the country I call home--is likely nothing more but a mysterious, distant, small and relatively unimportant land. Some of you might be familiar with Malaysia's carefully cultivated public image of being some sort of harmonious multicultural tropical paradise, which is recycled endlessly in 30-second-long television spots both here and overseas.

But for anyone who may be trying to come to grips with the grim reality that is Islam, Malaysia may be one of the most important places on the planet. That's because anyone who still, despite all the evidence, feels that there really is a moderate, progressive, tolerant and peaceful Islam, need look no further than Malaysia. Once you do, you'll be thoroughly disabused of this notion.

My own awakening to Islam is mostly a tale of ignorance and more than whiff of denial, punctuated by sudden, shattering and irreversible epiphanies. I say 'shattering' because the ideas that I embraced as I grew up--that Islam is just one religion of many, and doesn't particularly pose a threat to anyone--does not withstand anything more than a cursory examination of the facts. And as the evidence piled up and my doubts grew, those old notions I had held previously, like a sheet of plate glass, came apart under the hammer blows of truth.

The first blow to my complacency was that dark day in Lower Manhattan nearly ten years ago. Like so many others reading this, I was horrified at the televised scenes of destruction and carnage in New York and Washington. How could any rational human feel otherwise? But as the days and months passed after September 11th, I starting hearing Malaysians say, over and over, that the US Government was lying about 9-11, that it was a 'set up' and a plot against Islam. And that the Jews were really behind it, of course. As I realised how sincere these Malaysians were in these outlandish ideas, I thought, "What makes so many people in this country prone to this nonsense?" At the time, the exact answers eluded me, but my budding doubts about Islam festered.

Another devastating blow came when Doctor Azahari Husin, a well educated Malaysian who had willingly and savagely butchered hundreds, maybe thousands of innocents, both Muslim and 'infidel' alike, became the most notorious terrorist in Southeast Asia, When he was buried in his hometown here in Malaysia in 2005. I read about it in the Malaysian newspapers. The local media did their best to humanise the man, and his funeral was like a hero's sendoff, well attended by hundreds of Malays who screamed 'Allahu akbar' as his coffin was lowered into the ground. The Malaysian government said nothing about Azahari's passing, not even a perfunctory condemnation of his wanton deeds. In addition, Azahari's own family has, to this day, steadfastly refused to apologise for any of Azahari's long list of crimes. I remembered thinking at the time, "What kind of government and what kind of family could refuse to condemn a mass murderer?' My doubts grew apace.

It was about this time when I began my own private investigation into Islam, to go beyond apologetic Malaysian government textbooks and misleading press accounts. Finding nothing credible in the local, heavily censored bookshops, I searched online. Soon I discovered the carefully-researched work of Robert Spencer. His words online, and in his book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam reeked and shouted of the truth, a truth I had sensed for some time but which I had long failed to see its full dimensions.

The last and final blow that destroyed my impressions once and for all about Islam actually began for me before the late Dr. Azahari's demise. That final nail in the coffin, the most damning evidence, came to my attention because I had had the audacity to fall in love with a Muslima, a Malay 'born' into Islam solely by accident of birth. And as our relationship blossomed, I discovered to my chagrin many more Malaysian lies, ones that are never to be heard in those 30-second 'Tourism Malaysia' TV spots. This wonderful woman that I have now in my life, I learned, must apply in a Muslim court if she wants permission to leave Islam. Of course such permission has never been granted to any Malay. And anyone that is foolhardy enough to ask for that permission is promptly shunted away for a lengthy sentence inside a government-operated religious prison, which the government here disingenuously calls 'religious rehabilitation centres'. And of course, the punishment does not stop there--there's the loss of one's livelihood, fines, loss of social standing, and more. Does this sound 'moderate' or 'tolerant' to you? This fascistic system is real and is not condemned let alone questioned by any Malaysian.

Consequently, Malaysia is only 'moderate' in the sense that its apostates 'only' face detention, not death as is the law in many other Muslim countries. And such a draconian system is completely in line with Islamic ideology and teachings. Why else would no Muslim dare oppose, or not be able to oppose such a totalitarian system on Islamic grounds? They can't, lest they be deemed apostates themselves.

Faced with a system such as this, I've turned to blogging at Infidel Bloggers Alliance and at my own site Pedestrian Infidel as an outlet for my thoughts and frustrations. Of course, if I ever dare utter the truth a bit too openly, or anything else that does not fit the Official Line, I am quickly warned by my friends. "Quiet! Do you want to get in trouble?" Fear is never too far away in this country.

In fact, being a counterjihad blogger in Malaysia is, to be honest, like being the only sane person in an insane asylum. Everyone around you is either unwilling or unable to see reality in its true form--they can only perceive a distorted misshapen sort of reality. But this 'alternate' reality is the one that everyone accepts as natural and true. Any thoughts otherwise are not only unthinkable, they are inconceivable. Such is life with the inmates of Islam.

To risk using a borderline hoary cliche, my circumstances here are a bit like the plot from the first Matrix movie (the one good Matrix movie, I mean). In that movie, the main character stumbles onto the truth, but it's such a dangerous truth that it totally undercuts not only the authority, but the very reality of society itself--its assumptions, its norms, its very foundations. It is exactly the same here in this corner of Planet Islam, knowing as I know, that there can never be peace and freedom as long as there is Islam in the world.

I go about my life everyday in Malaysia with this incredibly dangerous knowledge in my mind. No amount of propaganda from the brain-dead media or government spin can erase what I know. So, it's best to keep it sealed carefully away, and this is what I do, although it has grown increasingly difficult over the years. Were it not for the net, I would have no outlet at all. So for that, I am grateful, especially to Mr. Spencer for granting me this opportunity to write for his site.

Let those in the world who value their freedom remember this. As I have learned in my own life, once a totalitarian entity like Islam takes your freedom from you, you'll have a massive fight on your hands to get it back. If freedom-loving people can take heed of this warning, then that makes all the risks I face worthwhile.

Why Muslim Cultures Lag Behind

By the Anti Jihadist

In the past fifty years, many countries have caught up with the rich and developed Western World. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, with virtually no natural resources, have created advanced, urbanized and prosperous societies, complete with world-class technology that often exceed that which is found in the West. India, Brazil and China, although not yet fully developed, now all possess large and affluent middle classes that did not exist just a few decades ago. There is no reason to believe why their economic and social progress of all of these countries will not continue for the foreseeable future.

The Muslim world, on the other hand, has struggled during this era of unprecedented global wealth creation. These countries have profited almost solely, by happy geological accident, from oil and gas extraction. Beyond these activities, economic activity in Muslim countries remains scant, low tech and strictly oriented towards local consumption. Despite trillions of dollars in oil revenue over the past sixty years, Muslim progress in many other areas, such as scientific research, social issues and education, lags badly behind the rest of the world.

How could this be the case? The answer, which the major media dares not touch, lies in the very culture of Muslim countries themselves. Consider the following cultural traits which are all typically found in majority Muslim countries:

Belief in magic. State-owned Malaysian newspapers and television stations routinely run breathless stories about witch doctors (‘bomoh’), evil spirits and other forms of the supernatural. Visitors to Malaysia get a good laugh out of such quaint cultural practices, until they realize with a shock that Malaysian belief in such superstition is absolutely sincere. But it’s not just here in Malaysia where this happens. In Saudi Arabia, witchcraft is considered very real and a capital offence. In Iran, laws are on the books that make 'sorcery' a crime. And in Iraq, many of the locals are absolutely convinced that American soldiers wear sunglasses that can see through clothing and have bases protected by force fields. A culture that is eager to embrace the supernatural takes a giant step away from rationality and deceives itself fundamentally. Self-deception is always, sooner or later, the path to failure.

Belief in conspiracies. Muslims take it as an Article of Faith that various groups of so-called infidels or other outsiders are engaged in various conspiracies to keep Muslims down, make Islam look bad, or are otherwise up to No Good. The lack of evidence means little to a society where ‘skepticism’ is already an unusual and foreign concept. For instance, even well-educated Muslims will tell you, with total earnestness, that the 9-11 terror attacks were actually perpetrated by Zionists, or the CIA, or the U.S. Government, or some other nefarious group. Never mind the vast amount of evidence to the contrary. When presented with rebuttals from non-Muslims, Muslims will usually just shrug it off and carry on with their nonsensical conspiracy theories.

Lack of innovation. Here in Malaysia, it is telling that the word in the Malay language for innovation (“inovasi”) did not exist until it came from English, quite recently, as a loan word. Innovation, meaning to create something without precedent, is a risky and therefore dangerous business in the Islamic world. The reason for this is because Islam already has a word for innovation, “bid’ah”. In Islam, this word is essentially the same in meaning as ‘heresy’, which is yet another capital crime under Islamic law. Hence creativity and individuality are utterly stifled in a totalitarian fashion, even in Muslim countries where Islamic law has not yet been fully implemented. Improvisation is also discouraged for similar reasons. This is a major reason why Islamic countries are usually characterized by a near-total lack of scientific research and reluctance to embrace technology in general.

Lack of devotion to non-family/non tribal/non-clan organizations. In most Muslim societies, loyalty often runs no farther than one’s tribe or sect. People from the far-off central government, or those from the next valley over for that matter, are foreigners to be met with suspicion or hostility. Afghanistan is a perfect example of this sort of chaos. Even if these differences are eventually papered over, so to speak, by the force and coercion of a dictatorship, the lack of cohesion and distrust remain. Muslim leaders usually come into and stay in power by exploiting this very characteristic, by playing one tribe or group off another. Patriotism amongst the general public is another foreign concept, taken for granted in the West. Muslims may remain loyal to Islam in general, but more importantly, to the tribe in particular.

Lack of empowerment of women. The future, no matter what form it may take, is almost certainly going to involve more technology, not less. How well equipped is a society for this future if half of its members are only (at best) grudgingly given their rights? In many Islamic countries, women are often illiterate and have no rights in essential critical life decisions, such as those involving child-rearing, marriage or education. And why should they? Various Quranic verses, age-old Islamic traditions, and core Islamic teachings render women as nothing more than chattel and the property of their male relatives—never the equal of men. And no one can ‘reform’ these teachings to something more enlightened—see the penalty for “bid’ah” above.

Lack of personal responsibility. Muslim leaders often lie to or deceive their own people, to subordinates, or to allies in order to advance their own personal agendas. Remember that most Muslim countries are a patchwork of tribes who barely tolerate one another in the best of times. Loyalty to one’s country as a whole is next to non-existent. So, the main objective of these leaders, whether at the top, middle or bottom, is to steal as much as they can, while they can, in order to enrich themselves and their families, clans or tribes—'national interest’ be damned. If you’re one of the rare incorruptible types, or are otherwise too stupid to steal when presented with the opportunity, then more the fool you are. Other tribes or groups are useful as scapegoats when the need arises or when blame must be deflected.

Lack of skilled labour. Rich, developed and successful countries like Germany, Japan and others do not just spring into existence. It takes the efforts of millions, skilled specialists toiling endlessly in dangerous and/or monotonous drudgery for decades, to build and also maintain the ever-growing complex web of systems that modern nations depend on to function. But Muslim countries, even the ones with trillions from oil revenue, have consistently failed to create large enough castes of technical specialists that modern nations must have. As there are never enough people willing or able to work within their own borders, Muslim nations are forced to outsource their labour needs. In Saudi Arabia and most Arab states, for instance, cleaners and maids come from India or the Philippines, while engineers and others in the technical trades come from America, Europe and increasingly east Asia. This trend is accelerating, paradoxically enough, at a time when the governments of the burgeoning Arab world are having an increasing problem just feeding their exploding populations.

Lack of meritocracy. The West has thrived not only because they have learned to hold people responsible for their actions, but also they have learned to give out rewards based on individual achievement. Hence higher–performing individuals tend to be eventually in charge and reap the most rewards (in prestige, rank, money, etc.). Westerners do not always manage to live up to these ideals, but the concepts themselves are not questioned. In the Islamic world, however, what counts is personal loyalty, personal connections, and tribal/sect membership. Incompetent leaders are preferable to competent ones, so long as they are properly loyal. Such a state of affairs makes for incredible inefficiency on a normal day and catastrophic consequences when any sort of crisis arises. Muslims are fond of saying “it’s God’s will” at difficult times, which for Muslims seems like most of the time. Actually, it’s not so much “God’s will” but more like the inevitable consequences of their dysfunctional culture.

If you’ve read up to this point, no doubt that you could add a few more things to this list. But remember, political correctness dictates that all cultures are somehow ‘equal’, and Muslims are convinced their cultures are somehow superior; never mind the reams of evidence to the contrary. So while I want to be optimistic, the smart money is not riding on the would-be reformers of the under-performing societies of the Muslim world. At least not yet.

Danger of Islam

A Horrible Ideology for Human Rights
By Ecks Why

5 key things about Islam


1. Mythical beliefs - all religions have these (faith) because its part of being a religion: having beliefs without proof until after the believer dies. The problem is people will believe almost anything.


2. Totalitarianism - Islam has no separation of church and state: sharia law governs all. there is no free will in Islam: only submission to the will of Allah as conveniently determined by the imams who spew vapors to feather their own nests. There are no moderate Muslims: they all support sharia law.


3. Violence - Islam leads the pack of all religions in violent tenets for their ideology & history: having eternal canonical imperatives for supremacy at all costs and calling for violence & intimidation as basic tools to achieve these goals.


4. Dishonesty - only Islam has dishonesty as a fundamental tenet: this stems from Allah speaking to Muhammad & abrogation in the Qur'an which is used to explain how mo's peaceful early life was superseded by his warlord role later.


5. Misogyny - present day Islam is still rooted in 8th century social ethics: treating females as property of men good only for children, severely limiting their activities, dressing them in shower curtains and worse.


Conclusions


Islam is just another fascist totalitarian ideology used by power hungry fanatics on yet another quest for worldwide domination and includes all the usual human rights abuses & suppression of freedoms. There really are NO redeeming qualities for this muddled pile of propaganda.


Excellent internet websites for more accurate info about this pestilential scourge:

www.answering-islam.org	www.islamreview.com
www.faithfreedom.org	www.prophetofdoom.net
www.islam-watch.org	www.infideltaskforce.com
www.jihadwatch.org	www.thereligionofpeace.com
crombouke.blogspot.com	barenakedislam.wordpress.com

Learn the true Evil of Allah before the iron veil lowers and destroys your freedoms.


Would you print and disperse the following leaflet?

My Journey Toward Islamoawareness

By Lawrence Meyers

I use the term “Islamoawareness” because people who are critical of Islamic doctrine are often smeared as “Islamophobes”.  I reject this label because a “phobia” is an irrational fear of something, but to fear something that is, indeed, out to kill you is the height of rationality.

I started this journey after 9/11, but not immediately after. As shocked as I was that nearly 3,000 lives were brutally snuffed out by Islamic terrorists, I bought the line that George Bush and Tony Blair parroted; namely, that Islam is a “religion of peace” that had been “hijacked” by extremists. So, I dismissed Osama bin Laden as nothing more than a homicidal extremist, and I really didn’t examine it any deeper.

But then I happened to see a billboard on Sunset Blvd. around May 2005. The billboard had some words on it I had never seen before, including “dhimmitude”, “Eurabia” and “Bat Y’eor”, and the address of a website, jihadwatch.org. (You can see the billboard here.)

Naturally curious, I wanted to know what these new words meant, so that night I Googled “dhimmitude”, and my journey to Islamoawareness officially began. I visited the Jihadwatch website, found out about Robert Spencer, started to read his books, got a copy of the Qu’ran to verify the verses he was quoting, and read many other books besides.

While I continued my education, buses were bombed in London on 7/7/05. Then, the Muhammad cartoons were published later that year and outraged Muslims actually KILLED people over them. It seemed the Muslim protesters were saying, “Islam is a religion of peace; and if you say otherwise, we will kill you!” and that absurd irony made me seriously doubt that Islam really was a religion of peace, and made me dig further.

I learned about “The Verse of the Sword” (9:5) that says “slay infidels wherever you find them”, the verse condoning wife-beating (4:34), the hundreds of other violent, intolerant verses, and the all-important distinction between Meccan verses and the Medinan verses in the  Qu’ran.  (The more violent ones are considered “more true” to Islamic theologians.)

I learned about the countries where Islam rules, and saw that they almost always are places where freedoms are denied, economies stagnate, ideas are repressed and human rights violated.

I learned about the barbaric system known as Sharia law and its death penalty for homosexuality, adultery, and apostasy, and how it codifies second-class status for non-Muslim and all women.  Iran actually executes gays routinely, simply because they are gay!

I learned about Muhammad; how he is held as an “excellent example of conduct” (33:21) for Muslims to follow even today, but then I learned the historical record (in the hadith; the collections of his doings and sayings, and in biographies written by pious Muslims) shows that he owned slaves, raped the female ones (in a couple of cases shortly after having their husbands killed), robbed caravans, tortured a man to find out where he hid his treasure–by building a fire on his chest, married a 6 year-old, and had sex with her when she was 9–and he struck her, too.  He had all the men of an entire tribe slaughtered, and had his critics assassinated.  And these are excellent examples of conduct?

And I learned a whole new vocabulary: “jihad”, “kaffir”, “dhimmi”, “dhimmitude”, “jizya, “taquiya”, “ijtihad”, “abrogation”, “nakbha”, “hijira”, and “lan astaslem”.

Not every thing I learned reflected poorly on Islam, but the more I looked into the doctrine and history of Islam the more “aware” I became of the existence of serious totalitarian, xenophobic, supremacist, expansionist elements of Islamic ideology and theology.

I have tried to communicate these ideas to my friends and colleagues and have run into resistance, and counter-arguments.  It seems I can’t mention jihad without having someone say “Well, what about the Crusades?” or “But there was the Inquisition, you know.”  But are they really morally equivalent?

Moral equivalence asserts: “All religions are the same; all religions are equally capable of inspiring violence and extremism, and all religious texts can be just as easily misinterpreted.”

This argument fails, fundamentally, because one person’s crimes don’t excuse another’s.  I mean you will not be acquitted of killing one person, just because someone else also killed people.  So, yes; I will be the first to agree that there has been violence caused in the name of Christianity, but that certainly doesn’t make Islam innocent.

First of all, these examples of Christian violence were hundreds of years ago, and one would think that if moral equivalence were true, there would be more current examples to use, like maybe even in the 21st Century.

Secondly, the Crusades are best seen as a defensive war against Islamic aggression. Yep, believe it or not; the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, fearing his kingdom would be overrun by Muslim invaders – the Seljuk Turks, who had been invading territory after territory and killing for centuries by that point – asked Pope Urban II for help, and that started the Crusades.

So, if there had not been centuries of Islamic imperialism before the Crusades, there wouldn’t have been the Crusades!  Ironic, don’t you think?

Thirdly, the Inquisition, over the span of 500 years, caused about 6,000 deaths. Compare that to 9/11.  On a single morning, Islamic violence caused over half that amount.

Now let’s look at Islamic violence, shall we? Just to keep it brief, let’s focus on just the 21st Century; ignoring the 1400 years of Islamic conquests, invasions and slaughter, and the 270 million killed in the name of Islam in India, Africa, the Middle East and anywhere else Islam has been spread by the sword.

Ignoring that huge chunk of history, we see that Islamic violence continues at a frenetic pace even today. The Religion of Peace website (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/) documents over 17,000 terror attacks SINCE 9/11 (as of 5/18/11). Read that again; over 17,000 attacks in 10 years. That’s nearly 5 attacks a day!

Here are some examples from just the past couple of days:

A Muslim blows himself up outside state security building in Kazakhstan, a Christian man is abducted, tortured and then beheaded in Iraq, jihadists murder two Buddhist monks in Thailand, a Muslim truck driver shouting “Allahu akbar” and “death to the Jews” plows into cars, murdering one person, injuring 17 in Israel, two Muslims are arrested and accused of hatching a plot to attack a synagogue in New York, and a Miami imam is accused of supporting the  Pakistani Taliban & expressing the wish that Allah would kill 50,000 American soldiers.

Meanwhile, where is the Christian preacher hoping for the deaths of 50,000 U.S. soldiers? Where are the Hindu gunmen killing Muslims simply because they are Muslim? Where are the Buddhist suicide bombers? Where are the Jews murdering with vehicles while they yell “death to Christians”? Where is the global network of Christian extremists attempting to subjugate all non-Christians under Christian law?  Where?

If all religions are equally capable of inspiring violence and all religious texts can be easily misinterpreted, we shouldn’t have to look very far to find the daily acts of violence and mass deaths caused by Christians, justifying it all by quoting their holy books.

I mean, there are more Christians on earth than Muslims, so if moral equivalence is true, we should find more Christian than Islamic terrorist networks, more Christian than Islamic beheadings, kidnappings, murders and bombings. There should be a Christian Al Qaeda, a Christian Taliban, and a Christian Hamas, etc., etc., etc.

But, the fact is, these things do not exist.

So, in terms of ongoing relevance, numbers killed and overall scope, Christian violence is not even remotely in the same league as Muslim violence. Not even really close, let alone equal.

Why is this the case? Why does Islam inspire so much more violence than any other religion?

If you believe in moral equivalence, you have no answer for this.

Here’s the bibliography that has led me to my conclusions about Islam:

-The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades by Robert Spencer (2005)

-Islam Unveiled by Robert Spencer (2003)

-The Truth About Muhammad by Robert Spencer (2007)

-Stealth Jihad by Robert Spencer (2008)

-Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (2008)

-Because They Hate by Bridget Gabriel (2008)

-My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross (2008)

-Why I Am Not A Muslim by Ibn Warraq (2003)

-History Upside Down: The Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression by David Meir-Levi (2007)

-America Alone by Mark Steyn (2008)

-The Legacy of Jihad by Andrew G. Bostom, M.D. (2005)

-The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History by Andrew G. Bostom, M.D. (2008)

-The Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond Ibrahim (2007)

-The Sword of the Prophet: Islam; History, Theology, Impact on the World by Serge Trifkovic (2007)

-The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy by Walid Phares (2008)

-The Koran translated by N.J. Dawood (1959)

-The Hadith (both the Qu’ran and Hadith are collected in a searchable archive at:http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/ )

Other resources:

-Translations of Islamic speeches on Memri TV: http://www.memritv.org/

-Jihad Watch: http://www.jihadwatch.org/

-The Religion of Peace: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

-Center for the Study of Political Islam: http://www.politicalislam.com/

-”Understanding The Koran” at: http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/understanding-the-koran/

-”Statistics and the Meaning of Islam” at: http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/statistics-and-the-meaning-of-islam/

-”Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques” – a study by Freedom House found at:http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=383&report=45

-”To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad” by Steven Coughlin at:http://www.strategycenter.net/research/pubID.176/pub_detail.asp