First They Came For Israel, Then America

[Bonnie]

In

1945, the anti-Nazi German pastor Martin Niemoller wrote the following:
"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

This famous statement can be updated for Europeans:

First they came for Israel, and we didn't speak up because we weren't Jews. Then they came for Lebanon's Christians, and we didn't speak up because we weren't Maronites. Then they came for America, and we didn't speak up because we weren't Americans. Then they came for Sudan's blacks, and we didn't speak up because we weren't Sudanese blacks. Then they came for us, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for us.


As long as Muslim demonstrators only shouted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel," Europe (and the rest of the world's Left) found reasons either to ignore the Nazi-like evil inherent in those chants (and the homicidal actions that flowed from them) or to blame America and Israel for the hatred.

But like the earlier Nazis, our generation's fascists hate anything good, not merely Jews and Americans. And now the Damascus embassy of Norway, a leading anti-Israel "peace at any price" country, has been torched. And more and more Norwegians, and Brits, and French, and Dutch, and Swedes, and the rest of the European appeasers who blamed America for 9-11 and blamed Israel for Palestinian suicide bombings, are beginning to wonder whether there just might be something morally troubling within the Islamic world.

Some on the Left here and in Europe are beginning to reassess whether America and Israel or their Islamic enemies are at fault.

The fact that major newspapers in most Western European countries published some or all of the cartoons that triggered the riots against Denmark, the country in which the offending cartoons of Muhammad first appeared, was a statement that at least some in Europe have had it with appeasement of Islamic violence.

And here in America, a left-of-center columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Tim Rutten, just wrote: "It's no longer possible to overlook the culture of intolerance, hatred and xenophobia that permeates the Islamic world."

As it happens, I have sympathy with the notion that newspapers and others need to be sensitive to religious, including Muslim, sensibilities. However, when Muslim governments and religious spokesmen attack the West for its insensitivity to Muslims and its anti-Muslim prejudice, one has entered the Twilight Zone. Because nowhere in the world is there anywhere near the religious bigotry and sheer hatred of other religions that exists in the Muslim world.

Christians nearly everywhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds are usually second-class citizens at best and terribly treated at worst.

The Taliban Islamic regime in Afghanistan blew up the unique Buddhist sculptures in their country because they didn't want even a trace of a non-monotheistic faith to survive in an Islamic country.

About a million non-Arab and non-Muslim men, women and children have been slaughtered by the Islamic regime in Sudan.

Nigerian Christians are periodically murdered by Islamic mobs.

And regarding Jews, Andrew Sullivan writes in this week's Time: "The Arab media run cartoons depicting Jews and the symbols of the Jewish faith with imagery indistinguishable from that used in the Third Reich."

As for the riots and Islamic government protests, one question needs to be posed to these people: Which casts Islam in a worse light -- political cartoons depicting Muhammad, or Muslims who murder innocents around the world in the name Allah and Islam?

Did any Jews riot when the Los Angeles Times published a cartoon of the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall, with its stones reconfigured to spell "hate"?

Did any Christians riot when museums displayed "Piss Christ," a crucifix submerged in artist Andres Serrano's urine?

What we have is a culture largely based on saving face and honor juxtaposed with a Judeo-Christian Western culture largely based on saving liberty and innocent life.

All of us, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, should pray that the better one wins.

http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/dennisprager/2006/02/07/185467.html

 

[Abbey Normal]

And more and more Norwegians, and Brits, and French, and Dutch, and Swedes, and the rest of the European appeasers who blamed America for 9-11 and blamed Israel for Palestinian suicide bombings, are beginning to wonder whether there just might be something morally troubling within the Islamic world.

This is music to my ears. I hope it's true.

 

[theHawk]

The real question is what is the West going to do when it finally figures out Islam-facism is the real evil here? What options do we have?...

 

[Bonnie]

The real question is what is the West going to do when it finally figures out Islam-facism is the real evil here? What options do we have?...

What if it's too late by then??

 

[manu1959]

What if it's too late by then??

as long as you draw breath it is never too late

 

[Bonnie]

as long as you draw breath it is never too late

For people that have fire in them that is true. But I'd rather us have a little help in this fight. :bat: LOL

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The real question is what is the West going to do when it finally figures out Islam-facism is the real evil here? What options do we have?...

Bomb them back into the Stone Age. At least the ones making threats.

I wonder, are the libs finally ready to jump on the Bush bandwagon???

 

[manu1959]

Bomb them back into the Stone Age. At least the ones making threats.

I wonder, are the libs finally ready to jump on the Bush bandwagon???

the islam twits have attacked the press....they are in trouble now

 

[dilloduck]

the islam twits have attacked the press....they are in trouble now

:teeth: Ya right---I see em all scurrying for the best excuse they can find to NOT print the cartoons. It's easy to debase people who aren't going to actually KILL you.

"look out, Pierre---a muslim wants to talk to you" :fifty:

 

[manu1959]

:teeth: Ya right---I see em all scurrying for the best excuse they can find to NOT print the cartoons. It's easy to debase people who aren't going to actually KILL you.

"look out, Pierre---a muslim wants to talk to you" :fifty:

maybe the world court will save them .... the press what a tough bunch they are ...... no guts when faced with death ... freedom of speech you can't hurt me

 

[Annie]

as long as you draw breath it is never too late

With the notable exception of the Dark Ages, the West has been able to come from behind. Even the notable exception ended with the Reformation and Renaissance. I think those types of times may be engulfing the world.

 

[manu1959]

With the notable exception of the Dark Ages, the West has been able to come from behind. Even the notable exception ended with the Reformation and Renaissance. I think those types of times may be engulfing the world.

not sure the euro trash are going to put up with this shit much longer......

 

[Annie]

not sure the euro trash are going to put up with this shit much longer......

I haven't a doubt, they will be more violent than us, but not sure that will be enough. It's the ability to sustain that is missing from the West and in spades in the East.

 

[manu1959]

I haven't a doubt, they will be more violent than us, but not sure that will be enough. It's the ability to sustain that is missing from the West and in spades in the East.

i think the in-ability to sustain a fight is a US phenomena....i do not think the east or Europe suffers from the US spoiled brat instant gratification mentality

 

[Annie]

i think the in-ability to sustain a fight is a US phenomena....i do not think the east or Europe suffers from the US spoiled brat instant gratification mentality

I disagree, at least partly. There is a sizeable number of Americans that are stronger than the appeasers. However, we could devolve and fight amongst ourselves, in a way Europe cannot imagine. At the same time, Europe could awaken and find unity of purpose, only to find they have nukes and nothing else. Sorry state of affairs.

 

[manu1959]

I disagree, at least partly. There is a sizeable number of Americans that are stronger than the appeasers. However, we could devolve and fight amongst ourselves, in a way Europe cannot imagine. At the same time, Europe could awaken and find unity of purpose, only to find they have nukes and nothing else. Sorry state of affairs.

the US at least since vitenam caves in to the whims of the media and the perception of things......facts and reality are often ignored.....and we as a nation bend over backward to do the wrong thing time and again....i belive that things now are at a tipping point......the vocal minority is not getting their way this time.....and those with a backbone you speak of are holding the line.....time will tell if they can hold up against the media assult

 

[Annie]

the US at least since vitenam caves in to the whims of the media and the perception of things......facts and reality are often ignored.....and we as a nation bend over backward to do the wrong thing time and again....i belive that things now are at a tipping point......the vocal minority is not getting their way this time.....and those with a backbone you speak of are holding the line.....time will tell if they can hold up against the media assult

We are in agreement. I meant the same.

 

[manu1959]

We are in agreement. I meant the same.

sorry took the long way around the barn

 

[Adam's Apple]

as long as you draw breath it is never too late

Manu, will you still think that when the radical clerics in Iran has nuclear weapons at their disposal?

 

[Adam's Apple]

Good article, Bonnie. The article title reminds me of the jihadists' mantra: The Saturday crowd first (Jews), then the Sunday crowd (Christians).