The war goes on

by Emmanuel Bouhalakis

The story repeated itself. After Manchester, another three terrorists knifed people in London after running into them with a van. The presumed dead killers once again chanted phrases about Allah.

This is getting downward nasty. People who died in Paris, Manchester, London and who knows where next, are definitely not responsible for the civil war in Syria or for any tribal warfare in the world's endless dangerous regions.

It has been argued that since innocent people and especially Muslims are killed by Western weapons all over the world, perhaps the same terror ought to be brought to the heart of those Western capitals which represent those weapons makers.

This is an awfully naive assertion. The average Briton of French citizens have absolutely no idea about how many, if any, weapons are sold to Bashar Al Assad or to a chieftain in Africa. They are totally ignorant of deals their government may make with governments that oppress their own people. 

The arms trade was never conducted on grounds of human rights, anyway. Saudi Arabia has an enormous defense budget and their government, or dynasty as we may call it, buys the very latest weapons and they recently signed another deal with Donald Trump. 

Saudi Arabia can be described as an almost totalitarian country in which the Islamic law is enforced with ruthless power and what the West may call "human rights", in Saudi Arabia they simply aren't part of daily life.

Yet, the other Muslim countries don't seem to protest enough about the arms sales towards this regime. They don't seem to protest about Erdogan's Turkey either. Turkey has the second largest army of NATO and the overwhelming majority of their weapons are made by Western countries, especially by the USA.

The big Muslim countries don't seem to be in a mood to demonize Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian regime. They don't express their dismay when thousands of Turkish citizens end up in jail whose only crime being a vague support for Turkey's exiled Imam Fethullah Gulen.

Yet, there seems to be a desire for reciprocation against the "decadent" West which causes civil wars and makes people flee their torn countries to drown in the Mediterranean. 

However, this does not seem to be entirely the case. A considerable percentage of the refugees ending up in "hotspots" in Greece or Italy are from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries which do not face the fear of civil war. Most surprisingly, most of these immigrants simply want to go to Germany and live a good life instead of just saving their lives from the alleged pestilences of their countries.

I have previously noted that modern Islam, in general, is slow in condemning terrorist attacks in Western countries. I cannot fully comprehend why. The Muslims residing in Western countries are generally well tolerated and their religion is widely respected. They have their mosques, their wives are allowed to wear the hijab, they have their "halal" food and apart from very few harassment incidents, they don't face the ferocious persecution that Christians face in Egypt or other Muslim countries.

Just a few years ago, there were massive protests in Muslim countries because an American pastor threatened to burn the Koran. Yet, when radical Muslims kill tens of Christians, there is absolute silence among the so-called Christian nations. 

This appeasement tactic, this fear not to be called racist of fascist, has mutilated the Western nations. They have been pushing the "war of religions" scenario out of their minds and until today many people believe that Islam is not to blame but rather the fanatics of this religion and there must not be any escalation of rhetoric against those fundamentalists.

Yet, once again there was no strong condemnation of Muslim communities around the world about the new London attacks. Individual Muslims and some local unions have rushed to offer their condolences and support, but this has not been able to prevent new attacks and neither will it do so in the future.

The West needs to crack down on militant Islam which lies right by its door. Any Muslim schools or mosques in Western countries that advocate hatred or talk about the "decadent" West, need to be outlawed immediately. Anyone preaching values strange to the average European way of life, should be deported. Moreover, the Muslim communities in Europe should fully cooperate with the authorities to bring those unrepentant radicals to justice. 

Finally, the large Muslim nations ought to stop the hypocrisy about Western weapons that kill innocent Muslims. That does happen and it it downright vile and inappropriate. However, it is their own governments that buy the weapons and they often turn them against their political opponents. At the same time, Christians residing in all Muslim countries must be fully protected from the menace of radical Islamists. If their safety cannot be guaranteed and if their lives are at risk simply because their faith is different, then the Muslim leaders throughout the world should simply confess their failure to hold their radicals back and furthermore they ought to apologize for the loss of innocent Christians.

Any silence or weak statements should be considered as tantamount to unwillingness to stop this subtle but very existing war of religions which started officially on Sept.11, 2001 in the USA.

The Christian nations with their complacency ought to start thinking now and fast as this outrageously audacious aggression will not end in the foreseeable future.