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The Curse of Knowing What is Coming Ahead of Time

edit secondgenerationradical 2009-11-09 23:00 UTC 319 comments  ·  ·  ·  ·  ·

It is quite awful to know what is coming ahead of time, and then be ignored by the mainstream when you try to tell them.

In 2003, I released a novel where the main character, a professor, was writing a book called the Second Holocaust where he claims that a Second Holocaust has started which will culminate in Iranian nuclear attacks against the almost 6 million Jews of Israel. I am not saying that Iran will be successful against the Israeli IDF, but the concern that occupied my  mind when I wrote the book has become a lot more concrete and worrisome.

Furthermore I had the professor in the book get in trouble for some politically incorrect language at a lecture;  then after the book came out, I got in trouble, not for what I said, but for what an 18 year old part time book clerk and member of the Muslim Students Association fabricated that i said.

My book, The Second Catastrophe:  A Novel about a Book and its Author was banned by Chapters in Canada and was never picked up in the U.S., despite good reviews.

Last week, Mantua Books released my new book, TOLERism:  The Ideology Revealed, in which I warn that politically correct tolerance has morphed into the ideology of Tolerism, and that Obama is one of the main symptons, where tolerance towards the illiberals has become excessive and tolerance has become more important than justice.  Again, I was too prescient,  As we know, last week, an Islamist who was still a psychiatrist in the U.S. army despite all kinds of talk about how the Muslims in the U.S. should support Muslim countries rather than America, how America in responding to 9/11 was warring against all of Islam, rather than fighting terrorist groups, and who had worshipped in mosques led by two radical Islamists, killed twelve fellow soldiers and injured 33 more.

Yelling the traditional chant of Jihadists, "Allahu Akhbar" as he opened fire in a pre-meditated attack, the media and Obama the Dunce reacted in typical politically correct, morally relativistic terms.

The first Washington Post article took 11 paragraphs to even mention that the attacker was Muslim!

President Obama, put in a couple of disgraceful performances wherein he shows why he is one of the last people in the U.S. who should be President in a time of war against the West by Radical Islam:   Even on Saturday, by which time more information had come out about the Islamist ideology of the attacker (who should always be described as a "terrorist" - except that the politically correct, morally infantile Obama has abolished the word - Obama unbelievable declined to mention that this attack was by an Islamist, or was caused by the Islamists who indoctrinated the terrorist.

Instead Obama said, (and I am not joking):  "We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing." This has got to go down as one of the most ridiculous statements by an American president in history.   We KNOW already what Islamist hatred causes their people to do.   Where has Obama been?   Of course he knows it too, but feels the need to downplay the fact.  That is why some Americans are belatedly worrying about the Islamic background and the spirtual mentors who influenced this smooth talking, no action, poseur.

Incidentally, it took me 5 minutes from hearing the initial report to find out:

Hasan attended the mosque in Silver Spring Maryland where the imam was at the time Faisal Khan.   Faisal Khan was a supporter of the demonstrations in Washington by Muslims who wanted Sami Al-Arian released from jail.   Sami Al-Arian is the disgraced professor from Florida who pled guilty to one count of conspiracy (other counts were dropped as part of a plea bargain) to assist a terrorist entity, namely the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.  Al-Arian refused to comply with a subpoena to come to a Grand Jury to testify against an alleged co-conspirator and was convicted of contempt of court, in addition to the original charge, which really bothered some of the activists in the Washington area Muslim community.

Then,  it was discovered that the Islamist doctor had attended a mosque in Virginia headed by an Islamist imam, which was also attended (at the same time) by two of the World Trade Centre terrorists.    There is no evidence of direct link, but this shows what kind of crowd and imams he associated with.

But if the American people were not concerned that their future Commander in Chief hung out with the America-hating Rev. Wright and the ex-terrorist Bill Ayers, and with other anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic ideologues, I guess they don't see anything wrong with radical Islamists who hate America serving in the armed forces.

Again, my book is prescient and again I watch the inevitable results of what I warn against.  I derive no pleasure, none at all, from being right.

Then last week I made a post about the danger that our current cultural relativists will soon attack the moral foundations of Remembrance Day.  I sent a copy of the essay to a number of newspapers who of course declined it, without even bothering to write back, as they must consider me some kind of flake.

But yesterday, I found that what my essay warns against has already started.  Of course, it has started in Britain first.   Which is par for the course.  I am going to reprint the article from the website from one of these left wing pacifist British Christian churches, who seem happy to cheer on the Islamification of their country which, based on other areas of the world where Muslims are in control, will inevitably mean that the Christian churches, left wing or not, will not be tolerated.   Toleration as I have argued in my new book is only a one way street.

Here is the report;  I have emphasized certain ridiculous points by adding bold face type.   Mark my words, this is the next frontier in the Left's assault on decency, morality and our historic accomplishments as liberal democracies:

from http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/10504:

We need a more inclusive Remembrance Day

A new report ahead of Remembrance Day is recommending a deeper and more meaningful form of remembrance that encompasses both soldiers and civilians on all sides in all wars.

Released today (2nd November) by the thinktank Ekklesia, its suggestions include an honest acknowledgement that some did “die in vain”, an end to “selective remembrance”...

Remembrance has been ‘cheapened’ it says by a failure to back up words with action, particularly when it comes to successive Government’s care for war veterans, but also the lack of resources put into peacebuilding.

It traces the development of Britain’s remembrance tradition and makes a series of proposals about how Remembrance Day might be updated and made more accessible to future generations, making the way we remember war more truthful and inclusive.

A greater equality in remembrance to incorporate all those affected by war, including those on both sides and civilians, conscientious objectors, and those executed for ‘cowardice’

• The language used in remembrance should be more truthful. Words like ‘glorious’ should no longer be used. There should also be an acknowledgement that some did “die in vain” and an end to automatic references about all soldiers giving “their lives for the freedom we enjoy today”.

• Churches should resist the misappropriation of religious language in remembrance. Where it is used it should be qualified carefully, particularly with regard to words like “sacrifice”, which should not be used to condone violence.

• Following other examples from around the world a far greater commitment should be made to peace

• Churches that have bishops and chaplains to the armed forces, should also provide them for the “unarmed forces”, those who work as peacemakers and peacebuilders without weapons

• Remembrance should encompass groups who are often excluded. The environmental impact of war, including ecological damage and millions of animals slaughtered should also be more widely acknowledged

• Churches and others involved in remembrance events and services should make a greater variety of symbols available such as white and purple poppies alongside red ones

• There should be an end to ‘selective remembrance’ where the more shameful aspects of war are forgotten

• Armistice Day should become a bank holiday

“We can remember well, or we can remember badly” said Ekklesia co-director Jonathan Bartley... “ Many want to remember, but they are unable to join in the corporate recollection because of the values and politics that accompany the traditions.

“It is naïve to believe that our remembrance has not been shaped by political perspectives and certain values about war. If we want future generations to remember, we need to acknowledge this, and adapt our traditions accordingly. This will mean deciding what we need to hold onto from the past, but also making tough decisions about what is unhelpful and should be discarded.

“Remembrance that does not tell the truth or match words with actions is cheap, and fails to honour those who died. Remembrance that excludes people because we feel uncomfortable with what they did is deceitful. We need a more honest, equal, and inclusive remembering.”
ENDS

You can read the report in full here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/ReimaginingRemembrance.pdf

Notes to Editors

1. Ekklesia is a member of the Network of Christian Peace Organisations (NCPO) committed to furthering peace and encouraging churches to support the peace movement

2. Formed in 2001, Ekklesia was listed by The Independent newspaper in 2005 as among 20 influential UK think-tanks. According to Alexa/Amazon, it has one of the most-visited religious current affairs websites in Britain. It runs a news and comment service, examining religion in public life, and raises £250,000 a year for peace & justice causes

Dear readers:

Look at the future and weep.   Or, do something about it and join me in fighting the Tolerist cancer undermining our civilization.

Howard Rotberg November 7, 2009

Remembrance Day, 2009: What are we Remembering

edit secondgenerationradical 2009-11-09 01:18 UTC 279 comments

Remembrance Day, 2009:   What are we Remembering?

 

By Howard Rotberg

 

In our current world of cultural and moral relativism where we are supposed to believe that we should tolerate and respect every culture and every belief system equally, Remembrance Day is more and more the last bastion of traditional patriotism.

 

When we remember the soldiers who gave up their lives, or were disabled, for the maintenance of our way of life, our liberal democracies and our freedoms, we necessarily hold that our way of life is superior to those whose totalitarian illiberal governments forced the necessity of war upon us.

 

Cultural relativists would have us believe that Tolerance is the new primary value, and that if all peoples are equally deserving of respect, pacifism is so obviously more moral than war, since if everybody is like us, who would bother to attack us, and even if they did, submission to their values would, according to the relativists, be a lesser evil than fighting them.

 

In my new book, Tolerism:  The Ideology Revealed (Mantua Books), I suggest that adherence to a tolerant worldview has now passed beyond mere respect for the idea of diversity – and become an ideology that holds that we must have, not only a sympathy but an indulgence, that is an excessive leniency, for beliefs or practices conflicting with our own. At times, I contend that this ideology contains not only an undue tolerance of the illiberals, but a disturbing element of self-hatred, cultural masochism, and delusions about the difference between social tolerance and political tolerance.   I explore the issue of what limitations should be placed on Tolerance and whether Tolerance should be trumped by Justice.

 

To understand the full dimensions of what Remembrance Day must be in 21st century Canada, it is necessary to canvas some other commemorations that have sprung up in our increasingly international culture.

 

First of all, are we in Remembrance Day mourning all soldiers of every state, or only those who proudly represented liberal democracies against such forces as Nazi Germany?

I used to live in Kitchener-Waterloo.  Some years ago, the remains of Nazi soldiers who had died in POW camps in Canada were disinterred and transferred to one cemetery in Kitchener, which has a sizeable German population.   And so, a few days after Remembrance Day, there takes place a gathering of some 400 to 500 people, at this cemetery of Nazi soldiers, where the German Remembrance Day, called Volkstrauertag, takes place.   In 2006, the German Ambassador to Canada decided to include in his speech there, a substantial remembrance of the Holocaust.   This so bothered the local German organizations that the Cooperative Council of German Canadian Clubs of Waterloo Region felt it necessary to write an Open Letter to the German ambassador noting that his talk “certainly fit into the theme of holocaust (sic) education”, but expressing their “community’s extreme disappointment that its focus created the impression of a political demonstration of ‘Vergangenheitsbewaltigung’  (meaning “"struggle to come to terms with the past").

 

The Kitchener Germans protested that this speech “missed its mark” because in their view the ceremony was for the purpose of remembering all victims of war and political persecution anywhere “and our compatriots in particular”. (emphasis added)

 

And so, a ceremony attended every year by local mayors, members of the legislature and parliament is meant by its organizers to remember and honour Nazi soldiers.   Are we comfortable with this?    Are we comfortable that nearly as many people attend this remembrance ceremony as attend the Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph in downtown Kitchener?

 

Then, since 1995, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization has sponsored a Day of Tolerance on November 16th each year, again an interesting counterpoint to Remembrance Day on November 11th. On the UNESCO website is stated that the day “affirms that tolerance is neither indulgence nor indifference. It is respect and appreciation of the rich variety of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance recognizes the universal human rights and fundamental freedoms of others. People are naturally diverse; only tolerance can ensure the survival of mixed communities in every region of the globe.”

 

It sounds so nice. But why must we in the liberal democracies “tolerate” beliefs and cultures that rob individuals, women, gays, or minority religions from all human rights.  Shouldn’t we be encouraged to speak out against such human rights abuses, rather than tolerate them?  I do not suggest we militarily free every oppressed group in the totalitarian parts of the world, but why is there a day to celebrate the rich variety of oppressive regimes?

 

UNESCO, by the way just elected a new president.   A Bulgarian parliamentarian overtook a large lead by the frontrunner, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni.   Just to give an understanding of the absurdity of UNESCO-sponsored days of Tolerance, Hosni, who was the favorite to win, is a well-known supporter of cultural repression.   As stated by Mona Eltahawy in the Washington Post, Hosni “has alienated many Egyptians by suffocating cultural and intellectual freedom while giving a leg up to religious zealotry.”  She cites numerous examples of his preventing freedom of expression.  Then, in May 2008, he stated that he would “burn Israeli books” himself if he found any in Egyptian libraries.

 

Mr. Hosni tried his best to satisfy international concerns.  He wrote an article in the French newspaper Le Monde, where he apologized for the comments and said he would be willing to deal with Israel if he were elected to be UNESCO’s chief.

 

And yet, this modest apology led to a backlash among Egyptian intellectuals, who argued the culture minister was not abiding by the cultural limitations established by Egyptian institutions concerning normalization with Israel.   You see, while the world thinks Egypt is at peace with Israel, this country, which airs the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion on its television, actually bars cultural organizations and media from any dealings with Israeli officials and artists. 

 

So, this resulted in 15 prominent Egyptian intellectuals, including professors of literature, history, and international law, and prominent journalists, to write an open letter opposing Mr. Hosni’s election to head UNESCO. His apology for his book burning remarks and his willingness to deal with Israel in the course of his duties, caused these intellectuals to write:  “It is needless to emphasize that this character with such dreadful history is not fit for such great position that requires high levels of morality and integrity, as well as unrelenting support for human dignity and ethical transparency.”    And so, the chances of Mr. Hosni being the first Arab to head UNESCO were scuttled as much by hardliners in his own country as by western concerns.   But in the end, Hosni, as is usual in the Arab Middle East, blamed the Jews.  An article by Hadil al-Shalchi in The Huffington Post states that Hosni blamed a conspiracy "cooked up in New York" by the world's Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the U.N.'s agency for culture and education.

The point is that commemorations of Tolerance headed by intolerant people, or commemoration of Nazi war dead by people who get upset that the Holocaust be mentioned are all commemorations that are meaningless, in any positive sense.   As Canada takes in more immigrants, will these immigrants share in a Remembrance Day to remember why our soldiers die, or will they want their own remembrance days, commemorating values that may be very different than those of a liberal democracy?

One more example of the relativist undermining of remembrance will suffice:  Canadian Professor Anne Bayefsky, writing on January 27,  2005 in National Review Online points out that the United Nations commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz made sure that there were no actual Resolutions coming out of the ceremony, so as not to offend the Arab states, which boycotted the event (the auditorium was half empty).  Of the 41 speakers at the event, only 5 dared to mention the word, "Israel" in their speeches, and such word was not mentioned in the speeches by the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Australia. Then, most amazing of all, at the ceremony that took place at Auschwitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfovitz stated:  "We have agreed to set aside contemporary political issues, in order to reflect on those events of 60 years ago in a spirit of unanimity."   The price, however, for unanimity is to abandon the notion that the Holocaust contains lessons for contemporary politics.  To concede as Wolfovitz did, that European leftists and the Muslims are offended by the lessons to be drawn, is to render the Holocaust into a meaningless symbol.

 

Bayefsky notes the irony of the constant repetition of the mantra "Never Again" when we fail to give primacy to discussions of what that means in the contemporary situation for the Jewish state: "Jews everywhere are indebted to the willingness and ability of Israelis to live and breathe self-determination.  When contemporary political issues are set aside and an affirmation of the centrality of the Jewish state's well-being is not key to a commemoration of the Holocaust, 'never again' is an empty phrase."

And so we return to Remembrance Day, 2009 in Canada.   Let us, as part of the education we give to our students, emphasize that we are remembering those who gave their lives for the maintenance of liberties in a liberal democratic state.   Let us not mistake multiculturalism (that is, the acceptance of diversity as long as the constituent parts all respect our main liberal democratic values) for cultural relativism, that leads to the position that all beliefs and cultures are equal.   Let us remember, but let us first put some context to that remembrance. And that context is that in Canada we remember with pride those who did not just die, but died for the purpose of maintaining a free and democratic country, which, while always capable of improvement, represents a political system and a cultural milieu of which we can be proud.

Howard Rotberg is the author of The Second Catastrophe:  A Novel about a Book and its Author (Mantua Books) and Exploring Vancouverism:  The Political Culture of Canada’s Lotus Land (CanadianValuesPress).  His new book, TOLERism:  The Ideology Revealed, (Mantua Books) will be launched in Toronto on November 22nd.