Don’t Speak: Radical Muslims and Triggered Leftists Are the Conjoined Twins of Offense
Despite their many outward differences, Islamic authoritarianism and leftist liberalism are very similar.
Take how radical Muslims and triggered liberals brook no dissent (read: “blasphemy”) from their sacred ideas.
In his discussion of Koran 5:33, which calls for the crucifixion and/or mutilation of “those who wage war against Allah and his messenger [Muhammad] and spread mischief upon the land,” the highly revered Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) — the “Sheikh of Islam” — once wrote:
Muharaba [waging war] is of two types: physical and verbal. Waging war verbally against Islam may be worse than waging war physically — hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used to kill those who waged war against Islam verbally, while letting off some of those who waged war against Islam physically. This ruling is to be applied more strictly after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Mischief may be caused by physical action or by words, but the damage caused by words is many times greater than that caused by physical action…. It is proven that waging war against Allah and His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) verbally is worse and the efforts on earth to undermine religion by verbal means is more effective [Crucified Again, p. 100; emphasis added].
This authoritative Muslim cleric is making a seemingly startling claim: Criticism — mere words — is more detrimental to Islam than war itself. Why? Because of all the world’s major religions, Islam is by far the easiest to dismantle through critical thinking (which is why Christian/Muslim debates often end with frustrated Muslims beating and even slaughtering their opponents).
No Critical Thinking Allowed
Islam is a religion built atop an easily collapsed house of cards — namely, the very self-serving and opportunistic words and deeds of its founder. Therefore, silencing any criticism against Muhammad has long been essential to Islam’s survival. Left unchecked, this “verbal war” will have a snowball effect: Other Muslims, exposed to such critical thinking, will start thinking critically, ultimately rebelling against and overthrowing the Islamic order.
Now consider how this applies to the so-called “Left.” Every day, from virtually every official institution and channel — academia, media, government, etc. — we are bombarded with very obvious and ludicrous lies (for example, that women can become men, that men can become pregnant, and so on and so forth). Does that mean most Americans believe this? No. But getting you to believe what is unbelievable has never really been the goal.
Former generations of Americans could never in their wildest dreams have imagined a day would come when people would get fired or arrested for refusing to disavow reality and say a man is a woman, or for using the correct pronoun to identify someone — but that day is here.
Rather, the ultimate goal is to condition you to never publicly challenge the official narrative. You must never openly blaspheme the official cult, thereby encouraging others to blasphemy and apostacy — the dreaded snowball effect every regime fears.
The Left cares little if, in the quiet of your own mind, you refuse to play along. All that matters is that you formally go along — that you formally acquiesce, even if through silent though implicit consent.
In short, the Left wants you to dread the consequences of openly defying its narrative — which, like Islam, is also built atop an easily collapsed house of cards.
Silent Dissent Leads to Public Persecution
This is what many miss. They tell themselves, “Well, I won’t openly say anything against these nonsensical claims about gender, pronouns, etc. — after all, I don’t need to be canceled or lose my job. That said, I certainly know better and am not falling for this foolishness.”
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That may well be true, but wherever these new dogmas are not openly and fiercely opposed — including through that potent tool, ridicule — the Left establishes a monopoly on the narrative, which is all that matters.
Headed That Way
Returning to Islam, we see that, because it has been and continues to be swift in silencing any public dissent — sharia even calls for the execution of blasphemers — it has persevered for fourteen centuries and counting. Nor does it matter that many Muslims (known in modern parlance as “moderates”) have serious reservations in the quiet of their minds (if not downright apostasy in their hearts) so long as they cannot outwardly express those criticism or doubts. That’s how Islam holds sway over societies.
How long before such sharia-like laws are promulgated in the West? And make no mistake: I’m not talking about being “canceled,” but literally imprisoned and possibly executed for openly challenging the Left’s narrative.
Think that can’t happen here? Think again. Former generations of Americans could never in their wildest dreams have imagined a day would come when people would get fired or arrested for refusing to disavow reality and say a man is a woman, or for using the correct pronoun to identify someone — but that day is here.
If the current trajectory continues unchallenged, where will the West be a few years from now, and what punishments will be meted out to dissenters?
Such is the plight of the slowly boiling frog.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of Defenders of the West and Sword and Scimitar, is the Distinguished Senior Shillman Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and the Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
