Evil In Return
Yesterday, in London, a British citizen, Darren Osborne, using a favorite jihadi MO, rammed a truck into a crowd of Muslim worshippers as they exited a mosque that had numerous connections to terrorism (the “shoe bomber” Richard Reid as well as 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui are among the former alumni). This type of “reverse terrorism” by Osborne is absolutely reprehensible, absolutely indefensible, absolutely inexcusable, and absolutely inevitable.
At some point ALL cultures will defend themselves from attack by other cultures immiscible with their own. Especially when that attack has a lethal phalanx off in the wings.
Now, all waves of immigration are associated with some degree of friction and antagonism while in progress. Generally, the closer the immigrant culture is to the host culture the easier the transition. Since the Islamic culture is RADICALLY different from western civilization (alien cultural practices are child marriage, polygamy, female “circumcision”, honor killings, wife beating, and violent sharia justice, just to mention a few) we would, a priori, expect BIG problems with contemporary Muslim immigration. And, of course, those predicting BIG problems (among them Harvard graduate and scholar, Samuel P. Huntington, author of “Clash of Civilizations”) have been vindicated by a long chain of events. But there is an additional factor at work that makes the situation even worse.
With most waves of immigration, it is expected (and nearly universally achieved) that the immigrant culture will make great efforts to “blend in” and assimilate with their hosts. Most immigrant cultures understand, on both an intuitive basis and a cognitive one, that things will just “go better” for them if they strive to mimic their hosts. The classic Roman admonition: “Cum Romania feceris quod in Roman facere” (“When in Rome do as the Romans do”) is just as true today as it was in Roman times. But today’s Muslim migrants either CAN NOT, or WILL NOT assimilate. Either because of a. certain psychological rigidity, a sense of superiority, or a deep devotion to cultural norms under which they were raised, they do NOT assimilate. Accordingly, there is and will always be friction and antagonism between these immigrants and their hosts.
(As I’m writing this, I just received word that a jihadi on the French terror watch list rammed his truck filled with explosives into a police car on the Champs Elysées in Paris).
When this friction and antagonism fosters violence on one side of a cultural divide, it should come as no surprise that violence will erupt on the other side in response. To quote a poem (titled “September 1, 1939”) by W. H. Auden:
I and the public know,
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done,
Do evil in return.
The inevitability of violent clashes between two incompatible cultures is yet another reason (additional reasons are economic strain and cultural dilution among others) to stem the incredible storm of immigration currently underway. It is estimated (by the British government) that there are 23 THOUSAND jihadi’s currently living in Britain. The police can barely keep track of 3 THOUSAND of them. Does Britain need more? There are no reliable estimates of the number of jihadis in America, but the number is NOT insignificant. Does America need more?