69 million page views

"Evolutionary process" in the Arab world, or eternal recipient of "enabling appeasement"?

Reader comment on item: Israel's War on Hamas: A Dozen Thoughts
in response to reader comment: The Historic Time Dilation Effect of Arabia's Late Arrival into the Modern World

Submitted by jennifer solis (United States), Jan 7, 2009 at 19:05

Hello Jonathan Pfeffer,

You give the analogy - "would one prefer to deal with Germany, circa 1940, or Germany circa 2008?".

An imperative, a prominant difference between the two dates is not the elapsed time; it is the obliteration of Berlin.

Throughout history, evil ideologies did not "evolve" into pious, sofisticated, just, modern, etc. ideologies. They were completely defeated, wiped out; most often by overwhelming military defeat. WWI is a great example of not completely defeating the enemy; WWII was the result. Hiroshema, Nagasaki, and the decimation of Berlin resulted in decisive victory; ergo the end of two evil, empiracle, ambition for world-conquest ideologies.

The Palestinian Cause is every inch the same as the Third Reich; micro-cosmic when viewing Hammas, Hezbolla; macro-cosmic when viewing regimes that support them (Iran, Syria, Islamists the world over). Time and time again, any land set aside for the Palestinian people has turned into a nest of vipers, bent on total destruction of Israel.

Oddly, all the negotiations, appeasements, international intervention which has proved disasterous for Israel, also has proved disasterous for the Palestinians; not in the sense of poverty, scarcity of medicine, food, etc., but in the sense that their ideology has been enabled - indeed, perpetuated - simply by being alowed to exist.

Looking at the rest of the Muslim and Arab world, I would daresay the same principle applies - appeasement of any kind, giving money/aid to those countries which hate us, purchasing their oil, not only harms the free world in that it strengthens our enemies, but it does a disservice to our enemies in that their evil regimes do not fail, but continue to exist; in fact thrive; any "evolutionary process" (if there is such a thing) is stopped dead in it's tracks.

Add to that a religion that scripturally commands the execution of apostates (employed in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan, Mauritania, to name a few); promises Paradise to those who kill the enemy; justifies "honor killing" of family members; marries off 12 year old girls; etc. PLUS rulership which bans, persecutes, and looks the other way regarding massacre of members of any and all other religions (Pakistan, Bangledesh, Indonesia, etc.), and you have a giant mess: it's called Islam.

Only when Islamism's hold on it's people is considered an overwhelming detriment, not a benefit (by ALL - their Imams, their madrassas, their Mullas, their governments, their regimes) will the Islamic chain which binds them break; only then will "evolution" take place. What it will take for Islamism to be considered an "overwhelming detriment" by it's adherents is up for debate.

The West does not help by turning a blind eye to the obvious; that is tantamount to not stopping Hitler at Munich.

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)