Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Islamism

  • Islam is a Radical Threat to Free Speech

    Diana West: It’s important to realize sharia’s prohibition of criticism of Islam is basic Islam: There is nothing “radical” about it. Indeed, it is this basic Islamic censorship that is at the crux of why Islam itself — not “Islamism,” not “radical Islam,” not “Islamists,” but Islam — is an existential threat to the survival…

  • Deterrence Will Not Work Against Iran

    Charles Krauthammer gives three reasons: (1) The nature of the regime. Did the Soviet Union in its 70 years ever deploy a suicide bomber? For Iran, as for other jihadists, suicide bombing is routine. Hence the trail of self-immolation, from the 1983 Marine barracks attack in Beirut to the Bulgaria bombing of July 2012.  Iran’s…

  • Are the Pyramids of Egypt Slated for Destruction?

    This is one of the statues of Buddha that the Taliban dynamited in 2001: Will the Pyramids of Egypt meet the same fate at the hands of similar miscreants?  See Victor Davis Hanson, Blowing Up History. Of the world religions, "the religion of peace" is uniquely violent.  Having said that, I must be an 'Islamophobe'…

  • Koran Jihad and Advanced Dhimmitude

    By Diana West.  Excerpt, emphas is added: Behold what is perhaps the most advanced state of dhimmitude. Here we see the dhimmi — Jan Kubis and the UN hierarchy — mimic perfectly the perpetual aggrievement of Islam. Islam's aggrievement becomes their own aggrievement, indeed, becomes even more important than any by now atavistic concept of…

  • Taqiyya, Tawriya, and Creative Lying

    Here: Perhaps you have heard of taqiyya, the Muslim doctrine that allows lying in certain circumstances, primarily when Muslim minorities live under infidel authority. Now meet tawriya, a doctrine that allows lying in virtually all circumstances—including to fellow Muslims and by swearing to Allah—provided the liar is creative enough to articulate his deceit in a…

  • Islamist Fanatics There, Secular Fanatics Here

    An excellent column by Dennis Prager.  We conservatives need to 'make jihad' (in  a manner of speaking) against the religion-bashing shysters of the ACLU. Ever wonder about the etymology of 'shyster'?  I have an answer for you.  No, I don't think that every lawyer is a shyster.

  • David Horowitz

    In this video clip, Horowitz gets a Muslim Jew-hater to show her true colors. Here he is on the Dennis Prager show discussing his new book, A Point in Time: The Search for Redemption in this Life and the Next.

  • Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword: Anwar al-Awlaki Killed

    This is good news: "SAN'A, Yemen—Al Qaeda figure Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the most wanted terrorists on a U.S. target list, has been killed in Yemen, according to a statement issued by the country's defense ministry."

  • A Dog Named ‘Muhammad’

    There is a sleazy singer who calls herself 'Madonna.'  That moniker is offensive to many.  But we in the West are tolerant, perhaps excessively so, and we tolerate the singer, her name, and her antics.  Muslims need to understand the premium we place on toleration if they want to live among us.    A San Juan Capistrano councilman named his…

  • Richard Pipes on the Threat of Militant Islam

    Excerpt: Mr. Pipes thinks the main challenge for America today is militant Islam. "This is difficult to fight with because it is not a direct threat. A direct threat you can stand up to. It is also different because you are dealing with fanatics," he points out.  "The communists were not fanatics. They were vicious…

  • Liberal Islam

    A Pakistani reader of this weblog, Awais Aftab, points us to his piece What is Liberal Islam?

  • Muslim and Marxist

    Muslim: There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet.  Marxist: There is no God and Marx is his prophet.  (This is not a MavPhil original, but I cannot recall where I found this witticism.)

  • Serious Faith

    A serious faith, a vital faith, is one that battles with doubt.  Otherwise the believer sinks into complacency and his faith becomes a convenience.  Doubt is a good thing.  For doubt is the engine of inquiry, the motor of Athens.  Jerusalem needs Athens to keep her honest, to chasten her excesses, to round her out, to…

  • Whittaker Chambers and Totalitarian Islam

    Here.  July 9th was the 50th anniversary of the death of Whittaker Chambers.  His Witness, a book of high literary merit, is a key document for understanding the politics of the 20th century.  But now it is the 21st century and radical Islam is the new Communism.

  • ‘Islamophobia’

    Abdur-Rahman Muhammad has it right: "This loathsome term is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics."