Undercurrent of Islamic Extremism in the West

Published on Thursday, 14 May 2015

It is highly appropriate and very pertinent that within a matter of days of winning the national election in the UK, David Cameron, the newly elected prime minister, has taken steps to tackle the menace of religious extremism and radicalisation of the country. A new legislative programme of counter-terrorism incorporating anti-radicalisation would be included in the Queen's Speech on 27th May. This shows how seriously David Cameron is taking this menace of religious extremism in the country!

Islamisation and religious extremism are endemic not only in Britain but also throughout the whole of the West and beyond. Apart from 9/11 attack in America in 2001, there were numerous other terrorist attacks in many Western countries since then. Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris in January of this year is the most recent major terrorist attack in the West. Islamic terrorism is not, however, confined to the West alone. Asian and African countries are as much, if not more, victims of this barbarity. Islamic radicalisation is the fodder to this extremism.

It is estimated that more than 600 men and women, calling themselves Jihadists, had gone to Turkey, Syria and Iraq from the UK alone to fight the 'holy' war under the IS flag. What is it that is propelling these Islamists to undertake such extreme measures to sacrifice their own lives to kill others whom they call 'non-believers'? Who or what is feeding them, encouraging them and sustaining them in such barbaric missions? Why are those blatant Islamists migrating to the liberal West and then itching to go back to fight for their religion?

There are multiple, somewhat disjointed, answers to this literally indefatigable question. But the essential thread is that those Islamists had been thoroughly brainwashed by their religious tribalism and perpetually reminded and reinforced by their mullahs at their places of worship.

In the early 1970s, there were no more than twenty or so mosques in the whole of the UK. There were one or two additional Islamic Centres and libraries and that was all. If ardent Muslims in other parts of the country wanted to perform their religious duties, they had to do those in private. But by 2007 the number of mosques had gone up to nearly 1500 and by 2014 it was well over 2000. In addition, there are numerous prayer rooms, religious function rooms, Islamic congregation centres and so forth. Admittedly, mosques are the places where people perform their religious duties collectively. But the other function mosques perform is to spread messages of 'unique and superior status of Islam' by the ill-educated, more likely illiterate, mullahs. These messages are the seed corn of moronic views encouraging communalism and inculcating hatred among congregates against the host community. Multiculturalism cannot be farthest from such core messages.

The mullahs, who are educated to nothing more than reading Arabic scriptures in Quran without understanding anything at all, started making up messages of Allah for their sermons. They tell the congregate that weep and ask for material help (and anything else you care to ask) to Allah and Allah may grant you. They say, if you do what religion wants you to do (no alcoholic drink etc.), you will go to heaven and will have unlimited supply of alcoholic drink; if you go to heaven Allah will reward you with 72 'houris' (virgin women) every day! There are many other obnoxious messages. On the other hand, if you - the Muslims - do not follow the religious edicts, you will be burned in the hell-fire for eternity. No wonder, under this twin carrot and stick approach, which is reinforced five times a day, the people get brainwashed and do what mullahs tell them to do. They become simply morons; the messages emanating from the mullahs become vivid and absolute truths to them!

Then came the buzzword called 'religious right' in the early-1980s, which opened the floodgate of brainwashed and deeply ingrained religious people, mainly from Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries, to demand all sorts of religious facilities such as setting up of mosques, prayer rooms in offices, schools, colleges, hospitals and even at railway stations and airports. This 'religious right' also created opportunities for the so-called 'mullahs' to demand entry in to the West on religious grounds. At the same time, Saudi Arabia (with almost unlimited petro-dollars at its coffers) sponsoring Wahhabism found great opportunities to push its fundamentalist religious ideology in the West. It is estimated that Saudi Arabia alone had spent more than $70 billion from late 1950s till 2014 in propagating and sponsoring its fundamentalist ideology. What could be better spent than donating money in setting up mosques, faith schools, madrassahs and so forth in the West?

The strategy of Saudi Arabia and other petro-dollar rich Middle Eastern countries was that this 'religious right' would be used not only to beat but also to defeat the West. Islam will be exported to the West and Islamic culture will be established throughout the West. Coupled with this 'religious right' came the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) when the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) (Saudi Arabia and other die-hard Muslim countries) signed the Declaration in 2008, after years of resisting it because it did not allow polygamy for Muslims – commonly practised in the Middle East!

When in 2010 France enacted a law banning the religious attires for women such as 'burqa', 'niqab' and 'hijab', the law was challenged in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg by the Muslim Human Rights group under the cloak that it violated the human rights of the Muslim women. However, the Court after lengthy consideration over a period of three years upheld the French government's ban in its ruling on 1 July 2014 on grounds that it does not breach Muslim women's human rights. It must be mentioned here that the claim that wearing such attires is a religious obligation is nothing but egregious falsification.

The other plank of the strategy of the fundamentalist countries such as Saudi Arabia alongside this edifice of legally enforcing Islamic culture in the West is to physically and ruthlessly suppress any attempt to criticise or challenge Islamic edicts – the 'religious right' they so vigorously pretend to uphold at their convenience is thrown out of the window when it becomes embarrassing to them. The 'fatwa' on Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini for his assassination following the publication of 'The Satanic Verses'; killing of over 3000 people in the attack on World Trade Centre on 9 September, 2001; killing of 53 people in London Underground bombing on July 7, 2005; killing of 17 people in Charlie Hebdo massacre; numerous other attacks throughout the whole world including numerous hacking of Bangladeshi secularists all are testament to Islamic barbarism. The Human Rights, religious freedom etc. are all irrelevant and redundant when it comes to affect Islam!

David Cameron was absolutely right when he said that UK was 'passively tolerant society' for far too long. The vicious religious seed had been sown in this country and in other Western countries some decades ago by the 'friendly Muslim States' and now the chickens are coming home to roost. The Jihadists returning from Syria may pose threats to the security of this country, but that is relatively a minor threat as they may be identified and secured. But the major and intractable problem is the perpetual regeneration of Jihadists in mosques, in prayers rooms, in colleges and universities throughout the whole country. The large number of hijab clad Muslim women, claiming religious obligation (totally erroneously), the proliferation of mosques up and down the whole country are major problems. Actions need to be taken now. It is not too late to take corrective actions now. But delay it any further, it may devour the host.