Dead Cant Rant

Dr. Daniel Pipes has a new project: Islamist Watch, dedicated to exposing the sinister side of Islamism — not the overt acts of terrorism, but the subtle acts of lawful Islamism designed to ensure Islam is accepted as superior and to impose shari’a through manipulation of a gullible public.

Quietly, lawfully, peacefully, Islamists do their work throughout the West to impose aspects of Islamic law, win special privileges for themselves, shut down criticism of Islam, create Muslim-only zones, and deprive women and non-Muslims of their full civil rights.

Lawful Islamists advance their cause through lobbying politicians, intimidating the media, threatening international boycotts, making predatory use of the legal system, advancing novel legislation, influencing the contents of school textbooks, and in other ways exploiting the freedoms of an open society. They advance their agenda in incremental steps, each of which in itself is minor but in the aggregate point to fundamental changes in society. Here is a sampling of such steps taken by non-Muslims to accommodate Islamists:

* Sell land at discount prices for building mosques or other Islamic institutions.
* Ban Hindus and Jews from a jury hearing a criminal case against an Islamist in Great Britain.
* Allow a prisoner the unheard-of right to avoid strip-searches in New York State.
* Let students in public (i.e., taxpayer-funded) schools use empty classrooms for prayers in New Jersey.
* Permit public schools and public airwaves to be used to convert non-Muslims.
* Recognize polygamous marriages for tax purposes in the United Kingdom.
* Set aside women-only bathing at a municipal swimming pool in France or use taxpayer funds for Muslim women-only swimming times in Washington State.
* Arrange for women-only classes at a taxpayer-supported university.
* Blame women for being the victims of rape by Muslim men in Norway.
* Develop a special hijab for female Muslim employees of a leading home furnishing company, sporting the corporate logo.
* Ban the use of piggybanks—the symbol of frugality—in their advertising by two major British banks.
* Establish panels, councils, or advisory boards uniquely for Muslims.
* Authorize Muslim-only neighborhoods or events.
* Apply the “Rushdie rules” – accepting Islamist intimidation and silencing critics of Islam.
* Punish anti-Islamic views through the application of criminal charges, as has occurred to critics of Islam in Australia and Canada.
* Prohibit families from sending pork or pork by-products or “Any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith” to U.S. military personnel serving in the Middle East.
* Require that female American soldiers in Saudi Arabia wear U.S. government-issued abayas.

Perhaps most alarming is how the Islamists currently dominate the Muslim political scene in every Western society, without exception. They control the mosques, publish the weeklies, host the Internet sites, run the schools, write the op-eds, appear on talk shows, engage in ecumenical activities, and enjoy access to politicians.

This is something that’s bothered me for a long time. Thanks to the efforts of people like Charles Johnson, Robert Spencer, and Andrew Whitehead, we understand what is actually happening behind the news stories — or, in most cases, the lack thereof.