What’s Wrong with the World

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What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

What is there to say?

The story has come through this week that Muslim immigrants threw fifteen Christians overboard from a large rubber boat between Libya and Italy. Other Christians who survived by resisting have testified against them upon arrival in Italy, and the murderers have been arrested and will be tried. (Originally when I read the story I believed that some of those thrown overboard were rescued by Italian Coast Guard, but that apparently was a misunderstanding concerning some other refugees whose boat had sunk.)

Now what is there to say to this? Well, a couple of things. First, this is an illustration of the ruthlessness and, for want of a better word, chauvinism of Islam. The killers here simply did not think there was anything wrong with throwing Christian fellow refugees overboard. There was no question of, "We're all in this boat together." No question of solidarity or kindness. One of the Christian refugees refused to pray to Allah, and that was it. Said the murderer, "Here, we only pray to Allah." It is important that we get it. While most of our readers here at W4 do get it, I fear that too many do not. This is a brutal religion to which any idea of tolerance is simply a joke.

Second, these murderers were not ISIS members but Muslims who were trying to escape from Libya and from the advance of ISIS. Let that sink in. A naive assumption might be that the ones who are running away (instead of running back and joining ISIS) are the good guys, the moderates. Not so. They didn't want to live under ISIS. They wanted to go to Italy. But they were evil murderers who would throw Christians into the sea without a second thought for praying to the "wrong" God. If I were in Italy right now I would find this a very sobering thought, considering all of the Muslims welcomed in a non-discriminatory fashion as refugees in recent months.

Third, this story tells us that, with Islam so widespread in Africa and the Middle East, the problems faced are intractable. This is not to say that we should not go in there and beat the heck out of ISIS, as suggested in the Editors' 9/11 post last fall. After all, they have made it much easier by setting themselves up as a visible army of the Jihad. But we should not think that there is a good end to this story. There is not some viable, democratic, moderate, and self-sustaining alternative to leave behind us at that point. There's just a mess caused by culture and religion. As Jeff S. suggested here, that should make us (or at this point should I say "should have made us"?) very hesitant to destabilize countries in the region.

It's extremely difficult for men of good will to conclude that there is no good answer to a problem, including a problem in foreign policy or immigration. But in the fallen world we live in, that is too often the case. Both Italy (on the question of whom to receive as refugees) and America (on the question of whom to attack when) need to recognize this and pray that we can at least find the answer that is the best of a bad lot.

Comments (8)

This story shows the inherent danger of Islam follows Muslims. It may be tempered in the West by Islam's relative lack of political or social power, but once it is loosened from the restraints of government or civilization it will seek submission. "Moderate" Muslims are just those who accede to Western rules because they have no other choice. When not in power they may adopt the external social niceties of the host culture, but they are doing so out of practicality not because of the Christian ideals of charity and generosity or liberal ideals like tolerance and equality of man. Their presuppositions are different from our Western ones, and will play out if not checked.

While my heart goes out to the Christian brothers and sisters who were murdered it isn't correct to call them or their Muslim killers "immigrants," and "refugees" may be a stretch as well. According to USA Today the "victims" were from Ghana and Nigeria--far from the Mediterranean coast. What are they doing there to begin with? The existence of ISIS is a convenient excuse to continue the refugee racket, the transportation of hordes of third worlders which the people in Europe or N. America or Australia don't want. Nigerians should be going back to Nigeria if the conditions in Libya are becoming troublesome for them.

There may be individual "moderate" Muslims, but they are not taking seriously the more unsavory injunctions of Islam itself. This is why they are subject to being "radicalized," as it is called, and the young in the West particularly susceptible to that process--rather like a religious revival.

You make a good point about Nigerians and Ghanans not being actually in immediate danger from ISIS such that going to Italy is the only option, anyway. It raises the whole question of why they subject themselves to such undoubted dangers. The phrase "convenient excuse" gives the impression of some sort of plot, but in many cases the individual people involved are risking getting themselves killed in one unpleasant way or another (shipwreck, if nothing else). I don't know enough about the situation to know all of their motivations. I am open both to the idea that "refugee" is being thrown around too readily and that they are genuine refugees.

Those who died in this case were, however, really victims of being thrown overboard by Muslims, so putting "victims" in scare quotes is confusing.

A few years ago, a politician from Lega Nord (IIRC) joked about ordering their navy and coast guard to start blowing these ships out of the water. If this trend continues, the migrants will be very lucky if it remains only a joke.

There's no need to blow them out of the water - Australia and Thailand tow these kinds of boats back to where they came from and leave them there. People stop trying after that. It works.

The types of migrants Italy faces are also potentially a lot more dangerous than those that face Australia. The Italians could at least have split the difference by bringing the murderers aboard a vessel, execute them by firing squad in international waters without trial and send the ship back under escort.

I believe they only discovered that the murders had taken place after the ship had landed.

There is something rather sickening about anyone recognizing that their former home is too bad / dangerous / degenerate / failed-state to stay there any longer, to go to a new place, and then NOT recognizing that "we have to re-think how to behave, things are different, maybe we should wait and see a bit before acting same-old, same-old." Old problem, meet the new problem - same actors, same approach, just new location.

Tony,

Vox Day has a wonderful mocking name for that: The Magic of Geographic Relocation. It's the liberal idea that you can take a man who in homeland is a simple-minded, barbaric individual and suddenly remake him as a Good Modern Man by transporting him to a first world country, giving him a new wardrobe, job and taste of the good life. Sadly, a lot of Christians including a lot of Catholic leaders, seem to believe in it.

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