Taqiya on Steroids? (updated 4dec15)

George Rebane

The San Bernardino massacre investigation continues.  Given the evidence to date, the authorities still cannot decide whether it was just ‘workplace violence’ or the latest attack by Islamic terrorists.  What is reported by the news services – Associated Press, WSJ, … - is pretty compelling (more here).  We do know that –

1. The two shooters were Muslims – Syed Farook, a native born American citizen, and Tashfeen Malik, the immigrant wife of Farook and the mother of their 6-month old child.
2. Farook had travelled to Saudi Arabia last year from where he returned with Malik.
3. Upon his return he grew a beard as do many newly devout Muslim men.
4. He worked for San Berdoo county as a restaurant inspector, was a model citizen, and had no criminal record.
5. Before their 2dec15 attack at a county facility where a holiday party was in progress, the couple had made extensive preparations for acts of terror at their home which included pipe bombs, IEDs, radio controlled vehicles besides obtaining the full combat gear which they wore during their killing spree.  Earlier that day they gave their baby into the care of relatives.
6. Authorities on the scene stated that Farook and Malik were definitely executing a “planned mission”.  Given the preparations, there was no evidence of spontaneity in their attack.

There will undoubtedly be more and the story is still developing.  But what I want to cover here is that again we have an atrocious act of terror carried out by formerly normal people who worked, were raising a family, blended in admirably, and gave no evidence of anything aberrant before they acted.  In hindsight, the only attribute that connected them to such previous attacks is that the couple were practicing Muslims.

A Bayesian would take a look at the evidence and rationally conclude that yes, given the recent history of radical Islam and jihad, and the tenets of their faith, this couple would have a higher probability of being terrorists in waiting as they finally demonstrated to the world.  (For those who disagree, the Bayesian would be compelled to change his mind given evidence that religious belief was not a supportive/determinant factor.)

From the worldview which apparently guided Farook and Malik and so many Muslims today, is that these terrorists were courageous, self-sacrificing soldiers acting for and with the blessings of Allah.  They were prepared to die and die they did in the service of their faith.  In that worldview they were not cowards or miscreants but model mujahedeen serving as exemplars to their fellow believers in the spread of Islam. 

And to execute their plan they practiced taqiya to perfection.  Students of Islam and readers of these pages know that taqiyya or taqiya (q.v.) is the scripturally sanctioned practice of dissimulation and other forms of perfidy including the denial of one’s faith that is allowed Muslims if such practice may serve to promote the greater goals of Islam.  All such surprise attacks by Muslims living among us here and overseas are launched subsequent to successful preludes of taqiya.  Where in other belief systems such practice of ambush and shattering of the social contract would be considered abhorrent, in the world of radical Islam it is a much admired and condoned facet of selfless martyrdom.

The real problem that taqiya presents to America and the west is in how should we deport ourselves with our Muslim neighbors.  To continue normal social life in our land we must presume that the large fraction of Muslims among us would never practice taqiya and lay in wait for an opportunity to kill us and ours (polls to the contrary notwithstanding).  Yet every time one of their co-religionists perpetrates such an abhorrent act, it gives all non-Muslims pause as they review their relations with their Muslim friends and neighbors.  And that exactly is the aim of the jihadists.  They want to disrupt our social order, and they want to cast suspicion on their brethren living with us so as to compel them to opt for ‘their own kind’ as they drive the wedge they have created ever deeper between Islam and the world of the Kafir (q.v.).

I don’t see any ready solution to this growing schism between our civilizations save prompt, unfailing, strenuous, loud, and large scale demonstrations by moderate Muslims during which they denounce such acts of terror.  They cannot remain silent in the face of such killings, and they cannot shelter those of their own who preach violence against the west.  In sum, they cannot ask us to trust them more than they trust us, for that we have already done.  Contrary to the pabulum spewed by progressives, taqiya is an enduring problem which yields to no simple solution.

[4dec15 update]  Taqiya on steroids indeed.  This morning’s report from the Associated Press underlines the question posed by this commentary.

With a young wife, infant daughter and government job, Syed Farook appeared to have arrived at a sweet spot in life.  Friends knew the 28-year-old by his quick smile, his devotion to Islam and his earnest talk about cars he would restore.

With such neighbors, who among us would or could suspect the worst from these snakes in the grass who lye in wait for an opportunity to strike?  One of the main functions of a common culture is the efficiency it provides in organizing the practicing society – social intercourse is made more facile and productive when you can reliably predict the behavior of those whom you befriend or do business.   Their obvious display of a common culture (or social contract) lets us focus on matters at hand that progress our relationship rather than proceed in a wary manner that may even come down to an existential and reasonable fear for our personal safety.

Humans and animals share the same instinct in that regard.  When we encounter a situation with another critter capable of harming us and whose behavior we cannot reliably predict, we do one of three things – we distance ourselves from the potential threat, e.g. flee; we bolster our ability to counteract the threat, e.g. we arm ourselves; or we pre-emptively attempt to neutralize the threat, e.g. incapacitate or kill it.  What we don’t do is conduct business as usual pretending that the risk to our own person and those in our care doesn’t exist.  Critters who didn’t successfully follow that instinct soon became extinct.

Today we are in a quandary that is exacerbated by our progressive betters.  Any discussion such as found on these pages about Islamic terrorism is proscribed, and the discussants vilified as some social cretins or lower forms of life.  The proffered wisdom is for us to continue playing the odds with members of a group that has and continues to spawn so much violence based on a fundamental hatred of our civilization and way of life.  The appeal to reason here is that their bad guys make up such a small fraction of their population (there are about 3M Muslims in the US), that we shouldn’t worry about incidents like the San Berdoo massacre.  (The Left then doubles down by again renewing their perennial assault on the Second Amendment in order to disarm law-abiding citizens, as if that mattered in reducing the Islamist terror threat.  But that is another agenda and story.)

A counter reasonable argument is to do everything to reduce the size of the suspect Muslim population to an identifiable cohort that has a higher likelihood of sourcing an attack on us.  And yes, that means that we would need to (gasp!) discriminate and bring special resources to bear to vet our Muslim neighbors in their communications, travels, and also in their mosques.  As argued here before, our Muslim neighbors would do themselves and us a great good if they volubly protested the terror acts of their jihadists, and moreover if they exposed such jihadists in waiting/training who live and hide among them.  That would provide the rest with visible evidence that ‘moderate Islam’ exists with motives and means to purge itself of elements that mean harm to all of us.

To date we have seen no such evidence.  It has been days since Mr and Mrs Farood murdered and maimed, and all we are talking about with the Muslim leaders is how we should take care not to paint all America’s Muslims as potential terrorists, while the example of the Faroods and so many before them call out for something much more proactive in countering Islamic terror.  Are there really no discernible attributes that can differentiate the high risk cohort among Muslims?  Can travel to countries where radical Islamic organizations headquarter or rule be a viable discriminant?  Most certainly evidence, such as contact with and/or pledging loyalty to organizations such the much underestimated ISIS, should be a useful and used discriminant to identify higher risk individuals.  But asking America to continue swimming in shark infested waters with nothing but the comfort of unknown statistics on our side will not help relations between the Muslim communities and their non-Muslim neighbors.

Finally, I again draw attention to the fact that taqiya and its obvious successful practice here and abroad is a proscribed topic for us to examine and discuss.  Yet it is Islam's scripturally sanctioned practice of taqiya, unique in the annals of today’s religious observances, that lays their moral foundation for unsuspected terror.

The bottom line is that institutionally we no longer have defenses against such assaults.  Christianity in decline has long ceased to be a belief system in the west that can defend itself.  And our newly strident socialist principals and principles in government call for America’s fundamental transformation, which now advocate our shrinking from Islam’s advance as the means to bring us to a global power peerage in preparation for a new world order.  And none of this is a conspiratorial undertaking, it is all happening in the open for all to see who need only look.

Comments

[Todd Juvinall]

Don't worry about Pelline. No one reads him. He is now as popular as the dude who eats 200 pounds of sushi at a sitting. His numbers must have tanked on his blog.

[Gregory]

It took 25 minutes for Peeline's response to my last post ... that gives everyone an idea how often Jeff reads RR looking for transgressions.

Of course I expected Jeff to callously reject my offer to discuss the matter in his sandbox but he made it clear banking time ago that reasoned arguments that demolishes his tenets are not welcome.

Regarding one of the FUE hotbuttons du jour, Volokh does a great job of pointing out the unsuitability of the DHS no fly list to deny a constitutional right... the government only has to have reason to suspect the individual in order to list them.

Senator Ted Kennedy was once surprised when he was on the list, but he had a much easier time getting it straightened out than the peasantry who find themselves on the list for no fathomable reason... it only took the senator and staff 3 weeks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17073-2004Aug19.html

[Don Bessee]

The Dark Lord of liberal lament land has more designated readers than followers! LOL

[Walt]

Were is the "jon"?
http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/05/al-jazeera-producer-disrespectful-to-show-terrorist-without-burqa/
"His" input is required. Does raghead news have a legit gripe?

[George Rebane]

Gentlemen - My opinion of Jeff Pelline and assessment of his character and professional talents are a matter of record, and quite distinct from his progressivist ideology. The latter is shared by many and is totally acceptable grist for our debates. However, what is beginning to get to my kidneys is the amount of attention he is given on RR because he does not countenance open debate on his blog (an archetypical attribute of a socialist). Why is his snark so important to regurgitate and sully these pages? May we not leave the gentleman to stew in his own juices?

[Don Bessee]

So let it be written, so let it be done Dr. He whos name we shall not utter is PNG!

[Don Bessee]

The DHS IG found over 70 DHS employees who were on the watch list?!?!

[Gregory]

George, the short answer is that he's attacking people for what they write here.

[Todd Juvinall]

George Rebane | 06 December 2015 at 04:06 PM

I think it is important for others to see what a pr*** Pelline is. I went to a really large XMAS party last night and I was patted on the back by a bunch of people for my blog. They also liked this blog. We expose the crap people like Pelline and his five sock puppets and these folks like it! It is simply information and opinion. You allow debate, I allow debate, Pelline does nnot and people in the community see it and have made their choices. Pelline, censorship, Rebane and moi, open debate.

I am totally amazed at how many people in the community read us. And how many can't stand Pelline and his posters.

[Bill Tozer]

Ah, let him attack anyone who posts here. Todd got a whole post for a wrong letter in the name Trump. That is worth writing about? Come on, a post about a typo? I finally checked out his blog yesterday and today, curious what all the fuss was about after many months of "not going there.". My conclusion: nothing to see here. If we can put our egos aside and give him the attention that he is warranted, then his name would never be mentioned. Me thinks we give him power and attention that he so desperately seeks. Just like giving a drug addict a baggie of powder and syringe.
Ironically, Todd is correct when he says he has free rent in that guy's head. Sadly, some of us can be accused of giving That Guy rent in our heads, but what do I know. To watch a fire die off, one must quit feeding it.

[George Rebane]

The best I can tell is that FUE uses RR and its readers as a desperate attempt to drive some traffic to his blog. Don't get me wrong, I will not stop my readers from discussing anything they want. And that especially in the sandboxes; althought I would appreciate sticking to the topic of my commentaries for that is why I write them, and not to provide another open comment stream to for irrelevancies. I just think that the FUE is a pathetic human being and poster child for everything that is taking our country in the wrong direction. I just don't want him to use RR readers to amplify his malignant voice.

[Bill Tozer]

Can't find the opinion piece from Australian writer last year, so this link is just the background, not the point.. This is in context to Dr. Rebane's 6:57 pm before I let it go
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/11/obama-disses-another-ally.php

Ok, the original piece I cannot find was quite insightful. Basically the Austrialian writer and foreign policy expert concluded (with several examples) that you can disagree with Obama politically, but he WILL hate you if you disagree with him ideologically. Draw your own parallels. Later, gators.

[Bill Tozer]

Another stab at answering Dr. Rebane's question. Actually, no answer, just a road map. Unless we as a nation really believe in our heart of hearts that we are at war with Radical Islamic thought and its followers, this will go on and on and on. ISIS is not coming at us in the usual way, sending battalions in uniforms like a standing army. No, they are off shoring their war on us. They have declared war on us. Until, we as a nation realize the importance of this and agree that we are at war, these "isolated events" will happen indefinitely.
In the War to End all Wars, as well as the 2nd World War, the entire nation was mobilized. Do you think that Rosie the Riveter believed in her heart that she was just doing a job she landed, or do you think Rosie considered herself part of the "war effort"?

When there are a few dozen more of these attacks on America, be it like 9/11 or Its tactical opposite San Brudo, nothing will change. It's changing slowly, but too many pooh-pooh the idea that this is a real war.
First, we need to stand united and call a spade a spade. As long as the Left thinks like the link below, nothing will change and more Ametican citizens will die needlessly in the Homeland. More Ameticans will be killed on American soil in the future at the hands of our enemy, but right now they are being slaughtered needlessly.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/12/how-the-left-sees-islamic-terrorism.php