For the American voter, issues of immense urgency to the survival of the free world -- such as individual freedom, dispassionate enquiry and freedom of speech and thought, which we dangerously have come to take for granted -- are being derailed by crude language and behavior, when Americans need to be paying attention to serious threats to the United States, its allies and to the values of the West.
Internationally, these threats come from Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, and countless terrorist groups.
Domestically, they appear in the form of massive corruption -- financial and otherwise -- that is visibly hollowing out American institutions, such as the FBI (the failure to follow investigative procedure, followed by calls for FBI Director James Comey's resignation); the Department of Justice (the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal, and the Attorney General meeting with a former president whose wife is under investigation); the State Department (email leaks are still yielding up evidence of collusion between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department under Hillary Clinton); the IRS (targeting conservative non-profits, and raiding the businesses of private citizens, who disagree with policy); the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to acquire power over every puddle in America) and the Executive branch in the "I have a pen and I have a phone" president's dealings with Iran.
There have also been attempts by outsiders to incite racial and religious anarchy. The entrepreneur George Soros, for example, donated $33 million to turn events in Ferguson, Missouri from a local protest into chaos.
 There have been attempts by outsiders to incite racial and religious anarchy. The entrepreneur George Soros, for example, donated $33 million to turn events in Ferguson, Missouri from a local protest into chaos. (Image source: World Economic Forum) |
Instead of helping Americans to create a safer, more prosperous way of life, the Ferguson events destroyed a community, devastated small business owners, and eroded security, the rule of law, and any hope for a better future. Who benefits? Creating chaos embeds a political dependency: rather than helping people to climb out of poverty, it keeps them voting for politicians to "rescue" them.
Jews and Israel are also targeted -- often, regrettably, by other Jews, who appear naïvely to hope that they will thereby "immunize" themselves from attacks on Jews. Recently, for example, an article accused the U.S. Republican presidential election campaign of "significantly enhancing the presence of antisemitism in the public arena."
Seriously?
While "conservative" radicals, such as white supremacists do exist, they are not even close to overtaking the mainstream discourse. That space, rather, seems to have been filled in the last decades by self-described "liberals" who now seem to dominate it to such a degree that the Dean of Students at the University of Chicago, John Ellison, felt obliged to write a letter warning prospective applicants not to expect a "safe space." "Conservative" radicals are not the ones hunting down Jews -- "liberals" and Islamists are victimizing and shutting them out.
Ironically of course, the liberals have not yet figured out that the agendas of these two groups are incompatible (as in gender equality); perhaps they are trying to "immunize" themselves, too.
Public debate in the US, particularly in the next few weeks, really needs to be about choosing what policies would actually improve the lives of Americans. Should they uphold the Judeo-Christian values, which have governed Western civilization until now? Or should they quietly allow the defeat of those values by a false liberalism -- false, because it is anything but liberal -- which will allow values, such as that of Islamic sharia religious law to settle over the United States? Will people willingly surrender their own culture in order to avoid becoming victims of intimidation?
American university campuses, which should proudly be championing debate of all ideas, have instead been rife with antisemitism for years, mostly because a "thought police" obsessed with identity politics -- another way of saying my race, religion, skin color or sexual proclivity is good, yours is not -- has overtaken campuses and turned them into embittered war-zones. It is postmodern Stalinism.
Worse, these policies often come in the seemingly benign-sounding terms of "diversity", "multiculturalism", "peace", "anti-racism", and "human rights"; but are often used in an Orwellian way to mean their own opposites. "Diversity" means, "it is great to look different so long as you think the same way I do" and is also and acceptance of Islamic values. "Anti-racism" often means, in a racist way, anti-white or anti-Jew. "Human rights" now means a political agenda. "Peace" is used to mean the destruction of Israel. "Multiculturalism" means any culture except the Judeo-Christian one -- regardless of whether that culture supports denigrating women, slavery, flogging, amputating limbs, murdering gays and the intolerance of all other religions and cultures. These inversions of language are having devastating consequences not only on university campuses, but also throughout the U.S. and abroad.
The glue that brings "liberals" and Islamists, such as the Muslim Students Association (MSA) in the US (a front[1] for the Muslim Brotherhood), together in a common cause is the goal of eradicating Israel -- of course always only under the euphemisms of "helping Palestinians" and "Peace," even though Jihadi camps for children were organized first by Palestinians.
A 1991 official document authored by the Muslim Brotherhood outlines its strategic goals for civilizational jihad in North America. It depicts the Muslim Brotherhood's plans for civilization jihad in the United States stating:
"The process of settlement is a "Civilization-Jihadist Process" with all [that] the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers... [W]e must possess a mastery of the art of "coalitions", the art of "absorption" and the principles of "cooperation."
The question of whether to submit to these policies, as Europe is doing, or to uphold freedom, as Israel is doing, has arrived in the United States. The choice Americans make will immeasurably affect not just the US, but, despite sounding melodramatic, the future of Western civilization.
[1] In a 1991 official document authored by the Muslim Brotherhood, outlining its strategic goals for civilizational jihad in North America, the Muslim Students Association was mentioned as "one of our organizations and the organizations of our friends", that is, a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood. The document was entered as evidence in the 2008 Holyland Terror Funding Trial.
John Richardson is a researcher based in the United States.
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