Pay attention, dreamy-eyed Western do-gooders

A jihadist is not an ordinary prisoner. He is a religious zealot whose mission is to inflict terror into the heart of infidels by murdering civilians, not a poor victim who can be rehabilitated.

by Phyllis Chesler

As we now all know, British-Pakistani jihadist, Usman Khan, was not rehabilitated or “de-radicalized.”  He chose to make this point at the sharp end of his knives. I fear he may have purposely murdered two young Cambridge graduates, Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, both of whom were involved in rehabilitating prisoners such as himself.

Khan was attending the Learning Together conference hosted by Merritt and Jones.

I would never blame Western do-gooders for getting themselves murdered. But I must question their judgement. I have done so many times before.

A jihadist is not an ordinary prisoner. He is a religious zealot whose mission is to inflict terror into the heart of infidels by murdering civilians. He (or she) is involved in a holy war. Deception, false promises, (taqiyya) are all part of their jihad.

Also, not all prisoners are “victims.” Not all impoverished or abused people become violent criminals or plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange as Khan did. Many prisoners are criminal sociopaths. But, they are not necessarily jihadists.

This brings me to a question: What must we do with confirmed, native-born jihadists? Jail them permanently? Pay for their room and board for 50-60 years as they radicalize other prisoners? What about foreign born jihadists? Can we safely send them back to their countries of origin where they will, no doubt, continue to perpetrate jihad with impunity?

In self-defense, can we economically and psychologically afford to guard each and every civilian target? Both those dissidents against whom fatwas have been issued and those unknown non-political actors who might be walking across London Bridge at the wrong time?

Too many western dreamers/idealists/progressives have gone to Muslim countries with high hopes and without fear.

I remember Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (z”l) who traveled to Pakistan in pursuit of a hot story and who, in 2002, was be-headed by Al-Qaeda.

I remember Nicholas Berg (z”l) who traveled to Iraq in 2004 to make money and who was also savagely be-headed by Islamist militants.

Both these men felt at ease in the world, they did not envision any harm coming to them.

I remember the three American hikers who accidentally wandered too close to the Iranian border and who were charged with “espionage.” Shane Michael Bauer/Bower, Joshua Fattai, and Sarah Emily Shourd, all graduates of the University of California at Berkeley, spent more than a year in the notorious Evin Prison before they were released in a “humanitarian” gesture in 2011.

I remember the ten Christian doctors, dentists, and aid workers who had gone to provide medical services to the impoverished in Afghanistan and who were brutally murdered by either the Taliban or by Hizb-e-Islami in 2010.

I remember Kayla Mueller, also known as a Christian, who demonstrated against Israel in Bi’lin, then traveled first to Turkey and then to Syria to work with Doctors Without Borders and who was enslaved by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and then murdered in 2013.

Western aid workers were repeatedly murdered in Pakistan in 2012 and 2013. They were seen as Christian missionaries because they were administering polio and other vaccines.

This brings me back to London Bridge. To jihadists, all the world either once belonged to Islamic jihad or is now again about to  belong to Islamic jihad and sharia law. This is true for most countries in Western Europe where Islamists have created no-go zones, and engaged in gang-related crimes and in the mass rapes of infidel women. Some predict that by 2050, Europe will become, as Bat Ye’or once predicted, “Eurabia.”

All dreamy-eyed western do-gooders should pay close attention.

But here’s one of many problems: Our Jewish and Christian values dictate humanitarian concern for those in trouble and in need and for “victims” of alleged Western success. Both Christians and Jews strongly believe in helping, saving, and subsidizing immigrants, those in war zones, and/or mired down in poverty, illiteracy, and disease. We don’t want to become like our enemies i.e. intolerant, cynical, selfish, and more than “half in love with easeful death;” nor do we want to live in militarily patrolled sovereign entities, constantly on the lookout for and at the mercy of lone or collective jihad attacks—just as Israel has to do.

Western progressives still hope that we will not find ourselves surrounded by jihadists, both within and externally, although that is the position in which the West increasingly finds itself.

While a welcome break in this pattern seems to be happening, (some Arab states may make temporary alliances with the Jewish state), Israel has nevertheless been surrounded by jihadists on every border. Danger lies within as well. Contrary to all the Big Lies, the battle of Israel/Palestine has little to do with a land or refugee dispute and everything to do with the historical and indoctrinated Islamist hatred of and religious mandate to murder infidels.

This overwhelmingly clear fact is so overwhelming that most people refuse to consider it.

First published in Israel National News.