By Robert Spencer
12/14/2010
It was only a matter of time before jihad suicide bombers started operating in Europe. And now they have begun – in yet another salvo in the war against the freedom of speech that the West has barely noticed.
“Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality.” So said an audio file in Arabic and Swedish sent to TT, the Swedish news agency, about 10 minutes before a jihadist suicide bomber killed himself in one of two explosions in central Stockholm Saturday, wounding two people.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in a message on Twitter Saturday termed it a “most worrying attempt at terrorist attack in crowded part of central Stockholm.” He noted that it “failed -- but could have been truly catastrophic.”
That was certainly the intent. “Now your children, your daughters and your sisters will die as our brothers, our sisters and our children are dying,” said the message to TT. But why try to unleash catastrophic death and destruction on the genteel streets of Stockholm? “Our acts will speak for themselves,” said the message, “as long as you do not end your war against Islam and humiliation of the Prophet and your stupid support for the pig Vilks.”
“The pig Vilks” is Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who, in response to the threats and murder that ensued after a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, published his own cartoon of Muhammad as a dog with a human head. Islamic supremacists, predictably, have targeted Vilks for death. Last spring, he was attacked while giving a talk, and jihadists also tried to burn his house down.
And so we see yet again, with this new escalation in the jihad against the West, that the freedom of speech is one of the foremost battlegrounds of this war. Jihadists like Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, the suicide bomber who killed himself in Stockholm on Saturday, want to punish Western countries -- even relaxed, multicultural Sweden -- for daring to allow the freedom of expression to the extent of permitting depictions of their prophet that they find insulting. Meanwhile, the Islamic supremacists of the 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is working at the United Nations for the same end: to compel befuddled Western governments that no longer remember why they ever protected the freedom of speech in the first place, or why that freedom is so valuable as a bulwark against tyranny, to give up that freedom in order to avoid offending Islam.
This two-pronged assault, if successful, would extinguish any honest discussion of the ways in which Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. And that may be part of the point. For without such discussion, the West would be mute and hence defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad.
That’s why it is more imperative than ever for Western officials -- in Sweden, the United States and elsewhere -- to speak out strongly in defense of free speech, and to take firm steps to ensure the safety of people like Lars Vilks and Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist forced into hiding after originating the whimsical “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” which was designed to poke fun at the murderous thugs who would kill over a cartoon. It was all in fun, that is, until those thugs set their sights on Norris herself, who lost her career, her home and her very identity – while the world yawned.
The jihad bomb in Stockholm shows the price of yawning indifference to the jihad against free speech. The message called upon “all Mujahadeen in Europe and Sweden” to act: “Now is the time to strike, don’t wait any longer. Step up with whatever you have, even if it is a knife, and I know you have more than a knife. Fear no one, fear not prison, fear not death.”
Would that we would be as fearless in the defense of life and liberty against this monstrous evil.
Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad (both from Regnery—a Human Events sister company) and most recently coauthor of Pamela Geller’s The Post-American Presidency (Simon & Schuster).
This article was originally posted here.
Comments
You probably never heard of the wave of cowardly bombings that stroke France in the 80's
Bombs placed in the metro, in public places, in stores, public markets.
Noone ever been caught and tried
Nobody knew then
specialy from sweden. the majory of them are fanatiks .they are trying to conquist all europe. they won make all the world muslim by peace or by war.the most of them are using the terror way.take out them and sand them back home. that the only way to keep out terror from europe.
After all the things the other anonymous poster above wrote, I wonder if ANYTHING will wake up the Western governments and people in time. Will it actually take another 09/11, Ft. Hood, Mumbai and on and on in perpetuity? I cannot, will not accept that.
My country, the US has been deaf and mute, worse, apologetic from the White House down and issuing "stern" warnings, but stops right there when the fury over events like 09/11, The Ft Hood shooter (and murderer of many US soldiers) etc. blow over. Then we can pretend it was only a couple of fanatics. But it isn't. It is a war and we'd better face it now.
Our President insists Islam is a religion of peace--even as attacks by Muslims--suicide bombings and car bombs--typical of what is used in the ME against US troops, occur with greater and greater frequency and destruction.
Here. In the US. Where imams preach their hatred in their mosques and other gatherings (and increasingly so on the internet). Yep, the West is under attack right now. Can we afford to ignore the multi-acre compounds being used as training camps in carefully guarded and hidden remote places? They are here, and in number. And followers are getting expert training in explosives and other weapons to be used against us. No problem, right Barack?
Many of his followers (and mentors)--"Calypso" Louie Farrakhan who has been peddling his hate and promoting violence since I was young--20 years listening to Rev Wright and his anti-American, anti-white sermons and many other teachers and Islamic preachers have thoroughly indoctrinated him. He will never publicly accept the realities of Islam.
Obama's now infamous "Cairo Speech" during which he promised better relations with the Arab countries and bashed Israel. Or when during his visit to the King of Saudi Arabia, he bowed so deeply I thought he was gonna kiss 'ole Saud's feet. Wake up America!
No, I think the process of dealing with Islamic extremism is going to have to come from the every day guy and gal who works, pays taxes, and votes. If we will have any chance at all to stop the senseless and murderous acts of brutality on our country, and all freedom loving countries, we will have to start with our votes in 2012 as we did in 2010. We have to get rid of dead weight and ask hard questions of our govt. leaders.
If they (the pol's) don't speak out clearly about the dangers we face from Islamic extremism, and how they intend to deal with it, we need to vote them out or not vote them in. We also still have Freedom of Speech in our blessed country--we'd better use it. And stop the mainstream media from hiding from the truth about Islam by not buying what their sponsors sell. That will get their attention.
God Bless America.
in the name of humanity, scocialist Sweden, one of the most 'humanistic' scocieties on our planet today opened their doors to many Muslims from all over the world. But many of those muslim immigrants did not imigrate, instead they created an islamic sub-culture as they did elsewhere in Europe. Muslims in sweden enjoy all the benefits of a modern welfare state and yet they gave birth to a young generation of muslims who despise and who hate the very country that that took them in and that gave them so much in material terms.
Since they do not want to belong to Sweden and despise swedish culture, many young muslims try to find their roots in Islam itself which will prove to be deadly for Sweden.
Western nations have fallen for the lies of their media that paints such a nice picture of Islam and even calls it a religion of peace. But this ignorance will be deadly in the long run.
Nowhere in the world do muslims live in real peace. Nowhere in the Quran does it say that Islam means peace, Islam only means submission.
Communists also once proclaimed that communism means progress and prosperity. History proved them wrong.
History is also proving Islam wrong for this religion has mainly spread through bloodshed and through fear and has not brought peace even to it's own followers.
The true meaning of Islam is submission, submisssion at every level which is one of the reasons why Islam and Democracy can never truly co-exist. They are worlds apart. Mohammad was ruthless in his rule as a political leader. Opposition was executed. Mohammad personaly cut of the head of over 200 people by his own sword. He started numerious agressive wars. He treated prisoners of war in the most inhumane manner and raped some of their woman personaly. He lived of stolen bouty. There was one thing Mohammad was not, he certainly was not a man of peace. he was no Jesus Christ !He was a brutal dictator instead who expected total submission.
No this is not 'anti-islam' propaganda of the west, this is written in their own holy books. this is written and recorded in the unholy Quran and in the Hadits. Every Muslim has access to this, few ever read it. The radicals know that and they also know that they are the true followers of Mohammad for they follow his example.
So what will be the swedish response.
The swedes will continue to bow to their muslim immigrants and try to blame themselves for what has happend and in the end spend even more of their tax payers money on appeasing muslim immigrants.
Muslims simply see this as a sign of weakness and know that terror works. And as a result of this there will be more and more terror attacks in the future. Next time the suicide bomber will not miss his target and the outcome will be catastrophic.
But who is to blame in the end ?
Is it only the fault of the suicide bomber who committed this act or is it also the fault of the swedish government and its misguided political ideology which has created a thick fog of confusion over their nation where people are left without answers and are simply told ( in the words of a swedish cabinet minister )that " we must be nice to muslims now so that when they rule us that they will be nice to us".
Sweden keep on dreaming your bad dream, what will it take to wake you up ?
Troubled, discontented, alienated, and so on.
Mr. Spencer has been the watchman on the wall for how long now? Every attempted and successful attack has all been done by a few individuals. Isolated cases.
So, we are told to move on with our fearful selves.
There is no conspiracy here.
There is no historical record to refer to.
Please, just take your paranoia elsewhere, the Religion of Peace means none of us any harm.
ALLAHUAKBAR! My big ol' hairy butt!
Jesus is Lord. Happy Birthday Jesus of Nazareth!
the problem is just some troubled individual >???
why are there so many troubled individuals in the southern Philiippines, in Kashmir, in Pakistan, all over the middle East, in Sudan and on and on ? If that is so then the most troubled individual of all was Mohammad himself. this troubled individual cut the head of 200 man himself with his own sword. This troubled individual raped more then 1 woman. This troubled individual engaged in child sex. This troubled individual said " we rule by terror". The problem is that this troubled individual is the ultimate and the greatest example of every single Muslim on earth today. And this troubled individual wrote a book ( the Quran) which is full of hate and violence, which decleares that every single christian and Jew must be killed. So why be surprised when a Muslims plans and executes a terror attack ? He is only following his prophets example and acts on his prophets instruction. One thing he is not, he is not a troubled soul, he is one good Muslim who follows his master.
For years Sweden opened their doors for Iraqi immigrants. Now they reap the Iraqi reward. One thing is for certain. This will not be the last attempt. of a 'troubled' islamic individual. The next one might be successful and Muslims all over the world will rejoice and shout " God is great"
9/11, Madrid, London, Mumbai, Bali, Fort Hood, and now Stockholm. If all these awful attacks haven't woken people up in the West, what will? Even if Westerners have read the Koran, they can't seem to connect the actions of the Muslim terrorists with the authentic teachings of Islam. We clearly have Stockholm Syndrome. We sympathize with the bad guys because we are afraid of them and we are so simplistic in our thinking that we just can't bring ourselves to believe that Islam really teaches ts followers to engage in violence, hatred, sexism, anti-Semitism, denigration of Christianity, deceit, and world domination by any means necessary. My fear is that even a nuclear attack by a Muslim terrorist group or one of the mullahtocracies in the Middle East against an American, Israeli, European, or Australian interest would not rouse the West to cure itself from its Stockholm Syndrome. My only hope is that God will intervene to protect us in spite of ourselves.
I don't think we can hope that God will intervene to protect us. Don't the Islamists (we used to call the Mohammedans when I was young) claim to own God in the from of Allah. Did you know that the big cube in the middle of the square in Mecca is or was called Lah which meant 'thing' and that was where the superstitious rag heads believed God lived. So Al Lah means the thing. I read this gem in a book by Karen Armstrong who knows a thing or two about religion.
Anyway, whoever owns God, we must defend ourselves by not kowtowing to Mohammedans or any other force, religious or secular, that would take away our freedom of speech or indeed freedom to worship however and who ever went choose.
How long are we going to listen yet read about these who come to our countries and pedal the Islamic religion to our college students under the disguise of a peaceful religion,its too bad that our news media has a bad reputation for misrepresentation of the truth,why do they have to jazz up thier image to be acceptable to young college minds, at the same time discounting the violence around the world and the senceless sacrifice of a brainwashed follower.How many more of our innocent people must die because they target public places....why arent they being detained at our boarders and then turned around and sent back to where they came from...call it national security,let them cry about it...it will make the violence stop.Run commercials on TV about selling raw materials to people of troubled regions and questionable backrounds(especially college students)...Lets shove pig meat down thier throats and sew thier mouth shut.