February 03, 2006

Panel: Victor Davis Hanson, Walid Shoebat, Phillipe Karsenty (Post 2)

(This is the second in a series of posts covering a panel event last Tuesday sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition).

The next speaker after Victor Davis Hanson, was Walid Shoebat (pronounced, show-bat). Walid's mother was a Westerner, who married a Muslim, and moved to the Palestinian territories. There his mother found herself a victim of the same oppression as other women, unable to even tell her own son her beliefs. Walid became a terrorist. He said it took 35 years before he realized what his mother already knew, that everything he'd been taught about Islamic jihad was a lie. He told us that after he and his mother had escaped and returned to the West, she said to him, "You are the only thing I could salvage from my entire life." Walid said:

She has no hair. She has no teeth from the abuse.

Since 1993, Walid has been a prominent voice warning the West about the dangers of Islamic Jihad. Prior to speaking to the crowd, Walid screened news footage of a jihadist imam, speaking to a very large room full of men, and urging them to commit suicide bombings. From my handwritten notes (not expected to be verbatim):

You can't understand the kind of mesmerism this does to the mind of a young Arab.

...The cost of speech is very costly. I believe that I should be pro-active, not just reactive. We need to win the media. [Regarding a Muslim friend who Walid asked to appear on TV]: My friend had over 400 phone calls between threats and insults. Now he has to scramble to find a place to live -- and this is in America.

I can't use credit cards. Things you take for granted, like going to a gas station and paying with a credit card, I can't do. When I go to a hotel I am concerned that the person behind the counter is going to recognize me and report to Islamic fundamentalists, where I am.

People like me speak and we are called Islamophobes. Okay, I'm an Islamophobe. But guess what -- the Naziphobes were right.

I don't support a Palestinian state. Because the issue is not an issue of land. It has nothing to do with land.

I was asked to appear on BBC TV for an interview. They said, yes, but isn't the real problem, fundamentalism? I said, Christian fundamentalists will give you a headache. But Muslim fundamentalists will whack your head right off.

With the spread of fundamentalist Islam, we are potentially dealing with, not Nazi Germany, but with 10, 20 Nazi Germanies -- Turkey, Iran, Syria, etc.

When immigrants come to America, we should ask them questions such as, "Are you Islamist? Do you belong to a Muslim fundamentalist party?" If they say no, as they probably will, and it is later found out that they do, then there will be a right to deport them.

Many Muslims here are peaceful, particularly those from Iran. But ask me a question: "Have you ever been invited to speak in a mosque?" Why was I invited to speak on radio, on TV, at universities, but never at a mosque? Why is it my friend got 400 phone calls, and not one saying, "Good job what you are doing against terrorism?"

[In answer to a question from the audience about what should be done with the Palestinian state]: Hamas has been elected. What do you want to do? Do you want to play hudna games with the fundamentalist Islamists? Why should the Jews give up Judea? In 3 weeks the U.S. defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. In a few days you could take out the 40,000 machine guns the Palestinians have.

Walid is concerned for his own personal safety as a result of using his right to free speech here in the U.S. The terrorists are here. They are restricting free speech in our society. This is an unacceptable threat to our most cherished freedoms. Immigration from Islamic nations must be restricted, in the manner Walid suggests.

Not one mosque in the U.S. has invited Walid to speak. This is powerful evidence that all mosques in the U.S. are centers of sympathy for terrorism, and for terrorist actions.