Dakota Beacon

One of the greatest dangers with a newsworthy terrorist attack in our country is the diversion of our attention.  While we should be paying attention to such incidents as happened in Pensacla last week, and we should be vigilant and not forget the hazards in permitting foreign students in our military training programs and also in our university programs (a lot of very serious and life-threatening damage can be done without going near an airplane, in fact), one of the hidden dangers is that while we are focused on how to prevent terrorist attacks we allow our freedom to be stolen day by day, through what is known as “stealth jihad”.  

Stealth jihad is the encroaching upon our natural rights and the freedom we enjoy as American citizens by an institutionalized and personalized “sensitivity” to “new Americans” as the left likes to call migrants.  We generally have no worries in this regard from people who come here from non-Islamic countries. But where we do have difficulty is in interfacing with peoples from cultures which reject our values, people who refuse to adapt to American life.  

It is not customary in American schools, for instance, to prepare and serve halal foods.  Americans consume a wide variety of non-halal food and this should be expected. We have had Jewish children in our schools for a couple of centuries now and unless they are attending a Jewish school, there is no effort made to provide kosher food.  On the other hand, if a gentile student attended a Jewish school, there would also be no expectation that he would be served anything other than kosher foods.  

Americans take pride in God-given rights, such as free speech, freedom to worship, freedom to assemble, freedom of the press and freedom of association.  Free speech means protection of speech which some find offensive. Migrants from Islamic areas tend to object to speech that offends them and it is their belief that we should not be allowed to express ideas they find objectionable.  This is a very dangerous area because there is no freedom without this right, and we are finding this to be a very fragile right when it comes up against Muslim sensitivity. The worst aspect of this is self-censorship. We don’t say what we believe because we fear it might “offend” someone we fear offending.  This is not always even in our own hands. Years ago I wrote a letter to the editor of the Grand Forks Herald, asserting my belief that we should make sure that we vetted immigrants before inviting them in and that we insist that immigrants accept our laws. When the editor rejected my letter I asked him why. Did I use any “hurtful” language?  He said no. Did I express any kind of racial bigotry? He said no. Did I insult anyone? He said no. So what was the problem? He said it was because he didn’t appreciate the “tone” of my letter. In other words, my opinion was not acceptable. Censorship was already in force. We had headlines in that same newspaper that week which normally we would find shocking - headlines calling for “hate speech” ordinances and banning speakers.  This is how freedom dies.

There are many other issues which indicate that we are losing America right before our eyes.  Many banks have special arrangements whereby Muslim customers do not pay interest because interest is against Sharia.  We have courts which apply Sharia in some areas. If we have this in “some areas” today we will have it in more areas until one day it will be the law.  Sharia does not recognize women’s rights. Some courts have decided in domestic abuse cases to go by the Sharia denial of the woman’s rights.  For example, a woman may not charge rape by a husband because Sharia does not recognize a woman’s right to refuse sexual relations.  This means that we have actually already abandoned equality under the law.

We have had rulings allowing taxi drivers to refuse to transport someone with alcohol or other items which Sharia does not permit.  As we increase the numbers and percentage of people in our country from Islamic areas we will have increased pressure. Schools and businesses will be providing special prayer rooms and other accommodations tailored to Islam.  While some might say, “so what?”, we might point out that it establishes special conditions favorable to certain religions and not others. We see this more in areas such as Dearborn, Michigan. Now one thing we can say about this is, “that’s Michigan, not here - in Michigan they have larger numbers of Muslims, so this is naturally going to be the case”, which is true.  But the corollary to this is that if we follow the example of Michigan by bringing more people into our communities who must be thus acommodated at the expense of others, we will become Michigan, which proves my point about numbers. If the number of Islamic people in a community such as Grand Forks is, say half-a-dozen, there will probably be no problem. The problem comes when a city such as Grand Forks begins seeing hundreds of families from Islamic areas of the world.  I don’t say “countries” because while Islam is the official state religion of many countries, it may simply be the undisputed authority in many places “unofficially”.  

One thing we have noted is that while in many cases the original immigrant seems to attempt to fit into American life, frequently the first generation of children born here takes a much more radical turn, reverting to what would be considered more “fundamentalist” religious fervor.  This will become a factor in American life for all of the rest of us.  

All of this, not only the justified fear of terrorism, should be considered carefully as jurisdictions in America weigh the decision of whether to bring immigrants into their communities and who these immigrants should be.  It is not just the screaming headlines of explosions or shootings that we should be aware of, but also the creeping Sharia and the latent hostility toward our customs and laws. Christmas celebrations are being discontinued in our schools.  Choice in school lunches is eliminated. Freedom of speech is lost - most tragically through self-censorship. If you have caught yourself trying to adjust your self-expression because you fear “offending” an immigrant, that is not necessarily a healthy thing.  We are beginning to see self-censorship as “good manners”. It is not. It is terrible manners for a guest to put a host in this position, on the other hand. And at this point we are the host. When you find yourself searching for Christmas cards that don’t mention Christmas you are doing this.  How harmful can it be to wish someone a “merry Christmas”? Why should we shy away from this?  

At every turn we are finding the insidious incursion of Islam and its customs into our lives and replacing our own.  This is the real danger of immigration. National security is, of course, a concern. But our individual rights and freedom are threatened already at street level.  As various bodies consider whom to bring into our communities, they should consider what they want those communities to look like with regard to our laws and customs and freedoms 20 years into the future because this is what they will be deciding today.  They must held accountable for their decisions. One approach is to accept only true refugees - that is to say, non-Muslims who are fleeing Islamic oppression in their homelands.  This would be a positive step and a humanitarian decision.  

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