Introduction to “Defenders of Western Civilization” and “Useful Idiots”

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How can Western civilization survive the ideological war being waged against it, if it is too afraid to even identify its enemies? Or to educate its people about the history, virtues, fruits and requirements of freedom?

An original essay about why we need to learn what’s at stake, and to recognize key figures who are fighting to defend Western civilization – and those who are aiding its destroyers.

by Jon Sutz, Editor, SaveTheWest.com

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In football and other grid-type games, each side starts off on equal footing. The playing field’s mid-point is the fifty-yard line. One can tell how well each team is doing at any given moment by the ball’s proximity to that reference point, and to its opponent’s end zone.

In the battle of ideas, Western civilization should be at the equivalent of the 1-yard-line of the end zone of opposing ideologies, be they secular or religious. It should hold this dominant position if for nothing other than one, immutable fact: more progress has been made in the last two hundred years of Western civilization, in terms of elevating and extending every rational measure of human existence, than in its preceding 200,000 years combined. Western nations dominate every reasonable quality-of-life measure, and have for many years.

One analysis found that “there has been more improvement in the human condition for people living in the United States in this century than for all people in all previous centuries of human history combined.” Another study, documented in the short video below, shows how over 200 years Western civilization dramatically increased both humans’ lifespans and wealth – meaning, the ability to live without toiling in backbreaking labor just to survive:

But what could have caused such a burst of freedom, progress, health, longevity and happiness to be unleashed in a time period so short, it was a comparative blink-of-an-eye, in terms of human existence? The answer is that, ushered in by the Declaration of American Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the world was witness to, inspired by, and beneficiary of a supernova of freedom, innovation, productivity and wealth-creation.  These virtues were unleashed by a code of laws and underlying principles that, to one degree or another:

• Protect the individual’s natural rights to freedoms of thought, assembly, speech and religion; to privacy; to own property; and to trial by jury.

• Defined a limited scope of powers of government – particularly to upholding these rights, to national defense, and to administering the courts.

• Separated religion and government.

• Viewed citizens as masters over their governments – instead of the other way around, as it had been for all of preceding human history.

Instead of enjoying recognition for all its virtues and achievements, however, Western civilization is now in an existential cultural war, and has its back against its own one-yard-line.

How could we have gotten to this point?  How could Western culture be on the cusp of surrendering everything we’ve achieved, built, and the myriad good to which we still aspire? 

How could we have gone from the epicenter of progress in human rights, limited constitutional government and technological supremacy, to one in which we watch, helpless, as one nation after another is being taken over or subverted from within, by secular or religious totalitarians?

The purpose of this essay is to help answer these questions, and introduce our new effort to recognize:

• “Defenders of Western Civilization” – those who courageously exemplify the courage and principles we need to survive.

• “Useful Idiots” – those who exist on Western soil, yet are subverting the values upon which our freedom depends.

To learn more about SaveTheWest.com and our larger mission, please see this essay by our founder and president, Kenneth Abramowitz: “How to save Western civilization from itself”

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We used to infuse our children with a love of Western civilization, and its (real) heroes

Until a few generations ago, America provided each successive generation of children with a basic knowledge of, and appreciation of Western values and culture, and the innumerable fruits they bore.

Although we celebrated fictional heroes such as Superman, who fights for “truth, justice and the American way,” we also celebrated real-life heroes, such as Frederick Douglass. After escaping from the slavery that America inherited from the old world, Douglass developed himself into a mercurial force to demolish the myth that black Africans were intellectually and morally inferior from whites, or any other race.  Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who would carry on the struggle a century later, Douglass cherished the U.S. Constitution, and urged America to resolve the glaring contradiction in it regarding slavery, so that it could live up to its basic, heroic principles.  In the end, Douglass became one of the most powerful figures in helping to finally end slavery – and a living testament to the power of focused determination.  (Learn about Douglass here, and in this 45-minute video.)

We celebrated heroes such as Audie Murphy, a poor, skinny farm boy who, through love of America, force of will and superhuman courage, went on to become our most decorated soldier of World War II. (Learn about Murphy here, and in this 45-minute video.)

America infused its children with factual knowledge of the history of our nation, of the giants who created it, and what makes it so exceptional that for more than a hundred years, people around the world have literally risked their lives to get here. This knowledge enabled our children to stand up to anyone who tried to rewrite history, or threatened our freedoms.

In order to receive a high school diploma, a child had to demonstrate that s/he had a grasp of the basic facts of world and American history, the essentials of science, economics, geography, math and language arts. In summary, we prepared our children with the knowledge and skills necessary not only to function in a free society, but to understand how our society became free – and the requirements of keeping it free.

This didn’t mean telling them what to think; rather, it meant teaching them how to think, in the hopes that they would intelligently approach the world they were about to inherit.  Ideally, it was hoped that they would appreciate, cherish and rise to the defense of the freedoms that the courage, blood and sweat of previous generations had bequeathed to them.

But then, something happened – something that ultimately led to us now having our backs against our own cultural one-yard-line.

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The transition to allowing ourselves, and our children to be infused with anti-Western perceptions, and values

Several generations ago, “multiculturalism” began infesting schoolrooms in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. This doctrine, which states that no culture is better or worse than any other, and none should be criticized or condemned (except America, Israel and other nations rooted in Western values), was met with practically no resistance.

In fact, as noted by Yuri Bezmenov (aka Tomas Schuman), a KGB propaganda master who defected to the West, communist operatives expected to be thrown out of U.S. classrooms, newsrooms and other major institutions. Instead, they were welcomed with open arms. In 1984, Bezmenov warned us that to begin undoing the damage that he and the KGB did to America, through cultural subversion:

“You’ll need 15 or 20 years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common-sense people.”

We didn’t listen. See videos of Bezmenov lectures here, and his monograph about his defection, what he helped do to us, and how we can begin to undo it, “Love Letter to America,” here. Below is an excerpt from his 1984 interview (see the full video here):

The fact that secular and religious collectivism and fascism had led to the deaths of well over one hundred million people in the 20th century was either whitewashed out of existence, or was blamed on imperfect practitioners. It was (and still is) posited that if, for example, only a different gang was leading the charge for collectivism in China, rather than the one led by Mao Tse Tung, perhaps forty five million to sixty five million people would not have been murdered. Ditto for the estimated twenty million that Josef Stalin murdered. See SaveTheWest.com’s collection of documentaries on the ideological roots of collectivism, and its blood-drenched history, here.

Here on U.S. soil, the openly communist and unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers claimed in 1969 that up to twenty five million people would have to be murdered, if they refused to surrender to his vision of a fully-collectivized, totalitarian America. Instead of being held to account for all that, however, Ayers become a darling of the anti-American multiculturalists, a University of Illinois “distinguished professor of education,” and helped to steer hundreds of millions of dollars to advance his value system in our schools.

As the late Internet journalist and culture warrior Andrew Breitbart observed, while this was all happening, the alleged defenders of Western civilization were dismissive of the culture war that was taking place in our classrooms. Instead, they were (and remain) focused on winning political battles:

“The people who have money, every four years at the last possible second, are told, ‘You need to give millions of dollars, because these four counties in Ohio are going to determine the election.’ I am saying, ‘Why didn’t we invest 20 years ago in a movie studio in Hollywood, why didn’t we invest in creating television shows, why didn’t we create institutions that would reflect and affirm that which is good about America?’”

While anti-Western propaganda was metastasizing like a cancer throughout Hollywood, the “news” media, our educational system and the rest of our cultural institutions, the West’s supposed defenders were busily protecting their political institutions, hoping to do with legislation (and religious moralizing) what only a cultural war could achieve.

The result of this default, as Breitbart said (video), was mainstream American parents send their kids off to their first year of college in August, only to be perplexed when they return, three months later, screaming:

“Why are we having turkey for Thanksgiving? Why did you put smallpox on the blankets of the Native Americans, Mother?”

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By the numbers: Americans’ unawareness of Western history, virtues and achievements

“The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

― George Orwell

Detailed public survey research data compiled since 2000 reveals how effectively anti-Western, anti-American activists have been, in terms of whitewashing out of existence our civic and historical knowledge – including among our most “educated.” For example:

• Less than 50% of U.S. adults know the basic purpose of the U.S. Constitution.

• 99% of Americans cannot identify all five rights contained in the First Amendment; 92% cannot name three; less than 25% can name two; 36% cannot name a single right in the First Amendment (sources).

• Only 17% of U.S. college graduates know the difference between the free market and centralized planning.

• 69% believe Marx’s core doctrine, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” is in the Constitution (or don’t know if it is or isn’t).  This may be why more Americans under age 30 now support socialism over capitalism.

• 50% of American adults cannot read above the 8th-grade level, and most college students struggle with “complex but common literacy tasks.”

• 80% of seniors at America’s most elite colleges and universities cannot pass a basic high school history test, yet all will be able to graduate without having taken a single history class of any kind.

• 57% of high school seniors score below the “basic” level on a test of grade-level American history, the lowest ranking, meaning they have not even achieved partial mastery of this knowledge; 89% score below “proficiency.”

• Elected American politicians are even less fluent in basic civics than the general public; 25% cannot identify even one right contained in our First Amendment

For the sources of these stats, and more, see “The Obstacles To Advancing Liberty Today.”

Keep in mind that the bulk of this data was obtained fifteen to twenty years after Yuri Bezmenov’s warning to America, about how long it would take to begin undoing the damage that he and his KGB colleagues did to our educational system. We ignored his advice – and the results are now staring us in the face. But there’s more.

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9/11 revealed the ideological war against Western civilization – and how utterly unprepared we are to accept, let alone fight it

9/11 clearly revealed one manifestation of our allowing the nature and history of Western civilization to be betrayed, perverted or whitewashed out of existence. Upon dissecting the ideological battle – the “playing field,” as it were – serious observers recognized the real challenge that Western civilization was facing:

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  Radical Islamists fervently believe in their cause – specifically, that they have a divine obligation to do whatever is necessary to conquer the world for Islam. For generations, they’ve operated assembly lines (“madrassas”) around the world that churn out wave after wave of similarly fervent believers. ISIS even recently released a comprehensive guide on how parents should raise their children to support every facet of the Islamist narrative. Learn more about the Islamist ideology, and the threat it poses to us here.

• Western citizens, in contrast, fervently believe in nothing, and for generations have allowed their children to be rendered ignorant of the principles of freedom, and those most responsible for having given us, and preserving our free culture. In the U.S., young people are now more fluent in who is competing for “American Idol,” than in the most basic aspects of Western civilization, or the threats against our freedom.

The novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand noted:

“When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side.”

In our case, the intellectual disarming of our culture went far beyond merely obliterating public knowledge of, and appreciation for vital facts; it led to growing, widespread opposition to the core freedoms upon which Western civilization relies.

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By the numbers: Who is really doing the most to destroy our natural rights – us, or “them”?

In 2004, a radical Islamist murdered and nearly beheaded the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, for making a short film, “Submission,” about the horrifying abuse of women and girls in Islamist cultures.

In 2005, radical Islamists began rioting and attacking Western civilians around the world, because a Dutch newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published cartoons that they said insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

In 2010, the Comedy Central television network self-censored an episode of the hit animated series, “South Park,” in response to a threat by a radical Islamist group that if it featured a depiction of the Prophet Muhammed, it would meet the same fate as Theo van Gogh.

Most recently, on January 7, 2015 radical Islamists stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satire magazine, and murdered twelve employees, and injured eleven others. The terrorists specifically said, on video, that they were carrying out the carnage in the name of Islam, to avenge the Prophet Muhammed from Charlie Hebdo’s mockery.

In the wake of these tragedies, some said that these were examples of Islamists’ war against our natural rights, particularly our freedom of speech.

But what power do Islamists really have to destroy our freedoms, if they cannot militarily conquer us? How would they, for instance, overturn the U.S. Constitution (as they’ve reportedly said is their mission), if they cannot do it by brute, physical force?

The answer is: they can work with other radical anti-Western actors to compel us to sacrifice our freedoms, of our own accord.

Survey data

Surveys taken in America since 9/11 reveal the startling results they’ve achieved, not through force of arms, but thanks to the fact that propaganda campaigns – executed under the guise of “multiculturalism” and “tolerance” – were met with practically zero resistance:

• 34% of Americans surveyed in 2012 believe the First Amendment “goes too far in the rights it guarantees,” a jump from 13% in 2011 – the largest single-year jump in this survey’s history.

• Nearly half of Americans support passing laws to criminalize “hate speech.”

• 39% of high-schoolers do not believe newspapers should be able to publish items without government approval.

• 43% of Americans agree with the statement, “The press in America has too much freedom in our society”; 71% believe “It is somewhat to very important for the government to hold the media in check.”

• 58% of American adults said that people should not be allowed to say things in public that might be offensive to religious groups. 31% believe musicians should not be allowed to sing songs with lyrics that might offend others.

For the sources of these stats, and more, see “The Obstacles To Advancing Liberty Today.”

These numbers are drifting eerily close to actual laws in force in less-free nations, and statements by Islamists who live within them. For example:

• In Canada, the author and satirist Mark Steyn was criminally prosecuted for making allegedly “anti-Islam” remarks in his books and articles.

• Similar prosecutions have occurred throughout Western Europe. For example, individuals have been prosecuted for stating myriad provable facts, such as that honor killings and female genital mutilation occurs in Muslim communities, and the high support within them for fundamentalist beliefs and terrorist groups.

• In England, 68% of Muslims percent say any citizen who “insults Islam” should be arrested and criminally prosecuted. According to a survey of British Muslims, “Nearly a third of 16 to 24-year-olds believed that those converting to another religion should be executed, while less than a fifth of those over 55 believed the same.” And a survey of British Muslim college students revealed that 32% support killing for Islam; 40% want Shari’ah law to be enacted in England.

• As of 2015, half of European Union states have laws that enable them to prosecute blasphemy “crimes.”

Similar to the communists and fascists with whom they often ally themselves, the Islamists’ ultimate objective is to build “total states,” in which mechanisms are built to dictate and control every aspect of our lives, with all levers of power in the hands of an unelected elite.

How far have we gone in terms of building such a “total state” for ourselves? Here’s a hint: the exponential growth of our regulatory state, in which more and more laws are churned out each year, to the point where no one could possibly know them all – and yet there isn’t an aspect left of our lives and businesses that they don’t affect. This video from the Mercatus Center documents it in a way that no written report could:

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The West’s cultural and political leaders continuously engage in willful blindness (and often attack those who expose the reality)

The public survey numbers listed earlier give grim testimony to how far along we are on the path towards destroying Western civilization, largely through our own actions. They also help explain why we can keep electing political leaders who:

• Pretend that modern terrorism has no relationship to radical Islamists – even though 80% of U.S. indictments for terrorism since 9/11 have been against Muslims, who represent less than 1% of our population.

• Refuse to acknowledge the shocking support by Muslims in Western nations for terrorism. For example, 29% of American Muslims under age 30 believe suicide bombings against civilian targets are justified to defend Islam; in France, this support rises to 61%.

• Deny that we are facing an ideological war against Western civilization, being waged by a collusion of Islamists, collectivists and fascists.

Instead, bowing to “political correctness,” we’ve allowed our leaders to:

• Classify the Islamist threat as a military and law enforcement challenge.

• Claim that modern terrorism is being perpetrated by nondescript “violent extremists” – or, as nondescript “armed insurgents.”

This willful blindness has been going on since soon after 9/11. It has been advanced and defended by politicians of both parties, and cultural and entertainment leaders throughout the U.S. and Western Europe.

The efficacy of calling those who expose the truth “Islamophobes” or “racists”

The most ugly, dangerous aspect of this situation, however, is not even our leaders’ willful blindness – but rather, their willingness to attack anyone who points out the undeniable linkage between radical Islamism and terrorism, and other horrific beliefs and practices, as being a “racist,” “Islamophobic” or “intolerant.” This narrative has been fueled by Islamist front groups such as the notorious Council on American Islamic Relations, which recently demanded that Fox News stop giving air time to “Islamophobes,” which it classifies as anyone who (a) tries to expose vital facts concerning the threat of radical Islamism, and (b) offers suggestions on how to best protect ourselves.

This deplorable tactic has worked wonders for Islamists, and those who aid and seek to protect them:

• For years prior to the Ft. Hood massacre, U.S. military officers had observed and privately raised concerns about the increasingly bizarre, threatening behavior exhibited by psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who claimed on his business card he was a “Soldier of Allah,” a reference to Al Qaeda. Defense intelligence officials noted that he had ongoing communications with Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American Muslim who had become one of Al Qaeda’s top recruiters. Yet none of them took any substantive official action. The reason they cited for their silence: fear of having their careers destroyed by being labeled “racists” or “Islamophobes.” A bipartisan group of Congressional representatives recently complained about the “political correctness” that led to this tragedy.

• In Rotherham, England, over a fifteen-year period, gangs of Muslim pedophiles – mostly Pakistani immigrants – were allowed to rape and terrorize a minimum of 1,400 British girls, as young as 11 years old, because police and social service officials refused to help them. The reason these authorities cited for refusing to prosecute the perpetrators: they were afraid of being smeared as “racists” or “Islamophobes.” None of these officials has been fired or prosecuted. Soon after this story broke, a British researcher came forward who documented that she had provided authorities with evidence of these rape gangs ten years earlier. Instead of launching an investigation, her superiors ordered her to attend a training program in “diversity,” and told her to “never, ever” disclose her evidence to anyone else.

Recent examples of our leaders’ willful blindness

• White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained why President Obama won’t classify the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks as being part of radical Islamists’ war against us. “We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism, and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it.” This is despite the fact that the Islamists who perpetrated it were screaming “Allahu Akbar!” as they massacred the publication’s employees, and a (Muslim) policeman. Watch and listen to video of the attack here.

• Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, France, where the Charlie Hebdo massacre was perpetrated, is suing Fox News for daring to expose the fact that throughout France are numerous Islamist-controlled “no-go zones,” in which non-Muslims, police and especially Jews are too afraid to enter. The fact is that, as Mark Steyn points out, for years journalists in France and beyond have been pointing out these “no-go” zones – but now, many are silent, for fear of being called “Islamophobic.” (Note that Hidalgo made the announcement on CNN – which also discussed France’s Islamist “no-go-zones,” prior to the recent massacres – but she is not suing CNN.)

• The government-run BBC has allowed its Arabic branch to refuse to call the Islamists who murdered the Charlie Hebdo staff “terrorists.” “We try to avoid describing anyone as a terrorist or an act as being terrorist,” said Tarik Kafala, of BBC-Arabic. This is a continuation of the BBC’s overall aversion to using the word “terrorism” to describe such acts.

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  Instead of identifying the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre (and the one at the nearby delicatessen) as Islamist terrorists, CNN enabled global news anchor Christiane Amanpour to refer to them as “activists.” CNN has not issued an apology for this.

• President Obama has repeatedly said that even though ISIS justifies its brutality through passages in the Qu’ran, it has nothing to do with Islam.

• The Obama White House has also denied that the Taliban is an Islamist terrorist organization.  This statement clashes with the fact that the Taliban has justified all of its savagery via passages in the Qu’ran, including its recent slaughter of 132 schoolchildren, then forcing them to watch their teacher burned alive, and its attempted murder of celebrated Malala Yousafzai. According to the Taliban, all of these acts were justified to punish the belief that children should be educated in anything other than shariah, and to deter others from supporting such endeavors.  White House spokesman Josh Earnest, however, said that according to President Obama, the Taliban should be viewed as a nondescript “armed insurgency” – not an Islamist terrorist group.

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How can we fight, let alone win a war against an enemy that our leaders are too afraid to even name?

That is a question that is being asked by military veterans, intelligence officials and liberty-loving Muslims alike. For example:

One of President Obama’s Democrat allies, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), an Iraq war veteran, recently blasted his refusal to call this war what it is:

“By his not using this term ‘Islamic extremism’ and clearly identifying our enemies, it raised a whole host of questions in exactly what Congress will be authorizing. Unless you understand who your enemy is, unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy.”

Even President Obama’s outgoing director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, felt compelled to issue a sobering warning about his denial:

“You cannot defeat an enemy you do not admit exists,” Flynn said. He said the administration is unwilling to admit the scope of the problem, naively clinging to the hope that limited counterterrorist intervention will head off the ideological juggernaut of religious militancy. “There are many sincere people in our government who frankly are paralyzed by this complexity,” said Flynn, so they “accept a defensive posture, reasoning that passivity is less likely to provoke our enemies.”

Another veteran, Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer, voiced his concern about our leaders’ refusal to identify the ideology that is at war with us, by name:

“(M)any Muslims around the world live with this problem in their own backyard and face it 100 times worse than we could imagine… (I) have seen these people first-hand, willing to give their lives for me just as I was for them. Many of these Muslims have fought next to Americans, from the sands of Iraq to the Mountains of Afghanistan, and they were just as close to me as the Americans with whom I served alongside in combat. They were my brothers and they shared the same hatred for the enemy as I did.

“(P)ushing this problem off and trying to turn our heads we are doing nothing more than prolonging the inevitable. Radical Islamic Terrorism is a cancer and the cancer cannot be ignored. Say what you want, but quote me right here: When they show up, they won’t care how much money we have, if we’re Republicans or Democrats, for war or against it, how nice our house’s are or who we know.”

Similarly, even freedom-loving Muslims are often shunned or terrified into silence, because of our leaders’ “political correctness.” Zuhdi Jasser, MD is an American Muslim freedom activist who, since 9/11, has been waging an ideological battle with the radicals who use his faith to destroy. A devout Muslim and retired U.S. Navy officer, Jasser started his own activist group, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, narrated the seminal video documentary about this phenomenon, “The Third Jihad,” and in 2012 completed his first book, “A Battle For the Soul of Islam.”

Jasser has pointed out on numerous occasions that so long as we are too afraid to even identify the nature of our enemy, we cannot possibly defeat it. Most recently, in late 2014 he commented:

“How can America fight against radical political Islam if the United States refuses to acknowledge Islamism as a threat?”

And in 2012, Jasser testified before the U.S. Congress:

“(T)he theological underpinnings of Islamist radicalization remain for the most part ignored by military officials, who fear appearing to discriminate against Muslim soldiers. It would be like being afraid of identifying the impact of communist ideologies upon our troops at the height of the Cold War against the Soviets. That fear of political correctness has been bolstered by leading Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups in America who trumpet grievances at the expense of counter-radicalization strategies. Their platform in fact has a major obstacle to counter-radicalism: the empowerment of political Islam via Islamic revivalism and an aversion to reform via the separation of mosque and state. As an observant Muslim, I am testifying to you that we desperately need to develop a strategy against Islamism.”

Like others who advocate identifying and effectively fighting back against the radical Islamist ideology, Jasser and his Muslim reformist allies has been vilified by many notable political leaders, by CAIR and leftist propaganda outfits, and ignored by the bulk of Western “news” media (the primary exception being Fox News).

On February 1, 2015 President Obama responded directly to these criticisms – and engaged in even more denial:

“I think that the way to understand this is, there is an element growing out of Muslim communities, in certain parts of the world, that have perverted the religion, have embraced an annihilistic, violent, almost medieval interpretation of Islam. And they’re doing damage in a lot of countries around the world. But it is absolutely true that I reject a notion that somehow that creates a religious war, because the overwhelming majority of Muslims reject that interpretation of Islam. They don’t even recognize it as being Islam. And I think that for us to be successful in fighting this scourge is very important for us to align ourselves with the 99.9% of Muslims who are looking for the same thing we’re looking for — order, peace, prosperity.”

Unfortunately, as the survey data from the U.S., Canada and Western Europe reveals, Obama’s claim that “the overwhelming majority (99.9%?) of Muslims reject that interpretation of Islam” is absolutely untrue. Journalist Ben Shapiro pointed out the reality in a recent video, with data from the 2009 global Pew survey of Muslims:

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Physically disarming ourselves, in the face of these threats

The Charlie Hebdo massacre laid bare another grisly aspect of the fruit borne by our betrayal of Western civilization. For in what other day or age could anyone conceive of a Western nation allowing boiling cauldrons of violent religious fanaticism take over one neighborhood after another (“no-go-zones”), while disarming not only its citizens, but its police officers?

What person with a knowledge of the virtues and vulnerabilities of Western civilization could conceive of a day in which highly trained terrorists could cause police officers to retreat, because they had no weapons? In which the employees of a newspaper could be massacred like sheep, because they live in a culture that prevents them from being able to defend themselves, with firearms?

In fact, as European officials are discovering, despite having such strict gun laws, it only takes a few hours for a criminal or terrorist to buy a Kalashnakov assault rifle, just like the ones used in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Against this backdrop, what sober, informed person could then tolerate arguments such as those now being posited, that what’s needed to secure Western societies is even more restrictive gun-control laws? And to say such a thing after Interpol publicly said that an armed, train citizenry is the best defense against terrorist attacks as they’re occurring?

To be clear: the French did not deserve what happened to them. They had, however, elected leaders who allowed the cancer of the jihadist fanaticism to take over one neighborhood, one mosque, one school after another, while simultaneously disarming their children of the knowledge of what has happened over and over again when a people are denied the right of self-defense.

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Western leaders’ trend towards enabling those intent on destroying the West

Rather than being the exception, these threat-enabling practices have metastasized throughout the Western world – and anyone who opposes or seeks to expose them is accused by authorities and the media as being an “extremist,” a “racist,” “anti-immigrant,” etc.:

• U.S. releasing criminal illegal aliens, who go on to commit more crimes against Americans: According to a recent U.S. Senate report, in fiscal year 2013, the Department of Homeland Security released onto our streets 36,007 illegal aliens who had already been convicted of committing criminal acts. More than 1,000 of them went on to commit new crimes, including assault with a deadly weapon, terrorist threats, lewd acts with a child under 14, and recently, one murdered a Texas musician.

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  England allowing “Shariah-Controlled Zone” signs to be posted through more and more cities: Renowned terrorism analyst Steve Emerson recently sparked a media firestorm because he mistakenly identified Birmingham, England as a “no-go zone.” Missing from all the mainstream news coverage, however, was the fact that the British government has been allowing radical Islamists to post signs such as those at right throughout their enclaves in in the U.K., warning all that they are in de facto control of them, and certain behaviors (music, drinking, gambling, etc.) will not be tolerated.

• U.S. State Department hosts delegation of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, then misleads reporters about who facilitated it: The Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization of every major Islamist terrorist group in the world, including Al Qaeda,Hamas and others. In January 2015, senior officials and advisers of the Brotherhood attended a State Department- facilitated meeting. When later asked about it, however, State spokeswoman Jen Psaki falsely said that the event was sponsored by Georgetown University (which itself has set up an ethically-questionable branch in Qatar, which funds Hamas). Turns out the event was facilitated and hosted by the State Department, after which the Brotherhood attendees called for a “long, uncompromising jihad.” Moderate Muslims and reformers in Egypt (birthplace of the Brotherhood) and elsewhere are bewildered, are are beginning to view the U.S. as an active facilitator of Islamist terror.

• FBI terror report makes no mention of Islamist terrorism as threat: The FBI’s 2013 National Threat Assessment for Domestic Extremism report identifies a number of entities that law enforcement agencies should keep an eye on. No mention, however, was made in the report of the one group that has been responsible for 80% of the Department of Justice’s terror indictments since 2001: Islamist extremists.

• Pentagon report omits mention of Islam, jihad as motivation for Ft. Hood massacre: The Department of Defense conducted a year-long review to analyze what happened at Ft. Hood, and how to prevent it from ever happening again. Noticeably missing from the text of the report: any mention of Maj. Hasan, the fact that his self-professed motivation was to perform jihad, or the fact that other officers observed Hasan’s threatening behavior, yet said nothing, for fear of being labeled “Islamophobes” or “racists.”

• Pentagon classifies jihadi attack on Ft. Hood as act of “workplace violence”: Maj. Nidal Hasan was screaming “Allahu Akbar!!!” as he murdered his fellow soldiers. He justified attacking American soldiers as being to defend the Taliban, and Islam. Yet instead of classifying Hasan’s massacre as a terrorist attack, the Department of Defense claims it was an act of “workplace violence,” thus denying the survivors of the 13 murdered soldiers certain benefits, and preventing the wounded to receive Purple Hearts. A bipartisan group of Congressional representatives has written to Secretary of Defense Hagel to complain about this outrage.

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  Vast majority of skyrocketing rapes in Europe are perpetrated by Muslims (whom officials, news media refer to as “Asians” or “non-Western immigrants”); jobs programs are advocated as solution: Referred to as the “rape jihad,” Islamists use rape as a means of demoralizing and terrorizing cultures into submission. Throughout Europe, crime statistics clearly show that there has been an explosion of rape in recent years, and the vast majority of perpetrators are members of the minority Muslim population. For instance, in Sweden and Norway, there have been skyrocketing incidences of rape – and the vast majority of perpetrators were Muslim immigrants.
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  In Sweden, now classified as the “rape capital of Europe,” it is estimated that 25% of women will be raped. Yet local authorities and news media consistently refuse to identify the perpetrators as being Muslim; instead, they are referred to as “Asian” or “non-Western immigrants,” and few if any are ever prosecuted – even in the case of the gang-rape of an 11-year-old girl. Rather than dealing with this reality, Mona Sahlin, the Swedish official responsible for protecting the nation from “violent extremists,” is now advocating a new jobs program for Muslim immigrants. Earlier, Sahlin even said that they should get preferential treatment: that if two job-seekers have comparable qualifications for a position in an organization with few immigrants, “the one who is called Muhammad should get the job. It should be counted as a merit to have another background than Swedish.”

• U.S. government adopts view that jobs programs could help defeat ISIS: Since Sahlin’s statements, the world witnessed videos of ISIS jihadists beheading 21 Christians, after numerous similar murders, and its burning to death of a Jordanian pilot.  Yet on February 15, 2015, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said essentially the same thing that Harf did – that a jobs program could help to defeat this bloodthirsty terror group: “We cannot win this war by killing (ISIS jihadists).  We need … to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups (such as a) lack of opportunity for jobs.”

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  U.S. high schools compelling students to perform Muslim customs, including headscarfs and prayer rugs: In a recent incident at at Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep (“NP3”), in Sacramento, CA high school, girls were instructed to show up in the school’s library, where “MSA members will help you to put your hijab on.” As this detailed article explains, the MSA refers to the Muslim Students Association, a notorious radical Islamist organization that, like CAIR, was spawned by the Muslim Brotherhood.  Although defended by the school’s principal as a voluntary event to help raise awareness of Muslim practices, the flyer (at right) for the event clearly instructs girls to show up at the library for this purpose.
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  Also, high schools in Seminole County, FL have instituted a mandated practice of having students study the shahada – the prayer one recites upon converting to Islam – and make Muslim prayer rugs.  One school district spokesperson ultimately got so upset that he walked out of a video interview with a local news channel, rather than continue to answer questions about this practice.

• Central Court of European Union removes Hamas from list of terror groups: Hamas is one of the world’s most violent, notorious Islamist terror groups. Yet in December 2014, the Central Court of the European Union took Hamas off its list of designated terrorist groups, allowing its frozen funds to be released, and enabling it to conduct new fundraisers within European countries. An outpouring of concern, particularly from Jews and other victims of Hamas terrorism, has compelled the EU to appeal the decision.

• The Anti-Defamation League focuses vast majority of its resources on everything but the #1 threat to Jews in the world: The ADL is supposedly America’s largest organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitic hate and violence. Even though Abraham Foxman, the founder and head of the ADL, said that Islamic anti-Semitism is the biggest threat to world Judaism, a detailed analysis of its press releases since 1999 reveals that it spends the vast majority of its resources on issues other than this. Only 1.3% of its press releases had anything to do with Islamist anti-Semitism. The remainder focused on issues ranging from discrimination against gays, to gun control, to abortion. A separate report revealed the fact that the ADL has been working with domestic Islamist groups to help combat “Islamophobia” – even though there are four times as many hate crimes perpetrated against Jews than Muslims in America.

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  Estimated 500,000 women, girls in U.S. at risk of Islamist-driven female genital mutilation; Political and cultural leaders all but refuse to discuss. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure, widely practiced in fundamentalist Isalmist cultures, in which under force or threat, young girls’ and adult females’ clitorises are cut off, whether by a physician or a man with “experience.” The purpose is to suppress females’ sexual desire and enjoyment, thus making them more tame and subservient to males, who in Islamist cultures are deemed to be dominant. FGM has been rapidly spreading throughout Western nations, due to practically unrestricted immigration of Muslims from nations that practice it, and the reluctance of political and cultural leaders to say anything, for fear of being called “racist” or “Islamophobic.” A recent news article claimed that according to law enforcement officials, obtaining reliable numbers on the extent of FGM in the U.S. “has been virtually impossible.”

• Prominent American university allowed fundraiser for convicted Palestinian terrorist, murderer, who illegally immigrated to the U.S.: Rasmea Odeh is a Palestinian who was convicted of bombing an Israeli supermarket, murdering two Israeli children, and attempting to bomb the British Embassy. She was also found guilty of having falsified her U.S. immigration application. Despite the voluminous record of this Islamist terrorist’s history, on February 3, 2015 Chicago’s famed DePaul University allowed a fundraiser to be held for her, by Students for Justice in Palestine, a notorious group whom the ADL has accused of engaging in pro-Hamas activism.

Those are just some of the up-close-and-personal ways that people in positions of authority, and the organizations that they’ve been empowered to run, are doing things that affect everyday, freedom-loving citizens in Western civilization.

Then, there are the deeply concerning things that are happening behind the scenes, or which are far above the typical citizen’s awareness, yet which may imperil all of us – such as:

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  The U.S. government recently released $12 billion of Iran’s funds, and is apparently intent on reaching a “deal” that would enable it to continue enriching uranium, and building intercontinental ballistic missiles, based on its promises that it will not build or use nuclear weapons. There is significant concern that Iran, the world’s #1 state sponsor of Islamist terror, will break all its promises, just as North Korea (a long-term ally of Iran) did, after striking a similar “deal” with the U.S. and Western nations in the 1990s.

• China is pouring fortune into next-generation military technology – but the U.S. is reducing its defense spending. China has recently completed development of a missile system that, according to Jane’s Defense Weekly, “puts the entire U.S. at risk.” The outgoing U.S. Pacific Fleet’s intelligence officer has warned that China is gearing up for military action, and we need to accept and prepare for it. The U.S. defense budget, however, is being steadily reduced, causing alarm among defense and intelligence experts, who contend if this posture continues, we may not be able to adequately defend ourselves in future conflicts.

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We are now on our own cultural “one-yard-line” – and we’ve largely done it to ourselves

Returning now to the analogy of football games, scrimmage lines, and each team’s relative position: Given all the above facts, it is clear that we are nearing a point in which our backs will be against our own cultural one-yard-line.

We are not in this predicament because of the superior strength, skill or motivation of the other “team.” Rather, we are in it because we have allowed ourselves to be disarmed of the knowledge and moral foundation necessary to defend ourselves. Yes, our first line of defense is our military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies – and on whole, these agencies have performed their functions with courage and integrity. But without an informed, morally confident citizenry to support them, to give them confidence and the assurance that they are engaged in a justified battle, and their sacrifices are recognized and appreciated, they cannot perform their functions indefinitely, on their own initiative.

It ultimately boils down to one of military strategist Sun Tzu’s adages, from 2,500 years ago:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

– “The Art of War”

As the research data in this essay shows, the vast majority of people in Western culture have no idea who we are, collectively; and at present, we share no common beliefs or understandings of what liberty is, or what is required to maintain and defend it.

Militarily, it will still be some time before any of Western civilization’s enemies will have the capacity to defeat us. Culturally, however, they have been making unimpeded progress for several generations. Public knowledge of these facts is the only thing that can begin to reverse this tide.

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SaveTheWest.com’s contribution to correcting this situation: Recognition of “Defenders of Western Civilization,” and the enemy’s “Useful Idiots”

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”

– George Orwell

SaveTheWest.com was created to be an educational resource to help raise public awareness of all the vital facts concerning the war for Western civilization. In addition to all the other items our site features to advance this mission, each month we will recognize notable players on opposing sides of this war, specifically:

One “Defender of Western Civilization”

One “Useful Idiot”

Here’s how we define each:

Description of “Defender of Western Civilization”

Every day, people within our military, law enforcement and intelligence communities perform heroic deeds, individually and collectively, to help defend Western civilization. So do courageous teachers, businesspeople, social activists and others, who do all the things that are necessary to help advance and secure our freedoms, and the pleasures of everyday life.

Then, however, there are those who demonstrate such personal courage, such heroism in facing the enemies of Western civilization, that they deserve special recognition. Whether they be students who stand up to anti-Western authority figures, or activists for freedom in the most unfree parts of the world, each month we will seek out and recognize these individuals and organizations as “Defenders of Western Civilization.”

Read about our inaugural “Defender of Western Civilization,” Brandeis University student journalist Daniel Mael, here.

Description of “Useful Idiots”

This term was coined by Soviet communist leaders during the early 20th century, to describe radical leftists in the West who myopically supported and defended Lenin and Stalin (and later Mao Tsu Tung), despite public knowledge that they were terrorizing and murdering millions of peasants. The term was later used more broadly, to describe those in positions of leadership in Western nations who either openly support, or refuse to stand up to those whose values and actions can only serve to undermine, or destroy Western civilization. Learn more here.

Each month, SaveTheWest.com will profile one “Useful Idiot,” whom we define as an individual or organization that, when faced with the choice of whether to (a) uphold and defend Western values, or (b) to surrender to (if not join with) those who are at war with them, chose the latter.

If you have a person or organization you’d like to nominate for either recognition, please send it to info (at) savethewest (dot) com.

Read about our inaugural “Useful Idiot,” Brandeis University president Fred Lawrence, here. [Ed.: This post has since been removed, as a courtesy to someone other than Mr. Lawrence, but for his benefit. If you’d like to receive an email containing what was at this link, please email us at info (at) savethewest (dot) com.

Our annual awards ceremonies

Once per year, we will post a list of all the “Defenders of Western Civilization” and “Useful Idiots” we’ve profiled, and let our readers vote on which they feel should be in the top three of each category. Then, at SaveTheWest.com’s fundraising gala, we will unveil our picks for the most notable of each category. The “Defender of Western Civilization of the Year” will receive a trophy and a prize. The “Useful Idiot of the Year” will receive a “statue” of our own design.

If you would like to nominate a person or organization that you think should be considered for either our “Defenders of Western Civilization” or “Useful Idiot” designation, please email info to us at info (at) savethewest (dot) com.

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