A Million Man March on Washington against Islam

This essay is in support of the idea, and actualization, of a “Million Man March on Washington against Islam”.

This essay will not articulate the actual agenda and message of such an event. Instead, today’s essay serves the purpose of explicating the proper strategy, in my view, for planning such a gargantuan and complex event.

0) Before we begin: We must agree that it will take years to plan.

We must agree from the get-go that it will take years to plan and organize a successful Million Man March. Just think about it: Recruiting a million people from various parts of the United States, coordinating their schedules, agreeing on an overall agenda, educating them on how to handle the media, arranging for security—all of these things will take enormous time and labor. In addition, certain things will have to be done sequentially, not simultaneously.

We have to stop being impatient and irrationally alarmist (“If we don’t do this within the year, the Anti-Christ Obama will usher in the Last Days!” or slightly less ridiculous, “We don’t have that long, we’ll get blown up before then!”). We must wrap our heads around a long time-table. At the initial planning stage, we should not even set a date, but keep our minds open to the likelihood that the March will not be ready to proceed until several years of complex, deliberate and patient planning and organization have passed.

The above principle must be agreed upon by all who wish to participate in the March.

1. First Things First: Recruitment.

The first thing to do, of course, is find a million people willing and able to take time out of their lives to make a trip to Washington, D.C., for a weekend. This recruitment stage in and of itself will be a gigantic and complicated process. Let's break it down realistically:

a) Getting the word out: the Internet.

This first phase could benefit from lots of funding, of course; but we have to be realistic. At best, we might find wealthy benefactors later in the process; at worst, we may never be able to scrounge up the big bucks.

Therefore, this crucial first phase will have to rely on the Internet—and try to supplement that as much as possible with other media. If those other media are mainstream, however, it is highly unlikely that they will help out in this first phase. Indeed, they will try to ignore the March as long as they can, until they can no longer do so—on the day that a million people actually arrive in the Nation’s capital and start milling around in front of the Washington Monument.

Thank God for the Internet (well, at least He’s more appropriate to thank than Al Gore. . .). It has an enormous capability for mass dissemination of information and from there, organization of a mass audience.

b) Rudimentary organization: Networking on the Net.

The Internet will form the core of the first phase (and will remain important throughout the entire process), but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Even the seemingly simple process of “getting the word out” will require some degree of coordination. This networking of interested people on the Net can and must be accomplished simultaneously with the process of “getting the word out”—and these two activities over time, hopefully, will synergistically snowball into a more and more effective operation, gathering up more and more people. Coordination will require a central base of operations.

c) A central base of operations: One website or blog as command center.

Very soon into the initial process of “getting the word out”, a single and central base of operations must be established. Multiple centers will only confuse and dilute the message and the ongoing efforts of volunteers in communications and organization. This single and central base would be a website—ideally one that has the capacity for a clear visual structure of a discussion forum with multiple threads, such as this common example. The single website, when created, would be simply titled Million Man March Against Islam: Command Center.

From this command center, our hopefully ever-growing number of volunteers will continue to get the word out in various ways. As part of this process, we will brainstorm on new and inventive ways of “getting the word out”. We will also use the command center to discuss and over time actualize other important facets of the planning of the March—including its agenda and its organization.

2. Crystallizing an Agenda for the March

a) Overall message of the March

The March has to have a guiding message. What is the March about? Why are we marching on Washington? What are our principles? What are we complaining about? What does it mean to be “against Islam?” Should we even declare candidly that we are “against Islam?”

b) Compromise and Common Ground

The questions above, and more, need to be worked out. We have to go through a discussion phase among participants, to hammer out a guiding message and agenda for the March that we can all agree with. Some may want to communicate strong, no-nonsense language and not worry about politically correct sensibilities. Others may sincerely believe in a more moderated agenda: we can’t expect one million people to be on the same page with regard to the nature of the Problem of Islam. A workable compromise has to be hammered out with regard to the content of our message and the way we will present it.

c) Marketability for the Media

Others may agree with the basic principles of a forthright message, but may argue that, in the interest of reaching a broader audience (the other millions of Americans who will not participate as well as the millions throughout the West who will be watching), we should moderate our presentation—not deferentially to political correctness, but cleverly with an eye to marketing our message.

3. Organization of the Movement

a) Structure of the Movement

As time goes by, the movement has to acquire some structure, to help make our overall activities more effective. A discussion of an actual structure to the Movement—perhaps organized hierarchically with President, Vice-President, Treasurer, etc., with of course ample opportunities for democratic decision-making—should begin soon into the game, and a general consensus on this needs to be worked out within the first year.

b) Clarification and Activation of Needs and Responsibilities

The Movement will soon acquire needs that have to be attended to (that is, if it really starts to grow):

i) ongoing recruitment;

ii) continuing efforts to get the word out to sources outside the Net;

iii) efforts to procure funding;

iv) laying down the groundwork for setting up resources for helping people with transportation, lodging, etc.;

v) laying down the groundwork for setting up resources for overall security to supplement whatever security might be provided by Washington, D.C., police;

vi) developing a comprehensive program to educate all participants on how to be media-savvy, with an eye to the marketability of our message, and with an eye to avoiding potential gaffes (e.g., someone telling a reporter “Let’s intern all those damn Muzzies!” or someone holding up a sign that says “Nuke Mecca!”) that might alienate the rest of the world who will be watching us.

Conclusion: “Build it, and they will come.”

I mentioned near the beginning the very first, and crucial, thing we have to do: Getting the word out: the Internet. Let this essay here today be the very first step in the entire process. I hereby throw out the first pitch.