A little over nine years ago, I wrote a critical analysis of two online communities of Counter-Jihad civilians, titled "Ten Fallacies among Jihad Watchers and Paltalkers" (the latter referring to the chat website "Paltalk" about which I've written elsewhere).
The ten fallacies I noted back then were:
1, That the Problem of the Problem is only "those damn Leftists".
2. That, in addition to #1, the Problem of the Problem is only, or mostly, "those dastardly Elites" (and thus, Ordinary People are not enabling the Problem of the Problem, because, being Ordinary Non-Elites, they must all "get it" like we do).
3. "If any Muzzies try that here, they'll be sorry!"
4. Exaggerating the power of Islam, minimizing the complex superiority of the West (closely related to #3).
5. Stealth Jihad (Muslims can take over without violence).
6. Reflexive defense of Bush.
7. "Islam is not a race".
8. "Islam is not a religion".
9. "Islam is not the fastest growing religion".
10. "We're not scared of you Muslims!"
(See my original article for more detailed fleshing out of these ten.)
From the vantage of nearly a decade later, I can at least report the good news that by and large the innumerable civilians of those two significant communities have long since disabused themselves of #6 -- the reflexive defense of Bush. Perhaps #9 is also not as prevalent as it used to be; though its slack has been taken up, it seems, with a strengthening of #4 (which, ironically, I myself have lurched towards of late, ever since I "snapped" after the Paris razzia; though with me I'm not so much exaggerating the power of Islam as I have become deeply dismayed by the complex Quantum Ignorance & Quantum Stupidity of the West with regard to this perennial enemy of ours).
I also still tend to see a lot of the inane and hollow braggadocio of #10. Meanwhile, the simple-minded and emotional virulence of #7 and #8 seems to remain unabated today. Aside from brief discussions of them in the original article, I've also written about them at greater length in Islam is a Religion and Color-Blindness (dealing respectively with the fallacies about Islam as "not a religion" and "not a race").
Unfortunately, the implicit (or sometimes explicit) assumption of #5 -- that the problem of Stealth Jihad means that Muslims can take over without violence -- remains incoherently popular. Again, the original article linked above discusses the problem briefly; while for more copiously detailed analyses than the reader might want, I refer him to this list of essays on the subject.
#1 and #2 remain perhaps the most strongly held in the Counter-Jihad Mainstream -- from civilians and leadership alike. I've written dozens of essays over the years addressing these closely related fallacies; an incomplete list may be found here. And again, the original article linked above contains brief synopses.
Which leaves us with #3 -- "If any Muzzies try that here, they'll be sorry!"
This one too remains more or less in force up to this day.
It reminds me of a related shibboleth I hadn't mentioned in that original article: namely, the urban myth that Russia, China, and Japan wouldn't -- and don't -- tolerate Mohammedan shenanigans like the West does. If we define the terms -- "Mohammedan shenanigans" and "tolerate" -- intelligently (the former denoting the mere existence of Muslims, the latter denoting its continued allowance in one's society), we see instantly that the shibboleth is poppycock. It's an even more egregious lapse in reason when we consider the fact that two of those political cultures, Russia and China (particularly the latter), supposedly don't bat an eye at the government routinely violating what we in the West consider the human rights of those within their borders -- so what's keeping them from rounding up their resident Muslims and interning them in camps or deporting them?
So, as many readers already know, in Moscow today there was a typically Islamic incident -- grisly, ghoulish, ghastly & grotesque: a Muslim woman who had been stupidly hired as a nanny by some Russian family to care for their toddler was apprehended on a public street brandishing the decapitated head of the child while yelling "Allahu Akbar!" (and, it was soon found out, after having set the family's home on fire). And as sure as night follows day, one finds comments at Jihad Watch like:
I don’t understand. Was this in Russia or the UK? The Russians don’t take crap from Muslims.
And:
I was under the impression that the Russians were not as oppressed by the CVE narrative as we in the West are.
The "CVE narrative" ("Countering Violent Extremism") is essentially a term denoting the standard-issue mainstream TMOE meme (that the problem of Islam is really only a problem of a Tiny Minority of Extremists who are "twisting" Islam, not genuinely following Islam).
That particular Jihad Watcher went on to assuage their head-scratching bafflement somewhat:
It appears from this quote however, that the CVE narrative is indeed making inroads into Russia as well.
And:
I don’t think she will be put in some prison where she will enjoy her surroundings. There are no noce prisons in Russia and because of her crime she won’t last long at all. I only hope that it’s slow and very painful.
And another Jihad Watcher said he found it "somewhat strange" that:
...the Russian police is very quick to jump on people, even shoot them on the spot. But in this clip I can not help noticing that they allow her to make her speech 1st.
And for those Jihad Watchers laboring under the urban legend that somehow Russia doesn't tolerate Muslims, this comment by a Russian reader (one "Leonid Polyakov") should (but probably won't) disabuse them -- even though, ironically, that Russian reader himself thinks that Uzbek Muslims are "okay" and another Jihad Watcher had to point out his egregious gaffe:
That same other Jihad Watcher also was the only one, from what I saw, who expressed a healthy awareness of this issue:
The idea that the Russians never engage in political correctness
is quite false. You find a lot of stories like this, I’m afraid.
Actually, I’m afraid there is a lot of Jihad going on in Russia. Beslan, the Moscow Theater siege, the attack on the Moscow Airport, the bombing of the Moscow-Grozny train, the bombings in Volograd..
As for Japan, on another Jihad Watch comments thread, a Jihad Watcher glibly claimed (and I've seen others do this too over the years):
We could ban Mosques in western countries, not recognize Islam as a legitimate religion, call it what it is, a political cult based on pagan gods. This will tell Muslims their ideology is not welcome here ( Japan does something this and Muslims don’t complain )
-- until shortly thereafter, another Jihad Watcher corrected him with the results of what should only take 60 seconds of Googling.
And as for China, one needs only Google "china" and specify "jihad watch" then comb through the comments to pick up the admirers of the Chinese, as surely as a cotton comb weeds out burrs:
...islamic followers can try and take over the world, but they will not succeed in China.
Or:
Japan has Shinto while China has been fostered for many centuries by Daoism/Taoism and Confucianism philosophy. None of these religious/philosophical system tolerate the intolerant.
A similar urban legend one hears now and then in the Counter-Jihad is that "Italy has outlawed Islam" -- a preposterous claim, given that Italy is filled with mosques, and Rome is home to the largest mosque in all Europe.
Some of them like the Uzbeks are OK,
……………………..
Leonid, this murderous nanny was herself an Uzbek Muslim. They are *not* OK.