EDITORIALS 9
I do not agree with wtiat you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” - Voltaire
“Would You Convert
to Islam?”
Matthew Peak
Fox News correspondent Steve
Centanni and cameraman Olaf
Wiig were kidnapped in Gaza by
Palestinian gunmen on August 21
and were released on August 27.
^\ith their release came a video in
which both men proclaimed their
conversion to, and embrace of, Islam.
Accompanying their conversions
were statements against President
Bush and military actions taken by
the United States in Afghanistan
and other places. By the video,
the two men looked to have been
truly convinced that Islam had
become their way of life, an open
acknowledgment of Islam as the
“rehgion of peace.”
But Centanni later told Fox News,
“We were forced to convert to Islam
at gunpoint. Don’t get me wrong
here. I have the highest respect for
Islam, and I learned a lot of good
things about it, but it was something
we felt we had to do because they
had the guns, and we didn’t know
what the hell was going on.”
What I wonder is how far will
people go for peace. These two men
seemingly faked a conversation to
Islam at gunpoint in order to survive
and we are all happy that they made
it back alive. Then again, given the
“highest respect” Centanni had for
Islam and the “lot of good things
he learned about it,” I wonder if his
conversion was not real.
Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-
Timesvaade aninteresting observation
when he said, “Did you see that
video of the two Fox journalists
announcing they’d converted to
Islam? The larger problem, it seems
to me, is that much of the rest of the
Western media have also converted
to Islam, and there seems to be no
way to get them to convert back to
journalism.”
There is a real dynamic at play
here and people in general seem to
be unaware of it. We are scared of
Islam, plain and simple. We can call
it diversity, equality, or whatever, but
the fact ofthatmatter isthataminority
of Muslims are willing to use deadly
force for the cause of spreading
Islam worldwide, including Iran’s
president who is currently ramping
up his nuclear weapons program.
We could be showing tremendous
respect to the masses of “peacefiil”
Muslims because we are not sure
just which Muslims will be the next
to highjack a plane or attempt to
smuggle liquid e?q)losives on board
with a baby being used as a martyr
(an incident that really did happen).
On September 11, 2001, not every
Muslim was a terrorist, but every
terrorist was a Muslim. And if we
are not approaching Muslims out of fear,
we are hell bent on convincing them that
as Americans, we keep Christians, Jews
and Conservatives at arm’s length because
we are passionate about peace, tolerance
and inclusioa
Since people fear Islam, many
representatives of the religion are stepping
up public relations and apologetics for the
faith, making Muhammad more palatable
to Christian tastes, just incase Americans
decide to turn their fear into hatred. So
while the peaceful Islamic organizations
would never condone the use of terrorism
to encourage conversion, they cannot
deny that the terrorism has suddenly made
Americans much friendlier to Islam.
Basically, when confronted with
violence, a peaceftil people will more
likely appease or surrender than discard
peace for a state of war. This is why I love
individual humans, but loathe humanity as
a whole. It tends to function like a herd
of frightened animals. They are what
Michael Savage calls Sheeple.
Because of the way terrorism functions
Cooking civilian while acting mihtarily),
there seems no way to fight it because
the people being killed in an air attack
could be terrorists or civihans used as
human shields. If we believe we cannot
or should not stop Islamic terrorism, then
the easiest way is to try to understand and
embrace Islam so that the terrorist will not
come after us. Remember that much of
the complaints about American military
action and support of Israel is that it angers
Islamic terrorists and Muslims worldwide,
inciting them to attack us. So, many of
us, consciously or not, desire to make the
terrorist happy by being willing to flirt
with conversion.
What we must decide is how we are
going to handle this. On one hand, we can
have a distrust of Islam until the peaceful
majority take an open stand against Islamic
terrorists, which will probably not happen
because they, too, may be frightened by
the threat of violence, or have a sense of
culturalloyalty. Or we can embrace Islam,
terrorism included, and just eventually
take on the culture and beliefs until one
day we wake up and look around at an
Islamic America.
The Dialouges
By; Botuiie Riehl
We’ve been in class for almost
a month. As you’ve walked to
and from class and everywhere
else, maybe you’ve noticed the
occasional white box with weird
lettering on it in odd places: down
by SAGA, near the Mosaic in LA, in
the John Blue Laboratory entrance,
even sitting up on a coimter in
Vardell 103.
What are these boxes, and what
is that writing on them? These are
the Dialogues, a group of boxes
with Greek letters painted on them.
They are the print equivalent of
‘The Wall”, the most wondrous of
places, where we are free to express
ourselves in paint. But sometimes,
“The Wall” is not big enough to
hold all that we have to say. The
Dialogues were started in the 70’s
as a printed forum for discussion of
a myriad of topics, from the pohtical
to the philosophical and almost
everything in between. Articles
were submitted for publication, a
sheet of articles were printed and
left on top of the boxes for anyone
to pick up.
So why not start them ^ain?
You choose the topic, write what
you have to say, and send it in. As
with any forum, there needs to be a
set of rules and etiquette to follow.
No personal attacks on anyone,
bar none. Clean language, no foul
language or slandering. Gossip is
best left for the lunchroom. You
must sign your article, if you feel
strongly enough to say it, then you
need to be able to back i^) what you
write. Write it iqj, double-spaced is
all we ask. Sign it, print it and slip
it in one of the white boxes. Also,
I am heading the Dialogues with
Deihlia Nye, and we’d love a band
of people to help us check the boxes
regularly, read and edit the articles,
and submit them for pubhcation in
The Lance.
The first edition of The Dialogues
will be pubhshed in the October
edition of The Lance. As soon as
I know the deadline for October
submissions, I will email everyone
with that informatioa Cheers!