In this week’s essay, our Dutch correspondent H. Numan discusses the usurpation of the public space for Muslim prayers, and related matters.

The battle we are losing

by H. Numan

Mohammedans have discovered something new: civil disobedience. It works excellently for them. I’m referring to the illegal mass prayer meetings they organize wherever convenient.

Civil disobedience is nothing new. The extreme left discovered and practiced it for ages. They actually worship it. I recall flower-power hippies preaching civil disobedience as an alternative for an army. Just don’t obey any commands from an occupier and there is nothing he can do.

That was long ago, when I was just a lad. Not a stupid lad, I think. Because the very idea was too silly to even consider. Even when I was 12. I thought ‘How the hell can that possibly work? Look at the Prague revolt and the Hungarian uprising. All you have to do as the Warsaw Pact is to machine-gun the unruly crowd into obedience.’ Which is exactly what the USSR did.

You don’t have even to machine-gun everybody. Much later when I served in the military police we had a spot of trouble with Moluccans. After the hijack was resolved, we had to clear an area where snipers were seen. It became somewhat dangerous, so an M113 armored personnel carrier moved in. The gunner used his Browning .50 machine gun to shoot over the heads of our opposition. That quieted things down in a hurry. Nobody got hurt, apart from some chimneys. The sniper was quickly arrested. (After that action the .50 was replaced with a MAG 7.62 mm, as the Browning was serious overkill.)

Does civil disobedience work? Sure it does — if your opponent is democratic. Otherwise it won’t. The left sang songs of praise about the civil disobedience at Tiananmen square. During the first couple of weeks, at any rate. The lone man holding a squadron of tanks back, all alone. That’s real civil disobedience! The sad truth is different. The Chinese government had absolutely no problem at all using as much violence as they deemed necessary. Shooting a man from a tank, or waltz over him — that’s a bit embarrassing. Absolutely no need for that. Apart from that lonely individual, who probably was executed later, plenty of violence was used. Did it work? Did the Chinese civil disobedience work? You tell me. My bet is on the Chinese government.

What happened with the Tankman from Tiananmen Square? We don’t know. We don’t even know his name. It’s highly likely he didn’t live happily ever after. Or if he is even alive, in some out of the way prison — we simply don’t know. This civil disobedience action was squashed completely. In other words: it didn’t work. It couldn’t work. Why? Because the Chinese government is anything but democratic.

Did you know you have your own home grown disobedients? They are called ‘Sovereign Citizens’. A mixed bunch (not a coherent group) of disillusioned anarchists, fundamentalists, poor and extreme rightists. They claim they are not US citizens and bring many a cop to tears. Sovereigns are usually non-violent and most of the time excruciatingly polite. All the same, they do not comply with lawfully-given orders by traffic police, and try to make any citation as difficult as humanly possible.

Sovereign citizens are not really a defined group, but more a sort of weird legal ideology in which they consider themselves not to be US citizens and are exempt from the law — except where it suits them. They invariably deny they are driving, and claim they are ‘traveling’ which according to them is a constitutional right. When asked for a driver’s license, car registration and proof of insurance they never give them, but do insist that the officer shows any kind of identification they desire. Watch some YouTube clips about them; it’s hilarious. Having been a police officer myself, I sympathize with my American colleagues and admire their patience.

Don’t underestimate this group: they number roughly 300,000 adherents all over the USA. Sovereigns are listed as domestic terrorists, although I don’t think they are — at present — very dangerous. Bothersome, yes. Irritating? That, too. But really dangerous? No. Several reasons for that.

First of all, it’s not really a coherent group. You can find anyone who’s disgruntled in it, from the extreme left via the extreme (Christian) religious to the extreme right. It’s a kind of vague ideology, not really a movement. And they are mainly political, not religious. That’s when things usually can get out of hand quickly.

That brings me to the battle that we are losing, the battle for the public space. In Europe we have plenty of civil disobedience. Usually extreme left-wing; Antifa is a good example. But more and more mohammedans are blatantly ignoring the law. The current tactic is to hold mass ‘prayer meetings’.

It’s not really new, but something most people are not aware of. Mass prayer meetings were organized first in Paris, ostensibly to demand more mosques. A couple of hundred or even thousands of worshipers congregate together on a certain street or square and simply occupy it. An imam leads the prayer. Usually sound systems are brought to accommodate the worshipers. The reasons for those prayer meetings vary. Often to demand more mosques. But on other occasions they demand less nudity (a small prayer meeting was held on a beach in Belgium for that), no dogs, more halal food somewhere, or what have you. Anything goes.

That prayer meeting on the beach in Belgium was a tiny one. Size, however, doesn’t matter. What they do is effectively take over a street, square, or in this case part of a beach, and do whatever they want. Which, for now, is to scare the doodoo out of passersby by praying. A tactic that works wonders for them.

Mohammedans know very well what they are doing. They defy the haram governments in the countries they are colonizing. Technically, you need to apply for a license for any kind of demonstration, including a prayer meeting. Since they don’t do that, the police could in theory arrest them. But there is a problem. We are democratic, they are definitely not. How can you even begin to arrest ‘innocent’ people who merely pray? We’re not talking about five people praying together, but many hundreds of people. That’s for starters.

They know exactly what they are doing, and would love nothing more than for the police to move in for mass arrests or with teargas. Many of the worshipers are women and children. They are there for a purpose, not by accident. Any idea how much violence would occur if the police did try to intervene? I haven’t mentioned real jihadis or ordinary heavily-armed men who are almost certainly among the worshipers. Itching for 72 virgins. They’d like nothing better than provoke a riot.

So what do the police do? Just like our spineless politicians, they look the other way. It’s not worth it. Or so our political superiors think. Looking the other way worked for fifty years, so why wouldn’t it work now? That’s because giving in a little bit each time adds up to giving in a lot.

Mohammedans know exactly what they are doing. They are milking the support of the progressive left for all it’s worth. Looking as innocent as possible. When confronted they happily admit they have taken over the street. What are you going to do about it, you stupid dhimmi? Your police are not going to do anything. They haven’t got the balls for it. Your army then? You don’t even have an army! (That goes for the Dutch, Germans and Belgians. The French most certainly do have a good army.) It won’t be long before we take over your country, dhimmi. Better get used to it. We’ll be giving the orders soon!

As always, we never ever give in. Right away, that is. As always we do give in, but a little bit later. Remember the mass murder of the Charlie Hebdo team? After burning candles, putting the darkened Eiffel Tower on Facebook and a silent march vowing to never give in, we gave in.

Seen many Mohammed cartoons recently? I haven’t. Many comedians who otherwise would have made decent jokes about mohammedanism don’t do that anymore. Why? Because they like to live. Every time a comedian offends muslims, he is told so. Often politely, but with a message. Remember Charlie Hebdo. We won’t hesitate to kill you if you do it again. So they comply. As do we all.

It’s even worse than you think. I’m member of a serious historical forum. Someone posted a question about Mohammed splitting the moon. If that event had been observed somewhere on the world. Now, this is a serious forum. We don’t do silly questions. So my — polite — reply was that like Harry Potter running through a concrete pillar to get on platform 9 ¾, this event couldn’t have taken place. Therefore it could not have been observed. Extraordinary events demand extraordinary evidence. Within seconds my reply was tagged as offensive. I had to be more respectful towards religion and remove the Harry Potter remark. It’s not something shocking the world, but it shows how far political correctness and our coming surrender have gone.

Sure, lots of people claim they won’t surrender. But we already have. Not you and me, but most businesses, the civil administration, the courts and our governments already have. Only you aren’t supposed to know that yet.

— H. Numan