How America’s freedoms have been subverted and weaponized against us - where is the line between principles and self-preservation?
Yuri Bezmenov and Hector Herrera
“A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen: but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property & all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.” Thomas Jefferson
Years before ISIS existed, the Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed reportedly told journalist Patrick Goodenough something that seems to be willfully ignored by the vast majority of people in the West:
"“We will use your democracy to destroy your democracy.”
"In one sentence, Bakri identified the vulnerability at the heart of a free society.
"Islamism treats Islam not merely as a religious belief, but as a governing political order. Some Islamist movements have been remarkably candid about their rejection of liberalism and their ambition to replace it.
"Bakri’s remark is interesting precisely because it removes the comforting assumption of reciprocity. A western liberal hears “freedom of speech” and thinks of a principle. Someone like Bakri hears “freedom of speech” and thinks of a vulnerability in the enemy. The western liberal assumes that we are all playing the same game, disagreeing perhaps viciously over policy, interpretation and the application of the rules, but accepting the basic constitutional framework within which our opponents retain their rights if we win.
"The revolutionary may have no such intention. He can believe in our freedom instrumentally. He can use free speech without believing that free speech should survive his victory. He can use freedom of religion while believing apostasy should eventually be punished. He can use democratic elections while regarding democracy merely as the vehicle by which democracy can be brought to an end.
"This is not a new problem. What may be new is our reluctance—or hubris—to admit that anyone, especially our enemies, thinks this way." . . . More.