How Would THEY See This?
Monday
We need to reach people with the message that Islam's relentless encroachment must be stopped. The question is, "How can people be reached?" We obviously can't just blurt out what we know self-righteously with the attitude that if you can't handle the truth, then you're a wimp. Anyone coming across like that would help the cause more to keep silent.
We've got to think in terms of "What would a blind multiculturalist think about this?" How would they see it? How do they hear you? We've got to reach them. They are looking for a reason to discount this.
What can we do to become more effective? My first suggestion may sound elementary, but it's important: Spell correctly. If you write anything anywhere, double- and triple-check your writing. Make it as free of mistakes as you can, as professional as you can, and as articulate as you can. Avoid emotional rambling. Make your point as succinctly as you can with as much logic, reason, and evidence as you can.
Same goes for what to do when you're speaking to someone in person too. Give them no easy reason to dismiss what you're saying. Go out of your way to avoid hitting their triggers. Don't throw in conspiracy theories in the middle of your comments. Don't go off on tangents about anything a multiculturalist would consider "right wing," like gun laws or stockpiling weapons and ammunition.
You've got to get inside their heads and imagine looking over at you through their eyes, with their point of view. You have legitimate information and, if they understood it, they would change their mind, and might even want to do something about it.
And don't come off as if you know something and they are ignorant, even if it's true. Don't come off as better than others. We are not better than others because we know about Islam and they don't. It doesn't make us superior — it burdens us with a responsibility that we had better take seriously: The responsibility to get through to our fellow citizens and help them understand something they wish wasn't true.
Being right isn't good enough. Plenty of people in history were right and failed. Those who opposed the Communist revolutions in Russia, China, and Cambodia were right — and they lost. We have to be effective, not just right. You will make no converts being an obnoxious know-it-all. I've tried it. ;-)
Think back to before your eyes were opened. If someone came at you wild-eyed and full of seemingly-racist conspiracy theories, you would probably have recoiled from it, and recoiled from the point of view, and recoiled from the idea that Islam might be dangerously different from other ideologies you're familiar with, and you may never have given that idea any serious thought again.
We need to be careful. We cannot afford to lose people like that. We need to present our information as a realistic, unexaggerated, well-grounded, authoritative understanding of world. We need to make it clear that important people "in the know" also see it this way. We need to avoid presenting it as something "nobody else knows," because they will think, "Yeah, right. You have figured out what the mucky-mucks in the Pentagon haven't figured out? Sure, buddy. Why don't you calm down and we'll give you a sedative."
We need to be perceived as reasonable. We need to have our facts straight and well-memorized. We need to be persuasive. We must win people over to our side, and we must do it as quickly as possible.
Read more:
How to approach a conversation about Islam
Answers to objections when you talk about Islam
How to think outside the persuasion box
17 comments:
Ok, so granted, I'm not the most educated or the most refined of writers. And yes I do come across as an ass from time to time, but I have to say that pussy-footing around with a bunch of liberally bent bafoons is beyond me.
Your suggestions that we should take care in our writing and speaking to avoid the appearance of mental defects is well taken. I have, in the past, discounted people due to their inability to put a sentence together in a fashion that would create a coherant thought, understandable by even the trout-brained.
However, you need to understand that there are those out there, that absolutely refuse, no matter how well one verses it, to see the light of Truth. They make excuses, and transfer blame to the victim, and say things like, "We must understand them. We have to know what we've done to make them hate us." When the truth that has been staring all of us in the face for the last 200 years, is that they hate anyone not Muslim.
The first time we had to deal with them was the Barbary pirates in the 1700's. Their ideals haven't changed. Those people that have decided to side with our enemy out of some misplaced sense of guilt or other malady of the mind, are worthy only of ridicule and should be placed into little camps with armed soldiers keeping them there while the rest of us that are willing to call a spade a spade stand up and make radical Islamics extinct. Then we can let them out.
Oops. My right-wing intolerance for ignorance is showing.
Greywolfe, you obviously take care with your writing, and it makes what you say more credible, especially to the skeptical.
I DO understand that some people will refuse to accept the fact that the basic teachings of Islam are not peaceful. But just because they refuse now doesn't mean they will always be that way. They may or may not. Many people who have awakened have told me that they were once one of those people. But then some information got through their defenses and their eyes were opened.
All I'm recommending is that we treat every person as one of these potential "converts." Some will never come around, I know. But some will, and our chances of gaining more of them are greater if we are careful and skillful at what we do.
We need to think in terms of small bits and long campaigns, and make our small contribution to the person's understanding open his mind a little (and not close it to the next bit of information he comes across). All of us can strive for this goal. Our patience may fail sometimes, but we can do our best, and that will have to be enough.
I'm reminded of WWII. The over-riding belief was that you could appease Hitler and he'd behave himself. It wasn't until bombs started dropping on the appeasers that the truth was realized. Exit Chamberlain, enter Churchill, who had been trying to reach people with the truth from day one.
The thing that converts most to reality is the shock of loss. How many doves were converted on 9/11? The problem now is that the former Pres. (in whom I am not the greatest fan) was too successful at intercepting the guys in black hats, or turbans, as it were.
Most will not see the light until the light comes from the exploding vest of an Islamic down the street from their house.
For a couple years the movie "Obsession" has been out and I've even posted it on my site and even after watching it, if you can get them to even watch the truth, they still say it's our fault. I'll keep spreading the truth as tactfully as I can. And I do try to be tactful right up until they decide to show their idiocy by arguing facts with emotion or just disregarding those facts that they choose not to see.
My hat's off to you, Greywolfe. I am answering you here, not just to you, but to all people in the future who read this. Many people have told me it will take a catastrophe to wake people up. But I believe we have already had several catastrophes and it hasn't awakened everybody.
And many of the people who I know who have awakened recently did not require a catastrophe. They were persuaded much more gently.
One of my concerns is that if a catastrophe happens, people will want so desperately to understand "why" it happened that they could jump to a WRONG conclusion. Therefore, I feel strongly that we need to be informing our friends and family now, without argument, without hostility, but simply informing them of what we have found out about the basic teachings of Islam. Then if a catastrophe happens, or even if it doesn't, they have the groundwork laid already to awaken in the right direction. In other words, it would help make sure that the conclusions they draw from events are informed conclusions.
I had a small break through this week when one of my clients met me at the door with a copy of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel in hand. Her women's book club was reading the book as the club reads many bestsellters.
My client was "on fire" because she had just read the portion about female genital mutilation and wanted more information about Islam. I spent about an extra half-hour in discussion with my client (Telling her that I had interviewed Ms. Hirsi Ali helped my credibility), keeping my tone and information measured all the while. I could see that I was making headway!
I encouraged her to watch Fitna so that she could perceive a bit more about the Islamic threat. The film reached her! Her email after watching the film stated, "Pit in my stomach."
This particular client of mine is an intelligent and well-read lady -- a former CEO, too. Yet, she had resisted all that I had previously recommended to her. In fact, she never even watched Obsession, which arrived free to her in the mail some time back. Infidel got through, however.
I had a similar experience a few years ago with another client, one who loved reading fiction. She read Michener's Caravans and came to a state of alertness.
One by one is a slow process. And it's hard for me to remain calm when I feel such a pressing need to get the word out.
Congratulations, AOW! Yes, one by one is a slow process, but keep in mind that some of the people you awaken will go on to awaken others. It is spreading. And we are finding more opportunities to generate more massive effects. For example, those of us who have awakened have bought Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, which has made it sell well, which brings it to the attention of others and gets her on television doing interviews.
Do not doubt the power of one by one. "Nobody has made a greater mistake," wrote Edmund Burke, "than he who did nothing because he could only do a little."
Because I know you, I know you need no encouragement. But I wanted to point out to future readers that the effect you have one-on-one often has far-reaching effects you could not have predicted.
Thank you for sharing some of your success stories with us. You are an inspiration.
9/11 should have taught us. Those terrorists used the most powerful weapon they could get their hands on in order to kill as many people as they possibly could, and to cause as much economic damage to the U.S. as they possibly could.
This means, if they had nukes, they would use them.
I predict that people's minds will not change regarding Islam until we get nuked.
The Cartoon Crisis did wake a lot of people up. And, so did the 7/7 bombing.
But not nearly enough. Instead, our appeasement has only gotten worse.
And, as reasonable as your point is here in this excellent post, in my opinion, there is a lot of room for humor and hysteria.
I guess it depends on who you're talking to. If you're talking to the Intellectual Left, then your method is good.
But one thing you need to remember is that many on the "Left" in this country are simply traditional Union guys. They are only Left in a nominal sense. The IBA approach is good, in my opinion, because we reach across all these spectrums.
Humor is often a good approach, even talking to Intellectual Left, Pastorius.
And you make a good point: Many people WERE awakened by those catastrophes and riots. In fact, I was awakened by 9/11.
Always on Watch, check this out and send it on to your friends. Nothing gruesome or gory, just a regular chick reacting to that part of 'Infidel.'
I think it's important to stress tha Islam is an all-encomapssing ideology, therefore, if you support any aspect of it you necessarily support every aspect, including rape, incest, the permanent enslavement of all females, fgm, amputation for petty crime, etc. Stress the slavery aspect. Liberals can't accept that. Let them know that it still occurs all over the Gulf, in Niger, Mali, Mauritani, Chad, and Sudan. Tell people how no Mohammedan can condone abolition because slavery is, if anything, more Islamic than prayer, and stress that all females live their entire lives as sex slaves per Islamic law.
Then send them to Sina's Challenge. There's so much sex and vioence in there that nobody can not read the whole thing. Khaybar, the Banu Qurayza, and Aisha usually do the trick, I find. That was all it took for me.
I so appreciate your comments on this site! You thoughts on reaching people slowly and thoughtfully are well placed. I am a chapter leader for ACT in the Midwest and more and more, I am finding people who are just paralyzed by fear/frustration/ knowlege: out of fear they recoil and become mute, or get mad enough and join us.
The challenge not addressed with this particular entry is what to do with some chapter leaders or people that, once convinced, need much guidance with what to do "next." Many people I see are so shocked by the gravity of what they have learned, that they shut down! It takes finesse to walk people through their fears, and through their thick walls of political correct "screens" that have been built by society.
I have seen come chapter leaders jump too far, too fast with "the truth" by telling everyone they know about this stuff, losing a few friends, alienating family... One goal of mine is to reach these new leaders and help them understand that this journey is one of many steps; steps that sometimes are soft, selective, and slow, other times are big, sweeping, and bold... always keeping in mind that if you speak with truth and confidence, that your words will reach some- if not now, then perhaps later when world events push the issue for us.
For the record, does everyone in my circle fo friends know what I do? No. Some, but not all. Unless they scour my facebook page, and see what I am writing about!
I say this to demostrate an issue: we can work toward our goals, build awareness,without "burning all of our bridges."
Yes, serious world events daily push our buttons; but we must remain clearheaded and sure in our focus; or we too become ineffective. I thank you for your clearheaded and wise advice on this website!!
As long as we're all seeking the Truth here, add this rabbit hole of information to your bag of tricks:
Google: "jesuits created islam" (sans quotes)
Start peeling the onion folks. Without ALL the information we're simply pawns in the great game of (someone else's) life.
People need a trigger. My trigger was an interview of Christopher Hitchens I watched back in 2007 or 2008. They need to see someone they admire talking truthfully about Islam. Even though I've been aware of every Muslim atrocity reported by the lamestream for at least fifty years, I had not associated Islam with Islamic atrocities. I kept swallowing the blue pill, unconsciously. I kept thinking that Muslim atrocities and the perpetrators were aberrations. I kept associating "Allah" with "God". I kept believing that "all the Abrahamic religions worship the same God". Even 9/11 didn't wake me up completely.
I don't know what the answer is, but I think coddling will simply encourage the need for more coddling. Coddling created the problem in the first place. But, with a whiny population looking to run screaming from any sort of reality, coddling them along might be a start.
What I think WE have to recognize is that the left, the liberal, the dhimmi, the denialists, etc., actually don't give a rat's about Islam or Muslims except as tools. It and they, their "cause", are nothing but tools to massage the neuroses and self loathing of the left. What we're trying to overcome is, of course, our own self deceptions AND their's. It's really not about Islam or Muslims. It's about the left's sanctimony, narcissism, self-loathing, fear and grandiosity and whatever else goes along with those. And, it's about sixty years of leftism we're trying to overcome. This is a much deeper problem with the left than "Islam".
I'm more in the "hit them with a baseball bat" school, but I can see where some people might have to start with a Nerf bat. I wonder if we have that much time?
Maybe we need some moral outrage. Isn't that what animates all the bad ideologies that seem to win out? That they regard their opponents as bigots, capitalists, perverts, infidels, etc?
I have gotten to the point that I am not willing to have a "reasonable" discussion online about sex slavery or FGM or child marriage or the "uncovered meat" concept of female respectability. Anyone who wants to play apologetics for Islam on those issues is effectively abetting rapists and mutilators and I tell them so. Of course, many people don't like it when I accuse them of misogyny, but I also think that many people take note of an outraged person on a visceral level: what is making this person so angry?
The Cologne attacks really have me thinking about the fact that my rights as a woman can change, and politicians and the MSM will happily sacrifice me to their agenda.
To reiterate the first statement of the above article. Which is that "We need to reach people with message that Islam relentless encroachment must be stopped." The problem with reaching people with this important message is that many people are distracted by other things, which they have their minds on. Such as sports, to give only one of many examples. Worse even yet some people just don't care until it hits them. As explained by Brigitte Gabriel, who is the founder and head of actforamerica.org , for in her book BECAUSE THEY HATE she had written the sad truth. Which reads "The West is ignorant and refuses to learn." This I had experienced first hand. As in that I had offered, at different times and places, to eight people who I considered decent and intelligent men the chance the borrow the disc that exposes the dangers of Islam's militant jihad. Which is entitled ISLAM: WHAT THE WEST NEEDS TO KNOW by Gregory Davis Every time to gave the offer I received a different vision of "No" The most common excuse stated was "I don't enough time" It's very strange, many on the men who said that sure had enough time for baseball and football. Nevertheless, this shows the tragic truth that Brigitte Gabriel ,in the above mention book. All this brings to mind the words of Edmund Burke. Who declared "The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Pray hard and Sean:
If it works, then keep doing it. If it doesn't work, do something else.
If you are successful in changing peoples' minds about Islam, then you should keep doing it the way you're doing it. My own experience is that I'm most effective when I'm not hitting them too hard. When they are told they are idiots for believing as they do, some people will change their minds. But some people, probably the majority, will justify their already-existing point of view so that in the future, they are even MORE convinced their point of view was right all along.
I have been very successful using the following ideas, so if you ever find that you are not effective, or want to be more effective, here's another approach:
Tools
Left-wingers are really REALLY big on "human rights".
I believe *that* is the key to getting more of them to understand Islam. Maybe this kind of approach could be useful -
Me - "Hey, I've heard that you're a big supporter of human rights! Great to hear it!
Leftie - "Hey, thanks!'
Me - "I'm very concerned about human rights too. I've done a lot of studying in the last 15 years or so and have found that Islam breaches many human rights - especially those of women, children and gay people. Did you know that?"
Leftie - "No.... I didn't."
Me - "Yep. It's all there in the Islamic texts."
( A Koran quote or two here may be useful.... )
Left-wingers are really REALLY big on "human rights".
I'm convinced that that is the way that more of them can be reached and informed about Islam.
A gentle "hey, did you know that Islam breaches a lot of human rights?" approach with them would seem to be a good way to go.
Post a Comment