No One Would Listen
Tuesday
The people in the town were disturbed, of course. It was a sad day. But after a few months, the memory began to fade, and life eventually returned to normal. They felt they were far enough removed from the war that it would end before it ever came to their remote village.
Then one day, one of those foreign Jews found his way back to the village. His name was Moishe. He was an old man, but the young Elie Wiesel had known him fairly well. Moishe had an extraordinary story to tell. He said when the trainload of Jews crossed the border into Polish territory, the Gestapo loaded them into trucks and took all the Jews into a forest where they were forced to dig huge trenches, and then they were all shot! Moishe himself was shot in the leg and left for dead. But he escaped and had been struggling to get back to the little village so he could warn people of what happened. He was urging everyone to flee; to get away before the Germans came.
He went "from one Jewish house to the next," wrote Elie Wiesel, "telling his story..." And he repeatedly and urgently told his story at the synagogue.
But nobody believed him.
They thought he must have lost his mind. Why would the Germans just kill Jews like that? Germany was a modern, industrialized, enlightened country. They wouldn't simply murder people so heartlessly and for no reason. Moishe must have lost his mind.
Moishe was insistent. He begged people to listen to him. He cried. He pleaded. But not one person believed him. They didn't want to believe him, and that's a formidable barrier to communication.
Our message — that what is written in Islamic texts is dangerous to non-Muslims — is also something many people do not want to believe. The implications are too heavy. The people of Elie's village didn't want to contemplate what it would mean if Moishe's story was true. It would mean tragedy and heartache and a loss of faith in humanity. It would mean a drastically different future for everyone. If they believed Moishe, the wise course of action would be to immediately pack up or sell everything they own and move somewhere they'd never been before. They'd have to start over. The journey would be fraught with uncertainty and danger. Most of them had lived their whole lives in that little village.
But they had another option, didn't they? They could explain away Moishe's terrifying story. They could decide there must be some other explanation.
That's what we run into also, isn't it? People are desperately trying to explain it away. If it's true that the doctrines of Islam are dangerous to non-Muslims, we should all drop what we're doing and address it. What's the point of going on about our lives, as they did in Elie's village, if it will all go terribly wrong in a few years? No, there would be no return to normal. If someone truly and fully grasps the real situation, they're in a whole new world, and the "important goals" they were busy trying to accomplish up until now would be abruptly abandoned in order to handle this new (and far more pressing) reality.
But they have another option, don't they? They can decide there must be some other explanation. You must not understand it correctly. You must be taking the Koranic passages out of context. Muslims who believe in Islamic doctrines must be a very small minority. There must be some other explanation.
I invite you to read Night and think about this: What would you have done if you were in Moishe's situation? Do you think you could have gotten someone to believe you? How would you get through to people? Or would you have given up, as Moishe did, and leave them all to their fate?
In 1944, the German Army arrived at Elie's village and immediately initiated new policies to limit freedoms for Jews. The noose closed in tighter and tighter, one policy at a time, until one day all the Jews of the village were imprisoned in a ghetto and ordered to board the transport trains. People were terrified. What did this mean? They were busy in Elie's house frantically packing up food for the trip when Moishe came up to the front door and shouted, "I warned you!" Then he turned and left without waiting for anyone to respond.
It was too late to do anything about it. They were transported to Auschwitz, and all of them suffered terrible, unbelievable physical and psychological torment. Most of them ended up dead.
If Moishe had been able to make people believe him, everyone in the village would have had plenty of time to flee.
Let's not repeat the same mistake. Let's get through. Not with force. Not with crying or pleading or intensity. Let's find out what allows our message to penetrate, and let's use it with ever-growing skill. If you need help, it is available here: Tools.
Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence.
6 comments:
Yes, the analogy is very true! Just like Moishe's story in 1942, "Our message — that what is written in Islamic texts is dangerous to non-Muslims — is also something many people do not want to believe" in 2013. It is discouraging when people choose to believe that I am a bigot, an Islamophobe, or worse when I try to share "our message," and I have even second guessed myself and my understanding of the Islamic ideology. But just like Moishe did everything he could to protect people in his day, so we must in ours. If we are serious about this, we should read the following website: http://crombouke.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-destroy-islam-non-violently.html
I have often used the example of that story from Night when I've talked to non-Muslim friends about what I've been learning. A lot of my friends are Jewish and they can relate to it. I use it to illustrate that it's easy to dismiss someone as a raving lunatic if they're describing a horrible reality that's very different than what you think of as normal life. In fact, I find the example of the Nazis useful in another way too. I like to ask doubters, "Do you believe the Nazis existed? Do you believe that they thought they were superior to everyone else and that they thought they had a right to eliminate or subjugate inferior races? So why couldn't there be another group with a very similar ideology?" -- Bradamante
Elsa emailed this comment:
Thank you for this. Excellent. Powerful. And so utterly fitting. Unfortunately.
Here is the truth. You can take it or - for now - leave it. But in the end it will have to be faced.
The sooner the better.
Elsa
http://WorldTruthSummit.com
Elsa, that's kind of a tough love approach, which works for some people. But I think this is one of those things (getting through) that is important enough to use every possible way to accomplish. Tough love being only one of many ways. Whatever works for that person and that situation.
That is right that in the last century "No one would listen" concerning the rise in National socialism in Germany head by Hitler.
Likewise, in this century concerning the many dangers posed to the West by Islam and Islam's violent and stealth jihad. No one will listen . history of the last century is repeating itself
For example, in the area of the State ofthe USA that live in no one I gave the opportunity to different people a chance to view my video exposay entitled "Islam's Threat to the world " I received in response was many excuses .The most common of them was "I don't have time." Once a man got loud and said "I get all I need to know about this subject from the town newspaper" [Really ?]His brother in law sitting next him ,at our dinner, said "That's exactly who I feel."
Another example at church ,one Sunday , the pastor gave me a information sheet that a Christian man who was once a Muslim and had lived in Iran and was coming to speak about the threat and dangers of Islam at a lecture hall about eight miles away from church. I asked him if he gave this information about this coming lecture to anyone else ? The pastor that the he "didn't because he knows everyone who goes to his church and no one else would be interested"
Nevertheless ,about three months after that lecture the that same church filled it bus up with Christians who really were interested in going to what a baseball game about sixty miles away So the tragic truth might really the "No one will listen."
Back then no one was willing to listen. Now no one is willing to listen To put in an another way , at this current time no one seems to have any interest in listen to the warnings about the dangers and Islam along Its violent and stealth jihad and the slow and creeping advancement of Islam’s oppressive Sharia law in the Western nations.
In the book about the brutal and deadly jihad entity ISIS by Erick Stakelbeck which is entitled ISIS EXPOSED on page 78 in informs the reader that concerning this post 9/11 world with the threats and dangers for Islam’s violent ,and many times lethal ,militant jihad that “All of this means we’ve entering a fighting a personal – new phase in radical Islam’s war on the United States Will Americans glance up from their smartphones and put down their video game consoles in time to notice ?” To add to this , there distraction which is sports . Some sports are Ok by some Americans take this frivolous hobby to the extreme. So much that they totally fail to see the whole picture about American in the things that really matter.
Therefore, on the topic of Islamic terrorism, sports and even Marxism. It then needs to be stated that Karl Marx was wrong when he wrote down his claim that “Religion is the opium of the people.” From years of first-hand observations I can keyboard the hypothesis that the real “opium of the people is sports”. For many Americans refuse to buy, read and study books about Islam and its militant and stealth jihad. As, for example, by the author Mark Gabriel who was a former Muslim and now a Christian and wrote the book ISLAM AND TERRORISM. Other scholars of this topic many also be very informative .As the writer and scholar of Islamic terrorism as Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Erick Stakelbeck and Brigitte Gabriel. Instead in investing their time of the suspect of Islamic terrorism some American invest much of their time focused on sports. That of course is their prerogative. Nevertheless, this still shows some kind of misplaced values about what really matter. As in this indicates wrong priorities about what really important in life. As Brigitte Gabriel, who is the founder and head of www.actforamerica.org and wrote in her book which is entitled BECAUSE THEY HATE which reads “The West is ignorant and refuses to learn.”
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