The Price of Liberty

By Nathan Barton

Again and again, I see apologists for Islam, which seem to be based on the false concept “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Since the FedGov is the enemy of liberty, and since supposedly Muslim “extremists” or Islamists (sometimes called “Islamo-fascists”) are enemies to “the Great Satan,” then we must see them as our friends, and good people. Or if we view Zionists and the State of Israel as an enemy, then surely Hamas and Hezbollah and Al Fatah and all their allies, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Persians, that are enemies of Israel, must again, be our friends and good and wonderful (or at least tolerable, live-and-let-live) people. Sadly, it is NOT the truth. There are no doubt “good” and “moral” and “peaceful” Muslims, but they are considered heretics by the mullahs and imams and the vast majority of the Muslims in the streets of Cairo, Medina, Mecca, Baghdad, Tripoli, Tunis, Islamabad, and all the other large cities of the Ummah – and those are the “liberal, enlightened, progressive” Muslims, not the rural fanatics. So an article like “Denials of Islamic Slavery” in the blog Secular African is lengthy reading but well worth it. Apologists for, and friends of, Islamic (a modern equal to Jack Mormons in the 1800s), frequently claim that Islam has always been an opponent of slavery and has always sought better treatment and ultimate liberation of slaves.

The facts of history, discussed in the blog, show exactly the opposite. Slavery is part and parcel of Islam in a way that only the most blind haters could see either in America or the Confederate States. (Indeed, legal slavery did not actually end in the Ottoman Empire, the dominant Islamic state of its day) until about 1908, although it was illegal to enslave white people (Europeans) beginning in 1841 or so.) The writer traces the lies and the facts from pre-Muslim Arabs (including Mohammed, peanut-butter-und-honig) to modern times. Slavery exists today in much of the Ummah, not just the Caliphate and Boko Haram. While it may officially be outlawed, the law is ignored on a scale not found even in the corrupt thugocracies of the Balkans.

Yes, there are still people who hold slaves even right here in the Fifty States, and not always for sexual purposes, but it is relatively rare and constantly being fought both by individuals and the “authorities.” Not so in most of the Ummah, the Muslim world. The article also points out the role that Muslim slavers had, even in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, back in the day. If people want to condemn the CSA and its symbols over slavery, let us not forget to also condemn, even more strongly, the symbols and institutions of Islam. And remember, that claiming that Islam is against slavery is NOT the same as repenting for past sins OF slavery.

Repentance means to turn away from the evil actions that you did, and if possible, to atone for them in some way. According to Freedom Outpost, this seems to be exactly what Dr. Jay Lehr is trying to do. He is one of the few surviving founders of the US Environmental Protection Agency, in 1970. He admits that his work led directly to the fanatical environist takeover of the agency in 1981, and its evolution into one of the most tyrannical and useless of FedGov agencies today. His proposal, to “Replace the EPA” is extremely radical from a statist point of view, and quite in line with minarchist views. He proposes something that I first broached in the 1994 governor’s race in South Dakota: replacing the federal agency with a coordinating body organized by and controlled by the fifty state environmental agencies. While a far sight better than what we have (or had, even), it is of course only a step (and a pretty small one) in the right direction. But his concepts are definitely worth studying, and Heartland Institute is pushing and supporting them.

The coordinating body concept is one that can be applied to virtually EVERY federal bureaucracy, as a useful step in decentralizing and devolving government to a lower and lower level, while reducing its power: a gradual but potentially significant restoring of liberty. At the same time, I’m not holding my breath: the EPA is too useful a tool for tyranny for Congress, much less the White House, to give it up. And it is probably too late. And too many state agencies (CalEPA, Ohio EPA, Colorado DPHE, etc.) are themselves as corrupt and power-hungry tools of their respective state powers-that-be to give up or truly restore, much less just reform, “environmental protection” in this nation.