Dear Mr. Nugent,
You recently wrote a column advocating the elimination of Islam in which you addressed the danger of allowing political correctness to stop the fight against Islamic terror. You finished with: “Never invite rats, mice or cockroaches into your home. Kill them all before they even get close. Exterminate them. Then let freedom ring for decades to come.”
While you are correct that PC “thinking” shouldn’t get in the way of doing the right thing, your invective gives the impression that you’re also willing to chuck out morals and common decency.
You pay brief lip service to the — correct, or we’d have already lost to 1.6 billion psychotic terrorists across the globe — idea that not all Muslims practice or support terrorism. And then you launch into a tirade that suggests wiping them all out: “As in a city dump, the world is infested with rabid rats. There is no cure for them, no turning them into civilized people. They need to be wiped out along with their devilish ideology.”
Genocide. And all the more troubling that you, an honorary member of The Zelman Partisans, the no compromise, no surrender Jewish RKBA organization, would use that “rat” imagery to promote such acts. As I recall, the Nazis demonized Jews during the Holocaust by referring to them as rats to be exterminated.
Humans are not rats. We shouldn’t be exterminating one another en masse. If not for moral reasons, then certainly for the pragmatic choice to avoid dangerous precedent. As David Codrea notes, demonizing an entire ethnic group is dangerous; something that a good TZP member must surely realize.
Self defense against radical Islamic aggresssion is another matter. Protection of life against predators is precisely why The Zelman Partisans advocates, promotes, and supports an individual right to keep and bear arms. Yamamoto’s apocryphal gun behind every blade of grass will work as well against freelance terrorists and run-of-the-mill criminals as it does against organized aggressors.
You speak of not letting “rats” into your home, and specifically state they should be killed first. Historically disturbing imagery aside, there is some limited truth in that. Islam does have a problem with violence. It’s at the root of Islam (at least partly dreamed up to justify raiding neighboring tribes). It’s something to which other faith systems have also been susceptible. Leslie Fish explains it thusly:
Just What’s Wrong With Islamophobia?
But just what is it that makes Islam such a danger to the world? Yes, its holy-book is full of really vicious commandments and examples, but the assorted gods know, and any Atheist can tell you, that the world’s other religions — especially the monotheistic ones — have plenty of traditions and holy-books full of vicious exhortations and bloodthirsty history, so why don’t they act on them the way Muslims feel obliged to do? Perhaps the answer lies in the religion’s relative youth. Islam is 700 years younger than Christianity, and 2000 years younger than Judaism. It never went through 2000 years of being kicked around half the world, always a powerless minority, as Judaism did. It never went through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the secular revolutions as Christianity and Judaism did. In short, it never learned to criticize its own holy-book, never learned to accept the eternal presence of successful unbelievers, and never got the fundamentalist arrogance largely kicked out of it.
Based on my limited personal experience, the hypothetical average Middle Eastern Muslim is stuck, intellectually speaking, in an anti-technology Middle Ages (ironically, since Arabs were once noted for the pursuit of knowledge a la Al Gebra). This makes the more credulous among them susceptible to jihadist manipulation. Allowing them to immigrate to a modern and open culture, and assimilate into that culture would do far more to speed them towards the 21st century and a mature “Islamic Reformation,” than confirming their Koran-based fears that outsiders are the enemy by trying to exterminate them all.
In our existing American legal structure, legal immigration is limited, and a known demographic group with a notable subset prone to violence should be screened for those individuals who are a danger to Americans. You clearly, as do I, consider Muslims a potential risk pool. I prefer screening to the closed immigration and extermination which you ironically give the appearance of advocating. Advocating closed borders while supporting an advocate of open immigration can give casual readers the impression that you haven’t thought this through; the NRA board member isn’t the only energetic supporter of open immigration. I admit to certain concerns of my own about those illegals, seeking handouts rather than a hand up, suddenly gaining the ability to vote for victim-disarming Democrats. (In my personal view, eliminating the handouts would go far towards discouraging leeches, while allowing in those who want a chance to improve their own lot; in such an event, truly open borders would become a good thing for America.)
It is not all Muslims conducting, nor even condoning, violence. It is individuals and specific groups of individuals. Even in the Crusades, it wasn’t every single Christian in the world actively and willingly supporting the wars. It is not in our best interest to dehumanize the entire Muslim population; that was Al Qaeda’s own tactic in rallying support against America, largely starting the current phase of violent jihadism.
The Nazis demonized Jews (and other groups) to coalesce support for the party.
Americans demonized Hispanics to begin the War on Drugs (marijuana).
Americans demonized Blacks for the sake of gun control (“n—-rtown
Saturday night specials;” the media then stripped out the n-part as
being too obvious).
Armed individuals should deal with violent individuals, and Islam must grow up so it learns to follow that example.
And you, Mr. Nugent, must set that example yourself in actions and in careful choice of your words.
As for those who won’t learn, and turn to violence to abuse Americans’ hospitality…
We still have the right to keep and bear arms.
This article presents the personal opinions of Carl Bussjaeger and does not necessarily represent the views of The Zelman Partisans.

