Quickies: Pandemic Lunacy

     It seems that entire cultures and nations are susceptible to fits of insanity: the persistent, unshakable belief in something that is demonstrably not so:

     A clear majority of the Arab world continues to believe that Israel is the main threat in the Middle East and North Africa, a comprehensive BBC poll of 11 Arab countries revealed on Monday.

     The poll — which involved interviews with over 25,000 respondents in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria — also demonstrated that a strict social conservatism prevailed throughout the region, exemplified by a violent hatred of homosexuality.

     Opposition to women holding positions of power and influence, as well as sympathy for the practice of “honor killings” — the execution of female relatives for allegedly shaming their families — remains widespread as well.

     Israel is a threat? To what? To whom? Israel is a nation of nine million persons, surrounded by enemies that outnumber it twenty to one. It would have been utterly overrun by now had it not acquired nuclear weapons. What threat does it pose to its Muslim neighbors, other than the implied one of embarrassing economic and technological outperformance?

     I trust I needn’t say anything about Muslims’ hatred of homosexuals and women’s emancipation. Those subjects should require no explication.

     It’s time to repeat something the entire First World (and most of the rest) should already know:

Islam is toxic to human life.

     Islam corrupts the rational processes of the mind. It infects its holder with convictions – and behavior – characteristic of savages. It celebrates its atrocities and clamors for more. Europe is learning the truth of this on its own hide. Americans should draw the moral.