I was starting to feel the most amazing sea change in how the west views Muslims in this year plus of genocide. I started to feel like we might finally be seen and heard, and that the genocide might end....then the events in Syria gave a massive win to the west and the Islamophobia ramped up into high gear again. Then the people I used to admire like Richard Medhurst started spouting off Islamophobic vitriol and other non-muslims who think they can tell us what to do, like Ritter, started mouthing off at us like it's all our fault. Disappointed at the backtracking but I should have known. I appreciate your voice, Aya.
Some commenter’s obviously not Muslim, so water off a ducks back, appalling to see such indifference to a threatening tweet towards Muslims, empathy free zone 🙄
I can see the berserker rage behind my probable distant cousin's words. Ritter clearly shares the berserker gene with me. Anyway, he's not disparaging all Muslims, not even most, and isn't calling for you to be killed. He certainly has a problem with the particular variety of Sunni Islam these groups push, but then again so do most Muslims.
I also think Ritter made a mistake by venting like this and your post is a perfect illustration of why it was. Telling Muslims they should kill other Muslims isn't helpful and, well, who is he to preach to Muslims, anyway?
So I think he did a dumb thing with that tweet, but there's nothing for you to fear. It's just Ritter expressing his frustration in one of the most stupid ways possible.
Islamophobia is so systemic and systematic in the western world that even when it's screaming and slapping everyone in the face, they cannot recognise it.
Let's do a thought experiment. Every time Muslim is mentioned by Ritter, change the word to Jew in your mind. How does it feel now, asking for extermination and eradication? Calling for the world to join in?
If it feels uncomfortable and horrifying - as it should - then know that the lack of such feelings before is unconscious anti-Muslim sentiment at play, which you are not to be blamed for at all in the first instance, as it's completely embedded in western society.
In regards to Sunni islam, I mean no disrespect, but the comment is ignorant. Sunnis are 90% of all Muslims. They aren't 'subgroups'. And they are pragmatic. They are Muslims and Sunni is synonymous with Muslim. Anyone making out Sunni are a subgroup and are the problem is - as a matter of fact - really making comment on Muslims as a whole and it is unlikely that people like Ritter, do not know this.
Sunnis don't have a problem with religious groups. They have a problem with groups funded by foreign powers and hijacking Islam as a cover, just like many Jews dislike that Zionism has hijacked their religion. Any single group in Muslim lands that murders any other Muslim is destined for hell. That is literally the verse in the Quran itself. This is what the Muslims don't like about these groups in Syria, Afghanistan etc - oppression and killing their own people. Religion plays no part in oppression and murder.
And just before I'm accused of bias, I'm not a Sunni Muslim. I'm not a Shiaa either :).
(Just out of interest - what is a Sunni Muslim? What is a Shi'aa Muslim? Do people really know when they use these terms?)
Looking at other comments on my pieces of late, people read what they want to read and not what is actually written. I personally don't know a single Muslim in the west who supports Al Jolani and hts. So what's ritter's issue? His issue is that despite not supporting al Jolani, they also didn't support Assad. Ritter obviously supported Assad in the fact that he laments his fall. He throws his rage Muslims and tries to faux distinguish between them to pretend it's only a few menacing 'so-called' apostate ones who are happy at the fall of a tyrant. If Muslims don't follow his diktats, we should be exterminated.
This isn't a one-off. Read the other article I linked to in the piece. Read these people's tweets.
The biggest question is - all these angry commentators calling for violence against us and telling us we are 'so-called Muslims' (Craig Murray did the same - as per the article referenced) - and by doing so, implying that they are our God who has determined our fate as apostates and kafirs - all acknowledge that it is their own western states who have caused all these issues. They know thier countries sell the bombs and are complicit in murder and oppression and genocide. That's why they are anti-imperialist.
But they don't do anything about. They don't take on their governments in any meaningful way at all. They don't even bother taking legal action against the state. They do nothing but preach to Muslims to follow their prophethood, and lay down their lives to take on the physical forces of their own western governments. And if the Muslim don't, they are casted as apostates to be exterminated. If they feel so strongly, why they take on these armies? Why don't they go lay their life on the line for their own ideologies? Why are they telling others to sacrifice their lives instead?
No-one has to agree with me. I simply read what they've actually written and not what I want for them to have written. I used to like Scott Ritter, Craig Murray etc. It's their own words, written and memorialized for the entirety of time, which makes me turn away from them. The latent and blatant islamophobia and the public calls of horrific violence towards people, many of whom are already suffering from horrific violence.
No-one has to agree with me. I don't write to convince people, but simply to create a historical record.
But calling for the world to exterminate other human beings en masse is a red line for me.
Very well explained, Aya - Thank You! BTW, I understand exactly what you mean - it is a nuanced discussion that many people in the West might not be able to fully comprehend.
You are taking this stuff way, WAY too seriously bud. In fact, I recommend you get yourself some bud. Ritter’s trolling for attention, you sucker. He WANTS people to have fits about this to get him more attention, more clicks, more revenue. This is how he makes his living.
I, OTOH, have a mere 20 paying monthly subscribers, and my income does not depend on attention and clicks, so know I have no reason to try to deceive you when I say most Americans have no problem with Islam so long as it doesn’t impose itself on our own lives.
I live near Cleveland. There’s a mosque two miles from my house. All it does is generate a little more traffic on Fridays. Nobody cares. We have far bigger concerns than Islamophobia, believe you me, like the price of eggs and rent and stuff.
I said systemic and systematic. I also said it's not recognised.
Studies show this to be true btw. Islamophobia is extremely bad in the west. The more insidious type is tweets like Ritter's that can cause real harm. The number of mosques - or indeed, number of Muslims - dimishes the Islamophobia. It's not a barometer. Hate comes in many forms.
Btw I didn't say you were Islamophobic. And I said any latent islamophobia through the systems we are exposed to in the west cannot be blamed on us at the first instance.
As someone who has suffered enormous systemic Islamophobia and currently fighting if in many ways - I assure you, Ritter's words - and the minimisation of them - is an extreme problem. My family have also suffered. I will share all of this soon for context - as well as other cases
I occasionally recommend checking out Elijah J. Magnier’s teaser intros on his website. Like many others in today’s money-driven, billionaire-dominated world, he rarely publishes full articles for free. However, on December 11th, he shared a complete article titled, "The Life of Abu Mohammad al-Julani: The 'Moderate' Master of Syria’s Rebel-Jihadists."
What caught my attention was this particular line: “Al-Julani was appointed emir of Nineveh.” You can find the article here: https://t.co/RELTmaVM8B
To my dismay, neither the Pope, other religious authorities (including within Judaism and Islam), politicians, nor the mainstream media (MSM) made a connection between Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Qaeda, or Jabhat al-Nusra and the destruction of Nineveh’s historic Islamic mosque in Iraq, which also contained the Tomb of Jonah—famous from Jewish and Christian traditions. This event in 2014 was a glaring red flag, signalling a disturbing historical parallel: the path of destruction reminiscent of Nineveh's fate some 2,800 years ago.
That year, 2014, also marked another pivotal event: the U.S.-orchestrated regime change in Ukraine. A democratically elected, Russia-friendly government was replaced with an UN-elected, anti-Russian administration—one appointed by Victoria Nuland before the regime change had even taken full effect.
To draw a parallel, consider the story of Jonah. God tasked Jonah with warning the people of Nineveh that they were headed for destruction unless they changed their ways. Reluctant to deliver this grim message, Jonah fled on a ship to escape his mission. After being swallowed by a whale, Jonah had no choice but to confront his duty. From inside the whale, he resolved to carry out God’s warning.
When Jonah finally delivered the warning—walking only halfway through Nineveh—the entire city, from the king down, repented. As a result, Nineveh was spared destruction then. But in today’s world, with similar warning signs ignored, we seem to be heading down the same destructive path.
Forgive me if I'm incorrect but it seems that you're comment is summarised by:
'Ritter is giving you a warning, like the Prophet Jonah, that are you going off a cliff you're not listening.'
Ritter is calling for the extermination of people. He is no prophet. He is a man who calls the world to reign eradication on those he decides to judge as apostates, as if he was God
Ritter has been wrong about a lot of things. He was an Israel supporter. He can't see the future.
No reference to Scott Ritter in my comment at all. The reference is to the new Muslim ruler in Syria who presided over blowing up the Islamic mosque in Nineveh, Iraq in 2014 containing the Tomb of Biblical Jonah.
I believe most Christian America is apostate saying it online long before this article and Ritter's tweet. I certainly don't advocate killing False Christians, Jews or Muslims.
I was starting to feel the most amazing sea change in how the west views Muslims in this year plus of genocide. I started to feel like we might finally be seen and heard, and that the genocide might end....then the events in Syria gave a massive win to the west and the Islamophobia ramped up into high gear again. Then the people I used to admire like Richard Medhurst started spouting off Islamophobic vitriol and other non-muslims who think they can tell us what to do, like Ritter, started mouthing off at us like it's all our fault. Disappointed at the backtracking but I should have known. I appreciate your voice, Aya.
Scott is a closet racist. A white moderate. MLK warned us about them.
Scott Ritter is literally calling for sectarian violence here. How more pro-imperialist can it get?
I wrote about him here: https://bettbeat.substack.com/p/the-white-anti-imperialism-of-scott
Absolutely brilliant and exactly right.
It is sad how many Muslims in the West defend him even when reading his call for exterminatory mindset.
The West has done an excellent job destroying colonising our minds:
https://indi.ca/how-i-was-colonized/
Exactly! It is depressing to see.
I write a lot about psychological colonization and related things. Also check my YouTube channel where we discuss these issues: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVlAELI2OVTx03PvpXoLCWQ
Do follow my Substack, I'll follow yours.
*Edit: Oh, I was already following you ha ha
I'm already subscribed to you! Love your stuff!
Yes, I saw we were subscribed to each other :D
Your name did ring a bell to be honest, but wasn't sure.
Scott is a white moderate. A closet racist. Definitely not an anti imperialist.
Scott Ritter the old bed shitter stirring up more shit.Does not look good on him.
Ritter was useful to the world for a while, but now it seems he’s past his sell-by date. Funny how some people age.
This is quite chilling
Some commenter’s obviously not Muslim, so water off a ducks back, appalling to see such indifference to a threatening tweet towards Muslims, empathy free zone 🙄
I can see the berserker rage behind my probable distant cousin's words. Ritter clearly shares the berserker gene with me. Anyway, he's not disparaging all Muslims, not even most, and isn't calling for you to be killed. He certainly has a problem with the particular variety of Sunni Islam these groups push, but then again so do most Muslims.
I also think Ritter made a mistake by venting like this and your post is a perfect illustration of why it was. Telling Muslims they should kill other Muslims isn't helpful and, well, who is he to preach to Muslims, anyway?
So I think he did a dumb thing with that tweet, but there's nothing for you to fear. It's just Ritter expressing his frustration in one of the most stupid ways possible.
Islamophobia is so systemic and systematic in the western world that even when it's screaming and slapping everyone in the face, they cannot recognise it.
Let's do a thought experiment. Every time Muslim is mentioned by Ritter, change the word to Jew in your mind. How does it feel now, asking for extermination and eradication? Calling for the world to join in?
If it feels uncomfortable and horrifying - as it should - then know that the lack of such feelings before is unconscious anti-Muslim sentiment at play, which you are not to be blamed for at all in the first instance, as it's completely embedded in western society.
In regards to Sunni islam, I mean no disrespect, but the comment is ignorant. Sunnis are 90% of all Muslims. They aren't 'subgroups'. And they are pragmatic. They are Muslims and Sunni is synonymous with Muslim. Anyone making out Sunni are a subgroup and are the problem is - as a matter of fact - really making comment on Muslims as a whole and it is unlikely that people like Ritter, do not know this.
Sunnis don't have a problem with religious groups. They have a problem with groups funded by foreign powers and hijacking Islam as a cover, just like many Jews dislike that Zionism has hijacked their religion. Any single group in Muslim lands that murders any other Muslim is destined for hell. That is literally the verse in the Quran itself. This is what the Muslims don't like about these groups in Syria, Afghanistan etc - oppression and killing their own people. Religion plays no part in oppression and murder.
And just before I'm accused of bias, I'm not a Sunni Muslim. I'm not a Shiaa either :).
(Just out of interest - what is a Sunni Muslim? What is a Shi'aa Muslim? Do people really know when they use these terms?)
Looking at other comments on my pieces of late, people read what they want to read and not what is actually written. I personally don't know a single Muslim in the west who supports Al Jolani and hts. So what's ritter's issue? His issue is that despite not supporting al Jolani, they also didn't support Assad. Ritter obviously supported Assad in the fact that he laments his fall. He throws his rage Muslims and tries to faux distinguish between them to pretend it's only a few menacing 'so-called' apostate ones who are happy at the fall of a tyrant. If Muslims don't follow his diktats, we should be exterminated.
This isn't a one-off. Read the other article I linked to in the piece. Read these people's tweets.
The biggest question is - all these angry commentators calling for violence against us and telling us we are 'so-called Muslims' (Craig Murray did the same - as per the article referenced) - and by doing so, implying that they are our God who has determined our fate as apostates and kafirs - all acknowledge that it is their own western states who have caused all these issues. They know thier countries sell the bombs and are complicit in murder and oppression and genocide. That's why they are anti-imperialist.
But they don't do anything about. They don't take on their governments in any meaningful way at all. They don't even bother taking legal action against the state. They do nothing but preach to Muslims to follow their prophethood, and lay down their lives to take on the physical forces of their own western governments. And if the Muslim don't, they are casted as apostates to be exterminated. If they feel so strongly, why they take on these armies? Why don't they go lay their life on the line for their own ideologies? Why are they telling others to sacrifice their lives instead?
No-one has to agree with me. I simply read what they've actually written and not what I want for them to have written. I used to like Scott Ritter, Craig Murray etc. It's their own words, written and memorialized for the entirety of time, which makes me turn away from them. The latent and blatant islamophobia and the public calls of horrific violence towards people, many of whom are already suffering from horrific violence.
No-one has to agree with me. I don't write to convince people, but simply to create a historical record.
But calling for the world to exterminate other human beings en masse is a red line for me.
Very well explained, Aya - Thank You! BTW, I understand exactly what you mean - it is a nuanced discussion that many people in the West might not be able to fully comprehend.
You are taking this stuff way, WAY too seriously bud. In fact, I recommend you get yourself some bud. Ritter’s trolling for attention, you sucker. He WANTS people to have fits about this to get him more attention, more clicks, more revenue. This is how he makes his living.
I, OTOH, have a mere 20 paying monthly subscribers, and my income does not depend on attention and clicks, so know I have no reason to try to deceive you when I say most Americans have no problem with Islam so long as it doesn’t impose itself on our own lives.
I live near Cleveland. There’s a mosque two miles from my house. All it does is generate a little more traffic on Fridays. Nobody cares. We have far bigger concerns than Islamophobia, believe you me, like the price of eggs and rent and stuff.
I said systemic and systematic. I also said it's not recognised.
Studies show this to be true btw. Islamophobia is extremely bad in the west. The more insidious type is tweets like Ritter's that can cause real harm. The number of mosques - or indeed, number of Muslims - dimishes the Islamophobia. It's not a barometer. Hate comes in many forms.
Btw I didn't say you were Islamophobic. And I said any latent islamophobia through the systems we are exposed to in the west cannot be blamed on us at the first instance.
As someone who has suffered enormous systemic Islamophobia and currently fighting if in many ways - I assure you, Ritter's words - and the minimisation of them - is an extreme problem. My family have also suffered. I will share all of this soon for context - as well as other cases
>>"Islamophobia is extremely bad in the west."
Not just in the West. It's really bad in India too.
Ritter is. Just a bloke with a view why take it so personally
Go write something worth my time in reading or leave the platform
Dean
Hey Dean, go fuck yourself 😤
I delete hateful comments which harass and don't add to the perspective. Disagreement is fine, insults are not.
The last few weeks substack has become quite toxic, just like twitter. Seems the algorithm has become right wing and hateful
I can’t like it… but is it Scott Titter or another pager attack… ?
…so fed up with super fast superiority and really modern ignorance…
Sorry?
I occasionally recommend checking out Elijah J. Magnier’s teaser intros on his website. Like many others in today’s money-driven, billionaire-dominated world, he rarely publishes full articles for free. However, on December 11th, he shared a complete article titled, "The Life of Abu Mohammad al-Julani: The 'Moderate' Master of Syria’s Rebel-Jihadists."
What caught my attention was this particular line: “Al-Julani was appointed emir of Nineveh.” You can find the article here: https://t.co/RELTmaVM8B
To my dismay, neither the Pope, other religious authorities (including within Judaism and Islam), politicians, nor the mainstream media (MSM) made a connection between Islamic State (ISIS), Al-Qaeda, or Jabhat al-Nusra and the destruction of Nineveh’s historic Islamic mosque in Iraq, which also contained the Tomb of Jonah—famous from Jewish and Christian traditions. This event in 2014 was a glaring red flag, signalling a disturbing historical parallel: the path of destruction reminiscent of Nineveh's fate some 2,800 years ago.
That year, 2014, also marked another pivotal event: the U.S.-orchestrated regime change in Ukraine. A democratically elected, Russia-friendly government was replaced with an UN-elected, anti-Russian administration—one appointed by Victoria Nuland before the regime change had even taken full effect.
To draw a parallel, consider the story of Jonah. God tasked Jonah with warning the people of Nineveh that they were headed for destruction unless they changed their ways. Reluctant to deliver this grim message, Jonah fled on a ship to escape his mission. After being swallowed by a whale, Jonah had no choice but to confront his duty. From inside the whale, he resolved to carry out God’s warning.
When Jonah finally delivered the warning—walking only halfway through Nineveh—the entire city, from the king down, repented. As a result, Nineveh was spared destruction then. But in today’s world, with similar warning signs ignored, we seem to be heading down the same destructive path.
Forgive me if I'm incorrect but it seems that you're comment is summarised by:
'Ritter is giving you a warning, like the Prophet Jonah, that are you going off a cliff you're not listening.'
Ritter is calling for the extermination of people. He is no prophet. He is a man who calls the world to reign eradication on those he decides to judge as apostates, as if he was God
Ritter has been wrong about a lot of things. He was an Israel supporter. He can't see the future.
No reference to Scott Ritter in my comment at all. The reference is to the new Muslim ruler in Syria who presided over blowing up the Islamic mosque in Nineveh, Iraq in 2014 containing the Tomb of Biblical Jonah.
I believe most Christian America is apostate saying it online long before this article and Ritter's tweet. I certainly don't advocate killing False Christians, Jews or Muslims.