{"id":1415,"date":"2015-12-31T23:43:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T04:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1415"},"modified":"2015-12-31T23:43:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T04:43:58","slug":"an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with World Net Daily&#8217;s Ilana Mercer on my &#8220;The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Below is the first of a two-part interview that I did with World Net Daily&#8217;s Ilana Mercer on my recently published book, <em>The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front. <\/em>This first installment was published last week at WND.\u00a0 The second installment should be published on Friday, January 1, 2016. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ILANA MERCER [IM]<\/strong>: In \u201cThe American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front,\u201d you address the demographic drumbeat meant to downgrade and demoralize what is derisively called the \u201cwhite vote\u201d in this country. Explain, with reference to 2016.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JACK KERWICK [Me]<\/strong>: To no slight extent, it is GOP frontrunner Donald Trump\u2019s American-friendly position on immigration that accounts for why both Republican and Democrat Establishmentarians alike despise him.<\/p>\n<p>For a half-of-a-century, American policy has overwhelmingly favored non-white immigrants from the Third World. I think that the doctrine of \u201cAmerican Exceptionalism\u201d\u2014the doctrine that America was \u201cfounded\u201d upon some ahistorical abstraction (an \u201cidea\u201d or \u201cproposition\u201d)\u2014coupled with an ideology of anti-\u201cwhite racism\u201d\u2014the belief that whites are uniquely \u201cracist\u201d\u2014informs contemporary immigration policy. The objective is to simultaneously neglect <em>and<\/em> repudiate the country\u2019s Eurocentric, Christocentric history.<\/p>\n<p>Trump challenges this narrative. Thus, he is vilified by those who stand to gain from it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IM<\/strong>: No sooner does one immigration give-away fail (the Schubio Gang of Eight), than a new political zombie will resurrect the marvelously intuitive idea of importing masses of migrants from countries in which Christians are being exterminated. On the eve of Christmas, tell us who\u2019s killing whom around the world. (p. 95)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Me<\/strong>: For all of the talk about \u201cIslamophobia,\u201d in reality it is Christians (as well as other religious minorities) in Islamic lands around the globe who are routinely subjected to unimaginably barbaric treatment courtesy of their Islamic oppressors. Inasmuch as this phenomenon of Islamic-on-non-Islamic cruelty transpires throughout Africa and the Middle East, it transcends ethnicity, nationality, and culture.<\/p>\n<p>Open Doors (OD) is an organization \u201cdedicated to serving persecuted Christians throughout the world.\u201d OD reports that 40 of the worst 50 countries on Earth for Christians are countries with majority Muslim populations.<\/p>\n<p>Still, to listen to the left and (faux) right, with all of their talk of \u201cIslamism\u201d or \u201cextremism,\u201d one could be forgiven for thinking that none of this is happening, that the problem is with something they call \u201cIslamism\u201d or \u201cextremism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>IM<\/strong>: Slavery was abolished by white Christians; it is still practiced robustly\u2014even religiously regulated\u2014by some Muslims. Tell our readers about this never-discussed reality and the tenets that permit slavery in Islam.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Me<\/strong>: Though, as you mention, white Christians of the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century spearheaded a moral revolution that resulted in the abolition of slavery around the world, it is still practiced in parts of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n<p>Not being an Islamic scholar, I can only say so much as to <em>why <\/em>this is the case. Unsurprisingly, the Quran not only authorizes, but <em>commands<\/em>, the practice of slavery. Moreover, Muhammad owned slaves, and observant Muslims are expected to emulate the example of \u201cthe Prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s true that the Bible\u2014the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures\u2014also allow for slavery, there is no analogical relationship between it and the Quran on this score. The Bible\u2019s teachings are <em>contextualized<\/em> within a <em>narrative <\/em>interpretive framework. The Quran, in glaring contrast, has no such framework.\u00a0\u00a0 The kind of chronological or historical sequencing of events in the Bible is not to be found in the Quran.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IM<\/strong>: The powder keg of indigenous, American, black racists adopting Islam: Elaborate. (p. 98)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Me<\/strong>: That Islam\u2014or at least a racialized version of it\u2014has attracted scores of black Americans, to say nothing of black American <em>criminals, <\/em>over the decades is no secret. This connection between black Americans and Islam is at once revealing and troubling.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s revealing in that it suggests that those who have been reviled for noting the impulse for militancy within the Islamic tradition just may have been on to something all along, for it is precisely the perception of militancy that appeals to those blacks who feel alienated from mainstream American culture. After all, it isn\u2019t Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism or some other non-Western faith to which they\u2019re gravitating, but Islam.<\/p>\n<p>That the phenomenon of alienated black Americans endorsing a militant ideology is troubling is self-explanatory. Those who are already ripe for violence now have a theological justification for violence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IM<\/strong>: What do you mean by the terms \u201cRacial-Industrial-Complex\u201d and \u201cracially correct suicide\u201d? How can they be combated and averted?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Me<\/strong>: The RIC consists of those who stand to gain from promoting the myth that \u201cracism\u201d\u2014<em>white <\/em>\u201cracism\u201d\u2014is an omnipresent, omnipotent force. Since RIC is every bit as entrenched and powerful as any other industry, its countless agents must labor inexhaustibly to create ever-expansive notions of \u201cracism.\u201d Only if these professional \u201canti-racists\u201d can show that there is a need for their \u201cservices\u201d can they justify their existence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRacially correct suicide\u201d consists in valuing some delusion of \u201cracial justice\u201d over any and all other considerations\u2014including that of improving, or even just maintaining, the quality of life in America. For example, following recent incidents of Islamic mass murder in places like France, American commentators were quick to jump on their high horses and castigate Europeans for allowing the formation of \u201cNo Go\u201d zones, high-crime bastions of Islamic immigrants into which even authorities dare not travel.<\/p>\n<p>Yet America has its own share of \u201cNo Go\u201d zones\u2014even if many of these are bastions of <em>Hispanic<\/em> immigrants. I refer to America\u2019s barrios.<\/p>\n<p>And to judge from the backlash that Donald Trump has faced in the wake of his proposal to suspend Muslim immigration\u2014a proposal that is hot on the heels of the mass killing in San Bernardino\u2014it\u2019s hard not to conclude that his critics would prefer to avoid the charge of \u201cracism\u201d or \u201cIslamophobia\u201d rather than avert harm to Americans.<\/p>\n<p>This is \u201cracially correct suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Combatting RIC is no easy task. The only way that I can think of to fight this juggernaut is to cut through the rhetoric and unmask\u2014continually unmask\u2014this self-serving sham for what it is.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below is the first of a two-part interview that I did with World Net Daily&#8217;s Ilana Mercer on my recently published book, The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front. This first installment was published last week at WND.\u00a0 The second installment should be published on Friday, January 1, 2016. ILANA MERCER [IM]: In \u201cThe American&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An Interview with World Net Daily&#039;s Ilana Mercer on my &quot;The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Interview with World Net Daily&#039;s Ilana Mercer on my &quot;The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Below is the first of a two-part interview that I did with World Net Daily&#8217;s Ilana Mercer on my recently published book, The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front. This first installment was published last week at WND.\u00a0 The second installment should be published on Friday, January 1, 2016. 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This first installment was published last week at WND.\u00a0 The second installment should be published on Friday, January 1, 2016. ILANA MERCER [IM]: In \u201cThe American&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2016-01-01T04:43:58+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html","name":"An Interview with World Net Daily's Ilana Mercer on my \"The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-01T04:43:58+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-01T04:43:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2015\/12\/an-interview-with-world-net-dailys-ilana-mercer-on-my-the-american-offensive-dispatches-from-the-front.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"An Interview with World Net Daily&#8217;s Ilana Mercer on my &#8220;The American Offensive: Dispatches from the Front&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. 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