Address to Mumbai Memorial Service

Naperville, Illinois

December 7, 2008

Dr. Richard L. Benkin

 

 

Some might say this is not the time for tough talk but a time for reflection and for honoring the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks.  But it seems to me that the best way to honor the victims is to remember why we are mourning them and to vow right here and now to do all we can to stop their murderers from creating new victims.

 

Since the September 11th bombings that killed over 3000 Americans, radical Islamists have carried out over 11,000 terror attacks worldwide.  While not the first to use suicide bombers or innocents as hostages, Islamists have carried both to new heights as their principle weapons of terror.  They have blown up schools and students, driven busses and bulldozers into crowds of people, set off terror bombs on public transportation and elsewhere in dozens of countries throughout Asia and Europe.  This year alone, they have murdered over 1,300 Indians, mostly unarmed civilians.  Islamist leaders openly call for genocide against Jews and Hindus, and their followers are trying to carry out those calls.  Wherever they have the power to do so, they destroy religious shrines and houses of worship, then brag about it as a step in eliminating other faiths or even variants of Islam.

 

And then they have the gall to claim that they did these things because they were angry at some perceived offense, frustrated at their current living conditions, or defending their own warped conception of human rights.  So, while terrible, are the events that unfolded in Mumbai anything new or surprising?  Did the terrorists do anything they have not promised us they would do?

 

By what twisted logic, then, is there any hesitation about going after radical Islamists and those who support them openly or covertly, materially or ideologically, as individuals, groups, or as nation-states?  For as long as we respond with nothing more than transient anger followed by inaction; we are telling them we do not mind if they murder again—and again and again and again.

 

Albert Einstein once said “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”  So, let’s do something about it.  The time for empty speeches that lead nowhere is over.

 

Some of us are beginning to organize so the world’s greatest democracies can resist the temptation for appeasement; a united demand for action by Hindus and Jews, and those of any faith who wish to join us.  In the coming months, there will be meetings across the United States and elsewhere and we are looking for people to stand with us.  So join us [hold up the signup sheet]; visit the numerous web sites [hold up my card] that carry first-hand information and analysis—information and analysis your daily newspaper decides not to give you.  When you see the victims and hear their stories, inaction becomes impossible.

 

You are the key—we are the key; common citizens, people not shackled by the demands of political correctness, protocol, or yes, even politeness.  We can do it; all of us here today who hate what the Islamists did in Mumbai and in so many other places.  Individuals who are willing to stand up and yell, “NO!” to jihad; “NO!” to bigotry; “NO! to appeasement; and “NO!” to the Islamist ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindus, Middle Eastern Christians, Israeli Jews; and if they have their way, You, You, You, all of us; and our children.  I have seen it work before.  Together, we will tell our leaders that we will not stand for inaction in the face of murder.  Join us [hold up the signup sheet again] and let us declare together that we will NOT yield to the Mumbai murderers and those who march in lock step with them.

 

Thank you.