Missouri State Representative Rick Stream fired off a bizarre e-mail to his House GOP colleagues this week that discusses the dangers of Islam…citing an 1899 quote from former British prime minister Winston Churchill.
“Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world,” writes Stream, quoting Churchill in a widely distributed e-mail that was forwarded to Daily RFT by way of a displeased recipient. “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith.”
And what exactly does this have to do with the Missouri legislature?
It’s not all that clear.
We reached out yesterday to Stream, a Republican from Kirkwood and chairman of the budget committee, and have not yet heard back. We’ll update if we do.
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| via Facebook / National Churchill Museum |
| Winston Churchill. |
It appears that the e-mail was sent out from Rick.Stream@house.mo.gov at 11:21 p.m. on Tuesday night to an e-mail listserve that includes Republican representatives and possibly other staff in the Missouri House. Not everyone was pleased.
The e-mail, full version on view below, offers some praise for Churchill and explains that the quote comes from 1899 when he was a soldier and journalist. Stream praises him as a “great war leader…to whom the Western world must be forever in debt.” The selection he cites come from a piece of Churchill’s writing called the River War.
Here’s the full Churchill quote that Stream included in his e-mail:
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.
Stream adds at the end, “Churchill saw it coming……”
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| via Facebook |
| Representative Rick Stream. |
Daily RFT confirmed with an expert at the National Churchill Museum, based in Missouri, that the passage is question is in fact from Churchill.
And Richard Langworth, a prominent Churchill historian, writes to us in an e-mail that the quote is in his book and adds, “All sorts of people have used these quotations to infer all sorts of things about modern situations. In the generic sense there is an application, but I would caution that these words were written over a century ago.”
A quick Google search of the quote in Stream’s e-mail shows that, for some reason, the quote has popped up on random websites in recent days. It’s unclear where Stream got it from or what he was referring to. The text in his e-mail that’s separate from the quote also appears to be recycled.
CHURCHILL ON ISLAM
Unbelievable, but the speech below was written in 1899… (check Wikipedia – The River War).
The attached short speech from Winston Churchill, was delivered by him in 1899 when he was a young soldier and journalist. It probably sets out the current views of many, but expresses in the wonderful Churchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language, of which he was a past master. Sir Winston Churchill was, without doubt, one of the greatest men of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
He was a brave young soldier, a brilliant journalist, an extraordinary politician and statesman, a great war leader and British Prime Minister, to whom the Western world must be forever in his debt. He was a prophet in his own time. He died on 24th January 1965, at the grand old age of 90 and, after a lifetime of service to his country, was accorded a State funeral.
“Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
HERE IS THE SPEECH:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.
A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome …”
Sir Winston Churchill; (Source: The River War, first edition, Vol II, pages 248-250 London).
Source: RiverFrontTimes
Presuming that he is refering to Islam and Muslims, it’s a pity the dumb-head Churchill didn’t even know that there is nothing called Mohammaedenism. So what’s all the fuss about what he said in 1899?
Nowhere and never in the world Islamic laws and dictates of the Holy Book of the Muslims were practiced except during the two Caliphs of Islam: Hazrat Abu Bakar (R) and Hazrat Omar (R). Those who castigate Islam and Muslims have miserable or no knowledge of Islam. What kind of justice, fair play, equity and a balanced distribution of wealth do the so-called civilized western world speak of? Are they different from those formulated in Islam? If so, on what points? What kind of democracy do they advocate? That democracy which accepts the 90 sheep against 10 asses if that 90 sheep call a horse a donkey? And where does Islam stand against impartial, sane and prudent justice? W. Churchill might be a great war leader and Hitler might be a democratically (?) elected dictator but that does not justify their claim to be an all-knowing statesman or a real democratic leader. We see people totally ignorant of Islamic laws and rules are very ardent critiques of Islam. They forget that when whole Europe was plunged in deep darkness of ignorance and superstition, Islam and Muslims kept the world of knowledge dazzling and brilliant in another part of the continent. Only ignorant, sand-blind and myopic people don’t see it.