Address to Mumbai Memorial
Service
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
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
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.
