Novelist Robert Ferrigno

and


the Islamic Republic of the

USA

---

Novelist Robert Ferrigno imagines the Islamic Republic of America in the year 2040

MARK STEYN

The second half of the Super Bowl began right after midday prayers. The fans in Khomeini Stadium had performed their ablutions by rote, awkwardly prostrating themselves, heels splayed, foreheads not even touching the ground. . .

At the speed history`s moving right now, you gotta get your futuristic novels in fast, and Robert Ferrigno`s is the first in the potentially extensive genre of Islamotopian fiction. In Prayers for the Assassin, the fun starts on the inside cover: a map of the Islamic Republic of America in the year 2040. The nation extends over most of the north and west of the Lower 48. Chicago, Detroit and the East Coast cities are ruined and abandoned, Mount Rushmore is rubble, and Seattle is the new capital. Catholics remain as a subordinate class to their Muslim rulers. The evangelicals -- the ``peckerwoods`` -- are hunkered down in a breakaway state called ``the Bible Belt`` (the old Confederacy), where they still have the Second Amendment and the original Coca-Cola formula: up north, they have to make do with Jihad Cola, which sucks big time. South Florida is an ``independent unaligned`` area, the Mormon Territories have held out, and the Nevada Free State remains a den of gambling, alcohol and fornication. And in the most intriguing detail on the map, there`s a dotted line heading through Washington state to B.C. marked ``Rakkim`s route to Canada`` -- the new underground railroad along which he smuggles Jews, gays and other problematic identity groups to freedom across the forty-ninth parallel. I can suspend almost all disbelief at the drop of a hat, but the notion of our already semi-dhimmified Dominion as a beacon of liberty is certainly among the harder conceits to swallow.

Every successful novelist has to convey the sense that his characters` lives continue when they`re not on the page: an author has to know what grade school his middle-aged businessman went to even if it`s never mentioned in the book. In an invented world, that goes double. And in a ``what if?`` scenario, where you`re overlaying an unfamiliar pattern on the known map, it goes at least triple. Saying ``Imagine the U.S. under a Muslim regime`` is the easy bit, creating the ``State Security`` apparatus and Mullah Oxley`s ``Black Robes`` -- a Saudi-style religious police -- is only marginally more difficult. It`s being able to conceive the look of a cul-de-sac in a suburban subdivision -- what`s the same, what`s different -- that determines whether the proposition works or not. Ferrigno has some obvious touches -- the USS Ronald Reagan is now the Osama bin Laden -- and some inspired ones -- the Super Bowl cheerleaders are all male -- but it`s the rich layers of detail that bring the world to life. In one scene, a character`s in the back of a cab and the driver`s listening to the radio: instead of Dr. Laura and Dr. Phil, it`s a popular advice show called ``What Should I Do, Imam?`` It doesn`t have any direct bearing on the plot but it reinforces the sense of a fully conceived landscape. There`s no scene set in 2028, but if you asked Ferrigno what Character A was doing that year he`d be able to tell you. If you said ``What`s Dublin or Brussels like in this world?`` he`d have a rough idea.

The Islamic Republic came into being 25 years earlier in the wake of simultaneous nuclear explosions in New York, Washington and Mecca: ``5-19-2015 NEVER FORGET.`` A simple Arabic edition of the Koran found undamaged in the dust of D.C. now has pride of place at the House of Martyrs War Museum. On the other hand, the peckerwoods retrieved from the wreckage the statue of Jefferson, whose scorched marble now graces the Bible Belt capital of Atlanta. But what really happened on that May 19? Was it really a planet-wide ``Zionist Betrayal``? Ferrigno`s story hinges on the dark secret at the heart of the state, which various parties have kept from the people all these years. Car chase-wise, it`s not dissimilar to Fatherland, Robert Harris`s what-if-Hitler-won-the-war novel, in which a 1960s Third Reich is determined to keep its own conspiracy hidden. And in the sense that both plots involve the Jews, plus ça change -- in life as in art.

The local colour is more compelling than either the plot or the characters: there`s a guy -- maverick ex-fedayeen -- and a girl -- plucky, and dangerous with a chopstick -- and a sinister old villain with the usual psycho subordinates. Standard fare, but in a curious way the routine American thriller elements lend the freaky landscape a verisimilitude it might not otherwise have had. Writing into the future, a novelist has to figure out what will have been invented in 35 years` time. Projecting from, say, 1890 to 1925 takes some skill: who`d foresee that telephones and automobiles would be everyday items and that nations would have things called ``air forces``? By comparison, from 1970 to 2005, the look of our world has barely altered: the changes are significant but visually marginal -- email and computers. Technologically, Ferrigno`s 2040 seems little different from today, but he has a persuasive explanation for it: nothing works unless it`s foreign-made. American inventiveness has shrivelled and the country`s already mired in the entrepreneurial arthritis that afflicts most of the Muslim world. As one character says:

``Marian and I used to discuss the fact that the nation is coasting on the intellectual capital amassed by the previous regime, and we`re running low on reserves. Islam dominated Western intellectual thought for three hundred years, a period when Muslims were most open to the contributions of other faiths. This is the caliphate that should be restored, not some military-political autocracy.``

In a Muslim America, there are not just fundamentalists but moderates and ``moderns,`` and, though the Islamic Republic is a land in decline, it`s not a totalitarian dystopia. Ferrigno is too artful to give us an ``Islamophobic`` rant. If you`re familiar with his earlier work, you`ll know he`s an efficient writer of lurid Californian crime novels full of porno stars, junkies and a decadent elite: in other words, everyday life in the Golden State. At one level, the Islamic future is a corrective to that present. ``You were too young to remember what the country was like before, but let me tell you, it was grim,`` a Catholic cop tells the young Muslim hero. ``Man against man, black against white, and God against all -- that was the joke, but I sure never got a laugh out of it. . . . Your people are big on the punishment part of crime and punishment, and they don`t take to blasphemy. I like that. The old government actually paid a man to drop a crucifix into a jar of piss and take a picture of it. Don`t give me that look, I`m serious. He got paid money to take the picture, and people lined up around the block to look at it. So I`m not exactly pining for the good old days. . .``

It`s not an unprecedented arc: Hitler followed Weimar -- or, for fans of Cabaret, prison camps followed transvestites in cutaway buttocks. There`s an extremely fine line between ``boldly transgressive`` and spiritually barren, and it`s foolish of secular Western elites to assume their own populations are immune to the strong-horse pitch. There`s a reason that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Europe and North America, while, say, the Anglicans are joining Broadway up a chi-chi gay dead end. In Europe, it`s demography that`s ushering in the Islamification of a continent. In America, Ferrigno posits conversion:

``Jill Stanton`s proclamation of faith while accepting her second Academy Award would have been enough to interest tens of millions of Americans in the truth of Islam, but she had also chosen that moment in the international spotlight to announce her betrothal to Assan Rachman, power forward and MVP of the world champion Los Angeles Lakers. Celebrity conversions cascaded in the weeks after that Oscars night. . .``

Ayatollah Khomeini`s designation of ``the Great Satan`` at least acknowledges that America is a seducer -- which makes it considerably more sophisticated an insult than that of Canadians who sneer at the U.S. as the Great Moron. What gives Prayers for the Assassin an unsettling compelling power is the premise behind that fictional Oscar speech. As that cop says, ``Muslims were the only people with a clear plan and a helping hand.`` If it`s a choice between the defeatism and self-loathing of the Piss Christified West and a stern unyielding eternal Allah, maybe it`s Islam that will prove the great seducer.

Re: # 17

echoboom,

.........i see you are peeing in your pants again to get that nice warm feeling ! ....... you should stop hanging out with the bearded boys at the mosque before you do something stupid like those idiots in toronto ...........

Re: # 4

I don`t think media is free in this regard. Right after the invasion of Afghanistan the Pakistani media was forced through a directive by Ministry of Disinformation not to address the killed Afghan people as Shaheed or those who took up arms to restore freedom to their land. A google search will be able to lead you to that directive.

#18 by hamidm2
Flushing you out and getting your goat is always a fuzzy warm feeling. Thanks.

Worry not! who knows you might be around ( Ferrigno thinks) to see the Islamic Republic of USA ..... and you will be in the forefront to offer your behind to the new masters...its in your jeans (sic).

P.S:So when are you going to stop drooling & slurping Phupaa Bush`s behind and start filling the vacuum left by those gone awol or into bodybags?

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Re: # 20

echo,

..... nothing against goats but, unlike the faithful, i do prefer women ! .... anyway, like i was telling your soul mate urstruly on the other board, you too should turn in your al-mohajiroon card and stop dreaming about establishing the khilafat because pretty soon they will find osama, his one-eyed brother-in-law and zawahiri, the man with the mark of the devil on his forehead ............ it is fait accompli

...... and i really don`t mind my tax dollars being spent for a good cause - my only concern is that we are not doing enough .......... that`s why i will be glad when mccain becomes president and puts in another hundred thousand men to clean up that bad neighborhood .........

You cant help but marvel at the dexterity of US government to ``manage`` international events. In one skillful stroke - or a 500lb bomb to be exact - all of a sudden the US government is being hailed (at least in the media) as the savior of the Iraqi people. And why not? It has tracked and killed the boogieman that was killing Iraqis. Yes, the debate is now no longer focused on the killings of Iraqis at the hands of Americans. 50 in a wedding, 30 in haditha, thousands in Falluja, and 100,000 during the actual invasion. Now, lo and behold, by killing a mad killer, america is on the side of the iraqis. No longer is this question asked: Was Zarqawi killing iraqis before americans invaded and destroyed that country? Doesnt matter. The pictures of iraqis dancing in the streets are being splashed around the globe. More iraqis would have joined but its just that many of them have fewer limbs than they used to before the invasion.

And you can appreciate the skillful hands of US government in maneuvering the world debate when this week`s Economist has its cover story on ``Iraq after Zarqawi``. It is as if all that carnage, all that billions of dollars of destruction, all those tens of thousands of lost lives are now put squarely in the bucket of Zarqawi. It is as if it was he who was running the country and it was him who was causing all that mayhem over the last 3 years. It is as if without Zarqawi being there, Iraqis would have embraced democracy and other american values long time ago.

Consultants often joke that the best way to generate business with a client is to create a problem and then solve it. And so the legend of Osama, Zarqawi, Zawhiri and many more is created and nurtured over years, so that when that legend is finally destroyed the world breaths a collective sigh of relief and thanks American govt for delivering them from a dangerous man. And this cycle will continue. Already the US government is warning Americans to hold on to celebrations, as their is another boogeyman in the making: Al-Masri.

How else can the american govt justify to its people the half trillion dollars defense budget.

Re: # 23

masadi,

``How else can the american govt justify to its people the half trillion dollars defense budget.``

........... like i said, i am happy to make my contribution so that the world is a safer place for my children ............ i would even be willing to pay an extra 5% if that`s what it takes to put more troops on the ground ........ i am sure you too are making a significant contribution even thought you might not like it - in any case, we thank you !

#22 by hamidm2

I have already acknowledged that your biggest asset is in your jeans & you just can`t help it. You agree with that too , so there`s no argument.

Case closed.

P.S: But it would be nice if you filled in for those gone awol or are returning in bodybags...they also pay taxes. Or are lapsed Ahmedis dhimmis in Thuggland?

Re: # 24

masadi is the cut and paste marvel who is actually looking for some generous funding from gullible ummah by spamming the internet with his mismash of Elite Theory and Islamist Conspiracy Theory advertised as `truth`..........he has already seen the tremendous financial as well as `social` pay back in his ventures.......so he would continue to peddle his `truths` till he gets his pay back from the gullible ummah................I do not think he is any different from a common mullah who tries to extract his pound of flesh from the ummah through his twisted logic................................... If he gets the message that his theory is only good as a goat`s feed then he would stop wasting every one`s time........

Re: # 25
Wow so echo talks too ....

here it goes buddy .... Zawahiri , old mo the horrible and osama are all in hell waiting
for your arrival .... every bodybag that has come is of a soul that is in heaven after
fighting God`s war.
karmanye vadhika raste, Ma phaleshu kadachana;
ma karma phala he tur bhuh, ma te sangvasta karmani;

You have a duty, you have an obligation to do, but you have no right to expect a particular
consequence or result or fruit to follow from what you do.
[Bhagawad Gita]

Every innocent that was beheaded from 700 AD till now is in paradise enjoying gods` company , and mo`s cheerleaders like urself are just gonna stab mo again and again and again for leading u to where u gonna end.

By the way, it is such a nice feeling to know, that by coming to the US AND paying the US
government my tax dues, I am helping in my own small way in strngthening gods` hands.

George Galloway:

The great muslim (converted?) member of Parliament now has a beard & has always a tasbeeh (prayer bead in hand).

He had this to say about the thuGGs Blair & Bush. Are the mutts from the slaveland listening?

Galloway pours petrol on the flames
By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent

In his most inflammatory outburst yet on the invasion of Iraq, George Galloway has sought to justify lethal attacks on British troops on the grounds that the rebels ``are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony``.

Mr Galloway described the insurgents as ``ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons`` but who were still managing to defeat the world`s only superpower.

George Galloway appearing on al-Jazeera television

The Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow denounced those Iraqis who had joined the security forces as ``collaborators`` and said it was ``normal`` for them to be targets for suicide bombers - who have killed hundreds of them.

His remarks, contained in a series of interviews broadcast by three Arab television stations after a recent visit he made to Syria, were more provocative than the comments that led to his expulsion from the Labour Party in 2003.

In what the party interpreted as incitement to attack British forces, Mr Galloway said at the height of the American-led invasion in March 2003: ``Iraq is fighting for all the Arabs. Where are the Arab armies?``

In an interview broadcast on al-Jazeera late last month, Mr Galloway accused President George W Bush and Tony Blair of being terrorists for launching an invasion that cost civilian lives. ``It is not the Muslims who are the terrorists,`` he said. ``The biggest terrorists are Bush and Blair.``

Mocking America`s military capabilities, he said the superpower was being defeated by a rag-tag army of lightly-armed soldiers in sandals.

``[The Americans] can control the skies if they don`t come within range of a rocket-propelled grenade,`` he said. ``But they cannot control one single street in any part of occupied Iraq.

``These poor Iraqis… are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars. With 145 military operations every day, they have made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it.``

Making no reference to this year`s election in Iraq or to the many Iraqis who have been willing to work for the new government, he continued to paint a romantic image of the insurgency.

``We don`t know who they are,`` he said. ``We don`t know their names; we never saw their faces; they don`t put up photographs of their martyrs; we don`t know the names of their leaders. They are the base of this society. They are the young men and the young women who decided, whatever their feelings about the former regime - some are with, some are against.

``But they decided, when the foreign invaders came, to defend their country, to defend their honour, to defend their families, their religion, their way of life from a military superpower which landed amongst them. And they are winning the war. America is losing the war in Iraq and even the Americans now admit it.

``The resistance is getting stronger every day and the will to remain as an occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker every day.

``Therefore it can be said that the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs and they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.``

In another section of the interview, carried by Arab News Broadcasting, Mr Galloway denied the claim, made by American and British forces, that most of the resistance was coming from non-Iraqi fighters. ``Most of the resistance is Iraqis resisting the foreign occupation of their country,`` Mr Galloway said.

``Most of the operations which they carry out are against the occupying forces and their collaborators and this is normal in every liberation struggle.``

In a third section of the interview, this time carried on Syrian television, Mr Galloway appealed to the Arab world, drawing a parallel between Baghdad under coalition control and Jerusalem under Israeli control since the 1967 war.

``Two of your beautiful daughters are in the hands of foreigners: Jerusalem and Baghdad,`` he said. ``The foreigners are doing to your daughters as they will. The daughters are crying for help and the Arab world is silent. Some of them are collaborating with the rape of these two beautiful Arab daughters. Why? Because they are too weak and too corrupt to do anything about it.``

During the part of the interview broadcast on al-Jazeera, Mr Galloway made a pun that, at first sight, suggested that he had become a Muslim.

``We believe in the prophets; peace be upon them,`` he said. ``Mr Bush believes in the profits and how to get a piece of them. That`s his god. That`s his god.

``George Bush worships money. That`s his god: Mammon.``

Adding the words ``peace be upon him`` in any reference to the Prophet Mohammed is common in Islam. But Mr Galloway is believed to have been referring to the prophets such as Moses, Abraham and Adam, who are recognised equally by Christians and Muslims.

Last night, Mr Galloway stood by his remarks but denied putting British troops at risk in Iraq by calling insurgents ``martyrs``.

Eric Joyce, a Labour MP who served as a major in the Army, led criticism of Mr Galloway. ``Passing comments like these puts the lives of British soldiers at risk and devalues the lives of British soldiers,`` he said.

Eric Moonman, a former Labour MP and ex-serviceman, said the comments ought to be investigated by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin.

``Galloway`s remarks border on the unstable,`` he said. ``He is throwing petrol on the flames and putting at risk the soldiers who serve the country he is supposed to represent``

Gerald Howarth, the Conservatives` defence spokesman, said: ``Our Armed Forces are doing a fantastic job in the Middle East. It is utterly irresponsible to do anything which undermines the work that they are doing.``

Experts in the Arab world said Mr Galloway was, consciously or unconsciously, aping the rhetoric of extremists. ``No ordinary Arab politician or even journalist, would use such heightened language,`` said one. ``To say your daughter is being raped is, for an Arab, completely over the top.``

The US should do what it did to the Japanese. The shock treatment was a necessary evil needed to destroy the cultish behavior. Now, Islamic cultists badly need a Nuke treatment.

Dear Sri and friends!

I am sure you are aware of this strange phenomenon of collective human nature, more you try to suppress more forcefully will it bounce back in due course of time.

Force can temporarily suppress but cannot bring about peace, I think. What are your thoughts? Don’t you think peace is a better virtue than violence? I think Mahatma Gandhi got it right when he argued for use of peaceful methodology for sake of peace. Let me know how you guys feel about this.

Regards,

Tahir Qazi

Re: # 30

Need we repeat the lesson we all learnt from WWII and the fate of Hitler and the Japanese Emperor`s Nizam-e-Mustafa???

We should all take heed from the history and avoid useless bloodshed before it is too late!

........................ we see these aberrations like the echosqueaks and masadis because states like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia which have been `normalizing` Jehadist Islamist ideologies to create citizens who completely believe the state sponsored `truths` about other cultures despite seeing overwhelming evidence against their ideology............. the problem lies with political Islam practiced in Pakistan and UAE............. roll back all these states into secular political entities and you would see how the Islamists would stop running wild all over the globe and the healthy liberal scepticism becoming part of the muslim psyche...............if NEPAL CAN DO IT THEN WHY NOT PAKISTAN AND UAE???

Guys are you listening???