I didn’t make a post yesterday, but I did re-organize the Anvil a bit more; hopefully for the better. And the day before that I worked almost all day and created a mirror site of the Anvil at Foehammer.com for safe-keeping of future articles that I post here, and also to accommodate those readers on slow connections. It’s also Digg-able, unlike Foehammer.net itself. You can just call it Foehammer, or how I affectionately like to refer to it, Foehammer Lite.
I wonder if I should put a countdown ticker on that mirror to measure how long it takes for it to be banned by Digg?
Right now I feel as if my head is going to pop. I’m running this show by myself and I’ve barely had a day off from the anti-jihad burn since January. It’s taking its toll, I have to admit. I’ve been thinking about it a lot the past few days, so I wanted to articulate it here in a brief entry.
This fight takes a lot. It takes sacrifice. It causes division. It worries your friends and family and neighbors. Let me tell you something — those symptoms right there are all evidence that Islam isn’t any “religion of peace.” And if that’s not enough, the trickle of traffic to this site, despite the fact that I’ve tripled my efforts to find ways to draw traffic here, has left me with no doubt that the Western world is living in a state of dangerous denial.
I hardly blame most people for not wanting to visit sites like the Anvil though. There are many days I don’t want to visit it either.
I haven’t quite reached anti-jihad-blogging-burnout yet, but I’m feeling the pain and the fatigue.
This is a job for coffee, man…
FH,
I know what you mean by burnout. I suffer from it as well. Part of my fatigue is the fact that much of the time I’m preaching to the choir.
I think that I’ve been flagged as a hate site by Blogger, because I’m not getting the Google referrals that I used to get. Still, from time to time, somebody I’ve been unaware of emails me with words of encouragement. Also, I have homeschool parents and students who regularly read my blog and the various links there. Furthermore, when I teach world studies, I find a way to show the film Obsession.
The West will remain in denial until “the bad thing” happens. Far leftists will never come to their senses, but “the bad thing” will bring liberals to an awake state.
It is important for us counter-jihadists to remain strong. Yes, take a break now and then, and afterwards come back even stronger. Muslims are patient. We must be too!
If you want to pick up some more readership try posting some comments at my site, at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, and Maverick News Media. I can’t guarantee results, but I’m willing to bet that you’ll pick ups some additional readership. Friday’s radio show may also help with readership of your excellent blog.
Of course you’re tired. Your upholding a battle against darkness.
Good job!!!! It will get harder, but we need you. This subject tires me too and I don’t do *anything* beyond read and occasionally try to enlighten a few people. How dare I feel tired.
Imagine the rewards, though - the feeling, many years from now, when your alarm helped to turn people to the light of preserving their society and all that it includes. The most thankless (but important) jobs yield the most priceless rewards.
So be of good cheer!
And take good vacations where you thoroughly chill out with great people.
Silent Majority and anyone doing his/her part in getting people to wake up:
The main hurdle, as all of you know, is to persuade people to start caring about the problem with Islam because they don’t think it affects them. I suggest that you get them to listen to the interview with Ramond Ibrahim on the Dennis Prager Show. It lays out in a short time (34 minutes) the main points on why Infidels should be concerned about Islam. The things Raymond said are not new for those of us who are already aware, but are great for opening the eyes of folks who are still ignorant of the dangers.
Brief note on the subject of email marketing the anti-jihad message:
I’d like to point out that two sections of the Anvil provide copy/paste html code that works in most email clients — Boycott Islam and Links.
You can also post other code variants that I provide on message board forums. An easy and consistent way is to simply add a link graphic you enjoy into your signature files, both for email and forums.
This was one of the biggest motivations behind me creating “cute” graphics like the Boycott smilies — they aren’t overtly offensive in nature and were created with a sense of humor, and that helps get people to click on them, as well as making them slightly more acceptable to the mainstream.
I hope more people will make use of them in their own private information wars.
Just adding another word of support Foehammer and letting you know your efforts are appreciated. Keep up the good work.
Silent Majority - I can tell you that the email tactics you talk about do work. Many people read, some argue, some agree and some adjust their views based on the simple fact that you’ve sent them things, stand by them and gently continue to send them more proof. I don’t get upset; I just back it up with references and send more. It works since we’re on the ‘good’ side. We have proof and facts on our side. People realize this, some not at first, but some do come around eventually. It’s worth it.
Glad to have you around.
I am a “recently enlightened one” to the threat of Islam, and for the past 3 months have done nothing else but read books and blogs (including your one which is one of my favorites)about it. (I am fortunate in that I don’t have to have a paying job at this point in time, so I am immersed in this subject pretty much full time)
Blogs are a great way of getting the message out, mainly for those who already have a spark of awareness, interest and some spare time. I spend the vast majority of my time using the internet, but prior to my enlightenment, did not know any of the great anti islam blogs existed. Nobody had told me and I didn’t have an inkling about the subject so I never went looking.
I have spent alot of time thinking about how to get the word out to all of my friends and acquaintances. I do sometimes email them links, but I feel as though I am “pushing an unpopular barrow” and they are just being polite in not telling me to stop. I only ever email those who I think may be receptive.
But there is another way to use email. I am sure everyone reading this has a vast network of email contacts. I do, and email jokes and emails on specific subjects abound. I have lost count, for example, of the no. of times I have received the email about the “woman walking around the world for breast cancer” or the sad story of a child who needs my help in a far off land. Or the emails headed “Send this to everyone you know, it is important!” And these emails, if compelling enough, travel around the world very quickly. We need to start doing this about Islam and they need to be either very funny (jokes) or very compelling. At the bottom we put links to blogs.
I am in the process of writing one now, but I am not a writer so I need help. I am trying to source that help now, sadly all of my friends that are writers are left wing journalists, so I daren’t ask them!
I know this idea will only be a tiny drop in the ocean, but it will get to many who are in the state of unenlightenment I was in until recently.
What do you think?
Hey FoeHammer. We appreciate the hard work and effort. This has been the first and sometimes only site I check each night before catching some shuteye. People are starting to wake up slowly. Even after 9-11. Even with Iraq and Afghanistan. Even after the repeated terrorist acts with ties to Islam (Gasp!). Still it’s slow. If it weren’t for the blogs and such, it would be even worse.
I’ll be visiting England, Scotland and Ireland at the end of the month and I just know that I’m going to be looking everywhere for signs of mosques going up. I keep joking with people that I want to see Great Britain before it becomes an Islamic state. (Sad thing is that there is more than a grain in truth in that.)
Anyway, fight the good fight and don’t forget to take time for yourself. Only way to sustain yourself for the long haul.
I raise Jihad awareness by regularly mass e-mailing reports of creeping implementation of Sharia and egregious Muslim offences around the world to acquaintances who still rely on the MSM for their news. It’s the regularity of the reports that makes people see what Islam in action is really like. This is a simple way to spread awareness that everyone can do.