In 2009, author Lila Rosenbloom wrote about the act of remembrance in Judaism.  One of the most important ways that the State of Israel chooses to remember the Holocaust is to sound a two-minute long siren throughout the country.  Sirens that are typically used to alert the country to imminent danger, are sounded so that during the appointed time, siren blasts shriek in every village, town, and city in the land and people stop in their tracks.  Vehicles stop in mid-intersections, and all is silent.  Yet "all the silent space is pervaded by the fullness of the same wail."

The "wailing cries of the siren are reminiscent of the piercing, awakening cries of the shofar," the instrument blown on Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Day of Remembrance, which begins tonight.  The chief metaphor employed is the Book of Life, in which deeds and behavior stand in witness for or against us at this time of year. God judges us to determine our future -- who shall live and who shall die. 

It is particularly apt that a ram's horn is used because it is also reminiscent of the radical notion that human sacrifice is abhorrent.  An angel stops Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac and "the substitution of a ram . . . is a reminder to the Jewish people that though God's creatures will be entangled in misfortunes, in the end they will be redeemed by the horns of a ram. For the Jewish people the shofar is meant to remind them of "their eternality and future promises of redemption."

The sound of the shofar is meant to shake one into action because while Rosh Hashanah is a day of remembrance, it is also one meant for repentance.  It is about "coming back home after a period of absence."  It is the sense that someone has missed the mark but has the opportunity for renewal.

So what does this have to do with America and the West, in general?  Quite simply, the West has lost its moral compass.  Though America has, as Ronald Reagan described "been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something -- for liberty and freedom and fairness," we have surrendered to the contortions of political correctness and language manipulation.  Consequently, evil grows.

While we abhor stories of biblical sacrifice, women around the world are being sacrificed at the altar of mass Muslim immigration into Europe. And instead of railing against this assault, European leaders meekly accept this barbarism and urge women to dye their hair and stay indoors.  In a searing article Anne-Marie Waters speaks of Europe's rape epidemic where in "Norway, recent statistics revealed that 100 per cent of violent street-rapes committed in the capital city of Oslo were committed by 'non-western' immigrants.  It’s a similar story in Denmark, where the majority of rapes are committed by immigrants, usually Muslim."

Moreover, "[i]n England, it’s been rape after rape – tens of thousands of young British girls are brutalised, tortured, beaten and raped by organised gangs comprised almost exclusively of Muslims. And now we have Germany. When Chancellor Merkel threw open the doors of her country to hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, she opened the door to the rape of German women."  Thus, "rape in Germany has already been described as an 'epidemic' and one that the German authorities, and media, are keeping rather quiet about. The reality is that German authorities . . .  allow [the refugee] men to live freely among German women – they have decided to allow German women to be raped, just like authorities all across Europe."

In Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan, women are treated brutally as a matter of course.  And while in democratic countries, abuse of women is against the law, in "Islamic states, it is the law." Hence, a woman can be stoned to death for being a rape victim!  To believe that men coming from such violent misogynistic cultures will suddenly change their behavior borders on the insane.  Instead of protecting their women, European authorities choose to restrict the freedoms of the women, rather than the freedoms of known rapists.  Women are advised not to wear shorts, and not to travel to and from train stations by themselves.

Clearly, the clarion call to action to protect women is not only muted; it is non-existent. 

The idea that a mere 15 years after the dastardly 9-11 attacks, we would have an administration conferring with the Muslim Brotherhood, insinuating shariah law into our country, kowtowing to C.A.I.R., a known affiliate of a terror group, and aiding and abetting our arch enemy Iran, is beyond comprehension.  Is 9//11 still a powerful reminder of the ongoing threat to Western Civilization or have we, in perfect dhimmi posture, surrendered our way of life, our advancements, and our freedoms? We have an administration that cannot bring in so-called Muslim refugees fast enough while ignoring the true Christian victims of Islamic terror.  Hillary Clinton maintains that American leaders must "understand" and "empathize" with Islamic terrorists as she refuses to acknowledge the theological motivation of these Islamic terrorists and their monomania to create a caliphate on American soil.

Clearly, the clarion call to protect our way of life is being muzzled.  Treachery marks Western leaders' actions and decisions.  From Parisian Mayor Anne Hidalgo to Muslim London Mayor Sadiq Khan, law-abiding people are being used as pawns by people who surely despise Western values and who, thereby, threaten our very existence.

The clarion call asserting that sharia is irrefutably and irrevocably incompatible with the values that once described the democracies in the West is not being sounded as the media engages in deceptive reporting.  For far "too many observant Muslims, democracy is a target, not an aspiration" and the daily atrocities occurring worldwide are either downplayed or totally ignored by those who could publicize them. 

And the few who are sounding the clarion call are ignored, demeaned, sued, threatened, arrested or murdered.

Free speech is being suffocated via the blasphemy laws promulgated by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).  By laying claim to our lexicon, the enemy's anti-Constitutional speech-stifling goals thwart policies to defeat the enemy. Far too many people cower, and the enemy advances.  One can only conclude that our leaders either agree with the Islamic goals and despise freedom or they are shameful cowards.  Either way, our lives and our way of life hang in the balance.

Clearly the clarion wake-up call needs to be louder.  How many more will die before Islam is called out and the purveyors of this political fascist ideology are stopped?     When "Allahu Akbar" is the warrior cry, how can this be willfully and foolishly ignored? Without leadership that acknowledges this, we cannot fight the enemy.  There are no "universal values" between Islam and America, Mr. Obama.  Your actions continue to put you squarely in the camp of the Islamic supremacists as the Left, an ever trusty handmaiden of any form of fascism, delights in the deconstruction of national boundaries, the twisting of historical facts and the physical, spiritual and emotional death of people. The jihadists could have no better allies.

The clarion call must be sounded to remind us -- how can Americans permit the infiltration of sharia and then visit the 9-11 memorial?  How can they look at the pictures of the brave souls of Flight 93 and ignore the battle that still rages in the world as the jihadists continue to tear us down?  How can we ask forgiveness and strive harder when our ears are closed and our eyes are shut?  As David Bukay explains "[u]ntil we acknowledge that Islam is the main source of all humanity's troubles with 95 percent of world terrorism and more than 70 percent of world violence purely Islamic," we cannot renew the world.  Until we perceive that far too many Muslims do not want to integrate and assimilate, we cannot identify the cries of the victims of Islamic hatred and rage.  Until we accept that minorities are persecuted, butchered, massacred and slaughtered in Arab-Islamic states, and then work to save them, we cannot stand before God and ask forgiveness.  When Muslims suppress any criticism of Islam by all means and claim Islamophobia, we must recognize the strategy is yet another way to impose their will upon us.    

No, Prime Minister Manuel Valls, France must not learn to live with terrorism.  No, President Obama, America will not continue to be misled about Islamic aims.  No, Mrs. Merkel, we will not cloak ourselves in Muslim garb. You need to stop the criminals, not admonish the victims.  We need to heed Czech politician Klara Samkova who understands that the West will have to crush Islam in order to survive.

In ancient times, the shofar was used in war to arouse people from "their apathy, shake their equanimity and set in motion the train of thought leading to a heightened spiritual awareness." So, too, the modern tocsin needs to be an absolute and unqualified refusal to surrender to a 7th century cult.  As the Day of Remembrance begins tonight, we need to atone for our moral dereliction in allowing people to be sacrificed at the altar of Islamic terrorism. Jew or otherwise, we all want the chance to be inscribed in the Book of Life for the coming year.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com