UCLA Professor Judea Pearl – who has paid his own tribute in the Carefully Calibrated Campaign Against Man-Caused Disasters – has an interesting insight into the reason why 71% of the American people are regarded by the other 29% as “Islamophobes.” Who might as well be racist, if one could only tie concerns about a set of beliefs as being racially based:
Terrorist acts, whenever condemned, are immediately “contextually explicated” (to quote Tariq Ramadan); spiritual legitimizers of suicide bombings (e.g. Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi of Qatar) are revered beyond criticism; Hamas and Hizbullah are permanently shielded from the label of “terrorist.”
Overall, the message that emerges from this discourse is implicit, but can hardly be missed: When Muslim grievance is at question, America is the culprit and violence is justified, if not obligatory.
True, we have not helped Muslims in the confidence-building process. Treating homegrown terror acts as isolated incidents of psychological disturbances while denying their ideological roots has given American Muslim leaders the illusion that they can achieve public acceptance without engaging in serious introspection and responsibility sharing for allowing victimhood, anger and entitlement to spawn such acts.
The construction of the Ground Zero mosque would further prolong this illusion.
1) Have you noticed? It’s always that same 29%
2) Consider this a cup of wake the hell up. Be reasonable.
3) Pay your taxes. It’s patriotic.
“By their fruit ye shall know them.”
I’m still waiting for that fruit of “peace on earth, good will toward men” from the religion of peace™ … but I’m not holding my breath.
Mr. Abunimah can grace the editorials of the NYT all he wants with how intransigent Israel is, and how reasonable Hamas is, but until the imams start making actual, significant, and painful concessions to Dar al-Harb, I doubt Joe Six-pack will be convinced. The ‘little people’ may not have silver tongues, but they often have lots of discernment.
I’ve spent a career facing the “religion of peace.”
Desert Storm.
Somalia.
Bosnia.
Afghanistan ’02.
Iraq x3.
Peace, me arse.
Islamophobia isn’t a valid term in any sense.
A phobia is an irrational, intense and persistent fear. There is nothing irrational about fearing that one’s freedom of speech might be attacked by a death cult.
SFC D …Since someone [I think it was Michelle Malkin] on the ‘Net back in 2004 referred to Islam as “The Religion of Perpetual Outrage” I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. It’s so appropriately descriptive.
You, my dear man, have had an overexposure to it. You must have a strong stomach. Bless you and thank you for your service.
Marianne
Marianne, that was Malkin that first used that term, although I can’t home in on when she first used it. Some one else called it the “Religion of Pieces” when talking about their propemsity for IEDs and suicide belts. I think both are apropos when talking about that death cult.
Well Mr. Ali is a bit of a special pleader. If Israel would just give up its territorial integrity and recognize a “right of return” for all comers, then there would be no problem at all.
But on “Islamophobia” etc. A few years back I attended a funeral in El Cajon California (at a church just about three miles south of Gillespie Field, a place oft mentioned in Lex’s taildragger exploits). A good bit of El Cajon was developed as a modest bedroom community in the mid and late 1940′s. Part of the planning for that growth was a cluster of churches in a central location. Reflective of the time they were built and the then economic circumstances of the community, each church was fairly small. The funeral was in a Methodist church; there was a Baptist church across the way; a small Episcopalian church, a somewhat larger Catholic church etc.
My wife was somewhat closer to the deceased and his family than I was, so after the service I took a little stroll whilst she engaged in the exchange of condolences/social palaver etc.
As others have pointed out there are something like 2,000 plus mosques in the USA now–and the number has grown significantly since 2001. There’s nothing wrong with that; people of whatever faith need a place to practice their religion and to take care of their spiritual life.
So I wasn’t surprised when I came across a small mosque in this cluster of churches. It was however, taken aback by the name of the mosque. The name of the mosque was written in both Arabic and English letters above the entrance. The name of the congregation/mosque? “Sword of Khalid, The Infidel Slayer”
Now as a lapsed Methodist, I know bupkus about the lives of the various saints of the Catholic Church. I suppose if I were a snake, I might feel queasy about having a Catholic church named for Saint Patrick nearby. (Understanding as I do that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland–you can see the limits of my theological knowledge here). And who knows how warlike some of the other Catholic saints whose names adorn various churches may have been?
But there are a lot more infidels in El Cajon than there are Muslims. And knowing that your Muslim neighbors go to a congregation named for Khalid the Infidel Slayer just might put you off your feed a bit. That of course would put you in the bigoted and ignorant 71%.
There’s four Lutheran churches within a 10 mile radius of my home. And two towns, one of them approaching 1000 people. Apparently for Lutherans it’s easier to start a new church than to actually tell your old church why you’re leaving. Which sort of explains the formation of the smaller town, come to think of it.
Notice how none of these towns or churches were burned because of disagreements, no farms were destroyed and no people murdered, there was no halt in trade or in doing business with others, instead people just agreed that a split was necessary when it came to Sunday morning.
I’ve yet to see a Norwegian Lutheran church named Sætarspillir (truce-spiller or peace-breaker), though there is such a name in their history from the Sturlunga Saga. Norwegian farmers aren’t much about their history, either. Neither is Norway, which seems to regard the Viking Age as an embarrassing side-trip on the road to their model of socialism.
So call me an Islamaphobe, but recent history has shown I can live side by side with Lutherans and Norwegians who disagree with me. At most they won’t worship with me on Sunday.
The Mohammedeans, however, are not so content in their disagreement.
That’s not a phobia. It is simply not offering a hand to all growling dogs because some do, in fact, bite. Quiet or giddy dogs need no such scrutiny.
– Max
Mike
Time for a new church across the street from the mosque – “the Church of of the Third and Final Crusades to Free the Middle East from the tyranny of Islam – all infidels welcome. Covered dish every Wednesday”.
St. Patrick did NOT drive the snakes from ireland, he made them walk!
Max, my Uncle Carmen, a Lutheran Pastor, observed that all you need to form 4 Lutheran Synods is 3 Lutherans.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2010/08/dr-pearls-contemplation.html
Dymphna has a sterner take on Pearl’s self-deception.
Are we at all shocked at all this? While the GZM is shocking in that nationwide opinion is that it’s OK to build it, just not in that place. And that the claims of racism are just wrong – simply because Islam is a religion, not a race…
but I think rationally. My bad.
Meanwhile, there will always be people who think America is the ultimate evil. My problem with them is that their opinion is like an infectious disease – it gets passed on, growing stronger and more resistant to the reasonable discourse that could be the cure.
Back in October 2008, just a week or 2 before the presidential election, a co-worker (and VP of HR of all things) stated out loud at the start of a meeting that “all Republicans should die”. Given that 4 of us in the room were Republicans we were a tad – surprised – at the outburst. I related this outburst to a friend recently and she remarked (as a classic NY democrat) that she really has no use for Republicans – but that of course the outburst back in 2008 was wrong.
So – rather than just agree the outburst was wrong she had to open her comments with a negative about Republicans. Now – I never mentioned what I think of Democrats, not once.
I have found it is the M.O. of the left – attack first, ask questions never.
I worked with and have Muslim friends in the Middle East and more recently Afghanistan. The Jihadists are deplored by the ones who want nothing to do with their murderous ways, but similar to Germans in 1939, some were unable to take action as the Nazis swept them & their country down into Hell….One of my co-workers lives in Kandahar City and has seen friends murdered by the Taliban. He hates the Taliban but risks his life to come to work at the Base each & every day.
There are good people in all nations BUT if there are others forcing them to be silent at the risk of their lives..Not an easy choice – Speak out & make yourself a target or remain silent and be seen as an enabler….
We in America face a group who have barrowed a play from the Taliban’s book – While they aren’t murdering people, their desire to force their twisted view of America on the world is no less a threat to our way of life…Need to go Jihad on them at the ballot box in November.
http://usnavyjeep.blogspot.com/2010/08/oikophobia-and-how-liberal-elite-have.html
And not only are they risking THEIR lives, they’re risking the lives and wellbeing of their family.
SK1 … Your implication here is the right one. If someone, some countryman or some co-religionist, expresses a conviction which you do not share, and you remain silent and do not protest, then you are by definition complicit in the statement he/she is making. And if he or she is expressing a wish toward violence against certain people, you are by your silence agreeing to his or her conclusion. That’s a tough fact to accept, but I learned it back in 1941 when the Second World War began, and I’ve never forgotten it. After WWII ended, the go-along people in Germany and Italy learned too, some of them quite violently. I still carry in my mind the images of Mussolini and his mistress hung by their feet in the public square, and the prostitutes with their heads shaven being paraded in the streets. It was a way for those luckier ones who didn’t get caught to vent their feelings.
Other, more satisfying memories are those of the ever-tough, ever-courageous Brits enduring the daily-nightly bombings of London, heading down whenever the sirens blew to sleep another night in the subways underneath the cities. And “never, never, never, never, never” giving up, as Sir Winston said in his memorable radio speech.
I’ve been waiting since 2004 for these so-called “moderate Muslims” to surface and to protest against the continuing and outrageous violence of Muslims against “infidels”, which is to say all of us who aren’t Muslims, according to their instruction manual, the Koran.
So far, no Muslim protests against their violent brethren. Glad I’m not holding my breath.
Marianne
Hmmmmm. “If Israel would just give up its territorial integrity and recognize a “right of return” for all comers, then there would be no problem at all”. That sounds a whole lot like “If the Republicans would just agree with us (the Democratic Administration and Congress) there would be no problem passing these bills at all”, doesn’t it?
Just sayin’
Zipper
Whatever happened to “bounce the rubble until they see reason”?