Letters to the Editor
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Fatwa-worthy material in Griffin’s “Allegedly”
It’s worth pointing out that if the Great Muslim Menace were as threatening in real life as it is in Kirchick’s ‘lil head, they would have certainly targeted Kathy Griffin with extreme prejudice back in 2004. In her performance “Allegedly” she has a bit that basically depicts Muslim men (in general) as hell bent on female genital mutilation and the suppression of women’s rights. After she makes some graphic and sweeping statements along these lines, she said that she had “crossed the line” and jokingly backtracked, referring to the previously-maligned Muslim men as just “peaceful farmers.” I wonder how she’s been able to make so many live appearances the last three years? I mean, how can someone on the D-list afford to have 24-hour bodyguards?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470131/quotes
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Other than "Muslim extremism" (which I think is actually a more pejorative term than "Islamofacsism") is there any greater, more real, more unpredictable and more active threat to world stability right now?
Really.
Yesterday, Glenn himself used the term "Islamofacsism." Maybe he did so as a kind of rheotrical stalking-horse, I don't know. But it is a much better, much more descriptive term than "Muslim extremism" or "Fundamentalist Islam" or even "Wahabbism." I don't care how fundamentalist or how extreme someone's Muslim faith is. All I care about is when they want to kill me while I am on an airplane. To a much lesser extent, it would be nice, as an American tourist, to be able to visit some of the beautiful places in the Islamic world. But not if someone is going to park a car loaded with explosives outside the hotel.
"Islamofascism" is the best term to describe the general notion of flying U.S. airliners into buildings, blowing up bridges and tunnels, sending suicide bombers into Tel Aviv restaurants, and blowing up US emabassies, Spanish trains, and Indonesian nightclubs.
Of course there are other threats in the world. North Korean nulcear trafficking. Russian mischief held over from the Soviet era. Hugo Chavez's systematic dismantling of personal and economic freedoms.
But seriously -- is there any greater threat to American's security than the threat of Islamofacsists committing large-scale acts of terror? Either on U.S. soil, or to U.S. allies like Israel, or to the global economic infrastucture, most particularly mideast oil production? And let's not forget that the 21st century's first genocide, in the Darfur region of Sudan has been committed by, or at least under the insulation of, Islamofascists. Quite a record of achievement.
So does anybody seriously argue that the Islamofacsism threat, while not the only threat to world peace, stability and economic growth, is anything other than the most serious threat?
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Breathed cartoons were not mocking
Excellent excellent post! Again Glenn has said so clearly what has needed to be said.
The Breathed cartoons, however, were about walking in someone else's shoes for awhile. It is like how someone will for a time adopt the Native American culture, or African American, or Cowboy culture and wear a cowboy hat all the time. Sure, it's humiliating for the person taking on the persona, and embarrassing to the rest of us, but it is not mocking. Quite the opposite. It is the sincerest form of respect.
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Um yes.........
So does anybody seriously argue that the Islamofacsism threat, while not the only threat to world peace, stability and economic growth, is anything other than the most serious threat?
Just because your pissing yourself doen't mean that any rational analysis of the various dangers we face put Islaminc religious exremism high on the list. Especially if you consider stability and economic growth as things to protect. That would put peak oil, prolifigate military spending and oil consumption and the possibilty of the Chinese calling in our debt as significantly more serious threats.
Boo!
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Slate had a (very interesting to me) article last week on people converting to Islam to join "jihad" ....
The Convert's Zeal - Radical Islamism has become a magnet for some of the world's angriest people.
URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2173561/
One might have thought that terrorist organizations would be leery of converts and worry that they were unreliable or even suspect them to be moles. The opposite has been true. According to French sociologist Olivier Roy, 10 percent of al-Qaida's soldiers in the global jihad are converts, and in France the number might reach 25 percent. Roy takes this as an indicator of the group's globalized nature, "because a convert is not motivated by his or her culture at all. He is not motivated by the political life of his or her country. He's motivated by joining something global. Al-Qaida is made of born again [Muslims] and converts who join the global jihad. One day they go to Bosnia and another to Chechnya, or to Kashmir, or to Afghanistan, or to Fallujah."
The included link to an interview with Olivier Roy is worth a click by itself (though it links to page 5 of a 7 page interview conducted by UCTV).
I've looked for any reaction to this article -- which, imho, is not alarmist or anti-muslim, rather "observational" -- and found none. But, it suggests both that the "face" of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is multi-ethnic and "global" and that civilization's discontents may both aid it and possibly use it in ways as yet not apparent.... fasten your seat belts and stay tuned. Bin Laden may be a paper tiger ... but this loose network of wannabes has always seemed to me to pose a much more real and difficult to contain possible threat ... though, I've been waiting since 09/12 for ad hoc strikes and they have not materialized.
The article and interview with Roy are both worth-while imho.
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As "a matter of course" Christians have, in fact, burned buildings and killed people
Glen states that "as a matter of course," Christians do not burn buildings and kill people who say things they don't like. As a matter of "course," they have done precisely that pretty much until they stopped being the law of the land. How do you think the Roman Empire died? You don't really believe it was those nasty "barbarians" always attacking, attacking. As long as there has been religion, there has been violence. Religion makes people crazy.
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The greatest threat
That's very easy to figure out. American Republican Christoconservatism/fascism alligned with American neconservatism, is by far the greatest threat to the world. Islamic terrorism, while very unpleasant, doesn't pose an existential threat to any western country. As a matter of fact, they have failed to topple even one Arab or Islamic regime. The lunacy of US based conservatism, highly aggressive and itching for miltary confrontations, fused with Rapture lunacy and imperial hallucinations and equipped with a vast nuclear arsenal, is a clear and present danger to the world.