Where this started:
Only in the eyes of the comfortably numb . . . . (0+ / 0-)
Let's take a look at this a little more closely.
It was Karl Rove, himself, who famously chided "the liberals" for making the effort to understand what motivates al Qaeda, instead of swallowing the Bushies' "They hate us for our freedom" nonsense and following them as they charged off like a bull on peyote.
I am hardly talking about some policy wonks and presidential advisers. I'm commenting on the general overall climate of smokescreens and misinformation that has resulted in the intimidation and suppression of honest academics for decades. While much of the Left derided the growth of Area Studies as CIA-inspired in the 1960's they also took control of many Middle Eastern Studies, Communications Studies and Religious Studies departments in universities in the West. It didn't happen all at once and there was and continues to be resistance. Much of it inaccurate, emotional and reeking of crass neo-conservatism.
Nonetheless, the emergence of Edward Said and his book ORIENTALISM laid the way for suppressing much research and as many of the academics of that time died off they were replaced in so many university departments specializing in Middle East and Religious Studies. Oftentimes, many of these people had little or no prior background in the departments that they were in charge of and so honesty in research and respect for freedom of speech came to a standstill.
So by citing Karl Rove, Liberals and Bushies you have gone down a blind alley. Much like the blind alley one enters if they think that democracy can be nurtured in an Islamic society.
And it's consistently been the soi-disant "conservatives" who've misunderstood and misjudged Muslims in general, and al Qaeda in particular, going all the way back to well before 9/11.
Then what about the support given by the Left for the PLO while ignoring the atrocious terror attacks that they committed? I would hardly call that sound judgement. I don't care for tu-quocque arguments but this time it will serve to start an illustration of two political camps playing into the hands of Muslims in which neither Left nor Right really endeavoured to look at the main sources of Islam: Namely the Q'uran, sirat (biographies of the Prophet) and hadiths.
The paradox in all of this is something that many on the Left and Right would rather ignore. Basically that many conservatives (especially in the oil industry) were swayed by Saudis and early twentieth century Arabists that Islam had become non-threatening and this myopic view was reinforced from an earlier time when the Middle East was perceived as rather romantic and exotic in the eyes of way too many eighteenth century European and American writers.
The money that Saudi Arabia and the oil industry pumped out to endow Middle Eastern Studies in the West grew exponentially over the course of the twentieth century and has accelerated to the point that their spending far outstrips that of the USSR in it's propaganda efforts in the West at the height of the Cold War. The funding of compromised academics such as Karen Armstrong and John Esposito (amongst others) actually started earlier and this can be seen in the early Sixties when Thomas Abercrombie (a Muslim convert who retained his birthname) authored articles in National Geographic magazine depicting Islam in it's candy-coated version in 1965 and 1972. Big Oil needed to help glamourise Islam for "market stability" and their Saudi friends and leftist academics were the only ones capable of delivering on that.
Publications such as Aramcoworld, Islamica and even Muslim Girl magazines are direct corporate descendants of this first effort and the emphasis on glossy layouts with spectacular photography and graphics has been fine-tuned. Heck, you can even get Islamic programs on cable and watch the pathetic spectacle from the comfort of your own living room along with the grotesque crimes being mentioned on news programs. Yes, the Big Gross Out is on and the time of the Great Whitewash is coming to a screaming end.
The cultivation of Malcolm X was a slow project but even Saudis admitted to him that they had been following his actions for years before he broke ranks with Elijah Muhammad and his heretical (but no less violent) sect. Once this had been achieved the slow but steady growth of Islam entered society. Especially with prison systems in which converts enter Islam while not even being told of such things as the Aisha Controversy. This foothold was essential in making Islam seem not so "foreign" and with leftists dominating discourse in Middle East Studies and Religious Studies departments (which are heavily funded by corporate interests as well as direct Saudi funding)the stage was set for the Great Whitewash.
Making Islam acceptable was a multi-pronged effort that has taken place for decades and continues to this day. In order to make this possible it was necessary to enlist allies and these could be found in the small leftist groups and other like-minded academics who were coming of age in the 1960's. This where Edward Said and his influence came in to set the tone. It's quite unclear whether or not he was unwitting about Islam's true nature but he was stupid enough to claim that only Muslims should be informing others about their religion. Many Christian Arabs are (strangely enough) not knowledgeable about Islam while suffering dhimmi (look up dhimmitude.org) status under Muslim rule for 1400 years.
Either way, the influence of ORIENTALISM seeped into popular culture with the aid of the Left and today it isn't uncommon to discuss Islam with non-Muslims who adamantly refuse to believe Islam is anything other than what Muslims say it is. Facing up to the reality will probably never be achieved among such people and on an institutional level this is dangerous since this type of influence helped in getting Coughlin sacked. But I do have hope that the tide will turn and that the West will recognize that this isn't just a religion. It is a totalitarian ideology which employs a number of doctrines and methodologies that have been refined over 1400 years. The true nature of their so-called Prophet was a well guarded secret for a very long time but now there is the Internet.
There's no soft landing for Muslims nor their leftist allies. No longer can they hide behind monikers, denounce those who oppose Islam as "loons" or anything else. While the Left has been so slow to accept the facts at least the Right has always had individuals and groups (especially those dreaded Fundies) who knew about how sick Islam truly is. Even while so many other neo-conservatives played around with stupid ideas such as unlimited immigration in libertarian guise. The only thing left for the apologists of Islam to do is to wish that reality of Islam was not the way it is and to expand the cottage industry of lying by omission that they seem to have a monopoly on. At least in regards to Islam.
The Taliban, itself, spent its entire time in power in Kabul fighting an insurgency. Even Iran aided the Northern Alliance (and, later, us) in fighting them.
The Kurds fought Ansar al Islam for years in Kurdistan when they established a Taliban-style enclave.
The entire basis of the Anbar Awakening movement (and similar ones in other parts of Iraq) is a "popular uprising" against AQI's efforts to create their own Taliban-like areas.
Muslims fighting Muslims. What else is new? This state of affairs started within the first minutes after the Prophet Muhammad passed away. Maybe you can persuade me that the current government in Chechnya installed by Moscow are actually allies of the non-Muslim countries while they still enforce shariah law. Give it a go. I might start believing you if you repeat it enough.
The Pakistani army has taken thousands of casualties in its efforts to exert control over Waziristan. And al Qaeda rules nothing there: they exist by the sufferance of the local tribes.
This is starting to sound like a Whitehouse sound byte from about 6 months ago. Al-Qaeda has a lot of firepower there. There is plenty of evidence to show that the local tribes see themselves as not only affiliated to al-Qaeda but as actual members of al-Qaeda. Why do you think that the Pakistan army has taken so many casualties in the frontier provinces and still does not have control over such regions? Because they never really had much power there to begin with.
The "smokescreens and misinformation" are being "dished out" primarily by the loons who think that a nation that stood up to the armed might of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet empire can be conquered by a few thousand fanatics who have so far failed to take and hold anything as big as Rhode Island.
That's hardly the full truth and outside of dailykos most people know these "smokescreens and misinformation" to be tailor-made by leftist academics steeped in post-modernist rhetoric. Muslims have appropriated leftist jargon to suit their own purposes and do we see, read or hear of any protests from leftists about this bastardization? Only from a few labour activists and that's not much.
Stating "a few thousand fanatics" speaks volumes about how misconstrued your take on Islam is. The demographics are much more ominous and all you have to do is look at the UK, France, and the rest of Europe to see that this isn't about a "few thousand fanatics"
Watching you guys live in your fanatasy world would be hilarious if there weren't so many people dying as a result.
Actually it's the other way around but in the end it's not hilarious. This kind of goading is a bit like how proponents of appeasement policies towards Hitler called down their detractors. Except none of them were silly enough to openly proclaim that Nazism was a religion of peace. There wasn't even a Sufi-like version of it to fall back on either.
Thank you spinaltap. I don't know much about you but you had the courage to post this at dailykos and that, in itself, deserves applause.
Sorry, but I can't take anyone who says (0+ / 0-)
"the Left" with a straight face seriously. Especially not when that person demonstrates the wisdom of the Founders in writing "no corruption of blood" into the Constitution.
This isn't about who gets to write textbooks for bored college kids. It's about making strategic threat assessments. And people who can't even keep up with the news about violent backlashes against attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule don't merit consideration in discussions of the threat. Or of who's qualified to judge it.
And, yes, I'll continue to consider anyone who thinks a set of societies as diverse as Turkey, Indonesia, and Egypt is "homogeneous" a "loon".
Picky over grammar I see . . . . . . (0+ / 0-)
"the Left" with a straight face seriously. Especially not when that person demonstrates the wisdom of the Founders in writing "no corruption of blood" into the Constitution.
Go ahead and do that. Just explain the second part. Please.
This isn't about who gets to write textbooks for bored college kids. It's about making strategic threat assessments.
Exactly! You hit it right on the nose. Making stupid complaints about Coughlin and getting him canned when the accuser (Hesham Islam) is shown to have a very dubious character is very ominous indeed.
And people who can't even keep up with the news about violent backlashes against attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule don't merit consideration in discussions of the threat. Or of who's qualified to judge it.
And who is that? Do you keep up with the news about violent backlashes against attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule? I do so I guess I merit considerations in discussions of the threat and I'm even qualified to judge. At least according to your requirement of "keeping up with the news about violent backlashes against attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule". Which is pretty darn weird.
And, yes, I'll continue to consider anyone who thinks a set of societies as diverse as Turkey, Indonesia, and Egypt is "homogeneous" a "loon".
Go ahead and revel in ad-hominems. I would just view their outlook as reductionist.
And people who can't even keep up with the news about violent backlashes against attempts to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule don't merit consideration in discussions of the threat. Or of who's qualified to judge it.
No, picky about facts (0+ / 0-)
Like the fact that there is no such thing as "the Left" as you describe it. Any more than there is such an entity as "the blacks" or "the Jews" or "the Muslims". All are extremely diverse groups, containing sub-groups that are sometimes downright hostile to one another, that can't reasonably be assigned any collective guilt for past actions of others who might've fit in the same vague classification.
The only ones "shown to have a very dubious character" are you and "spinaltap", hiding behind pseudonyms to spread lies and innuendo.
And, perhaps, Coughlin, who took taxpayer money to do a job for which he had no discernible qualifications.
Oh please.....wake up and smell the roses... (0+ / 0-)
You know I hate guns, I hate killing anything, I hate fighting, I hate any kind of conflict with my friends.
Yes that's right I'm hiding behind a pseudonym ( gee whiz,I wonder how many others in Dkos?..and this makes it what? harder to believe some one?...sheehs please man.....
All I will say is this, that it is sad indeed when many ( liberals) insist that their real enemy is people like me and Anzar, and not those who are telling you to your face that they want to kill you.
If your eyes haven't opened up to the daily killings and bombings and even beheadings in places Like Nigeria, Thailand, Phillipines towards non Muslims by those who adhere or are aligned to the likes of Al-qaeda and Wahhabiism and the Safali followers od Islam then shame one you.
If don't see the almost daily arrests of "terrorist planners" in Europe, and even the US by "Ali muslim average" hell bent on wreaking destruction and bloodshed on innocents going by their daily lives as a serious threat then shame on you.
If you haven't see it by now, you will not see it till it's too late....but by then I can see that you would still blame the likes of us and not those who would have nuked the asses of millions...shame on you indeed.
If convincing yourself about that makes you feel good then go ahead and enjoy your comfortable numbness go and wallow in the intellectual mental masturbation that seems to have inflicted many in the Democratic base.
Out.
The big print giveth and the small print taketh away
by spinaltap on Sat Feb 09, 2008 at 03:23:46 PM PDT
[ Parent ]
Ansar..that was brilliant.. (0+ / 0-)
There can be no arguing with that logic.....only a stubborn denial of it by many, for what reason? only God knows.
The big print giveth and the small print taketh away
No comments:
Post a Comment