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| Olde Tyme Religion |
| Islamist moderates, Swedish hardliners and Islamist Islamophobia |
| 2017-02-16 |
| [Jpost] The reality is a world becoming more religious and hateful every day ‐ and almost all of this hate is driven by Islamists. Everyone is a "moderate" these days. The Economist used the word "moderate Muslim" in three articles in its January 28 edition. In Malaysia there was "moderate Muslim culture." Indonesia has "moderate Muslim leaders." Morocco has a "moderate Muslim" political party. The moderate-hardliner spectrum is one of the most facile media clichés. Hamas’ new Gazan leader is a "hardliner," while Iran’s president, enforcing the most extreme discrimination against women, is a "moderate" and Saudi Arabia’s former king, who did not allow women to drive, was a "reformer." For almost two decades since 9/11 the mainstream media in every Western country, and to some extent the rest of the world, has adopted Orwellian language to whitewash and mislead the public about the nature of Islamist regimes, political Islamism and the creeping bigotry, hatred and extreme right-wing, conservative, fundamentalist intolerance in parts of the world. There needs to be a push-back against this agenda, or our world will slowly become dominated by the most hateful and intolerant views, passed off as normal and even liberal. The quiet alliance between Islamist right-wing extremists and parts of the Western Left will leave a wound on human societies that will be impossible to heal. We saw that wound in Iraq when Islamic State (ISIS) "insurgents" overran parts of the country, committing genocide, ethnic cleansing and systematic rape and enslavement of people as media described their acts and "militant" and an "insurgency." 5,000 ISIS members booked tickets from European airports to go to Iraq to commit genocide, and hundreds returned home without ever being held to account. Even today you will not encounter the terms ethnic cleansing or genocide in mainstream media coverage of ISIS, or hear it described as a right-wing death squad. The unwillingness to question the nature of Islamist conservative hate-mongering and chauvinism was on display when Sweden’s trade minister made a pilgrimage to Tehran to beg approval from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The Swedish minister dressed her female delegation in long coats and head-scarves so as not to offend the extreme right-wing, theocratic hate-mongering Iranian regime. Facing criticism in the media for the veiling, she told the newspaper Aftonbladet that "she was not willing to break Iranian law," according to reports. ...What is wrong with our culture? Why is it we change our way of life when visiting the countries of others and then change it again in our own countries in order to always please others? Why is it that every time a hate-monger finds something "offensive," such as the sight of a woman’s hair, a woman’s legs, a handshake, a statue, that Western culture runs to cover it up? How about some dignity? We will get to a point in the failed and pathetic Western civilization where European diplomats will deny the Holocaust to please their Iranian handlers. There is no point at which someone will say "no." Saudis require segregated beaches for their vacations in France? No problem. Why is Islamism the only right-wing extremist movement that always gets a pass? Hindu nationalists? Distasteful. Lord’s Resistance Army? Disgusting. Russia decriminalizing domestic violence? Aghast. Le Pen? Racist. Pat Robertson? Objectionable religious right-winger. Consider that The Guardian ran an op-ed in 2015 condemning the UK government for hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had worked for a "gang of religious fascists...inciting religious hostility... as a boy joined the far-right." How come the same writers don’t use these terms for Saudi Arabian or Iranian leaders, whose policies are more right-wing, more hostile, more extreme? Why isn’t Modi a "moderate" or a "reformer" if the last Saudi king was? What is called "moderate" in every Islamic country is "far right" in every neighboring society. "Reform" translates to "intolerance" and "hardliner" is equivalent to preaching ideas akin to those of the Nazis. Our major media uses these terms to shield our societies from reality. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |