Another Friday in Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi -- and as if on cue, the hoarse, bearded and pyromaniacal pour out of the mosques into the streets armed with Union Jacks and effigies of Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and the newly knighted Sir Salman Rushdie.
Having protested Danish cartoons and popish detours into Byzantine history to the point of exhaustion, the proverbial Muslim street is once again seething. Pakistan's minister of religious affairs said Mr. Rushdie's award justified suicide bombings, while a group of traders in Islamabad banded together to place a $140,000 bounty on his head. Fathi Sorour, the speaker of Egypt's parliament, declared that, "Honoring someone who has offended the Muslim religion is a bigger error than the publication of caricatures attacking Prophet Muhammad." Malaysian protesters besieged the British high commission (embassy) in Kuala Lumpur chanting, "Destroy Britain" and "Crush Salman Rushdie." With the irony perhaps lost in translation, Iran, whose president thinks nothing of threatening to wipe Israel off the map, condemned the award and called it a clear sign of (that mysterious new ailment) "Islamophobia."
For many of us, however, her majesty's conferral is a welcome example of something that has grown exceedingly rare: British backbone. After years of kowtowing to every fundamentalist demand imaginable -- from accommodating the burqa in schools and colleges to re-orienting prison toilets to face away from Mecca -- the British seem to be saying enough is enough. Nobody expects Mr. Rushdie to be awarded the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the Collar of the Nile or Iran's Islamic Republic Medal, but in Britain, as elsewhere in the civilized world, great novelists are honored for their work. A pinched view of the human condition or poorly imagined characters may harm your prospects. Blasphemy does not.
In the larger struggle against Islamism -- the ideology that demands that every aspect of human life be ordered by the seventh-century Arabian precepts enshrined in Shariah law -- the Rushdie affair carries totemic significance. In 1989 the late Ayatollah Khomeini declared a price on Mr. Rushdie's head for the crime of apostasy, after reading about his mockery of the prophet Mohammed in "The Satanic Verses." At the time, few could have predicted that this was merely the first act of a drama that's still unfolding.
Eighteen years after the ayatollah's fatwa, since lifted, but thanks to freelance fanaticism, never quite extinguished, the Bombay-born Mr. Rushdie has managed to lead a full life. He has turned out eight novels and essay collections, married twice (most recently the model and actress Padma Lakshmi), mentored a generation of young Indians writing in English, and spoken out against obscurantism and religious bigotry of every stripe. He has also witnessed -- mirrored in his own predicament -- the consequences of a Europe too paralyzed by deathwish multiculturalism and moral relativism to recognize the danger it faces. It has become a continent where an Islamist stabs a film director in broad daylight in Amsterdam, where bombs go off in Madrid commuter trains and London buses, where writers, directors and cartoonists suddenly find themselves bound by sensitivities imported not merely from alien lands but from another age altogether.
No Western country has done more to accommodate Islamists than Britain, and none better shows the folly of this course. Successive governments feted organizations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, and welcomed as refugees a stable of jihadist clerics, including the Syrian-born Omar Bakri Muhammad and the hook-handed Abu Hamza al-Masri. Rather than moderate Muslim passions, this climate of permissiveness gave us Richard Reid the shoe bomber, Daniel Pearl's murderer, Omar Saeed Sheikh, the quartet behind the 2005 London bombings and the plotters who ensured that we must now worry about carrying moisturizing lotion and baby formula each time we board an airplane. A recent poll by Policy Exchange, a London think tank, shows that 28% of British Muslims would rather live under Shariah than under British law.
But at last it looks like the pendulum has begun to swing the other way.
More at the link.
Posted by: mrp ||
06/23/2007 07:07 ||
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#1
I wonder how much the rent-a-mobs pay in Pakistan, et al. I admire the ranters' work ethic, since they never seem to miss a chance to spout off. Imagine what they could accomplish with a real J-O-B.
(Of course, that might require actual reading and math, I know. But surely people who can memorize the hate-filled slogan du jour could manage to squeak out "You want fries wid dat?" and punch the picture buttons on the cash register....)
#2
For many of us, however, her majesty's conferral is a welcome example of something that has grown exceedingly rare: British backbone.
Having remained in London through The Blitz, Queen Elizabetheven in her senior yearsmost likely has more spine than a staff room of her commanding officers. While Rushdie certainly deserves some credit for opening a window upon Islamic crapulence far in advance of their more recent antics, his less than stellar accomplishments seem somewhat over-rewarded with a Knighthood. I find it far more likely that Queen Elizabeth has had her fill of domestic Muslim atrocities (read: 7-11, Kris Donald) and decided to give Islam a vigorous thumb in the eye.
Perhaps John Frum or anyone else more versed on the partition era's residual infrastructure can elucidate upon why it is that Pakistan is so utterly thankless when compared to India's ready adoption of English language, scholastics and industrialization.
As the "Land of the Pure", Pakistan has certainly attained such status in one respect. Its pursuit of purity has left it entirely uncontaminated by a host of Western ailments such as progress, liberty, education, literacy and pluralism. Pakistan's ingratitude remains so much sharper than any serpentine fang that Britain's ongoing receipt of burdensome immigration from this thankless colonial era child remains a complete and total mystery.
#3
as if on cue, the hoarse, bearded and pyromaniacal pour out of the mosques into the streets
By Sadanand Dhume
Mr/Ms Dhume has a lovely sense of humour and a scalpel-sharp pen. Now I'm sorry we gave up our subcription to the Wall Street Journal -- I can't get behind the subscriber wall. On the other hand, the open mockery of Muslim fanaticism is well begun. As it is said: Those who think they run the country read the New York Times. Those who actually do read the Wall Street Journal.
Why is America trying to pour new money and more weapons into Palestinian Arab hands barely days after the Gaza debacle? It is an ill-considered policy, both premature and useless. The only sure result will be that warring gangs in the West Bank will use every new weapon to continue the mayhem and that the millions paid out won't buy as much as a bottle of milk for Palestinian Arab civilians. Instead, the money will end up in the pockets and bank accounts of the same crooks who lost Gaza.
Indeed, why try to recreate a world that has just crumbled? America and Israel may want to wait for what may turn out to be a changing of the guard: Arab voices, both expert and popular, are rising in vociferous denunciations of the once sacrosanct Palestinian Arabs.
"It is idle to think that Gaza could be written off as a Hamas dominion while Fatah held its own in the towns of the West Bank," Fouad Ajami of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies noted in a sobering analysis published Tuesday in the New York Times. "The abdication and the anarchy have damaged both Palestinian realms. Nablus in the West Bank is no more amenable to reason than is Gaza; the writ of the pitiless preachers and gunmen is the norm in both places."
While Mr. Ajami's commentary is poised, there is no such thing:
"Palestinians today need to be left without a shred of a doubt" as to what other Arabs think of them, a widely read opinion commentator for the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat, Mamoun Fandy, thundered on Monday. "We need to tell them the only thing they have proven over 50 years is that they are adolescents who cannot and should not be trusted to run institutions of state or any other important matters."
While it could be argued that the overwhelming public outrage in Saudi Arabia reflects resentment over the collapse of the much-vaunted reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah which was personally brokered by King Abdullah earlier this year in Mecca the anger expressed across the Muslim Arab world reflects deep embarrassment at the discredit Hamas has brought, in the name of Islam, through its savagery against Fatah.
For its part, the Egyptian press has become unhinged, spewing vile denunciations of what is universally known as "the cause" support for the Palestinian Arabs and describing it as dead. Egypt's government pulled its embassy out of Gaza on Tuesday.
Kuwaitis, who have harbored contempt for Palestinian Arabs ever since they allied themselves with Saddam Hussein's occupation in 199091, also dropped all restraint. "Palestinians are neither a modernized nor a civilized people," Ahmad Al Bughdadi wrote Monday in Al Siyassah, an influential Kuwaiti daily. "They are not statesmen. If what happened in Gaza is what they do without a state, what then shall they do when they get one?"
If there could be an editorial coup de grace, it surely was delivered by no less than Abdelbari Atwan, undoubtedly the Palestinian Arabs most influential and respected journalist and a familiar face on both Western and Arab television.
Writing in the London-based Al Quds International, his painfully felt commentary, "Yes, We Have Lost the World's Respect," argued that "the cause" may have lost its legitimacy: "Many, myself among them, find it difficult to speak of Israeli crimes against our people in view of what we have now done," Mr. Atwan wrote. "I never thought the day would come when we would see Palestinians throwing other Palestinians from the tops of buildings to their death, Palestinians attacking other Palestinians to tear their bodies with knives, Palestinians stripping others naked to drag them through the streets."
All of which suggests letting this Arab storm run its course: It may be a purging of the Arab mindset that creates new realities and opportunities.
For instance, throughout the Arab Gulf region, starting with Al-Jazeera of Qatar and Al-Arabiya of Saudi Arabia, the press has long been controlled by Palestinian Arabs practiced in spewing anti-Western and anti-American propaganda. But the Gaza conundrum has left them stymied, opening space for "local sentiments," which differ markedly.
Instead of pouring good money after bad in the western part of the Arab world, it may be wiser for America to help foster the revolutionary new thinking unfolding in its East perhaps by nudging along a propaganda purge among friendly Arab regimes.
Posted by: twobyfour ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Arabs with guns don't have a very good track record. Don't give them any explosives.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/23/2007 0:21 Comments ||
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#2
Also give them vehicles with Lojack installed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/23/2007 0:23 Comments ||
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#3
the anger expressed across the Muslim Arab world reflects deep embarrassment at the discredit Hamas has brought, in the name of Islam, through its savagery against Fatah.
"The Joos, you eediots! You are supposed to be killing the Joos!"
#4
There has been many a contemptuous and disdainful remark made about Paleos on Rantburg since its inception. The Paleos have worked really hard to prove to the world that all of those pejorative comments were actually relative understatements of their complete degeneracy and worthlessness. Let it be duly noted, then, that in this matter, THEY'VE ACHIEVED A COMPLETE AND UNPARALLELED SUCCESS!!!!
Posted by: Mac ||
06/23/2007 1:44 Comments ||
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#5
They have some success. Somehow they still manage to migrate to the hated and near-sighted West, while our aid keeps burning the pockets of corrupt Arab leaders. Actually, our failures are their successes. http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/v/j/kennedy_absolut.jpg
#6
The Arab world built this monstrosity. They discouraged a compromise of coexistence with Israel because they wanted to maintain a hostile Arab population which could be utilized to undermine and ultimately destroy Israel. A miniscule fraction of the Saudi oil wealth could have been used to create a more constructive reality, but that would not have served "the cause".
Now I suspect what the major Arab regimes really fear is that the Frankenstein monster can no longer be controlled and could turn against them. With Sunnis and Shiites slaying each other in Iraq and now Hamas and Fatah in open warfare, they are concerned for their own safety.
#7
Wow. I never thought I'd read this. I thought the Palestenians were infallible superhumans. It's odd that these condemnations only occur when they do exactly what they've been doing for a long, long time.
#9
For instance, throughout the Arab Gulf region, starting with Al-Jazeera of Qatar and Al-Arabiya of Saudi Arabia, the press has long been controlled by Palestinian Arabs practiced in spewing anti-Western and anti-American propaganda. But the Gaza conundrum has left them stymied, opening space for "local sentiments," which differ markedly.
Eenteeresting. Veddy eenteeresting!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/23/2007 7:51 Comments ||
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#10
I think that if the oil wealth left the ME and the governments lost their ability to buy off enemies or buy protection, you would see the entire region ending up like this.
#11
A few regimes are trying to invest in industry and education beyond the oil. They may make it when the oil runs out or the alternatives gain ground.
But the others have a pretty steep uphill climb and it's hard to see any evidence they have the discipline, drive and dedication to make it out of the deep ditch they keep digging for themselves.
#12
a widely read opinion commentator for the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat, Mamoun Fandy, thundered on Monday. "We need to tell them the only thing they have proven over 50 years is that they are adolescents who cannot and should not be trusted to run institutions of state or any other important matters."
Gee, that sounds like what you'd expect the hear of a Donk, EUnich or UN bureaucrat say about anyone else. Da'Man is working for a job as the next UN Secretary General, I tell you.
#13
The reason we are funding Fatah is that they are so corrupt and imcompetent that they will lose or sell half of what they get, and they will piss the rest of it away killing Hamas in Gaza, thereby discrediting and destroying BOTH groups.
#14
Fire ants, it's like feeding fire ants.
I would lose faith to, sending money to waring insects who offer no clear sign of progress, but regress into total wars of survival. And all this because Islam instructs them to reject the higher western culture and comforts in favor of bitter vengence against a perceived enemy from 13 centuries ago. Phalking brilliant.
#16
It's nice to see their tradition of "the enemy of my enemy" style temporary alliances finally come back to bite their collective ass. About the only joy in all of this is that Islam is, and always has been, its own worst enemy. I have every confidence that Islam will bring this to a penultimate conclusion by forcing Western nations to annihilate the entire MME.
#17
A side from Iran and the paleos, I think the other ME states need/want Israel to stick around. If Israel is ever destroyed the other ME regimes lose their most viable scape goat to blame for their own corruption and ineptitude. Those regimes need their boogey man to keep the illiterate masses focused outward.
#18
The very good news about this is less about the purported impact on the arab world, since the arab street has had progressive alzheimer's about reality for decades, and since they have no real basis for understanding world systems de-linked from their expansionist, evangelical moon-cult. The good news is the way this helps strip the blinders away from our loonie leftist fellow citizens, forcing those with some cognitive ability left after all those years of multi-cultural kool-aid to see that not all cultures, religions and governmental structures are equal. In fact, ours are the most enlightened, noble and precious in the history of mankind. If they spent less time peeing on our collective American leg and realized how hard it is going to be to keep what we have got, then we might see a brighter future. To do that we must relize that the West is facing a monsterous struggle for it's very life, and the foe has infiltrated among the immigrants Europe and the US/Canada has allowed in. The good news is that even my nutty in-laws are beginning to sense their "progressive" political point of view might be enabling something dangerous to their birkenstock lifestyle. Now if we can just get them to stop listening to NPR, NYT, Time and the other remaining organs of propaganda from the left, we might let them see what the Gaza debacle has exposed, the ugly heart of arab/middle eastern political realities.
#19
wxjames,
Your comment on feeding fire ants reminds me of an old technique used to reduce the fire ant population. Take a good shovelfull of one fire ant mound and dump it onto another one a little distance away. Repeat for each mound. Make sure you don't have any that climbed up the shovel handle, then sit back and watch. With popcorn.
#21
Why is America trying to pour new money and more weapons into Palestinian Arab hands barely days after the Gaza debacle? ... The only sure result will be that warring gangs in the West Bank will use every new weapon to continue the mayhem ....
#22
Why is America trying to pour new money and more weapons into Palestinian Arab hands barely days after the Gaza debacle? ... The only sure result will be that warring gangs in the West Bank will use every new weapon to continue the mayhem ....
#26
pappy: "The Joos, you eediots! You are supposed to be killing the Joos!"
Precisely. Muslims around the world have seen Palestinians as the Muslim vehicle for killing Jews and ultimately expelling them from what is now Israel. Now that the Palestinian factions actually control some land they can call their own, their primary pre-occupation is to maintain or take power, rather than fight the Jews. I don't understand why Muslims around the world are perplexed. Palestinians are not their personal Janissaries or Mamluks (i.e. military slaves). Rhetoric aside, all they want is a patch of land to call their own. Dying en masse in battle against Israel isn't their goal in life, however important it might be to fellow Muslims who are willing to fight Israel to the last dead Palestinian.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
