Islam and Islamophobia

Before I close up shop for Shabbat, I want to say a few words about Islam and religious prejudice.

Islamist violence is a reality; anti-Muslim prejudice is also a reality. Both exist; both are wrong. Neither one justifies the other. The existence of islamophobia is not a reason to excuse, avoid, minimize, or ignore the fact that a wealthy and well-organized mafia has used the Muslim faith as a garrison from which to commit unspeakable crimes against humanity. And recognizing this fact is not a justification to indulge one's own base prejudices against a billion human beings.

There are certain well-known websites that I won't link on my sidebar because they foster a climate of islamophobic religious hate. I will not assent to such speech in my social life, nor will I tolerate it in my comments section.

A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some acquaintances in the local community. In the course of conversation, I mentioned my studies with Imam Toure and my visits to the local mosques. I quickly found myself being shouted down by two of the other people present. I won't bore you with the details of that conversation - which eventually ended on a more civil, though still strained, note - but I do want to share a few thoughts that followed from it.

A religion is as good or as bad as its followers choose to make it. The Muslims I have met have been wonderful, warm, caring people. Imam Toure is one of the finest spiritual leaders I've ever met. People like him need to be supported and encouraged, not ignored and degraded.

I lived in a Muslim country - Turkey - for two years, around the mid-1980's when I was stationed in Izmir with the Air Force. We were living in the city itself, not on a separate base, and it was a great opportunity to meet people and learn a little about the culture and the language. (Evet, ben bir az tu"rkc,e konus,iyorum!) I was completely open about being Jewish, and never experienced hostility from the Muslim Turks. I'm not claiming anti-Semitism doesn't exist there, but I am saying I met a lot of great people. When the Neveh Shalom synagogue in Istanbul was attacked, my Turkish friends extended their sympathies and expressed what was clearly deeply felt outrage. A number of Turks also expressed disgust with their government's atrocities against the Kurdish people.

I'm not going to try to judge an entire religion by what is written in a single sacred text. The language of faith is not like ordinary language. You can find passages in any religious scripture which, when read alone, may seem shocking or horrifying, and you can find people who are only too happy to treat the most repugnant interpretation as a divine commandment. But there are also those who see another dimension in the traditional teachings, and to wrong these people is to wrong all religion, and human nature itself. Ali Fadhil wrote: 'I think that the governments can not create criminals or saints, but a wise one makes it easier for the good ones to use their free will as it makes it harder for the bad ones to use theirs. And the opposite applies for the bad government; it just acts as a catalyst to the potentialities within each human soul.' I think this is also true of religion. There is no doubt that people who are raised in an environment calculated to foster hate will themselves be more predisposed to hateful attitudes and behavior. People who are systematically schooled in brutality often absorb the lesson. But this does not apply to the entire Muslim world. I don't want to get too deep into this, but I will say that cherry-picking another religion's scriptures to validate your own prejudices is a pointless, stupid exercise which proves nothing.

Who are the "real" Muslims? One of my interlocutors at the dinner gathering, when I mentioned my experience in Turkey, waved the point away saying, "Well, Turkey is more moderate." Well, yes - and isn't that exactly the point? But if they're "moderate" then, according to a certain mindset, they don't exist - or they're not "real Muslims". And so we come to the very kernel, the very core algorithm, of prejudice. Reader Mark of Conservapuppies had some very insightful comments on this in an earlier thread. If you're determined to stigmatize a group in a certain way, you can just exclude any people who don't fit your stereotype by saying they're not "real" whatever.

What about the Iraqis who are risking their lives to help the Coalition forces defeat fascism in their country? The Belmont Club says it well: 'Personally I find it difficult to conceive of an enmity with Muslims in general when it is Muslims doing the most dying on the side of freedom in Iraq. Surely that is proof that the basic faultline is nothing so slender as the boundary between Sunni and Shi'ite; Muslim and Jew; atheist or Christian, but something wider still.'

So who are the real Muslims? Ultimately that's for the Islamic world to decide. Some people raised in the Muslim tradition have already declared, like Ali Sina that they want no part of it; that is their choice and their right. But it is not the only choice: Muslim dissidents like Irshad Manji prefer to work within the context of the faith - and perhaps it is they who will inspire more people.

To have faith in the ability of human beings to be human is not - as some people would condescendingly suggest - "naive". As I left the dinner gathering, one of the other guests - who had been shouting at me across the table an hour earlier - wished me a good night, and admonished me to "be careful". (Thanks, pal. I'll be a little more careful who I eat dinner with from now on.)

No, it is simple realism to affirm that people everywhere are not too different from one another on a basic level; and that as individuals, we run the entire spectrum. It is not a question of the name of one's faith, but of the nature of one's character. All of us are created in the image of G-d; we honor our Creator when we live up to our highest nature.

Big Pharaoh on New Jersey Murders

Don't miss this post at Big Pharaoh on the murders of Hossam Armanious, Amal Garas, and their two daughters in Jersey City, New Jersey. At this moment I don't have anything further to add to what I've already said; you can scroll down in this month's posts to read my earlier comments.

On second thought, just one or two points. Everyone agrees that we shouldn't "jump to conclusions" about the murders; that's fine by me. What troubles me is the MSM's evasiveness on the question of a possible religious hate killing. Americans have a right to question whether a religiously motivated hate crime occurred, without being implicitly accused of "jumping to conclusions" for wondering about it. If the motive turns out to have been something else - robbery, a random act of a psycopath, or a personal vendetta having nothing to do with religion - then I will be personally relieved, and you can bet I'll be among the first to post on it.

Judging from recent comments on GM's post, it seems that heated rhetoric was not uncommon at PalTalk. (I'm not personally familiar with the site myself.) If this is the case, then that might help to place the reported death threat against Armanious in some context; perhaps a PalTalk death threat is less serious than one wrapped around a brick thrown through one's window, for instance. So, extending the benefit of the doubt, perhaps death threats on PalTalk were so commonplace that this one merited no special attention. But then why didn't NYT and CNN bring out that point?

Or perhaps there was no death threat after all, and those reports (like the stories of the defaced cross tattoos) were in error? Then we should expect the media to report on the story in order to refute it. But instead we have silence. Why?

The editors of CNN and NYT must know that there are many among us - particularly in the blogosphere - who have come to view their reporting with suspicion, and who specifically worry that they are taking a "see no evil, hear no evil" attitude toward islamist violence. They can dispel this perception by proving that they take this threat seriously. If instead they continue to discount it and minimize it, they make themselves appear defensive - and cause the rest of us to wonder what they are hiding.

A death threat is always serious; a death threat followed by an actual murder is exceptionally serious. Even if the killings prove to have been unconnected with the threat, or with religion, the "news" media who knowingly withheld this relevant fact from their audiences are guilty of obscenely irresponsible behavior. That is the real crime.

Feminism and Responsibility

Don't miss this great new post at Straight Up With Sherri. Sherri takes a long, hard look at the feminist movement and wonders where things went wrong:

What has happened to the feminist movement is flat out shameful. In their fight, they found inner strength and great comfort in their power to work together and cause great change that was needed and warranted. Then, somewhere along the line, comfort turned to lust, and things went VERY, VERY BADLY. Once you have organized a group to take on such a task and then that task is achieved, what next? How about scaling down and instead of remaining a full fledged fighting machine, you turn into a watchdog. You keep an eye on the system and assure that the things promised to you actually continue to take place.

Exactly! I cannot add anything to this, except to suggest that what applies to feminism also applies to liberalism in general. Sherri goes on to make a compelling pro-life argument based on the premises of women's empowerment and responsibility:

A woman that wants to convince the world that her becoming pregnant and carrying a life inside of her is some kind of curse and a violation of her rights if she can’t kill this life is just plain selfish, immature, and is actually denying that she has power. I thought feminists were about womanpower. Why all the effort to portray women as powerless victims? I thought feminism was about asserting that women are intelligent and can make good decisions. Why all the effort to deny logic and common sense while showing such a lack of ability to make wise decisions? This “reproductive rights” thing is a bunch of gobly gook. If you truly believe that women are powerful, well adjusted, smart, and strong, then start acting like it. Accept responsibility for your own actions.

Go read the whole thing at the link.

Update

I've got a physics exam next Thursday, and I need to work out 30 charged-particle and dipole problems (and get them RIGHT!) in the intervening week so that I'll know what I'm doing by exam time.

I still aim to post a couple of pieces that I've had in mind, but posting will be light for the next week or so. Thanks to all new, regular, and returning visitors.

Morning Report: January 19, 2005

Debka: US, Israeli special ops teams active. 'DEBKAfile Reports: US and Israel beef up counter-terror warfare with crack intel-sniper units behind enemy lines. In Iraq, the 42nd Infantry Division’s 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment is deployed with dozens of snipers. In Gaza Strip, Shimshon Battalion 92 undertakes intel-targeting missions against small Palestinian terrorist units.' (Debka)

"Outposts of tyranny." 'In our world there remain outposts of tyranny and America stands with oppressed people on every continent... in Cuba, and Burma (Myanmar), and North Korea, and Iran, and Belarus, and Zimbabwe,' said Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice in her opening statement delivered at Senate confirmation hearings last week. (Free Iran)

Gillian "Scully" Anderson marries. 'Former "X-Files" star Gillian Anderson has married longtime boyfriend Julian Ozanne,' CNN reports. 'The couple exchanged vows December 29 at a friend's beach house on Lamu's Shella island, off Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, People magazine said Tuesday. The ceremony, which included hymns sung by a Kenyan choir in Swahili, was attended by immediate family and a handful of close friends.' (CNN)

Truth and Hate

A few remarks on media coverage of the Armanious / Garas family murder in New Jersey.

Welcome to readers looking for more information on the killings of Hossam Armanious, Amal Garas, and their two daughters in Jersey City last week. Before you scroll down to read my original post on the killings, I want to share a couple of thoughts on how the mainstream media like AP/CNN and the New York Times have whitewashed the hate-crime aspect of these killings.

First of all, notice that, most glaringly, neither account makes any mention of the fact that the victims had received death threats prior to the murders.

CNN, which finally deems the story newsworthy (now that there's some juicy stuff to report about a religious hostility at the funeral), daintily says that "a theory that a Muslim angry over Internet postings was responsible for the slaying of an Egyptian Christian family is just one of several under investigation." Their story goes on to say:

But the theory -- embraced as fact by some -- has touched off a new round of anti-Muslim sentiment in a city still stinging from a post-September 11 backlash.

So now we have one of those handy vague quantifiers - "some" - to suggest that "some" irresponsible people have "embraced as fact" the possibility that religious hate played a part in this brutal killing. The real problem, and the ONLY problem as CNN sees it, is the "anti-Muslim backlash".

If you read the reports carefully, the investigators are saying that the killings definitely occurred "in the course of a robbery" because a robbery did in fact occur - money and valuables were taken (although initial reports said otherwise). They are NOT saying that robbery was the motive. It is entirely plausible to suspect that the robbery was incidental to the killings - or even a deliberate "red herring" - especially in view of the death threats that Armanious had received, and especially in view of the fact that investigators were known to be examining the transcripts of his chatroom disputes with Muslims. But if you relied on NYT and CNN, you'd never know any of that.

The media are right to refrain from jumping to conclusions, they are right to reject anti-Muslim prejudice, and they are right to call attention to the brave, good-hearted Muslims and Christians who are refusing to listen to the message of religious hate. But they are profoundly, fatally wrong to whitewash the evidence for a religious hate crime in New Jersey.

By deliberately obscuring important evidence of religious hate, the media are not doing anyone any favors. Not the Muslim world, which must honestly confront this evil in its midst. And certainly not the American public, which deserves to be kept informed of the threat from islamist violence - which has not grown less real since September 11.

"Are non-Muslims censoring themselves?" asks Irshad Manji in The Trouble with Islam (p. 189). She goes on to recall a newspaper article about Islamic extremism in Denmark, which a well-meaning non-Muslim friend had at first criticized as "stereotyping all Muslims". Manji writes that she responded, "I think they're bringing really troubling stuff to light."

There's more than one way to exploit Islam. Some Muslims exploit it as a sword, and they're goons for doing so. But just as many - or more - Muslims exploit Islam as a shield, and that's destructive too. It protects Muslims from self-inquiry and non-Muslims from guilt. (The Trouble with Islam, p. 190)

This is exactly why the MSM is destroying its own credibility. By deliberately ignoring the reality of islamist violence, it is giving credence to the suspicion that it is at best tolerating, and at worst actively abetting, religious hate.

Let's blogroll!

Baldilocks recalls some words on immortality.

LaShawn Barber reflects on the entitlement mentality of the "liberal elites".

Roger L. Simon wonders why the "most important American political figure of the Twentieth Century" doesn't have a place on Mount Rushmore.

Armed Liberal at Winds of Change presents us with a certain letter. It is addressed to each one of us.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Violent clashes rock Pars Abad. From SMCCDI:

SMCCDI (Information Service)
Jan 17, 2005

Violent clashes have rocked Pars Abad located near the western town of Ardabil.

Reports are stating about tens of injured and possible deaths as angry crowd retaliated to the brutal attack of Islamic regime's militiamen. Several public buildings and security patrol cars were damaged and burned by the residents.

Slogans against the regime's leaders were shouted by the residents.

More and more Iranians are rising up in front of Mullahcracy's injustices without fear for their lives. Groups of young are re-forming under various names with target of retaliating to the governmental policy of brutality.

Donna M. Hughes: Misogyny and the Mullahs

Donna M. Hughes tears into the Iranian misogynarchy in this piece in FrontPage:

The ruling clerics energize their followers by preaching hatred of their chosen enemies: the liberal west, women, moderate and liberal Muslims, and non-Muslim religious groups, particularly Jews. Their deepest prejudice is for women. Islamic fundamentalists loath women. They hate female shapes, which must be hidden under tent like garments. They hate their female voices, so women are banned from singing in public. They hate their female minds, so women are prohibited from holding decision making jobs. And most of all, they hate their female sexuality, which they claim is a corrupting force on earth.

They hate liberal culture and democracy because women are allowed to dress, travel, speak, think, and even sing, freely. They believe that women’s freedom and equality are what has corrupted western culture, and that is why they must purge it and its representatives from their land.

The Khomeini-crafted theocracy granted dictatorial rule to the supreme religious leader ‑ velayat-e-faqih – thereby creating an unreformable system because all significant powers of the state are held by the supreme religious leader and his appointees in the Council of Guardians. Khomeini crowned himself as the first supreme leader; after his death, the religious reign was passed to the present supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The clerics’ version of sharia law imposes a crushing system of gender apartheid on Iranians based on the premise that women are physically, psychologically, intellectually, and morally inferior to men. Men are legally granted all decision-making power within the family, including control of the movement and employment of women and the custody of children. A public dress code or hejab is mandatory and violations result in reprimands, arrests, whippings, imprisonment, and even summary executions have been documented. All public activities are segregated, and women are banned from attending sporting events in which men’s legs are uncovered. Women are banned from associating with men who are not their relatives. The age of marriage was lowered to nine years of age for girls. Polygamy was legalized. And stoning to death became a legal form of punishment for sexual misconduct.

The clerics made laws on how to control, punish, torture, and kill women and girls. Misogyny and violence against women were institutionalized.

Read the whole thing at the link.

And don't forget to visit the Free Iran homepage.

Morning Report: January 17, 2005

New Jersey family slain. A family of Coptic Christians - Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas, and their two daughters - were murdered last week in their New Jersey home. The motive for the killings is still the subject of much speculation, but possible motives may include robbery, religious hate, or terrorism. Dreams Into Lightning is monitoring developments here.

Journalist says Iran attack planned. Seymour Hersh, a veteran journalist, has stated that the Bush administration is already planning attacks against the islamist regime in Iran. 'Hersh said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld view Bush's re-election as "a mandate to continue the war on terrorism," ' according to the CNN report. The New York Post reports: 'U.S. commandos are hunting for secret nuclear and chemical weapons sites and other targets in Iran, and have a plan to turn the hard-line Islamic country into the next front in the war on terrorism. "It's not if we're going to do anything against Iran. They're doing it," an ex-intelligence official tells this week's issue of The New Yorker. Since at least last summer, the U.S. teams have penetrated eastern Iran, reportedly with Pakistan's help, the magazine said.' Hersh's article in the New Yorker reveals that 'The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control—against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism—during his second term.' (various)

Zhao Ziyang dies. China's reformist leader Zhao Ziyang died on Monday at the age of 85, the BBC reports. Zhao was purged from the Chinese regime after opposing the use of force against pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, and he remained under house arrest until his death. The nonviolent 1989 demonstrations ended with a bloody crackdown by the government in early June, which left hundreds and possibly thousands dead. (BBC)

India train fire was accidental, committee finds. A fire that claimed 59 lives on an Indian pilgrim train was accidental and not caused by a gasoline bomb, according to a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice U. C. Banerjee. The Press Trust of India reports: 'Contrary to Sangh Parivar's contention that the Godhra train blaze that killed 59 Kar sevaks triggering wide-spread communal riots was a pre-planned conspiracy, a retired Supreme Court Judge has said it was "accidental" fire.
Heading a high-level committee appointed by the UPA Government, Justice U C Banerjee also ruled out the possibility of any inflammable liquid thrown from outside the coach.' The February, 2002 tragedy was believed by some to have been caused by a bomb thrown by Muslims targeting the Hindu pilgrims; the incident sparked widespread anti-Muslim riots that killed more than 1,000 Muslims. The Hindu nationalist party BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) was quick to object to the Banerjee committee's findings. The Times of India says: 'Disproving the claims of Gujarat Police and right-wing groups, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Justice UC Banerjee committee said on Monday there is no evidence to prove that the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire from outside. ... Survivors of the accident told the commission that the kar sevak s, who had crowded into the compartments, were also cooking food within the train. Banerjee said most people died due to asphyxiation in the over-crowded train.' Dreams Into Lightning will continue to follow this story. (Press Trust of India, Times of India)

Debka: Al-Qaeda vs. Fatah. The March, 2003 liquidation of al-Qaeda cell leader Farouq (Abu Mohammed) al-Masri in southern Lebanon was rumored at the time to have been the work of Israeli agents. Fast-forward to January 15, 2005: a new Debka report claims that 'an unusual al Qaeda communiqué appeared on various jihadist websites asserting that an exhaustive probe conducted into the murder of “our brother Muhammed Al Masri” had elicited ironclad proof of an assassination conspiracy by Lebanese domestic security service and the Fatah’s Ein Hilweh command. The former was said to have provided the bomb vehicle, while Fatah smuggled it into the camp and parked it along al Masri’s route from mosque to store, detonating it by remote control. Having assigned guilt, the al Qaeda statement added, “We warn Fatah-Lebanon that we intend very soon to avenge the blood of our brother Al Masri. This warning is addressed to the entire Fatah command and leadership hierarchy in Lebanon - from the highest to the lowest commander.' Analyzing the communique, Debka concludes that 'The statement is therefore taken as a declaration of war by the global jihadist al Qaeda on the Palestinian Fatah for control of Ein Hilweh, a strategic location commanding South Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast. It was issued the day that the new Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in to take Arafat’s place in Ramallah.' (Debka)

The Real Peace Movement: One More Vote, One More Voice

Big Pharaoh reports on an online conversation he had with a Sunni Iraqi the other day:

GM [Big Pharaoh]: Hi, are you Iraqi?
AB: yes
GM: Great, whom will you vote for?
AB: I will not vote. They are all against my people.
GM: who are they?
AB: The people in this elections, they are agents of America and Israel.
GM: Well, I think that Israel is much better for Iraq than Syria and Iran!
AB: Where are you from?
GM: Egypt
AB: Egyptians are Sunnis, I am a Sunni too and all those people in this election are against Sunnis. See what they did to our people in Fallujah.
GM: Allow me to disagree with you. Those who are against Sunnis are those Baathist/Wahabi/Salafi terrorists who are killing their fellow Sunnis just because they want to vote. Many Sunnis want to vote but they are afraid lest those criminals kill them. As for Fallujah, I do not blame the Americans or the Iraqi government for what happened, but I blame the Baathist/Salafist/Wahabi terrorists who turned this city into a base to kill fellow Iraqi policemen and slaughter innocent people. Sunnis should not repeat the mistake that Shias did over 80 years ago.
AB: What did the Shias do 80 years ago?
GM: Right after the 1920 revolution, Shias decided to stay away from the political process, they boycotted the whole thing. As a result, they were kept from power until the day Iraq was liberated from Saddam. Do you want Sunnis to fall into this trap? Now the terrorists want you to stay at home on January 30, will you listen to them? The vast majority of Iraqis believe in this process and it is time for Sunnis to know that their total control over Iraq is over and they have no other option but to share Iraq with the Shias and Kurds.
AB: You know, you convinced me to vote. I live in a Shia dominated area and I will vote.
GM: Good. It is good that you live in a Shia area because it will be more secure.

Notice that the Iraqi is now beginning to realize that his voice matters, especially when he understands who his real enemies are. I am hoping that many conversations like this one are taking place in Iraq and beyond.

A new Old Europe?

Democracy for the Middle East hasn't been in a particularly Anglophilic mood lately. No doubt this hasn't helped any. But DFME did a double-take yesterday with The Times of London's harsh reaction to a recent terrorist attack on Israelis.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, Last of the Famous reports that French TV anchor David Pujadas launched an unprecedented, blistering attack on France's response to the tsunami disaster - while presenting the American efforts in a very favorable light. (Hat tip: LGF and Discarded Lies.)

Well, these may be steps in the right direction. But as Roger L. Simon discovers, we've still got quite a ways to go.