The 'Islamophobia' canard after Mumbai

American Thinker ^ | December 05, 2008 | Joel J. Sprayregen

[neverdem]

Saudi King Abdullah has been urging the United Nations to pass a universal law prescribing imprisonment for criticizing Islam.  Some skeptics, including myself (notwithstanding that I twice enjoyed the King's generous hospitality in Riyadh), have suggested he start instead by establishing religious liberty in his own country,  where all religious observance other than Wahabi Islam is banned.   Two events occurring last week -- the hideous carnage in Mumbai, accompanied by shameful  proceedings at the U.N. -- convinced me it is urgent for His Majesty to radically alter his plans.

Since the U.N. actions were less publicized, let me begin there.  A key U.N. committee passed by 85-50 the King's "Islamophobia" resolution, criminalizing any "defamation of religion," especially Islam. The General Assembly is expected to soon approve this measure. Governments will be directed to amend their criminal codes accordingly; the resolution will be incorporated into amorphous "customary international law," which liberal Supreme Court justices are relying on,  notwithstanding that much of this "law" springs from anti-democratic sources. While "defamation of religion" conveys a sonorous label, Islamic countries consider "Islamophobic" any expression linking Islam to such subjects as 9/11,  terror attacks,  honor killings, suicide bombings, beheadings, executions by stoning, persecution of homosexuals, fatwas against authors, death threats to cartoonists, etc. The Organization of the Islamic Conference has decreed that even "hostile glances" are Islamophobic.

Conspicuous omission

As I surveyed reportage about Mumbai, I wondered if the Islamophobia resolution, had already become universal law, perhaps quietly ratified by our Congress, while I wasn't looking. Most coverage was so infested with political correctness that the words Muslim, Islamic and terrorists were never linked.  The most egregious offender (guess who?):  the New York Times.  In its summary articles, you must read to the seventh paragraph before finding a word as strong as "militant" (a despicable misnomer bequeathed by the lexicon of political correctness) used to describe the terrorists.  The Times -- echoing its deliberate nearly invisible under-reporting of the Holocaust -- lied on the last day of the siege by saying "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen or was an accidental hostage scene." CNN was equally terrified of offending terrorists. Most of the media refused to say that the killers were Islamic radicals; one might have thought they arrived from an un-named planet.  Mehul Kamdar, a Chicago-based Indian writer, complained online "how extreme political correctness in the Western media keeps key information from being reported through self-censorship."

While full investigation must be awaited to identify the murderers definitively, it was apparent from the outset that the terrorists (I beg forgiveness for using that harsh word) were Islamic extremists. Who else, pray tell, would indiscriminately slaughter Hindus, Christians and Jews, i.e., anyone who was not Muslim, while shouting "Allahu Akhbar" (according to eye-witnesses)? If the media had used in 1941 the truth-avoiding restraints practiced today, Pearl Harbor would have been reported without using the word "Japanese."   To erase all doubt, the terrorists told Indian TV during the attacks that they were protesting   "mistreatment of Muslims."   Notwithstanding, Britain's respected Channel 4 falsely claimed the "militants" showed "wanton disregard for race or creed."  Turkish hostages were spared when they screamed "We are Muslims."  Christians next to them were executed. 

Alas, the media reflect unwillingness of society -- from the top down -- to face candidly the menace of Islamic radicalism . Messrs. Bush and Obama ritualistically condemned the attacks. Neither named the perpetrators. Bush misled us for years with the jargon "war against terror," instead of specifying the enemy. Obama spoke elliptically of combating "hateful ideology" without identifying it.   Both leaders, like the media, gave us Pearl Harbor sans the Japanese. If we are to defeat the terrorists, we must name and understand them. And before I am hauled before the World Court on charges of Islamophobia, note I have not said the enemy is Islam. It is Islamic radicalism.

It is unacceptable racism to suggest that all Muslims support terrorism; nonetheless, it remains legitimate to ask why support for terrorism is widespread among Muslims. Palestinians danced in the streets on 9/11 and widespread approbation of the atrocity was found among Arabs (before the U.S. invasion of Iraq). Last week also brought the Dallas federal jury verdict finding the Holy Land Foundation -- America's largest Islamic charity -- guilty of funneling more than $12 million to support Hamas terrorists. A  Chicago federal appeals court ruled significantly this week that it is unlawful to funnel money to an organization engaged in terrorism even if there is an effort to earmark the donation for nonviolent purposes.

King Abdullah, who once explained in my presence that his financial support of an infamous Hamas sheikh was merely "gifts to a sick old man," should tell us whether criticizing support of terrorists amounts to Islamophobia.

Sending ACLU Lawyers to Mumbai

While I have bi-partisanly disrespected the incoming and outgoing presidents for vacuous verbiage, let me emphasize one key difference between them. President Bush recognized after 9/11 that his prime responsibility was preventing reprise,  as intended by al-Qaeda. He deserves hosannas for completely succeeding, albeit by utilizing harsh interrogations and intrusive surveillance as well as locking up enemy combatants. If you hated Bush's methods, you helped elect Senator Obama, who is entitled to pursue his own counter-terrorism agenda.  I approve the moderate mettle of most of Obama's initial appointments, except -- most conspicuously -- the dangerous Harvard quack Samantha Power, who left the Obama campaign last summer after calling Hillary Clinton a "monster."  But last week, Obama dropped John Brennan, his respected Intel adviser, from consideration for a high position after the Leftist blogosphere went berserk over guilt by alleged association with "harsh" interrogations. 

At an academic reunion in October, a brilliant Yale Law School panel, including the eminent Dean, could not answer coherently my question about what legal advice they would give to interrogators probing the intentions of a terrorist like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who planned 9/11 and slit Danny Pearl's throat.  If the Obama team believes that we must treat terrorists like the Mumbai killers by reading them their rights and providing an ACLU lawyer, we are in for hard times. It is tragic that the Indians -- unlike our Administration -- did not draw meaningful lessons from the massive 2006 train  bombings. 

Which returns me to King Abdullah and his resentment over Islamophobia. The 9/11 terrorists received Islamic education in his country. The Mumbai terrorists were indoctrinated in mosques and madrassas in Pakistan and perhaps elsewhere. Some   horrific defect in their Islamic education rendered them eager to slaughter non-Muslims.  It is emerging that there may be a Saudi link to the group which apparently organized the assault on Mumbai in furthering its known commitment to continuous jihad as an obligation binding on all Muslims.  No less  authoritative a source than Husain Haqqani, the distinguished scholar presently serving as Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S., wrote in 2006  about the group which sent the killers to Mumbai :  

"The most significant jihadi group of Wahabi persuasion is Lashkar-e-Taiba (The Army of the Pure) founded in 1989 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.  Backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services, Lashkar-e-Taiba became the military wing of Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad (Center for the Call to Righteousness).  Saeed created a large campus and training facility at Muridke, outside the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore."

Will  Wahabi  Scholars  Condemn  Massacres?

Thus, I respectfully suggest to the monarch that he alter his course.   Instead of concentrating on trying to jail people in western countries for criticizing Islam,  I suggest that our Government and media ask him: Why don't you load your formidable religious establishment -- ulema, sheikhs, imams, cadis, mullahs, jurisprudents -- on one of your jumbo jets and  dispatch  them on an intensive teaching mission to madrassas and Islamic schools around the world, starting in Pakistan.  Islam is not a hierarchical religion, but it claims to respect teachers.  The first lesson might be: Murder is wrong. The second:   Mass murder is worse.  The third: Non-Muslims are children of G-d who have a right to live.   If the educational mission succeeds, there will be no need for an Islamophobia law.  And many lives might be saved.  

Joel J. Sprayregen, a Chicago lawyer, graduated from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and Yale Law School .  As an ACLU lawyer, he litigated landmark free speech cases. Presently, he is associated with think thanks in Washington, Israel and Turkey which deal with international security issues. 

[Cronos]

KILL all those who say Islam is violent!

[Tublecane]

“Saudi King Abdullah has been urging the United Nations to pass a universal law prescribing imprisonment for criticizing Islam.”

Uh, since when does the U.N. have jurisdiction over the universe?

[weegee]

STUFF IT STFU

[American in Israel]

You cannot legislate respect, you have to earn it. Islam is earning what it deserves. The kind of respect you give a rattle snake in your childs backyard.

[metesky]

It is unacceptable racism to suggest that all Muslims support terrorism

You know it's a lost cause when even an anti-terrorist article like this one conflates religion as race.

[neverdem]

You know it's a lost cause when even an anti-terrorist article like this one conflates religion as race.

That struck me too. After seeing his ACLU affiliation, I forgot about it.

[pennyfarmer]

I suppose we might get the UN to pass an anti dumbass law. Maybe we can put these Fu$$ers to death. They no only violate the spirit of the law, they violate the root of the law.

Islam is so anti god, it is unbelievable that these folks can believe otherwise. Their religion only will lead to their destruction in the lake of fire. If they don’t believe it I wish that they all would commit suicide to find the truth. Islam is not worth two craps. If you give me a Koran I would give you.mmmmmmmm A grilled cheese and shoot you before you had the first bite.

Holy shit I am drunk and pissed.

[pennyfarmer]

It is also stupid to believe that 2+2= more than 4

[jws3sticks]

The 'Islamophobia' canard after Mumbai

I'm sure in Mumbai, they like their canard with curry but I prefer mine baked in orange juice and orange zest. Yummy!

[momincombatboots]

Shall we then likewise imprison those who criticize other religions? O, I suppose they wouldn’t go for that, since we are infidels.

[verklaring]

prescribing imprisonment for criticizing Islam

This is simply soft Jihadism.

Why not require stoning and at least be consistent with Sharia law. They do it in Iran. Of course, since the existence of any other religion or non religion, is by definition a rejection and denial of Islam - a criticism, we must all be come Muslim.

The UN should have no problem with such a proposal.

[Mad Dawg]

It is unacceptable racism to suggest that all Muslims support terrorism

Picking a nit here, possibly, but Islam is not a race. So a generalization, whether true or not, would not be racism.

[hershey]

The author doesn’t get it. Islam isn’t a religion, it’s a murderous cult.

[Biggirl]

Anything the UN passes is hardly enforced anyways.

[swarthyguy]

Well, they have this fish called a Bombay Duck. It's not a duck, and doesn't quack or waddle, but it is tasty. Local Name: Bombil. Why Bombay Duck, Dunno, prolly some BritishRaj nomenclature

Eaten dry, sundried or smoked, or in curry(naturally:), fried, sometimes with the crunchy spinebone still in....the best way.

Damn, I'm missing it now.

[DaveyB]

If Islam wants to know as a religion of peace they might try being at peace with others - if they want to complain about how the western world reacts when provoked, don’t provoke and if they want to be taken seriously stop the jihad and use all that oil wealth for things like indoor plumbing.