Interview with Ali Abunimah

I interviewed Ali Abunimah, Vice President of the Arab-American Action Network, on my radio broadcast (9/26) in order to solicit an Arab-American response to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Abunimah, using a lofty tone so familiar to me in past interviews with leftist intellectuals, presented a classic left-wing anti-American perspective on the event.
I hope for the sake of our country that his views don’t reflect the majority of Arab-Americans and I have good reason to believe that they do not.
Unlike Abunimah, a self-appointed Arab-American leader, I believe that most Arab-Americans and Muslims here, including many whom I’ve met over the years, are good patriotic Americans.

I asked my guest why he felt the terrorists, all identified as Muslim, harbored such a hatred for America and Americans that they would execute this mass murder of 7,000 people.
His response, after mouthing a rather obligatory statement of regret over the attack, was that the terrorists sought revenge against America by blowing up the World Trade Center, a symbol of capitalism, and the Pentagon, a symbol of the military, because of Arab anger over American support for Israel, American military support to despotic Arab regimes, and the American embargo against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
This was the same type of Marxist analysis, along with a mix of fanatic Islamic notions, used by Osama bin Laden in his public utterances to justify terror against America.

The unquenchable hate and utter contempt for our culture that the terrorists and their circle of fellow travelers and camp followers have toward America has been on display in Israel for many decades.
As far as American military support to despotic Arab regimes is concerned, is there, or has there ever been any other type of regime in the Islamic world?
Abunimah worked into his diatribe the idea of establishing a “democratic” Palestine, but where is there, or where has there ever been a “democratic” state anywhere in the Middle East?

What he means by a “democratic” Palestine, based on the Arab record of past and present, is a state that would be, essentially “Judenrein” with a couple of token Jews allowed to live as “dhimmis.”
America, for moral and practical reasons, supports Arab states that are relatively less despotic than their radical neighbors who threaten them.
We have been invited to help these states resist military threats and internal conspiracies by fanatics.
We are on the right side in the Arab world, the side of moderation, and we should be proud of our policies.

Regarding Iraq, Abunimah alleges that as a result of our support for the UN embargo, we are responsible for the death of a half a million children.
This vicious and preposterous libel has become a propaganda article of faith for the America hating left.
Never mind that Iraq is developing biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction and has stopped all UN inspections.
Never mind that Saddam Hussein lives in thirteen lavish palaces and devotes every spare nickel of the national revenue to building offensive weapons while his own people live in squalor.
Never mind that the UN Security Council, not just the US supports the embargo.

I broached the delicate question of where the terrorists, who have stated that they believe that by killing non-Muslims they are acting for God and fulfilling Jihad against the “infidel,” derive their faith.
I mentioned the Islamic concept that the world is divided into the "Dar es Salaam" or the House of Peace, which is Islamic, and the "Dar el-Harb" or the House of War, which is non-Islamic.
The extremists believe that they have a religious obligation to establish a “Dar es Salaam,” hence, they view attacks against non-Muslims to be moral.
Clearly the vast majority of Muslims don’t choose to interpret their scriptures in this manner, but we must not flinch in our attempt to understand the beliefs of those who are killing us.

His response was typical left-wing moral equivalence.
He stated that Hitler, after all, was a Catholic, so, do we blame Catholicism for the Holocaust?
While this was a diversionary attempt to change the subject, suffice it to say that Hitler was not deriving his terrorism from Catholicism, but from a mixture of a religion that goes by the euphemism “New Age” mixed with Marxist principles.
In fact, an examination of Nazi rhetoric sounds a lot like the strange mix of Islam and Marxism emanating from the mouth of bin Laden and is syncopates today.
I pointed out, in response to further comments, that I would have opposed British Colonialism, Communism and Nazism if I had been around at the time to comment on those world-conquering movements, but that the world conquering movement of today is extremist Islam.
He has no comment.

Fireworks erupted from my guest when I made the point that Islamic extremists are committing terror in every nation where either Muslims make up a significant minority, where the nation borders an Islamic nation, or in a Muslim nation with a secular government.
He went ballistic as I listed off these nations, which are dealing with Islamic terrorist aggression.
These include Muslim Kossovar incursions into Serbia and Macedonia with threats to Greece, Muslim Chechens and Muslim minorities terrorizing the southern frontier of Russia, Muslims terrorizing the Chinese providence of Sinkiang, Muslims terririzing the Philippine Island of Mindanao, Muslim extremists attacking non Muslims in secular Indonesia and Timor and Hindu India, the radical Muslim government of Sudan butchering and enslaving Christians and animists in their southern region, and Muslims committing atrocities in Nigeria and other African countries.

He ended the interview on an ugly note.
I’ve noticed that leftists I’ve interviewed over the years often use this tactic, saving a bombshell for the last minute of the broadcast.
He stated that my concerns over international Islamic terrorism were “paranoid.”
With 7,000 dead Americans and 15,000 American children who will grow up without parents as a result of the actions of Islamic terrorists, I would contend that we Americans have pretty good reason to feel “paranoid.”

.....an examination of Nazi rhetoric sounds a lot like the strange mix of Islam and Marxism emanating from the mouth of bin Laden and is syncopates today.

That is because it all emanates from the same source - the Father of Lies, the pit of Hell.

"...a self-appointed Arab-American leader..."

I notice that most self-appointed "leaders" represent a tiny minority of their ethnic/political groups.
They are usually extremists that are grinding their own axe with an eye out for profit...one way or another.
They are also the ones that promote diviciveness between "their" group and the rest of the world.
Few (if any) promote positive action of any sort.
They work hard to create the very conflict that they complain about.
After all, without the conflict, they are out of a job.
(A problem ALL politicians have, which is something to always keep in mind.)
The fact that this "self-appointed" "leader" has the position that he stated,
makes me feel all the better about the Arab-American community.

.....these self-appointed leaders are out of touch with their communities.

I noticed how Jesse Jackson has offered to go talk with leaders of the Taliban,
out of his "ecumenical respect" for their "faith." Birds of a feather?

I really thought, out of respect for the victims, most of the so-called "moderate" Muslims would "put a sock in it" for a while with respect to bringing up the ages-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Obviously, I have underestimated their arrogance.

But I heard an American talk show host on KLIF in Dallas yesterday afternoon speaking as if he were the mouthpiece for Hamas, so maybe I am overestimating the Americans' capacity to see the truth.

From what I am hearing just from the Americans, much less the Arabs and Muslims, I would be very worried if I were an Israeli.

I suggest that it is time someone points out that very few of the terrorist targets have military value and most are deliberately selected at innocent civilans. Yet, when a few Muslim civilians are collateral victims from attacks on military targets, all hell breaks loose. I am convinced that great propaganda value could be gained if this discrepancy were emphasized.

"Birds of a feather?"

EXACTLY!
I hadn't heard about Jessie's offer...
but he was one of the "self-appointed" "leaders" I was thinking about as I typed my last reply!

I find myself hoping that he decides to go.
While the Taliban has been -slightly- tolerant of visitors of other faiths in the past,
(I'm thinking of the Jewish writer that visited the schools last year:INSIDE JIHAD U),
they certainly are not tolerant now.
I suspect his mouth would get his butt in a sling in no time flat.
They wouldn't put up with him for long, and, by their "law", they wouldn't have to.
Small loss for us...in fact, probably a "win"...

(bad freefly...bad freefly...;-)

I suspect your man Bin Laden will suffer the fate of Mithridates, and the Arab world will enjoy the benefits of Western civilization for centuries to come.

The lucky sh*ts!

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