Posted on 04/02/2003 3:39:11 PM PST by joesnuffy
Osama and Pat Robertson
Chuck Morse Tuesday, April 1, 2003
On my radio broadcast March 27, Ismail Royer of the Muslim American Society compared the Rev. Pat Robertson with bin Laden and the hijackers of Sept. 11.
This was not the first time I’ve heard a leftist or an Islamo Fascist make such a preposterous and frankly bizarre comparison. In fact, comparing religious American Christian preachers with Islamic terrorists has become quite de rigueur in certain quarters.
Royer, a soft-spoken American former Catholic who converted to Islam 10 years ago, knows exactly what he’s doing when he equates the two. He understands that the natural constituency for Islam in America is the far left and he realizes that the left harbors this inexplicable and unquenchable hatred and bigotry toward religious Christians.
Comparing a prominent and outspoken Christian like Pat Robertson to Islamic mass-murdering terrorists is something that the far left is more than happy to latch on to.
Royer is the perfect front man and stooge for well-funded Islamic groups seeking to improve their image to average Americans. He has an American and Christian mind and background and comes across as the boy next door.
Gone are the vulgar Islamic spokespeople like al-Arian, Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish, people who openly spewed anti-American sentiments in the media. Gone are left-wing lunatics like Ibraham Hooper.
The Islamists, perhaps at the suggestion of a Madison Avenue public relations firm, have decided to play to middle America with the likes of the pleasant-sounding Ismail Royer. They want Americans to think radical Islam is as American as apple pie.
Royer played the anti-Christian, anti-Western card on the broadcast when he shifted the blame for the lack of freedom and democracy in the Arab and Islamic world to European colonialism. Leftists, who loathe the 19-century expansion of European power, would no doubt devour this tidbit like lions devouring raw meat. The truth is that European colonialism barely made a footprint in the Arab world and, at any rate, whatever influence Europe did wield was, I would contend, largely positive.
Islam and Western notions of individual rights, democracy and free-market capitalism are simply incompatible. The brutal political systems in place in every Arab and Islamic state are nothing more than extensions of Islamic politics and culture going back to the days of the Prophet himself.
In the days and weeks following the attack on the twin towers, I interviewed Islamic apologists who would, after robotically mouthing regret for the slaughter, proceed to blame the attack on America for supporting Israel and boycotting Saddam Hussein. Royer demonstrated a great deal more subtlety and sophistication when he simply tried to minimize the attack by claiming that the blame rested with 19 bad people, as if they existed in a vacuum.
He also tried to compare the international network of Islamic terror groups with their petro-dollar backing, with the handful of Marxist Puerto Rican terrorists who attacked people in New York. He took umbrage over my pointing out that the terror threat emanating out of the Islamic world was substantial and widely supported by large populations of Muslims.
Royer made only one direct allusion to Israel in the interview when he stated that criticism of Israel leads to a charge of anti-Semitism. I responded by pointing out that I have been quite outspoken in my own criticism of Israeli policies in recent years, which I consider to be weak-kneed and appeasing. I also pointed out that Jews and non-Jews alike are constantly and vociferously criticizing Israeli policies.
No doubt what Royer really means when he refers to critics of Israel, in accordance with imperialistic Islamic notions of the Ummah, or greater Arab motherland, is those who advocate that the Jewish State be annihilated.
Chuck Morse is a radio talk show host at WROL in Boston (http://www.chuckmorse.com). E-mail Chuck at chuckm@chuckmorse.com.
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