Posted on 04/18/2005 7:45:10 PM PDT by Land_of_Lincoln_John
Facts are stubborn things - except when you create your own.
When I was asked about the "Jenin Massacre" by a Muslim student during an event at Norfolk's Old Dominion this week, it became clear we were coming from two very different perspectives: reality vs. mythology.
There was no "Jenin Massacre." Period. The only "massacre" that took place at Jenin was that of the truth.
Palestinians, long masters of media manipulation, went by the hundreds to foreign media - whom Israel kept outside of the armed conflict - to claim that over 500 innocents had been slaughtered. The man at the front of the prevarication parade was longtime Arafat sidekick Saeb Erekat.
The international media was in a tizzy, and most of the world fell for the lie. Only after the smoke had cleared and outsiders allowed in did the truth come out.
Fifty-six Palestinians had died, but 47 of them were armed. The civilian casualties were at a minimum because Israeli soldiers went door-to-door and put their own lives at risk. Their caution cost 23 young Israelis their lives.
Even the United Nations - which had initially condemned the "massacre" - eventually determined that there had been no massacre. Yet to this day, Jenin is a rallying cry for Muslims around the world, particularly on college campuses in the United States. And Old Dominion is no different.
When I explained that there had been no massacre, some of the Muslim students expressed palpable disbelief, others snickered.
The student who asked the question did engage me in conversation afterward, and it was readily apparent that he is bright, even hyper-articulate. He could run circles around two-thirds of the successful people inside the Beltway. Headed for law school in the fall, he seems destined to be a leader.
How could someone so obviously intelligent swallow whole such a widely-discredited fabrication? Has he intellectually cocooned himself and refused to read anything counter to his worldview? Maybe the better question is: Has any professor or advisor attempted to challenge his views, forcing him to rethink what he believes?
Youth lends itself to stridency and naïveté, (my note, I believe the prior word is naiveness) making campuses fertile fields for hatemongers and paranoia peddlers, providing an ideal home to delusional Muslim mythology. And political correctness has served as an accomplice.
With academia's moral relativism, no culture or belief system (aside from that of conservatives) can, or is allowed to, be criticized. Muslim students are encouraged to hold "different" views, even if they differ from established fact. Telling them otherwise can be a terminal mistake. Just ask Thomas Klocek.
After 14 years of continuous service as a part-time adjunct professor, DePaul University in Chicago indefinitely suspended Klocek without pay based on a single incident. His crime? He was accused of insulting Muslim students. Explaining the suspension, Dean Susanne Dumbleton wrote in a letter to the school paper that Klocek had "demean[ed] the ideas" and "freedom" of the Muslim students and "dishonored" their "perspective."
DePaul counts among its faculty a Holocaust denier and a well-known Islamist, yet both are still gainfully employed. Neither made the mistake of insulting Muslim students.
Academia's abdication of its responsibility means that otherwise bright and capable Muslim students will not be afforded the opportunity - as many of us have been blessed to have - to re-evaluate and reassess their belief systems. This is particularly ominous if the current Muslim leadership is any indication of what the future holds.
As the twin towers were burning on Sept. 11, 2001, Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, theorized that the culprit was-who else - the Jews. On a Los Angeles radio show, he said, "If we're going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list."
He had no historical or factual basis to support his hypothesis. Islamic terrorism had been on the rise for years at that point, and the Palestinian intifada had already showcased almost a year of nonstop Islamic terrorism, yet al-Mariyati instead chose to hatch a crackpot conspiracy theory - one that still is very much alive in mosques across America.
The most common myth perpetuated by America's Muslim leaders - and sadly, much of the Left - is that Israel is the source of the world's problems.
Wahhabism started in Saudi Arabia two centuries before the creation of the Jewish state, and the granddaddy of all modern-day terrorists, Muslim Brotherhood, also got the jump on Israel, launching more than two decades earlier. Yet the doctrine of the Muslim leadership is that creating a Palestinian state will eliminate terrorism.
But you can't fight their fiction with facts. Because to them, their fiction is fact. The saddest fact, though, is that academia's moral relativism dictates that there is no distinction.
Joel Mowbray is the author of "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens America's Security."
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What you said, all of it!
Liberals and Muslims hold to tons of myths like the above to justify their hatred.
They counter factual accounts of terrorist atrocities by saying that they are just "Zionist conspiracies"
It wasn't always that way. I attended high school and college in the fifties abd they were exactly as leartning institutions should be. Some made good use of them and some didn't. For those who didn't it wasn't due to brainwashing nor discouragement by the schools.
It wasn't always that way. I attended high school and college in the fifties and they were exactly as learning institutions should be. Some made good use of them and some didn't. For those who didn't, their lack of success wasn't due to brainwashing or discouragement by the schools.
Academia is obviously wise enough to realize Muslims are completely incapable of rational thought and self-examination. (/hesitantly sarcastic)
Mowbray is so right.
Good article, and right on target. Of course the mythical "Jenin Massacre" is not the only legend that still exists only in the minds of the uninformed.
Over on the islamic forums the myth of who shot Mohammed Al Dura has elevated him to become the unwitting poster boy for the islamic whine-a-thon of "victimhood" while many educational elites (and much of the MSM) continue to hit the snooze button every time this topic comes up...
Another myth that is busted:
Who caused the televised death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura?
(see the links at the bottom of that article too)
The truth about Mohamad Aldura
Probe: Famous 'martyrdom' of Palestinian boy 'staged'
Yup, in their twisted minds, once they have conqured Israel, they are free to focus on EUrabia. What's that old saying... "First the Saturday people, and then the sunday people" ("deal" with the Jews first, and then the Christians).
See: The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe
Its motto is telling: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope...."
...These organizations represent themselves as mainstream, even as they continue to embrace the Brotherhood's radical views and maintain links to terrorists. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community.
But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism. While their representatives speak about interfaith dialogue and integration on television, their mosques preach hate and warn worshippers about the evils of Western society. While they publicly condemn the murder of commuters in Madrid and school children in Russia, they continue to raise money for Hamas and other terrorist organizations....
Too many of these "academics" and their ROP buddies believe their own press releases.
The Leftist Intellectual Circles and the Media they dominate had a long history of being sympathetic to the ideas, movements or individuals aimed against Western Civilization. Islamist propaganda would never have had much effect had it not been for sympathetic liberal left Media.
Liberal Leftists will support any movement aimed against Western Civilization (Communism, Islamism, etc.) and modern Israel as a successor to ancient Israel that gave the world Western Civilization is their number one target precisely for that.
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