Mike L.
(Cross-Posted at Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers)
The humanitarian racists over at Daily Kos cannot bring themselves to face the obvious fact that the murderer in Toulouse was a Jihadi. Mohammed Merah was a self-identified member of al Qaeda and received "training" from that organization in Afghanistan. He was steeped in a political culture that is not at all uncommon in the mosques throughout Europe, as it is not uncommon in the mosques of the Middle East, wherein people are taught hatred for non-Muslims and genocidal incitement toward Jews and infidels.
The reason that I call the Daily Kos people "humanitarian racists" is because they hold such a low opinion of non-whites that they absolutely cannot bring themselves to ever hold them responsible for anything. Anytime a Muslim or an Arab behaves in a brutal or violent fashion, they always blame Israel or the United States.
In one of the few "diaries" on the subject of the Toulouse Massacre over at Daily Kos, Ian Reifowitz writes the following:
To be clear, this is not about Israelis or Jews versus Palestinians or Muslims. "The Palestinians" didn't kill these people. Neither did "the Muslims." This is about hate. Hatred of France and its soldiers, and hatred of Jews. One person carried out this act, a person who was, according to what the French government has said, trained by an organization and a movement that distorts Islam. A movement that can today apparently reach anywhere and kill children. That's what chills me.
G-d forbid anyone should actually name the movement that can "apparently reach anywhere and kill children."
So, Mr. Reifowitz, can you tell us just what this movement is?
You say "the Muslims" did not kill that rabbi and those children. I agree. But is anyone arguing otherwise? Is there anyone, anywhere writing in anything that even approaches a responsible journal claiming "the Muslims" done it?
I do not think so.
One person carried out this act, a person who was, according to what the French government has said, trained by an organization and a movement...
Well, if the one person responsible for the actual murders was trained by a movement (and I would add, trained to hate by a movement), I would think that this movement also holds responsibility for the perfectly foreseeable results of its genocidal ideology. Mr. Reigowitz, you know as well as I, or you should, that this "movement" you speak of has a name and a history and is, in fact, currently spreading like wild-fire throughout the Middle East under the misnomer "Arab Spring."
It is the very movement that Barack Obama has hailed as an Arab version of either the Revolution of '76 or the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s that is responsible for the construction of hatred toward Jews and infidels that led to the slaughter in Toulouse. Radical Islam, or political Islam, or whatever term one might wish to use, is a movement grounded in genocide. This should not be surprising given the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood, who Obama actually visited with even before they came to power in Egypt, has a history that goes not only to a fundamentalist understanding of Islam, but to Nazi Germany, as well.
Of course, most "progressives" do not know this. The reason that they do not know this is because they do not read the history of radical Islam. The reason that they do not read the history of radical Islam is because that would actually require acknowledging that radical Islam exists. But they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge this because then other "progressives" would wag their fingers and call them nasty names like "Islamophobe."
And, so, when a Jihadi murders Jewish children in France, western "progressives" trip all over themselves trying to protect the very movement that is behind those murders by blaming anything but the actual culprit. They blame the United States for "imperialism" and "colonialism," with the implication that if only the United States was not so mean then Muslim fanatics would have no reason to murder perfectly innocent little Jewish girls in Toulouse. They blame Israel for the "occupation" with the implication that if only Israel was not so mean to the Palestinian uber-victims then Muslim fanatics would have no reason to murder perfectly innocent little Jewish girls in Toulouse.
But the truth is that radical Islam killed that rabbi and those little girls. A French Muslim murdered some French soldiers and a French rabbi and some French Jewish girls. This had absolutely nothing to do with the United States, nor Israel, and everything to do with a political movement that continues to preach hatred.
Yet, if I say so, it makes me the racist in the minds of "progressives" who would not acknowledge the Jihad... if they were blindfolded... and on their knees... in a basement... in Karachi.
You may be correct, but it is unclear to me why this is so.
ReplyDeleteWhy what is so?
ReplyDeleteHow does the reference to Obama weaken the argument?
ReplyDeleteI am guessing, tho, that it is not so much a matter of weakening the argument, but of potentially alienation Obama supporters from that argument.
It's hard enough to get these folks to understand how engulfed they are in the conformity of playing the politically correct role that creates humanitarian racism.
ReplyDeleteInjecting Obama is not a related issue, to me. Here, I care more about the way that expression is chilled in the human rights context.
Fair enough.
ReplyDeleteI understand.
I think that on this piece, I will let it stand, but in future pieces will bare your advice in mind.
I will, of course, also be writing about Obama and the Brotherhood and Obama and the "Arab Spring," but this does not mean that I need to insert those issues into every piece concerning humanitarian racism and radical Islam.
Not just radical Islam but all its apologists as well as far as I am concerned. That includes almost all antizionists and a large swath of the left. They might as well have been holding the gun themselves because of the moral support they give these monsters.
ReplyDeleteThe funny thing is, Doodad, these "monsters" as you call them are actually idealists.
DeleteThey are idealists.
Just as the Nazis were idealists and just as the Soviet revolutionaries were idealists, so radical Jihadis are idealists.
They believe, along with many on the contemporary progressive-left, that if only they could change the social-political order into what they think it should be, then they could usher in a new utopian order.
Jihadis believe that they are doing the right thing, just as the Nazis and the Bolsheviks believed that they were doing the right thing.
I know. Look how that has panned out historically. It's always the innocent who pay. Ultimately all they usher in is a dystopia, controlled by monsters.
Delete"A French teacher was suspended Friday for allegedly urging her class to observe a minute's silence for serial killer Mohamed Merah, the day after he was shot dead by police.
ReplyDeleteEducation Minister Luc Chatel had called for the teacher to be suspended after her class reported she called Merah a "victim" and said his links to Al-Qaeda were invented by the media and "Sarko", referring to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"An immediate suspension has been decided along with a ban on entering the school," the local education authority's Florence Robine told journalists, adding that the suspension did not imply any guilt.
Student representatives in the final year class in the northern city of Rouen wrote to the principal to voice "shock" at being urged in an English lesson to pay respect to a self-declared Al-Qaeda militant who killed seven people.
Most of the class walked out, though some remained "to try to understand what she was talking about," their letter said.
She "clearly said that Mohamed Merah was a victim, that the link with Al-Qaeda had been invented by the media and 'Sarko'," said the letter, a copy of which was published by the Paris Normandie newspaper."
http://news.yahoo.com/french-teacher-urges-minutes-silence-killer-153306566.html
Wanna bet she's a leftist? Wanna bet there's lots more like her?
"What would prompt a 23-year-old man, born and raised in France, to chase a small, terrified Jewish girl into a school courtyard, look her in the eye and shoot her in the head?
ReplyDeleteThe very idea brings back memories of the 1940s, of an era that many Europeans have worked diligently, with considerable success, to put behind them. But the echoes of history should not be silenced. The tragedy of Toulouse is a call to take another look at that crucial fight against the poisonous prejudice that ultimately devastated Europe in the middle of the 20th century.
I believe an honest examination will reveal a blind spot among those fighting prejudice that has allowed the ancient Jew hatred that infected Europe for centuries to survive. The blind spot is this: When the prejudice -- and even the call for murder -- is made in connection with the Palestinian cause, people look the other way and give it a pass."
Look the other way and give it a pass. We all know who they are.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/22/opinion/ghitis-toulouse-palestinian/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Interestingly, the US has released funds to the PA that was withheld due to their UNESCO application and acceptance. This by a REPUBLICAN lawmaker. Then Obama and Hilary have agreed to give the Egyptians their 1.3 billion rather than wait for more concrete signs of democracy.
ReplyDeleteSo what do we learn? Islamists and terrorists can do whatever the hell they want; American will still pay.
"Column One: Mohamed Merah – Man of the West
ReplyDeleteBy CAROLINE GLICK
03/22/2012 21:21
In addition to denying, justifying and inciting jihadist violence, Western elites and authorities also engage in facilitating it.....
The killer, Mohamed Merah, was not a lone gunman. He wasn’t even one of the lone jihadists we hear so much about.
He had plenty of accomplices. And not all of them were Muslims.
An analysis of the nature of his crime and the identity of his many accomplices must necessarily begin with a question. Why did Merah videotape his crime?
The first answer is because Merah took pride in killing Jewish children. Beyond that, he was certain that millions of people would be heartened by his crime. By watching him shoot the life out of Jewish children, they would be inspired to repeat his actions elsewhere.
And he was surely correct....
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=263054
It seems to me that one of the things that we need to emphasize is that ideological Muslim violence against Jews long precedes the birth of the state of Israel.
DeleteEvery generation they tell themselves that they have good reason to kick our ass, which is why our numbers are so stunted.
But ideological violence against Jews has been ongoing in the Muslim world since the days of Muhammed.
Their real grievance is that we are free.
I honestly believe that to be the case.
If they wanted peace in a state of their own they could have had that many times over, but the "Palestinians" have always refused autonomy, preferring to continue their never ending war against the Jews.
What I do not understand is why we are supposed to respect that.
I certainly do not.
The Jews of the Middle East withstood 1,300 of being bullied and 100 years of war since we gained autonomy there... and WE'RE the bad guys?
Fuck that.
Comment over at Harry's Place:
ReplyDelete"Arnon
24 March 2012, 12:54 am
There is a strange dynamic opening up with these lethal antisemitic events.
The anti-Zionist and anti Semitic left makes excuses for Islamic Jew haters and liberal leftists make excuses for antisemitic leftists.
No one here seems to care about the four, five and eight year old victims."
http://hurryupharry.org/2012/03/23/in-rouen-a-teacher-calls-for-a-minutes-silence-for-merah/#comments
The man nails it!
Michael, hopefully you saw this one coming.
ReplyDeleteYou have, in the past, harshly criticized those who would link vitriolic rhetoric from the right with the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords (and, i could be wrong on this, I think other violence that was at least consistent with that right wing vitriol). Yet you also criticize those who would dismiss a link between radical Islam as a movement, and the events in France. I see a disconnect.
Either these can be linked, or they can't. I'm not promoting either path. It's not something I've formulated a strong enough opinion to express. I haven't been convinced either way.
On the broader issue, I think there were some important ideas raised in that diary at dkos. Particularly related to arguments that a direct relationship exists between the events in France and events thousands of miles away, despite the fact that the perpetrator and no direct connection to the events thousands of miles away. Compare and contrast that to the reaction if (this is purely speculative) there was similar Christian on Muslim violence in Detroit, that was influenced by Muslim on Christian violence in Africa. I suspect that reaction would be quite different. I think this is supportive of your thesis that the left has a blindspot towards Islam.
Stuart,
DeleteI sometimes think that the Jewish people are so sophisticated (or see themselves as so sophisticated) that when we get rounded up for the slaughter we would discuss whether or not we deserve it, the extent to which we might deserve it, whether or not the people rounding us up are guilty of anything, and how we should behave differently in the future so as to avoid such circumstances.
The fact of the matter is that Mohammed Merah was a member of Qaeda. This means that he was part of a genocidal international movement and you want to compare this with a random nut-case in Tucson?
Un-friggin-believable.
I criticized people who blamed specific individuals aside from the actually Tucson murderer. Hate-filled "progressives" were jumping up and down blaming Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and you want to compare this to acknowledging the fact of radical Islam as a movement?
Really?
Oy.
Right. The. Fuck. On.
ReplyDelete.
.
.
And with that, Laurie and I are out for the day.
Go Giants!
Cheers!
Michael, I'm more inclined to blame perpetrators of crimes for the crimes they commit. It's not that I don't see the danger of radical Islam. I do.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the same as every other fundamentalist political/religious movement. There are tiny elements within fundamentalist Christianity (the anti-gay, the anti-abortion elements). I guess there may be tiny elements within fundamentalist Judaism, but frankly, I haven't seen that element (if it exists) resort to or promote violence. And within radical Islam, it is, undoubtedly, a well accepted tactic to promote it's ideology. And I've certainly seen similar rhetoric from an element of the conservative right in the US. I'm not sure that identifying specific names (like Beck or Palin), is very different than identifying AQ as a contributing factor. I think I just named 4 different ideologies. And none is like the others. I fully recognize that radical Islam, as a movement, is more pervasive, more dangerous, promotes more violence, and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with differently than the others.
Yet criminals are responsible for crimes they commit. They guy who killed the black kid in Florida is responsible. Not a wider element of pervasive racism within the community he lived. Just as when a victim of racism strikes back with violence against an oppressive society. I'm not letting either off the hook, irrespective of contributing factors to the criminals thought patterns.
Each case stands on its own. When there is a connection, it should not be swept under the rug which is usually how it's done.
DeleteAs you said:
I fully recognize that radical Islam, as a movement, is more pervasive, more dangerous, promotes more violence, and needs to be acknowledged and dealt with differently than the others.
But then you want to treat this case the same as the others when it isn't.
Stuart,
DeleteI have to say that it was a terrific pleasure meeting you a few weeks ago.
It truly was. In blog time we're known one another... well?... for a long time.
But I honestly think that it is past time for Jewish people, left, right, and center, to let the Muslim community know that they must stop turning a blind eye to Jihadi incitement against us.
We have to stand up and say "no."
They have been demonizing us for 14 centuries and it absolutely has got to stop.
14 centuries of this stuff we have put up with and it represents part of the reason why our numbers have been kept artificially small.
It has got to stop and we need to make people understand that this kind of ideological violence against us long precedes 1948.
You think I disagree with any of this?
DeleteI don't know.
DeleteWhat I do know is that outside of the Jewish hard-right, i.e., David Horowitz and that crowd, there is virtually no inclination to discuss radical Islam within Jewish western politics... despite the fact that on a daily basis they absolutely scream their genocidal hatred toward us in Arab-Muslim mosques.
Why do you suppose that is?
Misplaced white guilt.
DeleteAnd the disinclination to discomfort non-Jewish progressives, who do not want to hear about this.
Non-conscious self-censorship.
(from continued) Just even these basic facts Israeli Jewish leaders of the government of Israel have not had the understanding to tell nor the understanding even to comprehend the significance of, nor the understanding even to comprehend the significance of telling. And the Israeli Jewish leaders of the government of Israel, out of delusion and imbecility and cowering appeasement toward Western leaders, are even colluding with, and have, themselves, legitimized, and have, themselves, brought into the crucially defensively strategic highlands of the the heartland of the Jewish homeland a racist genocidal anti-Jewish organization - Fatah-PLO - an actual Nazi organization originated by one of the co-architects of the Nazi 'Final Solution'.
ReplyDeleteAnd Israeli Jewish people are under siege, and live in a state of feeling being under siege, and most Israeli Jewish people are utterly ignorant about the history and current reality of the situation that they are in, and just know that they are hated by almost everyone, and just want to not be attacked any more, and are willing to sacrifice almost anything to just not be attacked anymore.
And American Jewish self-designated so-called "Jewish Leaders", and, even more so, other Western diaspora Jewish self-designated so-called "Jewish Leaders", out of ignorance, egomania, stupidity, and cowardice, are colluding with genocidal anti-Jewish racists (leaders of the Islamic supremacist political movement, and bigoted racist anti-Jewish/anti-Israeli Western leaders), and, as part of that, are promoting and propagating absurd perverse genocidal lies that vilify Israel and that obfuscate and glorify Fatah-PLO and the 'Palestinian movement'.
And most American Jewish people, and, even more so, almost all other Western diaspora Jewish people, are largely ignorant about, and are polyannaishly deluded about, the situation that Israel is in, and, moreover, are afraid to verbally defend their attacked libeled besieged endangered own people against intendedly genocidal libels like normal human beings, for fear that they may offend the sensibilities of the non-Jewish majority in the Western societies in they live.
And the ideologically genocidally anti-Jewish apocalyptic Islamic supremacist regime in Iran is developing nuclear weapons, and Western corporations, particularly German corporations, are materially enabling it to do so, and Western governments are allowing it to do so, and Western journalists and Western academics are excusing it and defending it, and are libeling and vilifying the liberal democratic besieged genocidally endangered very small nation of the Jewish people.
"How did the Holocaust happen?"
Just look around.
Typo Correction:
Delete"... for fear that they may offend the sensibilities of the non-Jewish majority in the Western societies in which they live. ..."
(cross-posted on my blog)
DeleteHow did the Holocaust happen? Just look around.
Dan,
ReplyDeletethis is a very good piece.
Your OCD messes with your writing, but your points are largely well-taken.
You write:
the 'Palestinian movement' was founded by, and that Fatah was originated by, a co-architect of the Nazi 'Final Solution'
It is unclear to me just who you are referring to here?
Who are you talking about?
Haj Amin al-Husseini.
DeleteAh, I thought as much.
DeleteBut I did not realize that the Mufti was directly involved in the creation of Fatah.
Is that the case?
Yes, and it was the French who let him go free after the war.
Delete