What drives the ongoing Arab war against the Jews of the Middle East is rank bigotry and raw hatred.They despise Jews not because of Israel. Rather, they despise Israel precisely because of Jews. If Israel was the twenty-third Arab-Muslim country in that part of the world it would be praised universally as far-and-away the most enlightened country within the region.
The reason Israel is hated is not because of its behavior which, given the pressures upon that small community, has been exceedingly restrained towards its enemies.
It is hated because it is Jewish.
However, noting the presence of widespread and traditional Arab-Muslim bigotry against Jews does not change the fact that in my own country, the good old US of A, there is plenty of raw and unjust anti-Muslim bigotry.
Check out some of the comments beneath this Youtube video - there are, btw, over 2,000 of them - concerning a court case derived from hostilities within a Dearborn, Michigan, Arab community celebration from a few years ago.
scientific1982I do not know about you, but when I read this kind of sentiment it makes sympathetic not with the commenter but with his target.
Muslims are little girls unless they're in a gang. Weak as fuck on their own.
Blues LovrAs advocates for the well-being of the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel, it is incumbent upon us to oppose this kind of hatred. I find it helpful to draw a distinction between Muslims and those who advocate for, or sponsor, or fight for the implementation of al-Sharia as the basis of government anywhere in the world.
I can't for the life of me understand WHY, the American government brought these inhuman monsters here to live with us. Now we are under threat to submit to a 9th century blood drenched death cult known as islum. Muslums beat and stone women to death at will, they horribly beat to death animals in the streets, they follow a pedophile that married a 6 year old girl, and forced sex on her at 9 years old. I swear to God I will kill the next on if these sick
We have every right to stand up against political Islam no matter where it is, because no matter where it is, it is directly in opposition to the well-being of the Jewish people, and all non-Muslims, under the rules of Islamic Supremacism known as dhimmitude. This is not condemnation of Muslims as a people. It is, rather, the condemnation of a rising and remarkably vicious political movement which we call alternatively "Islamofascism" or "Radical Islam" or "Islamism" or, my preferred usage, "political Islam."
In any case, none of it justifies this:
wnc8173Well, that is about as chilling as it gets. Remember there are over 2,000 comments under this piece and the above are culled from the first fifteen, or thereabouts.
These Sand-Nigger Muslims don't belong in Western Civilization. Deport them or put them in mass graves.
mike franklinI think that this is Mike's way of reminding me just how it was that I became a Democrat to begin with. It was to oppose people just like himself.
Get them out of usa..
they have ten babies per white baby too!!
blacks and mexicans out too
WE JUST CAN'T AFFORD THEM ALL.. WHITES PAY THE TAXES DOLLARS
Cliff LeeAlright. Enough of this.
White Americans need to WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!! shove Diversity up your ass. These scumbags are going to take over and we will have bombs and beheading everyday just like in the shithole country they come from. Send all nigger muslims back to hell.
You get the idea.
The point is that the pro-Israel / pro-Jewish community is in no position to allow these kinds of sentiments to pass without comment and condemnation. We cannot take among our allies people who are "racist" toward Muslims.
We need to draw a sharp line between Muslim people and political Islam.
Just as we would never condemn Americans, in general, for the fact of, say, the Tea Party, so we must not condemn Muslims, in general, for the fact of political Islam.
Political Islam, however, should be opposed directly, explicitly, and by any means necessary.
We also must not fear condemning political Islam because aggressively wrong-headed people will accuse us of bigotry toward Muslims as a whole.
It is those who make such arguments who are conflating ISIS with all Muslims or Hamas with all Muslims or the Grand Daddy of them all, the Muslim Brotherhood, with all Muslims.
We are opposed to a widespread, highly aggressive, political movement centered in the Middle East, but with sympathizers throughout the world. Political Islam, particularly as we are seeing now with the current rise of the Islamic State, is perhaps even more vicious than the Nazis, if that is permissible to imagine.
What we are fighting for is the well-being of the Jewish State of Israel.
What we are fighting against is this:
And, finally, if the western left, including the western Jewish left, cannot bring itself to stand up forcefully and consistently and without hesitation against this movement than they have flushed their own values of universal human rights and social justice straight down the toilet.
Why should we stand with people who demonstrate such small inclination to stand up for their own values and who, thereby, betray their friends and neighbors in the process?
ReplyDeleteShirlee, I agree that I do not get what Islam is.
Islam is, after all, many things to many people.
Its aspects, as with any religion, have a thousand and one social implications, incluing those of sometimes violent social control.
It has family aspects and informs people how to relate to one another within the family, between families and tribes, between families and individuals and governments and so forth.
It has spiritual aspects wherein people come to grow closer to the deity.
It has psychological and economic aspects and implications.
It has gendered and sexual aspects and implications.
So, yes, I would never claim to be an expert on Islam.
You say that Islam is a totalitarian political ideology.
I certainly agree that a significant part of what Islam is - the part that should be of most concern to us - is a totalitarian political ideology.
And, yes, I have read the Koran and I found it to be largely gibberish. Of course, needless to say, I did not read it in the original Arabic and I brought all of my twenty-first century biases to my reading of that book.
What's unclear to me, however, is just where our disagreement is?
I basically make two claims.
1) There is an important distinction to be made between Muslims and political Islam.
And
2) We must not allow politically correct threats of being labeled "racist" to prevent us from standing up to political Islam.
So, where is our disagreement?
Surely, it cannot be number 2, so I am guessing that you think any honest distinction between general Muslims and political Islam is false because you do not accept a distinction between Islam and political Islam.
Is that it?
Good isn't it Trudy, unfortunately too many others are being killed along the way by the 'Religion of Peace'
ReplyDeleteEven granting your point (I haven't read that book, and I never will, because why the hell would I torture myself like that? ... as Henry Bemis would concur, there's so much else out there to read, and so little time!), you're making the mistake of assuming that everyone who makes up a religion is fully versed in all of its texts and tenets, and also takes them literally.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt this is the case.
I think we can agree that there are plenty of cultural Jews and plenty of cultural Christians and plenty of those-of-every-other-religion-on-the-planet about which the very same can be said. So why assume that Muslims are the exception?
There's an important distinction to be made between the 1.6 billion people on the planet who were born into, and / or otherwise follow the religion, to varying degrees, or perhaps none at all... and those who actually promote and / or act upon its ugly aspects.
Jay
ReplyDeleteI strongly advise you take a look around Muslim chat rooms, message board and FB pages.
I've been doing this for 8 or so years now and believe me their aren't too many out their that will give a Jew the time of day.
I know that such places, and concentrations of specific Muslims of a certain variety, exist.
ReplyDeleteMy point is that such types are by no means reflective of the entire collective of 1.6 billion people on our planet.
We need to take on those who are pushing their warped, racist, medieval views on others. Definitely. Our society depends upon it.
But the key point is that, once again, there is a distinction to be made between those who push such views, and those who are just trying to live their lives and raise their families the same as the rest of us.
I'll even grant that many of the latter may perhaps have been indoctrinated from birth with an ingrained, latent antisemitism, and perhaps a general dislike of Western society as a whole.
Yet as long as they don't act on it, what's the problem?
And what can we do?
We can't police everyone's thoughts. And even if we could, who would then decide which thoughts were allowed and which weren't, amongst which groups of people, etc etc?
~~~
And for the record, I was absolutely once given the time by my Egyptian buddy at a falafel shop here in North Philadelphia, when I came in for my shwarma wrap 15 minutes after he shut down the spit! He even apologized, too. ;)