| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Islamophobia Declared Worst Form of Terrorism
When it comes to attention-grabbing and guffaw-inducing
headlines, it's hard to beat the following which appeared
recently in the Arab News: "Islamophobia Worst Form of
Terrorism."
That’s right. Forget about skyscrapers full of thousands of
innocent people crashing to the ground, compliments of
Islamic terrorists. Or the slaughter of Russian school children
by Islamic terrorists. Or beheadings galore by Islamic
terrorists. Or any of the other countless acts of senseless
barbarity by -- all together now -- Islamic terrorists.
Or at least that’s the opinion of a group of Islamic ministers
that was hatched during a "brainstorming" session of the 34th
Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, giving the ultimate
proof that using the words "brainstorming" and "Islamic" in
the same sentence is one of the world's greatest contradictions.
The conference convened recently in Islamabad (where
else?) to deal with the "grave concern at the rising tide of
discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in
Europe and North America." Islamophobia was specifically
described by the ministers as "a deliberate defamation of Islam
and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims."
Honest to Allah, are these guys kidding? Is the Muslim mind
really capable of unselfconscious hypocrisy on such a
monumental scale? What we have here is the world's most
intolerant people (Muslims) criticizing the world's most
tolerant people (Westerners) for being intolerant. Hel-lo-o!
Earth to Islam!
But before we go any further, let’s deal with this word
“Islamophobia” for a moment. It’s a disingenuous, made-up
word that seeks to take advantage of the psychosis of political
correctness that currently afflicts modern Western societies.
It is used by confused and/or nefarious people for the express
purpose of trying to make it unacceptable for people in
Western societies to express concern over suspicious or
objectionable Muslim activities within those societies.
Besides being made-up, the word is also totally illogical.
Why? Because a phobia is an irrational fear, but given all that
we know and have experienced in the last three or four decades
in terms of Islamic terrorism, there’s nothing at all irrational
about at least being wary of certain behaviors amongst Muslims.
But wait a minute. Fear, irrational or otherwise, wasn’t
even mentioned in the ministers’ description of
“Islamophobia,” which talked instead about "a deliberate
defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance
against Muslims." Here’s a thought. If you’re going to make up
a disingenuous word designed to capitalize on the perceived
victimhood of Muslims, why not at least come up with one that
makes logical sense, like, say, “Islamintolerance” or maybe
“Islamobigotry?” “Islamowariness” would be the closest to
reality, but since it doesn’t sound nasty and bigoted enough, it
never had a prayer.
So, yeah, sure, many of us in the West are wary of some
Muslims, particularly when they behave suspiciously or even
bizarrely, and particularly when such behaviors occur in
certain settings, like airports and on airplanes. Remember the
flying imams in Minneapolis? If you have a gaggle of Muslims
babbling in Arabic, praying absurdly loud in an airport,
throwing around the name Osama bin Laden, and then they
board an airplane, bounce around from seat to seat and just
generally act outlandish in a conspiratorial sort of way, is it
really “Islamophobia” on the part of passengers when they
express concern or is it what any reasonable person would do
in that situation?
Paradoxically, while many in the West are justifiably wary of
Muslims, most Western countries are actually bending over
backwards to accommodate every ridiculous requirement that
Muslims in their midst come up with. The stories are endless,
from removing pork from school and hospital menus, to
schools dropping the teaching of the Holocaust and the
Crusades, to a German judge ruling that the Koran allows men
to beat their wives. And on and on.
Hey, the Western countries seem to be saying, if something
offends our Muslim populations, then we’re all about changing
it, fixing it, getting rid of it or whatever it takes before the
problem gets out of hand and some understandably
disgruntled Muslim who has been traumatized by the scourge
of “Islamophobia” decides to go jihad on us.
Does that sound like the conference ministers’ description of
"a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and
intolerance against Muslims?" Of course not. But it does
sound like a pathetic and potentially dangerous degree of
accommodation for a large group of people whose allegiance so
often seems to be to its religion and ethnicity rather than to its
various Western host countries.
So to put it mildly, the conference ministers’ declaration
that “Islamophobia” is the worst form of terrorism is nothing
but a load of asinine claptrap. It may be the worst form of
twisted language, but as terrorism, it doesn’t even qualify. But
here’s something that does: an Islamic suicide bomber who
packs his explosive with nails, screws and ball bearings,
liberally sprinkles it all with rat poison, and then detonates the
toxic mix, sending the objects to rip through the bodies of
innocent people at high velocity.
Now that’s terrorism, and only a Muslim with a king-sized
chip on his shoulder would be unable -- or unwilling -- to
discern the qualitative difference between that and, say, some
mildly derogatory cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed or a
Muslim student being taunted with a ham sandwich.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Muslim ministers
were nonetheless bound and determined that their
“brainstorming” sessions would conclude that Muslims are the
world’s most mistreated people: “Because of Islamophobia,
millions of Muslims in the Western countries, many of whom
were already underprivileged in their societies for a variety of
reasons, are further alienated and targeted by hatred and
discrimination.”
That statement tends to beg the question: Since the religion
of Islam is so fabulous and without error or blemish, and since
the West is so iniquitous and shot through with so-called
“Islamophobia,” why isn’t there a mad rush of Muslims to get
back to their immaculate homelands? And why in the world
did they ever leave in the first place?
Well, maybe it’s because enduring a little “Islamophobia,”
as they call it, isn’t even fractionally as bad as enduring
conditions in the oppressive, backward, violent, poverty-
ridden, basket-case countries from whence they came. Until
these realities are faced up to and dealt with in some kind of
meaningful way, they can brainstorm until doomsday and the
Islamic world will still be the armpit of the planet.
When it comes to attention-grabbing and guffaw-inducing
headlines, it's hard to beat the following which appeared
recently in the Arab News: "Islamophobia Worst Form of
Terrorism."
That’s right. Forget about skyscrapers full of thousands of
innocent people crashing to the ground, compliments of
Islamic terrorists. Or the slaughter of Russian school children
by Islamic terrorists. Or beheadings galore by Islamic
terrorists. Or any of the other countless acts of senseless
barbarity by -- all together now -- Islamic terrorists.
Or at least that’s the opinion of a group of Islamic ministers
that was hatched during a "brainstorming" session of the 34th
Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers, giving the ultimate
proof that using the words "brainstorming" and "Islamic" in
the same sentence is one of the world's greatest contradictions.
The conference convened recently in Islamabad (where
else?) to deal with the "grave concern at the rising tide of
discrimination and intolerance against Muslims, especially in
Europe and North America." Islamophobia was specifically
described by the ministers as "a deliberate defamation of Islam
and discrimination and intolerance against Muslims."
Honest to Allah, are these guys kidding? Is the Muslim mind
really capable of unselfconscious hypocrisy on such a
monumental scale? What we have here is the world's most
intolerant people (Muslims) criticizing the world's most
tolerant people (Westerners) for being intolerant. Hel-lo-o!
Earth to Islam!
But before we go any further, let’s deal with this word
“Islamophobia” for a moment. It’s a disingenuous, made-up
word that seeks to take advantage of the psychosis of political
correctness that currently afflicts modern Western societies.
It is used by confused and/or nefarious people for the express
purpose of trying to make it unacceptable for people in
Western societies to express concern over suspicious or
objectionable Muslim activities within those societies.
Besides being made-up, the word is also totally illogical.
Why? Because a phobia is an irrational fear, but given all that
we know and have experienced in the last three or four decades
in terms of Islamic terrorism, there’s nothing at all irrational
about at least being wary of certain behaviors amongst Muslims.
But wait a minute. Fear, irrational or otherwise, wasn’t
even mentioned in the ministers’ description of
“Islamophobia,” which talked instead about "a deliberate
defamation of Islam and discrimination and intolerance
against Muslims." Here’s a thought. If you’re going to make up
a disingenuous word designed to capitalize on the perceived
victimhood of Muslims, why not at least come up with one that
makes logical sense, like, say, “Islamintolerance” or maybe
“Islamobigotry?” “Islamowariness” would be the closest to
reality, but since it doesn’t sound nasty and bigoted enough, it
never had a prayer.
So, yeah, sure, many of us in the West are wary of some
Muslims, particularly when they behave suspiciously or even
bizarrely, and particularly when such behaviors occur in
certain settings, like airports and on airplanes. Remember the
flying imams in Minneapolis? If you have a gaggle of Muslims
babbling in Arabic, praying absurdly loud in an airport,
throwing around the name Osama bin Laden, and then they
board an airplane, bounce around from seat to seat and just
generally act outlandish in a conspiratorial sort of way, is it
really “Islamophobia” on the part of passengers when they
express concern or is it what any reasonable person would do
in that situation?
Paradoxically, while many in the West are justifiably wary of
Muslims, most Western countries are actually bending over
backwards to accommodate every ridiculous requirement that
Muslims in their midst come up with. The stories are endless,
from removing pork from school and hospital menus, to
schools dropping the teaching of the Holocaust and the
Crusades, to a German judge ruling that the Koran allows men
to beat their wives. And on and on.
Hey, the Western countries seem to be saying, if something
offends our Muslim populations, then we’re all about changing
it, fixing it, getting rid of it or whatever it takes before the
problem gets out of hand and some understandably
disgruntled Muslim who has been traumatized by the scourge
of “Islamophobia” decides to go jihad on us.
Does that sound like the conference ministers’ description of
"a deliberate defamation of Islam and discrimination and
intolerance against Muslims?" Of course not. But it does
sound like a pathetic and potentially dangerous degree of
accommodation for a large group of people whose allegiance so
often seems to be to its religion and ethnicity rather than to its
various Western host countries.
So to put it mildly, the conference ministers’ declaration
that “Islamophobia” is the worst form of terrorism is nothing
but a load of asinine claptrap. It may be the worst form of
twisted language, but as terrorism, it doesn’t even qualify. But
here’s something that does: an Islamic suicide bomber who
packs his explosive with nails, screws and ball bearings,
liberally sprinkles it all with rat poison, and then detonates the
toxic mix, sending the objects to rip through the bodies of
innocent people at high velocity.
Now that’s terrorism, and only a Muslim with a king-sized
chip on his shoulder would be unable -- or unwilling -- to
discern the qualitative difference between that and, say, some
mildly derogatory cartoons about the Prophet Muhammed or a
Muslim student being taunted with a ham sandwich.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Muslim ministers
were nonetheless bound and determined that their
“brainstorming” sessions would conclude that Muslims are the
world’s most mistreated people: “Because of Islamophobia,
millions of Muslims in the Western countries, many of whom
were already underprivileged in their societies for a variety of
reasons, are further alienated and targeted by hatred and
discrimination.”
That statement tends to beg the question: Since the religion
of Islam is so fabulous and without error or blemish, and since
the West is so iniquitous and shot through with so-called
“Islamophobia,” why isn’t there a mad rush of Muslims to get
back to their immaculate homelands? And why in the world
did they ever leave in the first place?
Well, maybe it’s because enduring a little “Islamophobia,”
as they call it, isn’t even fractionally as bad as enduring
conditions in the oppressive, backward, violent, poverty-
ridden, basket-case countries from whence they came. Until
these realities are faced up to and dealt with in some kind of
meaningful way, they can brainstorm until doomsday and the
Islamic world will still be the armpit of the planet.