| 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.
Welcoming Islam With Open Arms
"America is a land of many faiths and we honor and
welcome and value the Muslim faith." --- President Bush as he
hosted a recent Ramadan dinner with U.S. Islamic leaders at
the White House.
Really? Do we really honor, welcome and value a faith, most
of whose practitioners seem to eschew freedom and democracy,
capital markets and all other faiths? Why would we sincerely
do that? What addleheadedness would possess us that we
would bend over backwards making nicey-nice towards a faith
which considers us little more than contemptible infidels
deserving of death and damnation?
Okay, so it's a public relations thing and the president feels
as though he needs to, at least in public, act as if the average
follower of Islam is no more of a threat to Americans than are
Zen Buddhists, Quakers and the Amish. But you would think
that after 9/11 just avoiding any overt expression of hostility
towards Islam would be enough. Does he have to lay on the PC
nonsense so thick after taking a hit from Islamo-crazies that
made Pearl Harbor look not so bad?
But the Islamic faith has been hijacked by a few extremists,
we are constantly told, and we shouldn't hold that against the
majority of its followers. Fine, but even without that hijacking,
Islam ain't exactly a bargain for its approximately one billion
followers--nor for any of the rest of us, either. Instead, it is one
of the most blatant enemies of peace, stability and human
progress.
If you look at the totality of the Muslim world as it currently
exists on this planet, is there any part of it which you would
wish to emulate or in which you would wish to reside? If your
idea of bliss--or even a mild state of contentment--is the near
total lack of religious tolerance, the senseless repression of
women, a paucity of representative government, a lack of
native innovation, constant friction with the non-Muslim world
and an irrational preference for remaining in some previous
century while most of the rest of the world hurtles forward,
then the land of Islam is the place for you.
Granted, there are a few relative "garden spots" in the
Islamic world which to varying degrees have some faint
semblance of freedom and modernity, such as Turkey,
Indonesia and Malaysia. But in the true heart of the Muslim
world, the Arab countries, where the wielding of absolute
power is as fundamental as breathing the air to despotic
leaders, and where Islamic fundamentalism lords over every
aspect of life, democracy is about as welcome as the bubonic
plague.
In such an environment economic prosperity, among other
of life's desirables, has a snowball's chance in hell. For
instance, in the entire Arab world--with a population of half a
billion and including all of North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iraq
and all the Middle East (except tiny Israel)--the total
combined non-oil exports amount to no more than that of the
pint-sized and mostly irrelevant country of Finland.
To illustrate the point in even more dramatic fashion, the
city of Hong Kong, with a population of 7.3 million and a land
area of 410 square miles, has five times the non-oil exports as
the entire Arab world. This is astonishing, staggering and
mind-boggling! You would think that Arab leaders would be
establishing think tanks right and left to try and figure out why
they are so far behind the rest of the world and what to do
about it.
But what do Arab leaders instead spend all their time
worrying about? Israel, of course, the tiny, modern,
prosperous, successful democratic country in their midst
which makes them look like such abject fools as they lord over
their backward kingdoms. And non-Arab Muslim leaders don't
think especially highly of Israel and Jews, either.
As an example, there was an Islamic "summit" in Malaysia
recently and Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian prime
minister, got up and made a speech about how the Jews are
running the world, blah blah blah, and so forth and so on, and
it absolutely brought the house down, getting him a standing
ovation from 56 fellow Muslim leaders.
Responding to worldwide criticism of Mahathir's remarks,
the silver-tongued Malaysian foreign minister, Syed Hamid
Albar, said, "The only problem with the Jews is when the state
of Israel was created."
Thanks, Syed, nothing like a little explanation to clear
things up. You can have Muslim states blanketing vast swaths
of the planet, the more the better, but one tiny Jewish state
brings anger and humiliation to every guy named Mohammed
from Rabat to Borneo to Bali. Is it any wonder that the Islamic
world, by and large, is a basket case?
There's no doubt about it, President Bush is trying to be a
nice guy and there's no reason that we should be generally
hostile towards Islam. But unhesitatingly embrace it with open
arms? Other than a gold star from the mush-for-brains
diversity crowd, what will that get us? We need to face the fact
that Islam is one religious faith that needs a serious enema and
until it gets one, it and the rest of the world are going to suffer
from severe cramps.
"America is a land of many faiths and we honor and
welcome and value the Muslim faith." --- President Bush as he
hosted a recent Ramadan dinner with U.S. Islamic leaders at
the White House.
Really? Do we really honor, welcome and value a faith, most
of whose practitioners seem to eschew freedom and democracy,
capital markets and all other faiths? Why would we sincerely
do that? What addleheadedness would possess us that we
would bend over backwards making nicey-nice towards a faith
which considers us little more than contemptible infidels
deserving of death and damnation?
Okay, so it's a public relations thing and the president feels
as though he needs to, at least in public, act as if the average
follower of Islam is no more of a threat to Americans than are
Zen Buddhists, Quakers and the Amish. But you would think
that after 9/11 just avoiding any overt expression of hostility
towards Islam would be enough. Does he have to lay on the PC
nonsense so thick after taking a hit from Islamo-crazies that
made Pearl Harbor look not so bad?
But the Islamic faith has been hijacked by a few extremists,
we are constantly told, and we shouldn't hold that against the
majority of its followers. Fine, but even without that hijacking,
Islam ain't exactly a bargain for its approximately one billion
followers--nor for any of the rest of us, either. Instead, it is one
of the most blatant enemies of peace, stability and human
progress.
If you look at the totality of the Muslim world as it currently
exists on this planet, is there any part of it which you would
wish to emulate or in which you would wish to reside? If your
idea of bliss--or even a mild state of contentment--is the near
total lack of religious tolerance, the senseless repression of
women, a paucity of representative government, a lack of
native innovation, constant friction with the non-Muslim world
and an irrational preference for remaining in some previous
century while most of the rest of the world hurtles forward,
then the land of Islam is the place for you.
Granted, there are a few relative "garden spots" in the
Islamic world which to varying degrees have some faint
semblance of freedom and modernity, such as Turkey,
Indonesia and Malaysia. But in the true heart of the Muslim
world, the Arab countries, where the wielding of absolute
power is as fundamental as breathing the air to despotic
leaders, and where Islamic fundamentalism lords over every
aspect of life, democracy is about as welcome as the bubonic
plague.
In such an environment economic prosperity, among other
of life's desirables, has a snowball's chance in hell. For
instance, in the entire Arab world--with a population of half a
billion and including all of North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iraq
and all the Middle East (except tiny Israel)--the total
combined non-oil exports amount to no more than that of the
pint-sized and mostly irrelevant country of Finland.
To illustrate the point in even more dramatic fashion, the
city of Hong Kong, with a population of 7.3 million and a land
area of 410 square miles, has five times the non-oil exports as
the entire Arab world. This is astonishing, staggering and
mind-boggling! You would think that Arab leaders would be
establishing think tanks right and left to try and figure out why
they are so far behind the rest of the world and what to do
about it.
But what do Arab leaders instead spend all their time
worrying about? Israel, of course, the tiny, modern,
prosperous, successful democratic country in their midst
which makes them look like such abject fools as they lord over
their backward kingdoms. And non-Arab Muslim leaders don't
think especially highly of Israel and Jews, either.
As an example, there was an Islamic "summit" in Malaysia
recently and Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian prime
minister, got up and made a speech about how the Jews are
running the world, blah blah blah, and so forth and so on, and
it absolutely brought the house down, getting him a standing
ovation from 56 fellow Muslim leaders.
Responding to worldwide criticism of Mahathir's remarks,
the silver-tongued Malaysian foreign minister, Syed Hamid
Albar, said, "The only problem with the Jews is when the state
of Israel was created."
Thanks, Syed, nothing like a little explanation to clear
things up. You can have Muslim states blanketing vast swaths
of the planet, the more the better, but one tiny Jewish state
brings anger and humiliation to every guy named Mohammed
from Rabat to Borneo to Bali. Is it any wonder that the Islamic
world, by and large, is a basket case?
There's no doubt about it, President Bush is trying to be a
nice guy and there's no reason that we should be generally
hostile towards Islam. But unhesitatingly embrace it with open
arms? Other than a gold star from the mush-for-brains
diversity crowd, what will that get us? We need to face the fact
that Islam is one religious faith that needs a serious enema and
until it gets one, it and the rest of the world are going to suffer
from severe cramps.