Right and Left Rhetoric on Islam
Via Instapundit, Eric Scheie blogs on the relatioship between the right and left rhetoric regarding the current struggle with Islam.
I see the enemy as jihadists. (And I don’t mean jihadists in the sense of playing the piano well or getting straight As or doing a fine job as a teacher; I mean it in the sense of waging holy war in the name of Islam.) That sounds easy enough, but try putting it into practice in the United States today. One of the great ironies of the post-9/11 period is that while violent Islamic jihadists attacked this country, there is a constantly growing network — both organized and unorganized — of in-place apologists at virtually every level of society all ready to defend them. Criticize jihadists, and people on the left will call you a racist. An Islamophobe. A bigot. I have seen this too many times to count, and the reason I call it ironic is that before 9/11, feminists routinely criticized the veil. Gay activists did not hesitate to condemn Islamic homophobia. Atheists condemned Islam the same way they condemned Christianity. After 9/11, the PC crowd suddenly included a group which they’d previously neglected, and it seemed to me that the 9/11 attacks helped the image of radical Muslims with the left in this country. And in most newspapers, and on many campuses.
This network of PC critics is not only defensive in nature, but offensive. Hence, few American newspapers would dare print cartoons that would probably have been printed before 9/11 without so much as a passing thought. Before 9/11, few cared about the Supreme Court’s image of Muhammad, or the many images of Muhammad (such as Salvador Dali’s 1960s version). Now, even operas have to be careful. Lest they “offend.” I’m tired of that crap, and a lot of people are. I don’t agree that 9/11 supplied anyone with an excuse to be insensitive or act like a jerk. But then again, why in the world should a horrible attack like that make us more concerned with (what’s the phrase?) “Islamic sensibilities”?
September 29th, 2006 at 8:35 am
To this extent that this guy’s accusations are true, I agree that anyone defending actual terrorists is reprehensible, and anyone who changed their mind on criticizing a culture just because people they don’t like started to criticize it is a hypocrite. But I’m not sure I believe that he’s fairly characterizing what’s actually going on. Specificially, I’m not impressed that civil rights advocates are now jumping up to protect muslims when they weren’t before, since the most obvious explanation is that innocent muslims simply weren’t being persecuted before.
The PC police also aren’t defending people from Swahili, not because they don’t think people from Swahili deserve respect, but because nobody gives a fuck about Swahili. If vocal forces started making fun of whatever the hell it is people from Swahili do, then you can be damned sure the PC police would start defending them too.
September 29th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Now that I think about it, it’s very revealing of this blogger’s own biases that he basically says ‘people who want us to respect middle eastern culture are defending terrorists.’ That’s the type of thinking that makes everyone on the ‘liberal’ start feeling defensive.
September 29th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
he didn’t say that at all. He said that criticizing jihadists makes people call you an islamophobe. He never says that he’s against respecting middle eastern culture. However, people who were previously in favor of disrespecting middle eastern culture (think feminists, gays, etc.) now feel afraid to do so, because it’s become less PC. Do their points about the lack of freedoms in islamic countries have any less of a point, or are they afraid of the ‘muslim sensibilities’?
October 2nd, 2006 at 6:12 am
Compare these two things he said:
“while violent Islamic jihadists attacked this country, there is a constantly growing network — both organized and unorganized — of in-place apologists at virtually every level of society all ready to defend them.”
“I have seen this too many times to count, and the reason I call it ironic is that before 9/11, feminists routinely criticized the veil. Gay activists did not hesitate to condemn Islamic homophobia.”
It doesn’t sound to you like he’s attacking muslim culture and THINKS he’s attaking Jihadists? If not why would he bring up those examples to make his point?