Radical Islam: Where is the outrage?
by Lakrosse, Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 11:09:19 PM EST
As liberals, we are generally quick to criticize fundamentalist Christians, like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, etc. And we are right to do so. Their political views promote policies which eat at our personal freedoms and civil liberties. I, and the rest of us, are staunch supporters of minority rights, civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, free speech, etc. We condemn the heinous and terrorist acts of abortion clinic bombers, the Ku Klux Klan, "The Minutemen," etc. As enlightened people, we should always stand against those who preach hate, bigotry, and violence against others.
So when fundamentalist Muslims call for the abolition of freedom of speech, say that one should be arrested or put to death for criticizing Islam, that homosexuals should be hung, that women should wear burkas and veils, that Jews should be killed and Hitler praised (as many Islamists do, as the Brotherhood was founded by Hitler supporters), I am outraged. I condemn this sick ideology. But where are the people on the "liberal" blogosphere on radical Islam? Why does Islam get a free pass Christianity and Judaism do not get?
Why is the idea of Christian imperialism (ie the Crusades) wrong, yet there is always an excuse for groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. who want to create an Islamic Empire, or Caliphate? Why are women's rights so important here, but in Gaza, because Hamas is "democratically elected," is there no outcry over the treatment of women, forced under the veil, into submission, and into stoning at times? Bush and Reagan were democratically elected too, as was Hamas (supposedly). Where is the outrage against the general treatment of women in the Islamic world? (and no, Israel is not as bad. The Haredi are not the law, the modesty buses are rare, and the vast majority of the Israeli population, Jew and Arab alike, do not condone the Haredim and their crazy ways. Israeli women serve in all levels of society as equally as in America and Europe).
While we blog for gay marriage here, where is the outrage against the stoning of gays done in the ME, where in Iran they are hung, in Iraq they were illegal under Saddam and today they are hunted down like Dick Cheney hunts his lawyer, in Saudi Arabia they're killed as in Egypt (or jailed there), etc?
Minorities have no rights under radical Islam nor are they respected by Islamists. Bahais are disenfranchised and killed in Iran, Copts are brutally murdered in Egypt, blacks are being exterminated in Sudan, I could go on. Yet there is only one country in the Middle East where with one exception (the JNF which controls very little land) in which minorities have equal voting rights, run and serve openly and freely in parliament and government, protest without problems, but this country receives all the hatred on the left-wing blogosphere. Why are civil rights good for the Western world, but should we talk of civil rights taking wing in Islamic countries, we are dubbed "neocolonialists" or "cultural imperialists?" Or even "racists?"
There is only one free democratic country in the Middle East. People live under oppression everywhere else near it. And they do it in the name of religion. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE. Now I'm not saying America should go in everywhere and spread democracy through guns as it has attempted to do in Iraq. But where are the BDS movements for these countries which are not ranked as free in the Freedom House Freedom in the World rankings? Apartheid South Africa had the same FITW rankings as nearly every Islamic country in the world.
And no, I will not accept "colonialism" and "imperialism" as justifications as to why criticizing radical Islam or Islam is wrong. Fundamentalist Christianity and Christianity itself are always the targets of criticism, and for good reason. But they are nowhere near the force that hardline Islamic doctrine is in the world. Plus, every country in the world except the US(since its founding), UK, Nepal, Ethiopia, Japan, China, Afghanistan, and Russia was colonized at a point by imperialists. Yet most of these formerly colonized countries are free from radical religious doctrine, or if there is religious doctrine in them, they are not as strict as in Islamic countries. I will not accept America and the West as the fault of every world problem, every societal ill, every armed conflict, and every fucking imperfection on Earth. There has to be some responsibility and accountability. Some will say "the 1953 Mossadegh affair is why Iran has no democracy." But then, what do you say about Greece and the junta? Or the countless other countries in which democracy has taken wing subsequent to a CIA coup?
Just as racist doctrine kept the vast majority of South African from freedom during apartheid, radical religious doctrine does the same in Islamic countries and communities. This is why radical Muslim groups across the globe are committing acts of gross terrorism and seek empire, as they imperialists they are. The US is not the only country to be attacked by jihadism. Countries who no affiliation with Israel or the Israel/Palestinian saga are attacked and their citizens terrorized by jihad.
I am a liberal. That is why I support freedom and civil rights for ALL people:Arabs, Muslims, and those who fit neither category. And ladies and gentlemen, this is why I must oppose radical Islam.
Tags: jihadism, netroots, radical Islam (all tags)
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