Outlaw incendiary speech
Outlaw incendiary speech
Anne Applebaum writing in The Washington Post comments on the appointment of Karen Hughes to the job of fighting anit-Americanism worldwide
[..]It has become clear in Iraq, if it wasn't already, that what we call the "war on terrorism" is in fact a small part of a larger intellectual and religious struggle within Islam, between moderates who want to live in modern countries, and radicals who want to impose their extreme interpretation of sharia , or religious law. So far, most of the money, and most of the "public diplomacy," has been channeled to the radicals.
What an odd way to describe the struggle as between the radicals and moderates within the Islamic world. What struggle, what moderates. In fact the moderates are few and far between and there is no struggle. See a very important article Salim Mansur entitled
The Myth of the Moderate Muslim.
Consider, for example, an extraordinary report published this year by the Center for Religious Freedom, a division of Freedom House, which surveys more than 200 books and pamphlets collected at mosques and Islamic centers in U.S. cities. Most were in Arabic. All were published by the Saudi government or royal family, and all promote the extreme form of Wahhabi Islam found in Saudi Arabia. The books reflect contempt for the United States, condemn democracy as un-Islamic, and claim that Muslims are religiously obliged to hate Christians and Jews. Most insidiously, the documents denounce moderate Muslims, especially those who advocate religious tolerance, as infidels. If a Muslim commits adultery or becomes a homosexual, one pamphlet -- published by the Saudi government's ministry of Islamic affairs -- advises that "it would be lawful for Muslims to spill his blood and take his money."
I am citing this study not merely to finger the Saudis, but also to show what we are up against. The Saudi king's own Web site boasts of his support for mosques and schools in Lagos, Islamabad, Madrid, Buenos Aires and elsewhere. A friend reports recently seeing a new Saudi mosque in Kosovo. We have to assume that the materials found in the United States exist in all of those places, too.[..]
This is not a public relations exercise. This excercise of free speech by Saudi Arabia specifically and Islam generally must be made illegal and all such materials confiscated and all proponents of these attitudes expelled.
Posted by Ted Belman at July 27, 2005 09:38 AM
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Outlaw incendiary speech
Anne Applebaum writing in The Washington Post comments on the appointment of Karen Hughes to the job of fighting anit-Americanism worldwide
What an odd way to describe the struggle as between the radicals and moderates within the Islamic world. What struggle, what moderates. In fact the moderates are few and far between and there is no struggle. See a very important article Salim Mansur entitled The Myth of the Moderate Muslim.
This is not a public relations exercise. This excercise of free speech by Saudi Arabia specifically and Islam generally must be made illegal and all such materials confiscated and all proponents of these attitudes expelled.
Posted by Ted Belman at July 27, 2005 09:38 AM