Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Islamist speech bullies
We were horrified by the Salman Rushdie fatwa, and astounded at the ferocious backlash at the Pope, whose predecessor an Islamist once tried to murder.
We took the 'Danish cartoon riots' in stride, and barely noticed the snuff-video beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl after he was made to declare that he was a Jew, or the release of TV newsmen Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig after they were made to convert to Islam on film.
Now a French philosophy teacher named Redeker is in hiding a la Rushdie. The incident raises only eyebrows, and only a relative few.
Sadly, we've become accustomed to ugly Islamist bullying and media blackmail.
That's partly why this incident in Bangladesh, as detailed in the Solomonia blog, struggled to make news beyond the local papers:
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi Muslim journalist who invited (Benkin, a Jewish acquaintance) to write about Israel from a Jewish point of view, will be tried this month on charges of spying for the Jewish state. The crime is punishable by death ...Who, honestly, could be even be mildly surprised?
With Choudhury's support, Benkin wrote the first pro-Zionist articles published in Bangladesh. Choudhury in turn condemned Muslim extremism in the Israeli media.
Choudhury was arrested ... before boarding a flight to Israel, where he was scheduled to deliver a lecture on Muslim-Jewish relations.
The really surprising thing is that a man like Choudhoury is so bold and pure as to take the steps he did - and in a Muslim country.
It's also no small thing that outspoken Muslim free thinker Irshad Manji is brave enough to put a photo of herself with former Israeli PM Peres on her website:
This complete with the caption: "Shimon, you and I are members of the Zionist conspiracy"
- which the worldly and educated would recognise as humour.
However, thugs of the type who caused another outspoken Muslim lass, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to be escorted 24/7 by bodyguards most certainly would not.
Yet while individuals like Choudhoury, Manji, Ali, Wafah Sultan - who rejected Islam after Salafists murdered her university lecturer - and Fouad Ajami speak their minds, senior managers at CNN and Reuters admit to restrained reportage by their own news organisations of and in the Islamic world.
They fear both endangering their employees and shrinking their market reach, not necessarily in that order.
Even YouTube feels the wrath and pressure of the "Religion of Perpetual Outrage", as Michelle Malkin reports - her slideshow on the evolution of the Danish cartoon affair having recently been inexplicably and suddenly banned there.
Headlining in Australia today, The Australian's newspaper editorialists are therefore, unfortunately, absolutely correct in complimenting the nature of Muslim community criticism of Muslim-Australian scholar Ameer Ali thus:
ISLAMIC scholar Ameer Ali has shown great courage ... in opening debate on how best to interpret Muslim faith in the modern world. The immediate reaction of Australia's Islamic leaders to Dr Ali's controversial comments is as predictable as it is disappointing. But the fact that it has been framed as a debate, as opposed to mindless violence, says a lot about Australia and its 300,000-strong Muslim community that is to be celebrated."Celebrating" the fact that a debate has not resulted in violence! What has the world come to. Especially when you consider what the doctor actually said:
... Islamists would continue to breed jihadis unless the Koran was "reinterpreted" for today's society. Dr Ali ... is writing an academic paper entitled Closing of the Muslim Mind. ... He questions the centuries-old literal interpretation of the Koran, and says it is "rubbish" to think anyone who challenges the text will be doomed to hell. Dr Ali said Mohammed should be seen as human and imperfect, and he criticised Muslims who reacted violently towards depictions of the prophet, while aspiring to emulate his appearance. He said God would not judge Muslims on the length of their beard, but rather on their character, knowledge and contribution to society.Angry retorts to this were always inevitable, weren't they.
Even though the viewpoint is perfectly reasonable, even though similar consideration of other forms of monotheism would be considered tame and not newsworthy, Dr Ali has incurred the wrath of the Mufti of Australia, who says:
anyone who said the prophet was human and had flaws could be renounced from the faith.He challenged Dr Ali to withdraw his remarks - or be barred from standing at any religious ceremony. Other reactions are less restrained. And yet, as The Australian says, we should be thankful that the response is rhetorical and not vengeful.
Yet?
