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After Garland, Don’t Change the Subject to Islamophobia
Commentary ^ | 05.04.2015 - 11:45 AM | Jonathan S. Tobin

Posted on 05/04/2015 3:39:48 PM PDT by robowombat

After Garland, Don’t Change the Subject to Islamophobia Jonathan S. Tobin 05.04.2015 - 11:45 AM

Almost immediately after the news of last night’s shooting in Garland, Texas broke many in the chattering class started to blame the intended victims of the attack. The group that had sponsored a contest to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammad and two of the controversial speakers at the event were quickly depicted as having invited violence by their willingness to offend Muslims. But whether or not you agree with Dutch politician Geert Wilders or American activist Pam Geller, the failed attempt to slaughter them or those who chose to hear their words illustrated one of their main contentions. You can offend any other religion with impunity but dare to speak rudely or even truthfully about Islamist intolerance and you’d better pay for heavy security and/or hope the police are doing their job (as, thank Heaven, they were in Texas). That, and not whether or not Wilders or Geller are right about some things or even anything, remains the only question to discuss when it comes to talk about Islamophobia.

Let’s specify that not all Muslims, especially here in the United States, are violent or intolerant. Most are hard working, decent people and deserve the same respect as any other American.

But there is a reason why humorists fear to skewer Islam or its holy book the same way they do Catholics or Mormons. You can mock Christian symbols, call it art and then expect cultural elites to lionize you and denounce those who are offended as fascists. You can stage an opera rationalizing Palestinian terrorism and the murder of Jews and be lionized as a courageous defender of artistic freedom and call those who denounce your bad taste Philistines. Write a play wittily trashing the Mormon faith and you can become immensely rich. None of those activities are particularly commendable but they are safe. But speak ill of Islam and you take your life into your hands.

Talk about Islamophobia in the United States is misleading since there is little or no evidence that the years that followed 9/11 or even now after the rise of ISIS that Muslims have suffered discrimination or violence. To the contrary, anti-Semitic attacks have always far outnumbered those despicable incidents in which Muslims were targeted. But the attempt to distract us from Muslim intolerance also misses the point.

You may say it is bad that some people are drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad specifically to offend Muslims who believe such drawings are forbidden. But the problem is that unlike other faiths that have learned to express outrage about those who show them disrespect without violence, a great many Muslims throughout the world still take it as a given that they are entitled to kill those who commit what they call blasphemy. The attacks on the Danish newspaper that first thought to publish Muhammad cartoons and then Charlie Hebdo illustrated this distorted principle.

The editors of Charlie Hebdo, Wilders and Geller need to be defended not because they are right about everything they say, write or draw. They aren’t right about everything as is inevitable with anyone who ignores nuances and seeks to inflame rather than analyze and illuminate. But, contrary to many of the talking heads on television today, they aren’t the problem. The problem is that a variant of Islam that commands the loyalty of hundreds of millions around the globe thinks it is okay to kill those who blaspheme against Islam. It is that faith that leads terrorists to cut off the heads of non-believers and to wage a war of conquest across the Middle East that threatens the security of the region and the United States. Nor is it a coincidence that this same not insignificant splinter of Islam is also promoting vicious anti-Semitism and helped fuel a rising tide of Jew hatred across Europe.

So, just as it is offensive to speak of the slain editors of Charlie Hebdo as being unworthy of our defense because of their harsh views, it is just as inadmissible for today’s discussion to center on whether or not Wilders or Geller are too provocative or show bad taste in their attacks on Islam. That may be hard for some in the Muslim world to accept. It may also be equally hard for many on the left, both here and in Europe, who have wrongly come to accept the idea that Islam may not be offended because it is a victim of imperialism and the West or the Jews who must always be seen as the villain. But the struggle against intolerant Islamism is one that hinges on the right and even the necessity to make it clear to the world that Muslims must learn to tolerate other views of their faith. Free speech can’t be sacrificed to Islamist sensibilities. Until it is safe for Wilders and Geller to speak without massive security measures, let us hear no more about the evils of Islamophobia.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: garland; geller; islam; pamelageller

1 posted on 05/04/2015 3:39:48 PM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat

Every time a Secular Surrender Monkey hurls the charge of “provocative,” Pamela Geller and everyone else should say: “Are you proposing that I should censor myself? In other words, you are telling me that we—all of us Americans—should submit to Sharia Law? That is what you’re saying, isn’t it?”


2 posted on 05/04/2015 3:43:48 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: robowombat

about that word islamophobia...no muslims got killed after the slaughter of Christians; no muslims died at the mohammed conference in Texas; so conclusion...there is no islamophobia.


3 posted on 05/04/2015 3:48:54 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: robowombat

bkmk


4 posted on 05/04/2015 3:50:44 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: robowombat

quickly depicted as having invited violence by their willingness to offend ??

They said the same thing about Gabby Giffords and the Tea Party right? She INVITED the SHOOTING because of her Hatred of Freedom, at least until they found out he was a wild eyed leftist.


5 posted on 05/04/2015 3:52:56 PM PDT by eyeamok
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To: Arthur McGowan

Rush had a good point on this today. If sharia law makes it a crime to draw cartoons of their prophet, what does sharia law say about homosexuality? In stead of refusing to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding should I just drag the couple up to the roof of a five-story building and heave them over?


6 posted on 05/04/2015 3:54:22 PM PDT by SkiKnee
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To: robowombat

People who say it is wrong to criticize Islam, are condeming all those Muslims who want to leave that religion. How could Muslims who begin to question their faith, ever feel free or safe too do that publicly ? But that is how the left works, calling any black who leaves their welfare plantation, an Uncle Tom. They are simply put, cultists.


7 posted on 05/04/2015 4:00:15 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: robowombat

There should be more Mohammed cartoon drawing contests. Smoke ‘em out.


8 posted on 05/04/2015 4:11:17 PM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
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To: robowombat

The two dead Islamists made Pam’s point far better than she could.

Pray America is waking


9 posted on 05/04/2015 4:15:30 PM PDT by bray (Cruz to the WH)
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To: RginTN

In January 17,2015, and the same public school center, there was a “Stand with the Prophet” rally by Muslims, a pro-Shariah law event, by supporters Al-Qaida and Isis organized by one of the terrorists implicate in the bombing of the garage of the NY World Trade Center in 2003. I wonder if those who try to blame the organizers of the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest,” for the Muslim terrorist attack would have justified if some patriotic American had irrupted in Muslim rally on January 2015 and made a massacre of Islamic terrorists. After all, Americans are profoundly offended by the abuse of our freedoms by those who made the Muslim rally in support of the savages that decapitate, crucify and burned Christians alive, a real grievance more justified than the alleged offense provoked among the Islamic fanatics by the Mohamed cartoons.


10 posted on 05/04/2015 4:25:51 PM PDT by Dqban22
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To: robowombat

Islamorealism.


11 posted on 05/04/2015 4:30:41 PM PDT by TigersEye (STONE COLD ZOMBIE SCOURGE)
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To: robowombat

Just on Fox News, both terrorist’s taken down by one patrol officer with his “Service Revolver”.....guess they should have picked a different Cop or State, LOL...


12 posted on 05/04/2015 6:12:14 PM PDT by GT1945 (islim is a devil worshipping cult)
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To: Arthur McGowan
I think that's basically what she did today
13 posted on 05/04/2015 6:31:17 PM PDT by cornelis
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To: virgil
There should be more Mohammed cartoon drawing contests. Smoke ‘em out.

Think of them as muzzie bug zappers.

14 posted on 05/04/2015 6:32:47 PM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: cornelis

She did. But I thought she could have been even more direct.

What I mean is, she stood up again and again for freedom of speech, but I think she could have confronted Camerota’s calls for SELF-CENSORSHIP more explicitly, and LABELED them as “submitting to Sharia Law.”

I haven’t heard this expression recently, but for a awhile after 9/11 people used to say, If you do this or that, you’re “letting the terrorists win.”

Of course, with Obama in the White House, the AGENDA of the Democrats, (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc.) is out in the open: Letting the terrorists win.


15 posted on 05/04/2015 6:43:14 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: GT1945
That made me realize that I don't need to CHL my AR anymore, now
I just need bigger magazines for my pocket pistol..


16 posted on 05/04/2015 6:52:10 PM PDT by MaxMax (Call the local GOP and ask how you can support CRUZ for POTUS, Make them talk!)
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To: abb

SHAMEFUL ATTACKS BY THE DHIMMIT MEDIA TO PAMELA GELLER AND GERT WILDERS

The American “Dhimmitude” media, cowed by Islamic violence, has accepted total submission to the mandates of the Islamic terrorists.

Pamela Geller, Gert Wilders, and Bosch Fawstin (the winner of the contest) are real heroes that have not accepted to be intimidated by Islamic terrorists. It is denigrating for the American media to see their pundits attacking the freedom of expression of those opposed to the Islamization of U.S.

On January 17,2015 and in the same public school center, there was a “Stand with the Prophet” rally by Muslims, a provocative pro-Shariah law event, by supporters of Al-Qaida and Isis organized by one of the terrorists implicated in the bombing of the garage of the NY World Trade Center in 1993.

I wonder if those who try to blame the organizers of the “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest,” for the Muslim terrorist attack would have justified if a patriotic American had irrupted in the Muslim rally on January and made a massacre of Islamic terrorists. After all, Americans are profoundly offended by their provocation and the abuse of our freedoms by those who made the Muslim rally in support of the savages that decapitate, crucify and burned Christians alive.

The “Dhimmitude” media, scared by Islamic violence, auto-censors itself and tries to justify the terrorist attack in Texas because the Mohamed cartoons contest offended the sensibility of Islamic terrorists.

On January 2015, radical Islamists desecrated the holy soil of Texas. Do not mess with Texas!!!

ISIS Comes To Texas – This Is War

Noisy Room ^ | May 4 2015 | Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3286035/posts?page=2


17 posted on 05/05/2015 12:11:01 PM PDT by Dqban22
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To: virgil

The “Draw Jesus Christ” contest, meanwhile, went unnoticed.


18 posted on 05/05/2015 12:12:24 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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