Modern 'Dreyfus Affair' Is Unworthy of America (Eric Margolis says we're mean to Muslims)

The Toronto Sun ^ | January 18, 2004 | Eric Margolis

[quidnunc]

Hatred of Muslims has become the anti-Semitism of our era. The latest example of this ugly fact is the vicious prosecution by the U.S. military of a Muslim army chaplain, Capt. James Yee.

I call this disgraceful and shameful case America's Dreyfus Affair.

In 1894, a French army officer, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was wrongfully convicted of spying on the basis of forged documents. Though evidence pointed to another officer, anti-Semites in the French Army framed Dreyfus. He was given a life sentence on Devil's Island, a brutal, malarial penal colony in the Caribbean off French Guiana.

-snip-

As a former member of the U.S. Army, I know there is not much real justice in so-called military justice.

It's up to the president and Congress to order the Pentagon generals who approved this sordid case to dismiss the charges against the American Dreyfus and present him with an enormous apology. If anyone belongs behind bars, it is the cretins who accused Yee of espionage. But as all soldiers know, the military always covers its backside.

If Capt. Yee was any religion except Muslim, his prosecution — persecution is a more apt term — would have raised a public outcry. But the Bush administration's paranoia and relentless anti-Islamic fervour, and the growing hate campaign directed against Muslims by the president's fundamentalist Christian and neo-conservative allies, has legitimized persecution of Muslim-Americans, who now live in a state of fear that is beginning to resemble the growing terror felt by German Jews in the early 1930s.

The Yee Affair is only one of a large number of cases in which Muslims have been charged by the government with non-existent or wildly exaggerated offences, then forced to admit guilt under threats of life sentences, or even execution.

Capt. Yee courageously refused to be intimidated into confessing to crimes he did not commit. His only serious offence, according to the evidence so far available, was being a caring chaplain in a Devil's Island created to terrify and punish Muslims.

[Blue Screen of Death]

And to think that many Canadian leftists complain because America involves itself in the affairs of other countries. Oh well, I guess things are running so well up there in tundraville that they have time to advise us on becoming a perfect society.

[reed_inthe_wind]

Compare six million dead Jews to the balmy atmosphere of the USA, where Muslims are completely safe and free. Hmmm.

[dighton]

Margolis gets nuttier by the minute.

[quidnunc]

Blue Screen of Deathwrote: And to think that many Canadian leftists complain because America involves itself in the affairs of other countries. Oh well, I guess things are running so well up there in tundraville that they have time to advise us on becoming a perfect society.

Eric Margolis isn't a Canadian leftist, he's an American paleoconservative.

He's a regular contributor to Pat Buchanan's 'The American Conservative.'

[skinkinthegrass]

IMHO...This is your usual Liberal-Socialist, Anti-American, Anti-Western, Pro-Jihadist Cr*p, We get from the British And Arab @ss-wipe Papers most, (if not always) of the time.

[quidnunc]

skinkinthegrass wrote: IMHO...This is your usual Liberal-Socialist, Anti-American, Anti-Western, Pro-Jihadist Cr*p, We get from the British And Arab @ss-wipe Papers most, (if not always) of the time.

No this is the usual paleoconservative anti-American, anti-Western, pro-jihadist cr*p, we get from the paleocon publications.

[skinkinthegrass]

Eric Margolis isn't a Canadian leftist, he's an American paleoconservative....He's a regular contributor to Pat Buchanan's 'The American Conservative.'

So sad to see...Pat B., go off the Abyss in '92...to become a home-grown an New Age Luddite..."Why can't we go back to the 1890s America" kinda guy.

[skinkinthegrass]

No, this is the usual paleoconservative anti-American, anti-Western, pro-jihadist cr*p, we get from the paleocon publications.

Agree...an New Age Luddite. :/

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

In 1894, a French army officer, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, who was Jewish, was wrongfully convicted of spying on the basis of forged documents. Therefore, Yee is innocent.

Typical non sequitir brought up by libs. Such as, "Richard Jewel was falsely accused of setting off the bomb at the Olympic Games in Atlanta." Therefore:
Michael Jackson is innocent. or,
Scott Peterson is innocent. or,
Kobe Bryant is innocent.

In other words, the fact that someone was once falsely accused in a completely unrelated case, in a completely different country, in a complete different time, is used to "prove" that someone in the here and now is innocent.

Yee may be innocent. Ditto for Jackson, Peterson, Kobe, and OJ Simpson. (Okay, not OJ Simpson.) But the Dreyfus Affair in the 19th century doesn't have a scintilla of relevance to any of these cases.

[Mears]

Of course we have animosity towards Muslims,the outspoken Muslims have animosity towards us,The Great Satan.

After 9-11 we all had changed feeling towards Muslims,that's human nature.

During WW11,when I was a young one,we hated "Japs",Germans,and Italians.. Seems silly now,but that's the way it was.

[Democratshavenobrains]

Are all paleo-conservatives cheerleaders for Islamists now?

[Verginius Rufus]

Oh, yes, the cases are very similar...at the time of the Dreyfus affair, Jewish suicide bombers were blowing up pizza parlors, and Jewish hijackers were flying planes into buildings.

There's no comparison between Devil's Island and Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo is in a part of the world people travel to for vacations, for Pete's sake.

[facedown]

I call this disgraceful and shameful case America's Dreyfus Affair.

And I call you (Eric) an idiot.

[Polybius]

Oh, yes, the cases are very similar...at the time of the Dreyfus affair, ...Jewish hijackers were flying planes into buildings.

Well, not exactly. That was in 1894. Their evil plan never got off the ground. ;-)

[Headfulofghosts]

Who the shampoo is this Margolis?

[albertabound]

Margolis is not a Canuck. He is an American.

[skinkinthegrass]

Are all paleo-conservatives cheerleaders for Islamists now?

...Most, it seems...They've Become, What they fear most. LIBERAL (the self-hating type).

[hellinahandcart]

Uh huh. "Papillon II", the James Yee story...

[aculeus]

Margolis gets nuttier by the minute.

Sadly, yes. It may be his European education (Swiss prep school) showing.