Posted on 06/08/2008 2:54:37 AM PDT by SolidWood
Alright FReepers, this is my first quasi-vanity, in the sense that I don't post an article by another source, but wrote myself on Dr. Todenhöfer, a shining example of elitist, academic and political Dhimmitude and Anti-Americanism in Germany.
If you think the American MSM is biased, if not downright sympathetic towards the Jihadi enemy, and if you think that Michael Moore is a propagandist slob, you haven't met Jürgen Todenhöfer. Sure the German media outlets, such as the "Spiegel" and "Stern" have an infamous history of BDS and anti-Americanism, but Dr. Todenhöfer trumps that.
Dr. Jürgen Todenhöfer (67) is an executive at one of the largest European publishers ("Hubert Burda Media"). Before that he was a member of the German parliament for 18 years and spokesman for the CDU/CSU (Christian "Conservative" party) on development and arms control.
2003 and now again Herr Todenhöfer has written two books named "Who cries for Abdul and Tanya" (a tearjerker bashing eeeevil Americans), and now "Why do you kill, Zaid?", which is a jaw-dropping defense of Jihad as legitimate defense against eeevil Judeo-Christian Imperialism.
His books are bestsellers in Germany and he has making rounds in all major German late-night TV discussions where he is revered as a major expert. Most disgusting I was hinted by a friend in Germany today that he appeared on N24 (Germany's major News-Channel) on a Sunday-morning talk-show named "God's will-Ethic questions" a show where religious and ethic questions are discussed, hosted by a monk (!). There the dhimmi-monk was sucking up the vitriol Todenhöfer spewed, when for instance he blamed the Holocaust on Christianity to defend Islamic Jihadism as harmless.
On his Website Todenhöfer offers us his asinine "Ten theses on the War on Terror":
1. The West is much more violent than the Muslim world. Millions of Arab civilians have been killed since colonialism began.
2. Faced with the warmongering of the West, it is really not surprising that support for Muslim extremists continues to grow.
3. Terrorists in Islamic disguise are murderers. The same holds true for the ringleaders disguised as Christians who wage wars of aggression in contravention of international law.
4. Muslims were and are at least as tolerant as Jews and Christians. They have made a major contribution to Western civilization.
5. Love of God and love of one's neighbor are the central commandments not only in the Bible but also in the Qur'an.
6. Western policies towards the Muslim world suffer from a shocking ignorance of even the simplest facts.
7. The West must treat the Muslim world just as fairly as it treats Israel. Muslims are worth as much as Jews and Christians.
8. The Muslims must champion a progressive and tolerant Islam, as did their prophet Muhammad. They must strip terrorism of its religious mask.
9. Nothing fosters terrorism more than the West's "war on terror". Muslim countries must resolve their problems with radical Islamism themselves.
10. What is needed now is the art of statesmanship, not the art of war - in the Iran conflict, the Iraq conflict and the Palestine conflict.
Not enough, the German press (well partially owned by himself) left and right is praising Todenhöfer as a truthteller... Even the largest "conservative" German newspaper, the FAZ (Frankfurt) is labelling distractors of Todenhöfer as "islam-hating Internet-junkies with too much time".
Of course the American leftist media has been sucking up to his hate-mongering as well... his website features links to the "Democratic Underground" and "DailyKos"... and he bought 3 pages of the "New York Times" for an attack ad on American Imperialism and Colonialism
Todenhöfers's three pages of the NYT.
Yes, this is what passes as "expertise", "honest journalism" and to many also as "conservative" in Germany. Ugh.
Youtube features dozens of his interviews on German and English-language TV.
For an honest (German) look on Anti-Americanism in German media, I recommend "Davids Medienkritik" (David's media criticism) http://medienkritik.typepad.com/ . They feature in German and English.
Does Israel know about this? If they do, I am sure everything that has been done to her is all just a misunderstanding of this fine sentiment. Here is a present for Jurgen, this is from a Pali children's TV show, state sponsored. It puts to shame all of his lofty tenets.
Wow, how bad we are!
Where are the Jewish and Christian civilizations blowin up and bulldozing ancient religious sites like the Muslims are doing aroundt the world on the basis that they offend "Allah"?
And this isn't "terrorism" this is under the guise of government.
He’ll also have to show this “tolerance” in muslim supremacist countries that do not permit the practice of any faith other than Islam and that have the death penalty for kufir who violate this law and for muslims who dare convert away from Islam.
In what sense? Again there are "intolerance" muslim nations.
When a government calls the United States the Great Satan and urges our destruction (as they also do against Israel), they have declared war on Americans.
When did Israel ever declare war on us?
Secondly, he is of course a controversial figure in the CDU, quote himself: "I'm unable to assimilate in important questions. You don't get far in a party with that. If you ask Helmut Kohl if I've ever been a politician, he'll have a laughing fit." (quoted from a FAZ interview).
Finally, I'd be grateful to see the FAZ sources celebrating him and denigrating his opponents, because the review of his book "Warum tötest du, Faiz?" I found there describes it as deliberately one-sided and often uncritical of the interviewed arabs.
I don’t agree with Todenhöfer, but that’s just a knee jerk reflex. What do you expect, obedience out of gratitude?
Between the best Germans who left for America, and the second-best who were slaughtered in two world wars, what's left is a bunch of Beta "Jawohl Johanns". If he were from America, he'd be the crazy guy who calls local talk shows spouting off about how the Bilderbergers have fluoridated the water. Unfortunately, considering what's left in Germany, this is what passes for manhood.
Before any of you German freepers flame me, I know from experience the only Germans I've ever met had French accents and had names like "Matthias".
After telling us how evil Western civilization is, ie the West is much more violent than Islam, they turn around and then take credit for the accomplishments of Western civilization. Hmmmm, perhaps Islam's contribution to Western civilization is violence?
In any case, all the media in Europe and here is doing is totally discrediting themselves. People's daily experiences with Muslim immigration consists of crime, degradation of their language and culture, aggressive demands of a minority combined with the weakness and dhimmitude of the elite of society.
In the US, this shows up more as the issue of illegal immigration of tens of millions of Mexicans. The elite tells us that these illegals are essentially better than Americans, they do the jobs Americans won't do, they have lower crime rates, they have family values. See, no problema. In Europe, it shows up as the issue of Muslim immigration with the same denial of reality, the same condesencion, the same attacks of bigotry and racism, if you don't go along with the program of self-destruction.
Todenhofer is just one example. The Todenhofers of Europe and Lindsey Grahams of America are going to be in for a rude awakening, when the people have had enough.
South Africa had a wave of violence against illegal immigrants. Canary in the mine?
David’s Medienkritik may be one sided, but it’s the only (there might be some minor other) counterbalance to the Anti-American hate spewed by the German MSM.
Regarding the FAZ, read here:
http://www.faz.net/s/RubC17179D529AB4E2BBEDB095D7C41F468/Doc~EE33DF9AC26684351B19C9AD40529A5D4~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html
"Many of you have in your veins German and Italian blood. But remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and remained slaves."
I’m reminded of the League of German Jews, the tiny pro-Nazi organization of Jews that lasted until they were all sent to concentration camps.
That’s strange, because searching for Todenhöfer in the FAZ I found this one:
What I don’t like about DM is that a lot of their articles supposedly uncovering Antiamericanism are as constructed as you might suppose it on some a bit more extreme left wing paper. When I looked last, they for example commented on some SPIEGEL cover story about the rise of the Euro, saying that while a story such as this would not normally count as Antiamericanism, one would have to see it in the context of the SPIEGEL being Antiamerican. That’s just not very professional, but rather polemic. And that’s not the first time I’ve seen a rather questionable article on DM. Some of their work definitely has a point, especially the earlier stuff. The picture of some Union magazine showing the US industry as blood sucking insects is clearly Antiamericanism. But all in all, I just find DM to be rather manipulative in filling their front page and catering to their main audience.
Well, I agree with the first part of what you said. But Todenhöfer obviously is an opponent of the Iraq war, so some values are not shared. Contributing to the discussion is a center point of western civilisation and the Democracy you reinstalled in Germany and that’s what he did. If the empathy wasn’t there, he would probably not bother at all. I don’t really enjoy defending him, but I just don’t see how the comparison of a single man with left wing views and opposed to the war who wrote a book to Goebbels can be remotely fair.
Mind if I ask where your from.
What I wanted to point out was that Todenhöfer is a controversial figure in Germany and that the FAZ also wrote a rather critical review of his book. So it's business as usual. You also have this kind of persons in the USA and you wouldn't doubt their commitment to Democracy, because after all that is what enables them to be critical of Government decisions in the first place. And if I take Democracy serious I can not expect them to shut up, I can just expect to shut them up, or at least make them look like the manipulative assholes they are.
Got ya. Thanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.