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Mark Steyn: He was an American, a Jew -- a trophy
National Post (Canada) ^ | 02/25/2002 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 02/26/2002 6:59:13 AM PST by Pokey78

Will militant Islam's apologists finally put an end to their own 'misconceptions'?

There was a young lady of Niger

Who smiled as she rode on a tiger

They returned from the ride

With the lady inside

And the smile on the face of the tiger.

The smile on the face of the tiger is the video recording of the death of Daniel Pearl. What an accomplished production it sounds. According to Pakistani authorities, somewhere between five and eight persons were present to choreograph and record the murder of The Wall Street Journal reporter. They wanted to get it right, and, from their point of view, they did. The Arab News describes the video thus:

"As he finishes the statement, a hand appears from behind and grabs his head, while another hand appears and with a sharp-edged weapon cuts his throat."

In an artistic touch, the camera zooms in for a close-up of Pearl's severed head. See? He is an American and a Jew. We hit the jackpot! And then we cut his head off. A pity the filthy Hollywood infidels have closed their Oscar nominations, or we'd be a sure thing for Best Foreign Short.

Three weeks ago, Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent of Britain's Independent, offered a familiar argument to Pearl's kidnappers: Killing the American would be "a major blunder, an own goal of the worst kind," "the best way of ensuring that the suffering" -- of Kashmiris, Afghans, Palestinians, whatever -- "goes unrecorded." Others peddled a similar line: If you release Daniel, he'll be able to tell your story, get your message out.

Somehow we keep missing the point: the story did get out; the severed head is the message. By now, the tape has been duplicated, and re-duplicated, and copies are circulating through the bazaars and madrassahs. It's a recruitment video -- join the jihad, meet interesting people, and behead them -- and a training video, too: this is how you do it -- the statement, the knife, the defilement of the corpse. But in a more profound sense it's a boast, an act of self-congratulation, a pat on the back for a job well done: the smile on the face of the tiger.

Daniel Pearl reckoned he could ride the tiger: he was promised a meeting with an Islamofascist bigwig, so he got in a car with intermediaries he thought he knew. George Jonas wrote a brilliant column the other day on the delusions of those who think they can "establish a 'dialogue' with fanatics" or, as some of Pearl's friends put it, "bridge the misconceptions." The "misconception", presumably, is that these men are ruthless, violent, depraved. As surely we know by now, the only misconception is that that's a misconception.

Pearl thought he had won their trust, that they had accepted him as an honest broker, recognized his genuine sympathy for Muslim suffering, were willing to treat with him as one human being to another. But in the end they saw none of that: To them, he was an American, a Jew, a trophy. So they set a trap. According to one witness in a Karachi court, Omar Sheikh boasted two days beforehand that they were about to seize someone who was "anti-Islam and a Jew." By the time Robert Fisk issued his plea for mercy on February 4th, Pearl was already dead.

In Saturday's Independent, Fisk reflected on the death of the man described as his friend: "But why was he killed? Because he was a Westerner, a 'Kaffir'? Because he was an American? Or because he was a journalist?" Anyone spot the missing category? It's the one Omar Sheikh used, and the one acknowledged by Daniel Pearl in his last words: "Yes, I am a Jew ..." Fisk can't bring himself to use the word in the entire column. Full disclosure: After noodling incoherently around possible reasons for the murder, Fisk settles on a "shameful, unethical headline" over an "article by Mark Steyn" in Pearl's own Wall Street Journal. It was about Fisk's bloody beating by an Afghan mob in Pakistan last December, after which he said that, in their shoes, "I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find." It's not their fault, he insisted, their "brutality is entirely the product of others." As Fisk sees it, the mob who attacked him were "truly innocent of any crime except being the victim of the world." In The Wall Street Journal, I called this "Fiskal responsibility -- it's always the Great Satan's fault."

Insofar as there's any connection between the mugging of this vain buffoon and the murder of Daniel Pearl, it's this: History repeats itself, but, in this instance, the usual order -- tragedy's recapitulation as farce -- has been reversed. Is it too much to hope that militant Islam's apologists might finally put an end to their own "misconceptions"? Islam is not "the victim of the world," but the victim of itself. Omar Sheikh is a British public schoolboy, a graduate of the London School of Economics, and, like Osama and Mohammed Atta, a monument to the peculiar burdens of a non-deprived childhood in the Muslim world. Give 'em an e-mail address and they use it for kidnap notes. Give 'em a camcorder and they make a snuff video.

Let's assume that all the chips fell the jihadis' way, that they recruited enough volunteers to be able to kidnap and decapitate every single Jew in Palestine. Then what? Muslims would still be, as General Musharraf told a conference the other day, "the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most unenlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race." Who would "the victim of the world" blame next? The evidence of the Sudan, Nigeria, and other parts of Africa suggests that, when there are no Jews to hand, the Islamofascists happily make do with killing Christians. In Kashmir, it's the Hindus' fault. There's always someone.

Musharraf is by far the most interesting character to emerge in that part of the world in some time, and those of us who've long backed him (see my column of October 21st, 1999) as Pakistan's least worst option have been impressed by his actions since September 11th. As I wrote recently, the British should never have created Pakistan (it was a typical botched job by that silly old queen Mountbatten). Nor should the British have created the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service whose "rogue elements" (a term covering about 97% of employees) have their fingerprints on at least some of the outlying parts of the Pearl crime scene. Nor should Pakistan's charming, urbane, westernized elite -- a ruling class whose only deficiency is that they're incapable of ruling -- ever have acceded to the Islamicization of Pakistan's British-derived legal system, under which, for example, Muslims who behead Muslims face the death penalty but Muslims who behead non-Muslims don't. No matter how zealously the Pakistani police pursue Daniel Pearl's murderers, in law his life is of less value than theirs.

This then is Musharraf's moment. Will he allow his country's darkest forces to maintain his people in their squalor? Or will he do as Ataturk did after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire? If Pakistan did not exist, it would not be necessary to invent it. But it does exist, so it's necessary to reinvent it, to reverse the vast catalogue of errors made by every wretched administrator from Lord Mountbatten to Nawaz Sharif. At the very least, the General needs to dismantle the ISI and announce immediately that the Islamic biases of the justice system are being abolished and that all individuals are equal before the law.

The Americans will provide certain incentives for him to do this. If Musharraf demurs, Washington will make other arrangements. It's his choice: He can try to ride the tiger, or resolve to kill it and hang it in his trophy room.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: clashofcivilizatio; marksteynlist
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To: Pokey78
about Fisk's bloody beating by an Afghan mob in Pakistan last December, after which he said that, in their shoes, "I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find." It's not their fault, he insisted, their "brutality is entirely the product of others." As Fisk sees it, the mob who attacked him were "truly innocent of any crime except being the victim of the world." ............................Let's SEE which side of his mouth he's talking out of. After all, if what he says is TRUE, then he should have NOOOOO second thoughts about going to that hellhole and bringing back the decapitated body of his friend.

Right?

Fisk, that's a Jewish name, isn't it?

21 posted on 02/26/2002 7:58:32 AM PST by mommadooo3
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To: Pokey78
Radical islam is an insane death cult.

"Moderate" islam is the Trojan horse of radical islam.

God knows the entire islamic world needs a modern Ataturk, but I doubt that the man lives who could pull off the job and survive.

22 posted on 02/26/2002 8:00:37 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: rebdov
The Fiskers would offer themselves as an Eid sacrifice rather than admit the faults of their beloved.

That's the truth!

The danger is that they are offering you and me as sacrifices also.

23 posted on 02/26/2002 8:02:24 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Roger Young
Hmmm.... then I wonder why Musharref keeps a big portrait of Ataturk prominently dosplayed in his office for visitors to notice and report?
24 posted on 02/26/2002 8:04:23 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Pokey78
bttt
25 posted on 02/26/2002 8:06:18 AM PST by Huck
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Comment #26 Removed by Moderator

Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: Pokey78
BTTT. Good post. Well done for Steyn.
28 posted on 02/26/2002 8:15:37 AM PST by Navy Patriot
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To: Pokey78; Snow Bunny; Alamo-Girl; Republican Wildcat; Howlin; Fred Mertz; onyx; SusanUSA; RonDog...
Mark Steyn: He was an American, a Jew -- a trophy

Excerpt:

Daniel Pearl reckoned he could ride the tiger: he was promised a meeting with an Islamofascist bigwig, so he got in a car with intermediaries he thought he knew. George Jonas wrote a brilliant column the other day on the delusions of those who think they can "establish a 'dialogue' with fanatics" or, as some of Pearl's friends put it, "bridge the misconceptions." The "misconception", presumably, is that these men are ruthless, violent, depraved. As surely we know by now, the only misconception is that that's a misconception.

Pearl thought he had won their trust, that they had accepted him as an honest broker, recognized his genuine sympathy for Muslim suffering, were willing to treat with him as one human being to another. But in the end they saw none of that: To them, he was an American, a Jew, a trophy. So they set a trap. According to one witness in a Karachi court, Omar Sheikh boasted two days beforehand that they were about to seize someone who was "anti-Islam and a Jew." By the time Robert Fisk issued his plea for mercy on February 4th, Pearl was already dead.

In Saturday's Independent, Fisk reflected on the death of the man described as his friend: "But why was he killed? Because he was a Westerner, a 'Kaffir'? Because he was an American? Or because he was a journalist?" Anyone spot the missing category? It's the one Omar Sheikh used, and the one acknowledged by Daniel Pearl in his last words: "Yes, I am a Jew ..." Fisk can't bring himself to use the word in the entire column. Full disclosure: After noodling incoherently around possible reasons for the murder, Fisk settles on a "shameful, unethical headline" over an "article by Mark Steyn" in Pearl's own Wall Street Journal. It was about Fisk's bloody beating by an Afghan mob in Pakistan last December, after which he said that, in their shoes, "I would have done just the same to Robert Fisk. Or any other Westerner I could find." It's not their fault, he insisted, their "brutality is entirely the product of others." As Fisk sees it, the mob who attacked him were "truly innocent of any crime except being the victim of the world." In The Wall Street Journal, I called this "Fiskal responsibility -- it's always the Great Satan's fault."
(((PING))))))
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

29 posted on 02/26/2002 8:19:23 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: pabianice
I have been saying this for months...the world of Islam...and I mean just that..all the world would be Islam either by passive or aggressive means. This is the goal. Great article by Steyn. A must read for everyone.

Red

30 posted on 02/26/2002 8:25:41 AM PST by Conservative4Ever
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To: Born to Conserve
Expect more press-nappings -- it's the best way to publicize a position.

Really good observation.

However the media coverage the Islamofacist terrorists get may have severe repercussions on muslims and Islam world wide. They may lose their apologists in the media and find out that it is actually possible to have "bad" publicity.

31 posted on 02/26/2002 8:28:58 AM PST by Navy Patriot
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To: MeeknMing
Thanks for the heads up!
32 posted on 02/26/2002 10:39:52 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Pokey78
Islam is not "the victim of the world," but the victim of itself.

Wow! Mark Steyn sums up in one sentence the entire problem with Islam. This entire article is superb and a must-read.

33 posted on 02/26/2002 11:15:10 AM PST by LibertarianLiz
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To: null and void; Pokey78
Well I guess we'll never see the video here. Not to worry, they'll have us star in our own versions.

I wouldn't put it past them to be stuffing his head and mounting it on a board...

And that's only at the WSJ!

34 posted on 02/26/2002 11:26:53 AM PST by Brian Allen
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To: LibertarianLiz
This entire article is superb and a must-read.

It is darker than many of his articles, and
has to be, given the subject.  Yet he still
manages to get off some great lines.  I think
we have here the successor to H.L. Mencken.

 

35 posted on 02/26/2002 11:34:11 AM PST by gcruse
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To: FreedomPoster
You are so right. There are many people who secretly (and some not so secretly) have thought to themselves, 'well, they attacked NYC, there are a lot of Jews there, ah it couldn't happen in Iowa or N Dakota, we're safe'. I am greatly afraid that there are many more attacks coming. I am afraid that many decent folks are going to awaken from sweet dreams into a nightmare. I hope that the FBI is up to the task, but I worry. You are right to say it will take another attack to rudely shake them into reality. But I just am praying that it won't happen. BUT- I see it as inevitable. Look around the world. The handwriting is there.

After WII, anti-semitism in France was really hidden under the table. Today it is out in the open and there is an anti-Jewish attack almost daily by their large Muslim population. Look what has happened in Rome during the past week.

Islam is coming out of the closet.

36 posted on 02/26/2002 11:39:11 AM PST by rebdov
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To: rebdov
You are so right. There are many people who secretly (and some not so secretly) have thought to themselves, 'well, they
attacked NYC, there are a lot of Jews there, ah it couldn't happen in Iowa or N Dakota, we're safe'.

           Nobody I know of.  Maybe you need some new friends.  How
           anti-Jewish was the attack on the Pentagon?
.
Islam is coming out of the closet.

         Putting Jews at the center of this brings something else out of the closet.

37 posted on 02/26/2002 11:50:45 AM PST by gcruse
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To: Dark Wing
I think the WSJ reporter should be nominated for the Darwin Awards, myself.

He's not eligible, having procreated.

38 posted on 02/26/2002 11:57:27 AM PST by Britton J Wingfield
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To: gcruse
I don't think I put Jews at the center of this.
39 posted on 02/26/2002 12:10:27 PM PST by rebdov
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To: rebdov
Sorry if I misread you, but wasn't that the subject of your post?
40 posted on 02/26/2002 12:19:03 PM PST by gcruse
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