Category Archives: Islam

"Wafa Wows the West" (But not Muslims and Media)

It’s … of special significance that members of the American news media—not Al-Jazeera—have distorted what [Wafa] Sultan has said, introducing their bias into her unambiguous words. Equally intriguing is the fact that Al-Jazeera—not the American Fourth Estate—introduced Sultan to the world…
For my money, if Al-Jazeera continues to provoke viewers with the likes of Sultan, I’ll be signing on when they start to transmit here. It’s a whole lot better than enduring Chris Matthews’ incestuous love-ins with “The ‘Hardball’ hotshots.” That’s when MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, and Rita Cosby aka “Throaty McHuskington,” who each torture us independently during their respective programs, combine to amplify the unedifying effects.
As for the girls at CNN—Paula Zahn, Kyra Phillips and Anderson Cooper appear indifferent to professional competition. Edgy reporting elsewhere never rubs off on this crew. They prefer to kvetch interminably about colorectal, breast and lung cancer; anorexia nervosa, and Katrina. In this stream of soporific, soft-news stories, Wafa Sultan is indeed a rarity.

Wafa Sultan is the reason I praise Al-Jazeera in my new column, “Wafa Wows the West (But not Muslims and Media).”

“Wafa Wows the West” (But not Muslims and Media)

Islam, Media, Middle East

It’s … of special significance that members of the American news media—not Al-Jazeera—have distorted what [Wafa] Sultan has said, introducing their bias into her unambiguous words. Equally intriguing is the fact that Al-Jazeera—not the American Fourth Estate—introduced Sultan to the world…
For my money, if Al-Jazeera continues to provoke viewers with the likes of Sultan, I’ll be signing on when they start to transmit here. It’s a whole lot better than enduring Chris Matthews’ incestuous love-ins with “The ‘Hardball’ hotshots.” That’s when MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, Joe Scarborough, and Rita Cosby aka “Throaty McHuskington,” who each torture us independently during their respective programs, combine to amplify the unedifying effects.
As for the girls at CNN—Paula Zahn, Kyra Phillips and Anderson Cooper appear indifferent to professional competition. Edgy reporting elsewhere never rubs off on this crew. They prefer to kvetch interminably about colorectal, breast and lung cancer; anorexia nervosa, and Katrina. In this stream of soporific, soft-news stories, Wafa Sultan is indeed a rarity.

Wafa Sultan is the reason I praise Al-Jazeera in my new column, “Wafa Wows the West (But not Muslims and Media).”

Bush Cries Croc Over Dubai

Bush, Government, Islam

As you know, those who furiously plugged the Dubai Ports deal were equally energetic about cussing Americans for their alleged racism. These Kudlow-and-company types must also think Americans are all liars. When polled people claimed to be concerned with national security. Their detractors, however, assert they were concealing rank racism and Islamophobia.

Indeed, the Dubai debacle has served as the all-time low-life litmus test—in their self-righteous haste to substitute ad hominem arguments for substantive debate, neoconservatives and their left-libertarian allies in this affair truly showed their skunk appeal.

Needless to say, Americans are not a bigoted lot. To them the deal was so obviously dicey—most of the Bush administration’s schemes are. Even if DP World were the most apolitical, service and safety-oriented franchise in the world, unheard of in a government-owned entity, the deal would still raise serious security reservations.

Rather than lose face, President Bush, a scheming and antagonistic character, has shifted from the eff-off position to the I’m-right-so-eff-you posture. He said “the collapse of the Dubai ports deal sends the wrong message to American allies in the Middle East.”

That’s vintage Bush logic for you. It’s a lot like his, “We are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” asininity. As though the mess in Mesopotamia and terrorism in the US were mutually exclusive occurrences.

By logical extension, close relationships with our Arab allies do not necessarily require extreme displays of faith and confidence. Building trust can be a gradual and slow process. The fact that we have not let DP World have the run of the ports is not a rejection of friendship; it’s merely an exercise of choice. The one doesn’t preclude the other. Only in Bush’s simplistic and manipulative mind could the people’s will (anathema to him) be framed in this way.

Besides, if Bush is so concerned about how the Arab world views us, he should not have invaded a sovereign Arab country, killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and propelled the place into a bloody civil war.

Danes and Deniers

Anti-Semitism, Free Speech, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Journalism, Judaism & Jews, Media

Holocaust denier David Irving, whom I’ve defended here, has become the cause celebre for the terminally self-righteous. Some in the West simply refuse to defend the Danes in a meaningful and morally unambiguous manner. So instead, they bang on about the admittedly shabby treatment of Irving. In their eyes, the Danes and their controversial drawings cannot be disentangled from the Irving issue.

At the risk of repeating myself, the need to repeal laws prohibiting hate speech and Holocaust denial cannot be overemphasized; nobody wants to see Irving jailed for being a jerk.

So what of those who say hounding this Holocaust denier makes the West “guilty of the crimes with which we charge the Muslims”? Well, the idea that aggression exists on a continuum is asinine—pure left-liberalism. According to this slippery-slope illogic, the European laws banning Holocaust denial—and they are indefensible—are as distasteful as beheading—or scheming to behead—”heretics.”

Now that’s a howler!