Many, many times people have told me that I need not be concerned about the global jihad, because the jihad ideology will ultimately bow before Big Macs and Britney Spears. But I am not so sure that American pop culture is really all-conquering, and even less sure that it should be -- there are ideological weapons in the West with which to beat Sharia, all of them superior to soulless and self-centered materialism. In any case, there are abundant indications already that the comforts and attractions of modern society do not in fact defuse the jihad impulse. In Islam Unveiled I tell the story of American journalist Charles Glass, who was held hostage in Lebanon by young men who whiled away the hours listening to Michael Jackson records.
And here is a story that shows how some Muslims already perceive Western pop culture as an active enemy of Islam. From Reuters, with thanks to Fjordman:
Ban Sawo Hilir, Thailand, August 30: In the wilds of southern Thailand, where people believe Islam first took root in Southeast Asia, plans to dish out cable TV with free English soccer to quell ethnic Malay unrest have not gone down well. "The kids will just watch TV and leave the Koran and their school books behind," said Haji Mustafa Bin Haji Abdul Latif of Ban Sawo Hilir in Narathiwat, one of three provinces rocked by 20 months of violence in which more than 800 people have died."I don't think it's a good idea," he says, taking a long drag on a hand-rolled cigarette at his run-down tea-shop in the exclusively Muslim village deep in the jungle.
Around him, a handful of customers give similar verdicts on the proposals by Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana to use Thai TV, karaoke stars and European soccer to wean Muslim youths away from violence....
In Ban Sawo Hilir, where there is no mobile phone reception, villagers say they can get Malaysian terrestrial TV, but the reception is fuzzy and they claim to watch it sparingly."During the fasting month, people like to watch the Koran reading competitions or classic Malaysian movies," said Midbin.
"MORE PITCHES"
Despite this, everybody at the teashop confesses to supporting either Liverpool or Manchester United and can reel off a list of top-flight players -- suggesting a slightly greater love of European soccer than they would like to admit....
Underlying it all is the fact that Buddhists from Bangkok do not understand or appreciate the Malay Muslim way of life, said Adun, a non-Malay Muslim from the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, 250 km (155 miles) to the north.
"How can those who drink beer solve the problems in a place where people only drink tea?" he said.
How distasteful that televised Western crap should be a weapon in the war of self-defense against the Jihad and its hundreds of millions of carriers. As a deplorer of pop, and supporter of mom-and-pop, culture (as long as Mom and Pop have a large library), I prefer to think that if we can't exploit the Arnoldian best that has been thought and said etc., at least we can combine diverting people from their fanatical mind-stunting Qur'an-memorization with something smacking more of Ruth Draper, and a lot less of Britney Spears. Or Ricky Gervais, Dennis Potter, Alan Bennett rather than the special effects star-wars, or the car-chases that give so much work to long-suffering stunt men, or one of those heartening dramas where a determined Mr. X, wrongly convicted of murdering Miss Y, has escaped from jail and helped by his Afro-American friend, and of course his loyal wife, has only two days left "to find the real ....." (now if you manage to fill in that blank, perhaps American movies are not quite as original and unpredictable as we have all been led to believe).
"During the fasting month, people like to watch the Koran reading competitions or classic Malaysian movies," said Midbin.
From a 1995 article in the e-journal Kinema on SE Asian cinema:
"...the depictions of Islamic law in the film [the Disney animated film Alladin] -- for example the threatened punishment of the amputation of Jasmine's hand for inadvertently stealing an apple, or the beheading (that didn't actually occur) of Aladdin for stealing a loaf of bread -- is rather tame compared to the punishments meted out in many Malaysian period films, in which characters routinely suffer amputations of various body parts, or are speared, beheaded, and/or burned alive, all in the name of Allah."
Despite this, everybody at the teashop confesses to supporting either Liverpool or Manchester United
As I told ia when he admitted to being a Liverpool supporter, most Scousers support Everton, most Mancunians support City. Osama Bin Laden is a gooner, apparently he took to the Arsenal because of Highbury's convienience to the Finsbury Park Mosque. So is Fidel Castro. He's in good company with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the former Chief Rabbi and my Dad.
Despite this, everybody at the teashop confesses to supporting either Liverpool or Manchester United
As I told ia when he admitted to being a Liverpool supporter, most Scousers support Everton, most Mancunians support City. Osama Bin Laden is a gooner, apparently he took to the Arsenal because of Highbury's convienience to the Finsbury Park Mosque. So is Fidel Castro. He's in good company with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, the former Chief Rabbi and my Dad.
Our suggestion: They can get started by eliminating al-jazeera. (Now THERE'S an example of noxious mind CONTAMINATION!!!).
A football is as hollow as a Mohammedan skull...
Ball-games don't change the Jihad-terror.
A football is as hollow as a Mohammedan skull...
Ball-games don't change the Jihad-terror.