"'Moderate' Islam is preferable to jihadism, has many admirable qualities and many less so. But attempting to align our social values with theirs would be the right’s strain of appeasement and just as doomed." Mark Steyn on Dinesh D'Souza's hot new book (thanks to Anne Crockett):
From a sophisticated writer, the central proposition of this book is absurd - that western conservatives should make common cause with “moderate Muslims”. That would be merely the inversion of the freakshow alliance between the godless left and the jihadists embodied by the participation in one of the big “anti-war” rallies of a group called “Queers For Palestine”. “Moderate” Islam is preferable to jihadism, has many admirable qualities and many less so. But attempting to align our social values with theirs would be the right’s strain of appeasement and just as doomed. The reality is that Islam sees our decadence not as a threat but as an opportunity. For the west to reverse the gains of the cultural left would not endear us to Islam but would make us better suited to resisting its depradations. We should reject Britney because she’s rubbish not as a geopolitical strategy.
I've wondered recently if D'Souza's book isn't one of a series of lobs to various elites -- "one world" compatriots (many of whom work at the Hoover Institute, where D'Souza works) -- that they must begin to crack down on American culture, or else.
Peter Peterson wrote a book a few years ago that ragged all over American consumers and their lack of what he saw as fiscal responsibility. His point, without his ever coming out and saying it, was that he and his banking elite buddies were finding it hard to manage the world economy so long as Americans didn't cooperate and become more broadminded.
America is being ripped out from under us in the name of conservatism, traditional values, liberty, ecumenism, etc., and D'Souza's book ties right in with it.
So Steyn is the media's chosen paid whore who plagarizes other's work to recite a position.
How does one as a child grow up to be a talking head? I know of no schools and how does one make the thought, "I don't have an idea to express but I am going to say what others say for money".
Maybe Steyn isn't an expert but he plays one on tv.
"..I needed to know 'why they hate us' after 9/11":
It is envy and covetousness. Not only islamists.
Take my country India where Walmart is going to open up retail shops(or already has).An Indian who has been in this business while being interviewed, starts with appropriate mock self deprecating humility and towards the end his mask slips and comes up with trite *wedon't-need-to-learn-fromthe -West* crap. Reliance too has jumped into the fray but from who did they copy such ideas? They only excel in self congratulatory preening. Indian movies don't win Oscars(Thank God!!!) and they carp about "white man's lobby that refuses to acknowledge Indian genius". About education the less said, the better. In such kneejerky drivel sane voices get muted or carry no clout.
The above post. Forgot to mention s_sgt7's name.Sorry.
Steyn has written a prominent truthful and insightful book on Slow Jihad, and unlike Debbie, Robert, and Hugh, the MSM doesn't think of him as an odd outlier for whatever reason. I think Robert will eventually get out of that unfair box, but Debbie and Hugh are probably forever condemned (sorry folks---I enjoy reading all of your stuff).
I don't think Steyn knew that Debbie was the source, because when Colmes said there was no confirmation, Steyn would have said yes there is, check out Debbie's web site.
No reason to pick on Steyn, we need more advocates---no reason to spend energy cutting down the advocates we do have
Mr. D'Souza's error is in assuming that Muslims share the same moral values as the rest of us.
Islam has turned good and evil up-side-down: Good is evil, and evil is good.
Even if we were willing to do evil and call it good in order to pacify them, it still wouldn't be enough.
We would have to acknowledge their fraud Mohammad as a Prophet of God, and their fictitious Allah as the one true God.
Nothing else will do, Mr. D'Souza.
I'm beginning to think that there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim. Probably all of the moderates I've talked to online have whitewashed the history of Islam, insisted that Jihad is an inner spiritual struggle, and claimed that the so-called extremists are misinterpreting their religion. You know the drill.
I guess there are no real moderates because there is no moderate Islam.
Rational said--"Mr. DSouza's error is in assuming Muslims share the same moral values as the rest of us".
I think thats a, or the, common denominater of us in the west. Like it or not, these core Judeao-Christian values have been ingrained in us since birth: right from wrong, family, children, love, concern for fellow man, love for whats intrinsically resident within regarding basic human rights i.e. our nations pledge for all to have "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This was sown into us by our parents, edcuators, churches, and some what by our Government's rules of law as based on the Bible.
I think, that, within us, resulted in appeasment before WW2 where we just assumed they would somehow come to their senses and stop doing what they continued to say they would do. Many millions of dead later we were shocked into the reality of the depth of their depravity when we saw the death camps.
Are we waiting on Islams "HItler" to show up to wake up or is he already here? They all speak of Hitler very fondly, you know, secretly wishing for their own death camps!
D'Souza is starting to sound a lot like Pat Buchanan, who believes that western decadence and the West's failure to redress Palestinian grievances against Israel were the true motives behind the 9/11 attacks. The so-called paleo-cons, such as Buchanan, think that Muslims are offended by our sex-crazed culture, which they worry will infect their own. Moreover, the paleos think that those of us who favor traditional Christian morality have a great deal in common with Muslims. (I won't call it Judaeo-Christian morality since Buchanan seems to have a problem with Jews!)
I am disappointed in D'Souza. I agree with much of what he has written in the past. And I wasn't aware that he has embraced the blame-America mentality of the lunatic, anti-Semitic, Buchananite fringe.
If D'Souza is making money out of this book, cant somebody sue him over something?
I have heard USA lawyers can strip money from an opponent faster than piranhas can reduce a human to a skeleton. If I remember correctly, OJ was not left with much, once his "Dream Team" had done their work.
This just in: Anna Nichole Smith is dead. Someone ask D'Souza D'Louza how many more celebs have to die before we're moral enough for Islam to make nice with us.
The way we live is of no business to muslims they can fuck off.
"We should reject Britney because she's rubbish not as a geopolitical strategy."
Steyn gets it. Others clearly don't. But then some like Britney, and Larry Flint, and Madonna, etc.
This just in: Anna Nichole Smith is dead. Someone ask D'Souza D'Louza how many more celebs have to die before we're moral enough for Islam to make nice with us.
Posted by: USBeast
Couldn't agree more Beast. Who is anyone to moralize against us?
It's disappointing. D'Souza usually seems like a sensible guy. But this is dumb.
I prefer to assume that he is dumb but honest. If he's a slime-dog we'll find out soon enough.
This is really dumb though.
The fact that we disapprove of poor Britney and the mohamonazis disapprove too does not prove that we have ANYTHING in common.
We disapprove because we think that feminine sexual pride should be displayed with some self-containment and class.
They disapprove because they think feminine sexual pride is BAD and SHAMEFUL! Period.
To sum it up, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Their disapproval of our Britneys does not mean that their gears are moving correctly.
Playing up to the mullahs is an idiotic notion. We may dislike the public displays of our lesser minds, but the mullahs kill people like that with relish.
When you ignore the superficialities and focus on essentials and basics, there's no common ground to speak of.
And as several posters have pointed out already, the way we chose to live is none of their damn business!!!
Britney may be a dumb slut, but she's our dumb slut.
And more importantly, whether she's wrong or right she's got a right to do as she sees fit. And that's one of the things we're fighting for.
If the mohamanuts don't like it they can #!$!#$.
...the central proposition of this book is absurd - that western conservatives should make common cause with “moderate Muslims”. That would be merely the inversion of the freakshow alliance between the godless left and the jihadists...
..................................
This is the crux of the matter. I don't recall specific sources at this point, but right after 9/11 I heard a lot of insanity from both the traditional far left and far right.
Some leftists didn't seem too upset over the attack on the Pentagon, but chastised Islamists for targeting the World Trade Center, since most New Yorkers "didn't vote for George Bush"--as though vaporising several blocks, of--say--downtown Houston would have been OK.
Likewise, there were several comments from the right--including the infamous Falwell comments--which implied that it was only our Godless, liberal ways that got us targeted by crazed Jihadists.
Any "common cause" Jihadists make with the political right or the left will just be temporary and convenient. Whatever political differences we may have with each other, wooing Muslims "to our side" is ultimately delusional and terribly self-destructive.
I do not know if you fellas take this as an appeal to authority - and feel free say so if you feel that is the case - but I actually HAVE lived in something that could be called a "muslim suburb". In suburb of Fittja in Stockholm 1985 and in Rinkeby 1990-91.
Having said that, let me state that young muslim women choosing western lifestyle are a serious threat for the mullahs. If you just could see their faces in subway when they see Iranian, Pakis, Palestinian or Lebanese-originating girls in high heels tight jeans and the works. Girls adopting western values represent for them a lot WORSE doomsday than it does for Buchanan, D'Souza et all. The muslim community joining the same doomsday is actually one of the very few things that work. It is very common in Stockholm that muslim men run their mouth at seemingly western muslim women; you are not dressed as you should yakety-yak. What the mullahs are afraid of is that they stop yelling, because it is a sure sign that they lose the grip over the muslim community.
Forget Steyn. Britney sort of works. It is not so that she is a threat per se, but what is a threat for mullahs is that young muslim women start imitating. Consider this chick: http://www.deeyah.com/
The mullahs in Oslo are more afraid of her than they are the entire worthless production of Buchanan, which by the way has never done anything else but run his mouth.
I agree with Steyn that much that Britney is trash, because she is nothing compared to Paki's and Iranians. Other than that, D'Souza and his ilk must be stopped immediately. One must under no circumstances disturb the Britneyfication of the muslim community.
Finn:
"let me state that young muslim women choosing western lifestyle are a serious threat for the mullahs".
Don't be naive. Diabolically svelte and media savvy Shabana azmisss, Shahrukh Amir khansss would not hesitate to shed clothes and do whatever "if the role demands it" (or sport Sacred Ash with Kumkum on their foreheads) BUT at heart are very much jihadists. Ditto for their men appearing "Westernized".