| FrontPageMag.com | By Robert Spencer | By Hugh Fitzgerald | Books | Jihad Watch | Islam 101 | Qur'an Blog | Raymond Ibrahim | Robert Spencer |  |
|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
This freeing of Teddy Bear teacher Gillian Gibbons was based not on some new view that Muslims had arrived at, some new understanding of the primitiveness of their reactions, and desire to change their attitudes. There will be no discussion, in the ranks of Muslim clerics, in the Sudan or elsewhere, about the absurdity of the original charge, the original punishment, the original "good-natured" crowds in Khartoum "good-naturedly" screaming for Gibbons' "good-natured" decapitation.
The "freeing" of Gibbons, after what has already been an ordeal, may lead to a further unseemly spectacle. For it is not unlikely, it is likely, that she will return to England, and safely home, instead of discussing her amazement at the crazed behavior of so many Sudanese, and the Sudanese government, and the supposedly “advanced” parents -- it’s the Sudanese elite that sends its children to the school at which Gibbons taught -- she will tell us all, possibly selling her story to the tabloids, just how well-treated she was by her Sudanese captors, how wonderful those children and the Sudanese “in general” had been. She will even add, no doubt, that if things die down a bit, she wouldn’t hesitate to return to the Sudan and take up teaching again if she were asked to do so.
Of course, she may surprise us. She may not end up gushing insensately about what happened to her, as so many Western hostages taken by Muslims do. They seem unable to understand the significance of what happened, and certainly incapable of publicly stating what one should state about such treatment, and such a government, and such a Total Belief System of which, I am sure, Mrs. Gibbons has not the faintest idea. She doesn’t look as though she might in a year pull an Yvonne-Ridley, and “embrace Islam” after being invited to study it by a local imam, eager to win her favor, and then some. But who knows? Nowadays anything is possible when it comes to non-Muslim naifs who have been captured, sometimes only figuratively, by the forces of Islam.
And she might even declare how grateful she was to Lord Ahmed and Lady whatshername, the two Muslims who had come to Khartoum in a noisy effort to obtain her release, hoping thereby to win points for themselves, and for Islam. If anyone thanks them for their effort -- which did not succeed in its goal because the cruel and murderous Bashir, the man behind the Janjaweed, had decided, for good and sufficient reasons of his own, it will be outrageous. He freed her to insure no interruption in the extensive British and other Western aid, and to make sure that there is no Western reaction on the ground, that the Western Infidels don’t decide to seize the southern Sudan and Darfur and hold them, as I have suggested dozens of times here, until a referendum on independence can he held.
For this business of Muslims in this or that Infidel land taking it upon themselves to go and attempt to free non-Muslim citizens taken by Muslims elsewhere, always done highly selectively of course, if in any degree praised, when it should be denounced, will merely give Muslims, and some non-Muslims, the idea that “our” Muslims are “our secret weapon.” For they, you see, can always be sent out to prevent the worst from happening. And it will give them a quasi-official role, and instead of being regarded as part of the problem of Islam, they will be regarded as part of the solution. Lord Ahmad and Lady whatshername are nothing of the sort. They were merely trying, by attempting to free the Gibbons lady, to promote Islam, to burnish the image of Islam, in Great Britain. In other words, they were using the same incident to strengthen Islam as the Sudanese judge who sentenced Gibbons, and the rioters who demanded her death, thought they were doing.
We, as Infidels, know that Lord Ahmed, unlike those Sudanese calling for the death of Mrs. Gibbons, has a much greater knowledge of the outside world, of how Infidels think, and of how Infidels can get angry, and how there are certain danger signs that possibly the Infidels are getting just a little too fast, too large a dose of the real Islam -- and not what the smylers with the knyfs under their clokes present as the real Islam. He was protecting his own position, and the position of Islam, in Great Britain. Don’t let him or the well-heeled Muslimah who went with him get away with this. They are, in their own way, furthering the Jihad, indeed furthering it far better than are those who wanted Gibbons punished, or even killed, for her act of sweet innocent all-too-understandable non-Muslim ignorance of the nature, and scope, of the menace of Islam.
Posted by Hugh at December 6, 2007 6:42 AM
Print this entry
| Email this entry
| Digg this
| del.icio.us
It's called 'Moonbattery," and apparently it's highly contagious.
Posted by: darcy![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 6, 2007 7:32 AM
"Lord Ahmed." That phrase is an oxymoron.
Posted by: darcy at December 6, 2007 8:36 AM
"Lord Ahmed".(Spits)Makes me sick every time I read it.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at December 6, 2007 8:55 AM
They seem unable to understand the significance of what happened, and certainly incapable of publicly stating what one should state about such treatment...
Here's my equation for this persistent and civilizationally suicidal behavior:
(Cognititive Dissonance+Fictive Reality)*6th Pillar=Self-Defeating Nonsense
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 6, 2007 11:05 AM
I don't know whether anyone has yet mentioned the irony that this is all happening over a teddy bear -- a plush toy named for one of our more revered Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. Apparently Roosevelt, like most Americans, had no objections, recognizing the name as a sign of affection rather than disrespect.
Posted by: Karl Pov at December 6, 2007 11:16 AM
The "Teddy Bear" was invented a sign of the mercy and decency of Theodore Roosevelt, who refused to shoot a tied-up live bear during a hunting excursion as "unsporting" and "cruel".
Militant Muslims as usual, invert it into a sign of irrationality and cruelty.
ISLAM: invisibly beheading its followers for 1350 years.
Posted by: profitsbeard at December 6, 2007 11:49 AM
Militant Muslims as usual, invert it into a sign of irrationality and cruelty.
I can't agree with this statement.
Of course Moslems understand that the Teddy Bear represents an icon representing mercy and decency. That's exactly why they got so worked up about naming the damned thing Mohammed.
After all, Mohammed throughout his entire Sunnah stands for cruelty, ruthlessness, corruption, immorality, and all kinds of indecency such as misconduct, rudeness, lewdness, promiscuity, adultery, and of course bad manners.
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 6, 2007 12:11 PM
After all Ms Gibbons is British, so I am sure she will revert to form and graciously say how wunderful her detention was and how silly she was to be so insensitive.
Also, how come Sire Ahmed ain't in Irag trying to free those Brits that are held hostage? Oh right.... he's at the Islamphobia conference in Ankara.
at December 6, 2007 12:11 PM
I am always amazed at how eager muslims are to kill women for the flimsiest of pretenses. In any other context we would call men who do this serial killers. I am sure that the practice of female genital mutilation can be found in the playbook of many serial killers as well.
Posted by: HereticInfidel at December 6, 2007 12:28 PM
I think Teddy Bear Jihad represents a turning point for Islam in West, due to the outrageousness of jailing and calling for the death of a woman over a Teddy Bear. USA Today in an editorial yesterday called "Message from a teddy bear" was not impressed by the freeing of Ms Gibbons and describes this story as "far from over", the editorial included this paragraph:
"If any value is to come from this sorry episode, it is to put moderate Muslims on notice. If you do not stand up, forcefully,and in a sustained way,the religion you claim is peaceful will be defined by intolerant extremists and manipulated by cynical politicians such as al-Bashir. And that, in turn, makes Western hatred of Islam, and a clash or civilizations, more likely."
The editorial concludes
There can be no more stark symbols of innocence than children, teddy bears and a motherly teacher. If this episode doesn't prompt Muslims to struggle for a more tolerant faith that can bridge cultures it's hard to imagine what would.
Posted by: Roxane at December 6, 2007 12:42 PM
TheOmegaMan-
"After all Ms Gibbons is British...."
Because, of course, being British is the only qualification required to establish idiocy on any scale, isn't it?
Here's something else you can add to your list of British attributes: Contempt for your subjective ignorance.
Posted by: Wishbone at December 6, 2007 2:02 PM
Karl Pov:
The irony was most emphatically pointed out when the story first went out. It went so far as a bidding war on a mohammed teddy bear on ebay, which several of the readers from JW had bid on. Someone else created another teddy bear along the same line and even gave a link to sell it. Unfortunately I don't remember what thread it was. Sorry. This crowd doesn't miss a chance to laugh at islam's blatant stupidity. If you want to read some check the archives here and at JihadWatch, November.
at December 6, 2007 2:30 PM
Where are the mass demonstrations of "moderate" Muslims?
Where are the condemnations of this "misunderstanding" of Islam?
Do Islam "Republics" have a written policy towards teddy bears?
This makes Islam look like a religion of sociopaths. Where is the outcry at this insult to Islam?
Fatwa, anybody? Where are the scholars of Islam? The actions of the Sudanese government surely constitute an "insult" of Islam.
Comments CAIR? If we are to be called "Islamophobes" for being critical of Islam, what are the rioters going to be called for making a mockery of Islam?
It's just the Teddy Bear Jihad. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Posted by: tanstaafl at December 6, 2007 3:57 PM
Go to Readers Recommended. Apparently even after deleting the readers posts the anger still continues. People are fed up with the BBC, and thier PC attitudes. The recommended posts are very enightening as to the what the real attitudes of real Brits are twards the "religion of peace".
at December 6, 2007 4:01 PM
This reminds me of the story of the reporter from the Chritian Science Monitor. IIRC, she was held hostage in Iraq and forced to make a propaganda tape, stating that she was well-treated. The MSM broadcast her propaganda tape at face value and downplayed her true story of mistreatment, after she returned to the USA.
--
CT Yank
at December 6, 2007 4:02 PM
Gillian Gibbons has said she is delighted to be released from a Sundan Prison. However, she thinks it a bit harsh to be deported to Liverpool!
Sorry! Got it in a text this morning and couldn't resist. I think even murdering primitives need a laugh now and then.
Posted by: witwoo at December 6, 2007 4:15 PM
Meanwhile, riots broke out in Manhattan when a grocery store mistakenly advertised ham as "perfect for Chanukah" in a holiday window display.
http://nancykayshapiro.livejournal.com/35633.html?style=mine
Mobs amassed outside the store, chanting for the public flogging and beheading of the store employees, the store owners, the landlord of the building, the construction workers that built it, the . . .
Wait. No? Uhm, never mind.
Posted by: Marwan'sDaughter at December 6, 2007 6:43 PM
Lord Ahmed and Lady whatshername may have visited Sudan, but in the pictures on TV this evening, with Bashir, Lady W was noticeably absent. Did Bashir refuse to meet her?
And why wasn't she arrested for indecency, travelling as she was with a male who was not a member of her family?
And where is Mohammed the Bear? Surely he hasn't been left to the tender mercies of the barbarians? He should be repatriated too!
Release Mohammed the Bear!
at December 6, 2007 7:22 PM
There is an interesting quote in a article over at Islam Watch,
http://islam-watch.org/Others/Death-before-Burkas.htm
concerning a French woman whom the writer asked why she didn't complain to the police about mistreatment at the hands of her Muslim husband:
"When I queried Michelle as to why she did not report the abuse to French authorities, she insisted that once inside the Muslim community, there is no such thing as civil authority. The Muslim men, she maintained, rule with an iron fist, and threaten violent retribution to any woman who tries to go above them to outside authorities. This isn’t just one evil husband we’re talking about; it’s an entire communal structure of oppression."
Don't worry though. I'm sure all the moderate Muslims are working night and day to combat these intolerable (and no doubt they include a heavy dose of intolerance) attitudes.
Posted by: wallyUK at December 6, 2007 8:53 PM
Basically, she had to be a crackpot to be there in the first place. Especially since for the last 30 years the Islamo-fascists there have killed and driven off million in their sharia'h wars in the south. Calling her a wseful idiot is an insult to idiots.
Posted by: Dumbo at December 6, 2007 10:20 PM
"1428 years."
Posted by: Infidel One at December 7, 2007 4:12 AM
Have not fear Hugh the Good Lady will write the definitive book on the whole affair. She will be calling it Gibbons Decline and Fall Western Civilisation
Posted by: Holger Dansker at December 7, 2007 4:39 AM
"Being a Muslim today means to be always aware that something, somewhere, is somehow offensive to Islam
[...]
Symptoms of Offended Muslim Syndrome (OMS)
Irritability, agitation, anxiety at the sight of women who are not fully covered,
Prolonged rage or unexplained killing sprees,
Significant changes in immigration patterns,
Brooding about the past glory of the Caliphate,
Decreased effectiveness and minimal work productivity,
Difficulty in understanding new information without a trial lawyer,
Feelings of despair or hopelessness about the existence of Israel,
Recurring thoughts of death to the infidels.
In order to guard against OMS, health officials warn individuals who are at risk to make sure that the objective reality they are exposed to does not:
Make them aware of the outside world,
Trigger curiosity about the Western notions of "logic" or "rationality",
Make life more enjoyable,
Cause them to question the need for martyrdom,
Have side effects such as independent thinking and longing to live as a productive individual,
Create an illusion that communication with infidels is possible without hostage-taking".
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=1621
at December 7, 2007 7:36 AM
"Lord Ahmed".(Spits)Makes me sick every time I read it.
Posted by: ImNoDhimmi at December 6, 2007 8:55 AM
Oh, you are SO right. Sickening. Utterly and completely sickening. Should never have happened.
at December 7, 2007 9:22 AM
Who IS this Lord Ahmed character, anyway? How in L. Ron Hubbard's name did he get to become a Lord?
Posted by: RoobartSbunsar at December 7, 2007 11:25 AM
Roobart; I have no bloody idea how to interpret the info in this link:
http://www.burkes-peerage.net/articles/peerage/page66-lord.aspx
Good luck! Now I understand why we have no titlage in Canada; what a crock. (titlage...sp? We certainly have some of THAT here ;) )
at December 7, 2007 4:17 PM
Infidel One,
That's 1428 LUNAR years of ONLY 354 days! Twelve lunar months of 29 & 1/2 days = 354 days. A SOLAR YEAR, on the other hand, is 365.242+ days. So we're really talkin' 1385 years here.
Two unsurprising things here: One, the Muslims have it wrong and pad the numbers; and Two, the Muslims are hopelessly backward and can't reckon the passing of time (and yet THEY claim superiority--can't do astronomy, physics--face it, can't objectively grasp and describe the REAL world, much less live in it).
Imagine that--if the Salafists had their way, we would LITERALLY be stuck back in the Muslim "Golden Age," over a THOUSAND years ago!!
Posted by: John C at December 9, 2007 5:12 PM
Comments are turned off and archived for this entry.
(Note: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off-topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch or Dhimmi Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.)