Jihad Watch reader James sent me this yesterday, and I posted it here. Now a blogger named Ali Eteraz, about one of whose writings I wrote here, has posted at Dean Esmay’s site saying that the story came from him and he should have been credited.
Actually, I think that’s probably true. After all, James sent me this from Esmay’s site, so it’s possible he saw this there too.
So here’s your link, Mr. Eteraz. There is no dark conspiracy going on here; I have no problem linking to your site, and in fact, before you wrote this post, I linked to your site in this post.
This coming from Esmay’s site, however, all sorts of dark motives are imputed to me. Eteraz says, “The other reason I find it particularly troubling is that in my post about the letter I added a whole section about how the Iranian activist to whom the website belongs to, patently opposes groups that favor destabilizing the Iranian Government. I even cited to her article in another magazine. These caveats, however, are not present in the JihadWatch post, which is probably well for them, because we know what JihadWatch think of any Muslim government.”
Why didn’t I link to that or comment on it? Because I didn’t see it until this morning. And what is it exactly that we all know about what JW thinks of any Muslim government? Do tell, Mr. Eteraz: what is it that JW thinks of both the Shah and Khomeini, and of Bourguiba and Ataturk as well as Ahmadinejad and the House of Saud? I can’t wait to hear. And it would be good of you to back up your assertions with citations from my actual writings, if it isn’t too much trouble.
Then Eteraz says:
But why would JihadWatch (or a reader of it) be interested in Muslim activism against Muslim oppression “” that would destroy the entire (weak) thesis on which Jihad Watch rests, namely, that all or most Muslims are dangerous.
The slander just keeps coming from the Esmay crowd. Mr. Eteraz, please cite where I have ever said or written that “all or most Muslims are dangerous.” Happy hunting. And Jihad Watch doesn’t cover Muslim activism against Muslim oppression? Perhaps Mr. Eteraz would be so kind as to explain the presence of posts like this one, which is not newly-minted but dates from 2 months after I started this site, and which recounts the travails of a member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, a group that opposes the mullahocracy. Hmmm. Could that be a Muslim group? Just do a search here and you’ll find many more articles about the Iranian opposition — Muslim activists against Muslim oppression. And recently, we have posted stories about Muslims opposing the Talibanization of Somalia.
Finally, it’s interesting to note that while Ali Eteraz is all exercised about not getting a link here, he doesn’t seem to have called “Matoko Kusanagi” or Dean Esmay aside and whispered to them that “perfect man” is indeed a perfectly good translation of al-insan al-kamil, or that Adam is not in fact called al-insan al-kamil in the Qur’an. Instead, he seems content to let them think they’ve caught me in a great error when they’re patently wrong, and to fire away with more slanders at me instead.
But as I noted here, truth, accuracy and fairness just don’t seem to be in the lexicon of the Esmay crowd, at least when it comes to me and Jihad Watch. I do not think it wise, however, to leave their slanders unanswered, lest people of good will be swayed by them, and that is the reason for this posting.