Note how AP matter-of-factly states that Schilling’s tweet was “anti-Muslim.” ESPN obviously thinks so as well. Sloganeering has almost completely triumphed over rational thought these days, but here is one more try nevertheless. Now seems to be a good time to republish my FrontPage article from when this story first broke:
“Curt Schilling’s tweet comparing Muslims to Nazis is even worse than it sounds,” howled Max Fisher in Vox – one of the many voices this week screaming for Schilling’s head for transgressing against America’s new and unwritten, but nonetheless frightfully draconian, speech codes.
Fisher professes ignorance of the perp’s illustrious career, semaphoring that he is a good Leftist elitist, ignorant of Schilling’s brutish, bourgeois athletic achievements: “Curt Schilling, whom Wikipedia informs me is a former baseball star and current ESPN commentator, sent a tweet on Tuesday that seems to have emerged straight from the internet nether-void of racist email forwards.”
“Racist”? Schilling tweeted a graphic that read, “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” So where is the “racism”? What race are “extremist Muslims”? What race are Muslims in the aggregate? What race is Islam? Or did Fisher mean that Schilling’s tweet was racist against Germans?
Fisher compounds this muddled thinking by doubling down on the false claim in his headline, that Schilling likened Muslims to Nazis: “The argument here is pretty clear, even if the numbers are pure nonsense, but just so it’s not lost: Schilling is saying that the religion of Islam is akin to Nazi Germany, and that the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are responsible for the actions of a tiny minority of extremists in the same way that Nazi-era Germans were complicit in Nazi crimes.”
Actually, Schilling’s tweet does neither of those things. It likens not the religion of Islam, but “extremist Muslims,” to Nazis, and it doesn’t say a think about all Muslims being responsible for the crimes of Islamic jihadists. And Fisher’s woolly logic is typical of the firestorm that has engulfed Schilling, as he has been removed from ESPN’s coverage of the Little League World Series and is being pilloried everywhere. Schilling himself is repentant and apologetic, but it may do no good: he may be facing more punishment, and is taking a beating in the mainstream media for being “insensitive.”
But what exactly is so offensive about his tweet? Is it that he compared “extremist Muslims” to Nazis? Surely that can’t be it. The Islamic State hasn’t murdered six million Jews, but surely would if it could, and meanwhile its gleeful bloodlust, sex slavery, terrorizing of non-Muslims and all the rest of it make the comparison reasonable.
Or was Schilling “insensitive” for daring to suggest that peaceful Muslims aren’t doing much to rein in their violent coreligionists? Well, let’s see. Last month, Muslims in Ireland held a demonstration against the Islamic State. How many Muslims showed up? Fewer than fifty. And in October 2014 in Houston, a rally against the Islamic State organized by the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) drew the grand total of ten people. In August 2013 in Boston, about 25 Muslims rallied against “misperceptions” that Islam was violent. About the same number showed up in June 2013 at a progressive Muslim rally in Toronto to claim that their religion had been “hijacked.”
And back in 2005, a group called the Free Muslims Coalition held what it dubbed a “Free Muslims March Against Terror,” intending to “send a message to the terrorists and extremists that their days are numbered … and to send a message to the people of the Middle East, the Muslim world and all people who seek freedom, democracy and peaceful coexistence that we support them.” In the run-up to the event it got enthusiastic national and international publicity, but it ended up drawing about twenty-five people.
Contrast those paltry showings to the thousands of Muslims who have turned out for rallies against cartoons of Muhammad or against Israel. Here are some headlines from the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo jihad massacre of Muhammad cartoonists in January 2015:
Pakistan: 10,000 Muslims protest against Charlie Hebdo’s Muhammad cartoons
Australia: 1,000 Muslims rally against Charlie Hebdo and the freedom of speech
Kyrgyztsan: 1,000 Muslims rally: “I am not Charlie, I love my Prophet.”
But given a chance to show how Muslims overwhelmingly reject “extremism,” only a handful show up.
So Fisher and the other Leftists gleefully stomping on Schilling’s professional corpse today should explain how exactly he was offensive or insensitive (aside from having been a member of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks and 2004 Boston Red Sox). ESPN should restore him to active duty immediately, but it is much more likely that they will force him to issue a groveling apology first, or just fire him outright.
The savaging of Curt Schilling is disquieting proof of what I’ve pointed out many times over the years: that anyone and everyone who dares to speak a word against jihad terror will inevitably be mauled in the public square, and charged with “racism,” “bigotry” and “Islamophobia” – despite the fact that everyone, including the leading Muslim groups in the U.S., are supposed to be against jihad terror. Schilling, unprepared for the onslaught, backed down immediately, thereby reinforcing the usefulness of this firestorm as a tactic.
The ultimate goal is to inhibit all criticism of jihad terror, so that the jihad imperative can advance unimpeded. We’re well on the way there.
“ESPN pulls Curt Schilling from telecasts for remainder of season, playoffs,” Associated Press, September 4, 2015:
BRISTOL, Conn. – ESPN says commentator Curt Schilling won’t appear on the air for the next month in the wake of his anti-Muslim tweet.
ESPN said Thursday that Schilling won’t be on telecasts for the rest of the regular season or the American League wild-card game on Oct. 6.
The former star pitcher and “Sunday Night Baseball” analyst was pulled by ESPN from a major league game and the network’s coverage of the Little League World Series last month after he retweeted a post that compared Muslims and Nazi-era Germans.
ESPN said “Curt’s actions have not been consistent with his contractual obligations nor have they been professionally handled; they have obviously not reflected well on the company.”
If this were a sane world, what would reflect poorly on ESPN would be its shutting down Curt Schilling for daring to oppose jihad terror.
Angemon says
I wonder what Mr. Fisher thinks regarding the comparison of opponents of the “refuge” influx into Europe with Nazis?
Shane says
This is disgraceful and ESPN is just another gultess liberal run network. What he said was correct and not an insult to Muslims, but a warning about radical Muslims. Are liberals now saying that it is wrong to insult ISIS and its supporters? I hate liberal fascists!
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
So the next time one of you jokers wants to pop off and tell the truth about Moslems, remember this. Oriana Fallaci was prosecuted for telling the truth about Moslems, but lucky for her she died before they her slam her into the Pokey. Geert Wilders was prosecuted for telling the truth about Moslems, but mysteriously the charges against him were dropped. Mark Steyn was prosecuted for telling the truth about Moslems, but somebody in Ottawa woke up an dropped the trumped up charges before the PR disaster hit.
Curt Schilling hasn’t been prosecuted for telling the truth about Moslems, he’s been persecuted for it. But the lesson remains. Like your job? Your status in the community? Then keep your trap shut when it comes to Moslems. That works like a dream, just look at the success of Trey Parker and Matt Stone were ordered by Comedy Channel to quit with the sarcasm about Moslems, so they did. They instead turned their attention to a play lampooning Mormons, which has turned out to be a monster hit on Broadway.
Huck Folder says
I believe a patriotic US family group has achieved wonders in the past, by suggesting boycotting of advertised products to the advertisers. Under: funding ESPN I found these:
Q. “Who funds the chocolate milk commercials on ESPN?
And what about the “incredible egg” commercials, too?”
A. “Lobby or industry groups mostly, basiclly the MPAA of the milk or egg businesses.
According to this http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7jhW/got-chocolate-milk-built-with-chocolate-milk-feat-apolo-ohno
The add is paid for by The Milk Processor Education Program aka MilkPEP.
According to their website MilkPEP is funded by the nation’s milk processors.
The egg commercials were paid for by the American Egg Board, they are what’s known as a marketing board. Marketing boards are common in agricultural products, basiclly every egg producer pays a fee to the American Egg Board and in exchange the board markets all of the products of the producers.
Basically the American Egg Board is responsible for encouraging americans to eat eggs.”
Those look like tough targets, but who knows? They could take their advertising somewhere else.
If any of them have their heart in the right place, they could offer to place ads on a certain billboard company’s boards, LOTS of them, but in the interest of equality and fairness, said company also accepts LEGAL and PAID FOR ads from AFDI.
A win-win.
Would work for me.
Huck Folder says
@ Alarmed Pig Farmer
Sigh. I do what little I can, remembering
and regurgitating history here, or
looking up sources. But frequently I
ask for help from more experienced people.
Is there a retired judge or honest lawyer somewhere,
who could amass all those examples of moslems
getting preferential treatment, here, the UK…maybe on an
intensive statistical basis, if there are enough examples.
Each case would have all details available for argument.
Another ‘thread’ might be the numerous petty lawfare
cases launched by cair, and NOT swatted down
by the FBI or DoI, distracting the FBI while REAL
moslem thugs run amok shooting and beheading.
Raja says
APF,
Your solution to the problem posted elsewhere is a bright idea. Some nations have Public Interest Litigation that really work well for the persecuted and prosecuted man on the street. I am really ALARMED that first world does not seem to have the same leverage.
gravenimage says
ESPN pulls Curt Schilling from telecasts for remainder of season, playoffs
……………………….
Appalling. Now even saying something negative about violent extremists is apparently verboten…
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Now even saying something negative about violent extremists is apparently verboten…
Be careful, it woulda been fairer just to call them extremists, you didn’t have to drag violence into this. What’s next, you gonna call ISIS Moslem activists?!
Kathy Brown, Esq. says
Yes it is. But even more appalling is watching Schilling-and all the other targets-cringe and mope like guilty [for no reason] dogs.
He ought to get up on his hind legs, GET a real mean lawyer, and sue the DUKIE out of ESPN. He has a contract. He has 1st Amendment rights. Hello?
Did everybody see what The Donald’s response was, to Univision’s slapdown? A suit for $500 mil. Hey Curt: Check it out.
mortimer says
“Schilling is saying that the religion of Islam is akin to Nazi Germany, and that the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are responsible for the actions of a tiny minority of extremists in the same way that Nazi-era Germans were complicit in Nazi crimes.”
Exactly. What’s to disagree? It’s obvious.
When Muslims do not stop the perpetrators, they express approval.
pdxnag says
So, is there any value to claiming that 90 percent of Muslims are not militant Muslims? (Islam is extreme so technically all pious Muslims are extreme, except that some so-called Muslims don’t actually practice Islam and might instead be called undeclared Apostates.)
voegelinian says
EGGZACKLY. If you’re going to get fired anyway, then at least tell the truth; not the carefully hedged truth in Spencer’s argument, but the robust truth: All Muslims are extremists — because they adore the extremist Muhammad, they adore the extremist Sunna (or Shia equivalent), and they adore the extremist Koran (and, when confronted about this, most of them add insult to injury by lying about this, telling us, in effect, as the great Judge Judy (PBUHer) put it in her best-selling book title, Don’t Pee On My Head and Tell Me It’s Raining). If the Counter-Jihad can’t be this robust, it may as well pack up its kitman bag and smile, smile, smile.. But please, change your name to the “Sorta Kinda Counter-Jihad”.
voegelinian says
Correction: The “telling us” should be replaced by “doing”
voegelinian says
Now Jay Boo has replaced Phillip Jihadski and Champ as the tagalongs of Angemon. meanwhile, Mirren, gravenimage, and Wellington studiously pretend like Angemon is not, by attacking me ad nauseam over and over and over again in countless threads, defending an unconscionably soft stance on the grotesquely horrifying problem of Islam.
Angemon says
voegelinian posted:
“Now Jay Boo has replaced Phillip Jihadski and Champ as the tagalongs of Angemon.”
The implication here is that there’s some sort of group of JW regulars who are plotting against him. And this is coming from the person who often berates others for mentionig (or even implying) “Dastardly Cabals” and “conspiracy theories”.
In any case, voeg, that’s not an argument – you’re not addressing the points I or JB did, let alone rebut them.
“meanwhile, Mirren, gravenimage, and Wellington studiously pretend like Angemon is not, by attacking me ad nauseam over and over and over again”
Because I’m not. You, on the other hand, regularly go out of your way just to tell everyone how much of a bad person I am.
“in countless threads”
Hyperbole much or do you simply can’t count above a few dozens?
“defending an unconscionably soft stance on the grotesquely horrifying problem of Islam.”
Ah, and here it is the usual voeglinian slur: anyone who doesn’t toe his line, anyone who doesn’t support any and everything he says to the most minuscule of details, as well as aggressively bully those who don’t into submission, is a “softie”. He doesn’t go on to explain why my query regarding his gross mischaracterization of Mr. Spencer as someone bowing to leftist media standards is wrong. No, all that he wants others to know is that asking such questions is “defending an unconscionably soft stance on the grotesquely horrifying problem of Islam“.
So, voeg, this is the Nth time you’re trying to go for the “Spencer doesn’t tell it as it is because he’s trying to please the leftist media” slur and the N+Yth time you’re trying to undermine a forefront figure of the CJ movement. How did that work out so far, and how do you think it will work again?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
If only you were to put 1/10th of the time and effort you out denigrating members of the CJ movement into tackling jihadis…
Incek Mahallesi says
Voeg:
“Now Jay Boo has replaced Phillip Jihadski and Champ as the tagalongs of Angemon.”
Who’s Philip Jihadski and why are you so obsessed with him?
Jay Boo says
That is rich
voeg valiantly talking about the value of telling the TRUTH.
Notice how voeg takes a sneak shot at Robert Spencer.
Also notice how he says “EGGZACKLY” to pdxnag’s reference to pious Muslims”…so technically all pious Muslims are extreme” to toss out his own extrapolation “All Muslims are extremists” as if to imply he is merely rephrasing the same thing pdxnag wrote.
If all Muslims are one uniform mindset as voeg implies, then a Muslim from birth has no other option than to be a Muslim for life. If we criticize the Muslim only as a person rather than the behavior and ideology, then we open up ourselves to charges of being close minded bigots and the filthy fragile ideology of Islam slithers away and goes unexamined.
Angemon says
voegelinian posted:
“EGGZACKLY. If you’re going to get fired anyway, then at least tell the truth; not the carefully hedged truth in Spencer’s argument, but the robust truth”
This is the Nth time you’re trying to go for the “Spencer doesn’t tell it as it is because he’s trying to please the leftist media” slur and the N+Yth time you’re trying to undermine a forefront figure of the CJ movement. How did that work out so far, and how do you think it will work again?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.
If only you were to put 1/10th of the time and effort you out denigrating members of the CJ movement into tackling jihadis…
“All Muslims are extremists — because they adore the extremist Muhammad, they adore the extremist Sunna (or Shia equivalent), and they adore the extremist Koran (and, when confronted about this, most of them add insult to injury by lying about this”
Right, because when someone converts to islam they magically become aware of all islamic tenets, and if they defy that happened then they’re lying… That may very well be the case in the 6×9 padded cell where your bizarro universe is located, but not in the real world.
And you wonder why you don’t get any traction with the thinking people…
“If the Counter-Jihad can’t be this robust, it may as well pack up its kitman bag and smile, smile, smile.. But please, change your name to the “Sorta Kinda Counter-Jihad”.”
Because you’re the one who gets to decide what counter-jihad is and what isn’t, right? You’re the one holding the checklist, magnifying glass and calipers, prodding and poking members of the CJ movement and deciding who’s counter-jihadi enough and who isn’t. “Oh, you say you’d like to know the legal framework behind my ‘total deportation’ idea? Well, sonny, that’s going to cost you your place in the CJ movement – we don’t ask things around here, we just say ‘yes, sir, mr. voegelinian, whatever it is that you’re saying is absolutely right and whoever is questioning you is completely wrong and needs to stop talking’. Now go to the side of the softies right there – it’s that immensely huge crowd – while I stay here alone trying to find at least ONE person who is a true counter-jihadi (besides me, that is)”.
Gary says
The Muslim “Faith”.
For now, a protected species.
……In this life.
Question is, are their names written in heaven?
“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. ”
Without Jesus Christ can they make such a bold statement?
Ed says
It’s his own fault. He committed the heinous crime of telling the truth.
George Bemer says
ESPN is afraid of what crazed actions Muslims will take towards them. And Muslims certainly have a history of crazed behavior!
Raja says
The showing up of a handful of people who are AGAINST Islamic terror is evidence enough that Islamic adherents DO NOT believe their “religion” to be peaceful. Thanks to Mr. Robert Spencer / JW we have historic data to back up the claim. If Islamic followers themselves do not believe Islam to be peaceful why is the West hell bent on saying the opposite. Here we have taqīyah at work in the west . In the West too Satan is at work and the rest have to slug it out to protect the freedom and individual rights. Little wonder it is written to the Christians:”You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he(Satan) who is in the world”. -1 John 4: 4
Matthieu Baudin says
“…The savaging of Curt Schilling is disquieting proof of what I’ve pointed out many times over the years: that anyone and everyone who dares to speak a word against jihad terror will inevitably be mauled in the public square, and charged with ‘racism,’ ‘bigotry’ and ‘Islamophobia’…”
And these people are usually ‘picked off’ one at a time which serves to hide the true extent of this insidious ‘institutional’ censorship.
Sandra says
The politically correct mindset is cultural suicide. People should be able to speak their minds. I work in a Muslim country and even among my colleagues, who consider themselves to be secular and above the fray, the massacre in Paris was greeted with contempt for the media coverage and the outpouring of shock and disbelief because “after all, they deserved what they got” because who can expect Muslims not to respond in an extreme fashion. They must “defend” their religion. Curt Schilling is lucky to be alive by some accounts. When are people going to wake up?
Plutarchus7 says
ONLY IN THE BIZZARO WORLD
of the anti-anti-jihadist left can someone hit a homerun against Islamonazi supremacism and strikeout.