Apologists of Totalitarianism: From Communism to Islam, Part IV
(March 2009)
[3]
[4]
[5]
In the months before the assassination of the President, Oswald had worked on behalf of the Castro government in New Orleans, had gone to Mexico City to apply for a visa for Cuba, and had even tried to assassinate General Walker, anticommunist, and anti-Castro spokesman and head of the John Birch Society chapter in Dallas, Texas, with the same rifle that he later used to murder Kennedy.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
IV.2. ISLAMIC TERRORISM AND ITS APOLOGISTS
[12] rather like the Communist fellow travellers of the 1930s, who claimed either that Marxism had nothing to do with Soviet Communism, or that the communism as practised in Russia was not the real communism. Instead everything is blamed on the West, Imperialism, Crusades, Poverty, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Israel. The Left is hardly more rational or realistic.
As Christopher Hitchens wrote:
[16]
[17]
[18]
Poverty is not the root cause of Islamic fundamentalism.[19]. [20] The research of sociologists like such as the Egyptian, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, and the economist Galal A.Amin, the observations of journalists like the Palestinian Arab Kahild M.Amayreh, and the Algerian Berber political leader Saad Saadi all lead to the same conclusion that modern Islamists are made up of young men from the middle or lower middle class, highly motivated, upwardly mobile, and well-educated, often with science or engineering degrees
[26]
suppose the Jews said ‘Palestine – you [Muslims] can take it.’ Would it then be ok? What would we tell them? No! The problem is belief, it is not a problem of land.”“[29] But what of the born-free Muslims in the West who are Islamists, such as the four 7/7 bombers in London? Freedom did nothing for them.[30]
Maududi again:
[35]
It is instructive to note what the two groups of apologists of Islam I have singled out for discussion, the Christians and Western Leftists, have in common. Both have recourse to cultural relativism to justify their inaction, both share an unwillingness to confront reality or even to deny it, and a willingness to blame Western civilization, institutions and values.
[37]
On the world stage, this attitude leads to selective indignation. Burnham was talking about the period leading up to 1964, but little has changed. The Left refuses to criticize the murders committed by Islamists in Algeria where more than a hundred thousand Algerians have been killed by other Algerians, or the massacres of Christians and African Muslims by the Arab Muslim forces of the Islamic government of the Sudan, and of course, the never-ending killings in Iran.
CONCLUSION
John Maynard Keynes, Letter to George Bernard Shaw, 2 December,1934.
[41]
Moral Equivalence or Meaculpism
[43]
As Andrew Roberts explains further, “Mantoux also blamed Keynes for the way that Versailles was held to prove to Americans that Europeans were each as bad as one another, ‘that they were all equally revengeful, equally Machiavellian, equally imperialistic; that the entry of America in the last war had been a ghastly mistake; and that the issue of any new one would be to her a matter of indifference, for an Alled Victory would probably be no better than Versailles and a German victory could certainly be no worse’. “[44]
[48]
[49]
The doctrine of Moral Equivalence extends to every aspect of Western civilization. Thus “Christianity is no better than Radical Islam”- note, already, that no one will write “Islam” tout court though the Meaculpists are quite happy to write Christianity as opposed to “Christian fundamentalism.” Then the familiar litany of the putative crimes of Christianity: the Crusades, though they were a belated response to several centuries of Islamic Jihad; the Spanish Inquisition, though historians such as Henry Kamen (The Spanish Inquisition (1965)) established that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed, and the number of heretics actually killed was comparatively low, and the equivalent Islamic Inquisition, the Minha is scarcely known let alone talked about. The fact is Christianity has absorbed many principles of the Enlightenment, and Islam has not. Then there are the crimes of Western imperialism – some undoubtedly true and a disgrace to Western ideals, but which must be seen in comparison to Islamic Imperialism to put it all in perspective. Islamic Imperialism virtually destroyed several cultures – Eastern Christianity and the culture of Pre-Islamic Iran.
[1] James Piereson. Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. How the Assassination of John F.Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism. New York: Encounter Books, 2007.
[2] Ibid.,pp.103-104.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.,p.96.
[5] All the quotes from James Piereson. Camelot and the Cultural Revolution. How the Assassination of John F.Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism. New York: Encounter Books, 2007,pp.89-96
[6] Quoted in Piereson, op.cit., pp.144-145
[7] Piereson, pp.104-105
[8] Piereson, p.110
[9] Piereson, p.177.
[10] Piereson, p.202.
[11] Piereson, p.205.
[12] See the exchange between the liberal television host Alan Colmes and Steven Emerson, expert on terrorism:
Alan Colmes: But Steve, aren’t you demonizing Islam? Aren’t you – when you use words like Islamo-fascism it conflates an entire religion with fascism, and that’s demonization and it offends an entire religion.
Emerson: Alan, what term would you use?
Colmes: Uh, I would call it fascism, but I wouldn’t link it to a religion as you choose to do.
(Crosstalk)
Emerson: So what makes it different than Italian fascism or German fascism?
Colmes: Well, you’re indicting an entire religion. It doesn’t represent the entire religion, as opposed to a government.
at : http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php?id=1384989 . Accessed 15 November, 2007.
[13] Christopher Hitchens: Slate, 9 November, 2004.
[14] [14] Nick Cohen. What’s Left? How Liberals Lost their Way, London: Fourth Estate,2007, p.273.
[15] Nick Cohen, ibid., p.274
[16] Francis Wheen. How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions, New York: Public Affairs, 2005, p.274
[17] Nick Cohen. What’s Left? How Liberals Lost their Way, London: Fourth Estate,2007. p.261
[18] All three quoted in Alan B.Krueger & Jitka Maleckova. Seeking the Roots of Terrorism, in Chronicle of Higher Education: June 6, 2003.
[19] The whole section on Poverty and Militant Islam leans heavily on the article by Daniel Pipes , God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam , National InterestWinter 2002, available at:
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/104.
[20] . Knight Ridder Newspapers summarized the findings of Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania about Arab terrorists being mostly “well-educated, married men from middle- or upper-class families, in their mid-20s and psychologically stable.” At Daniel Pipes’ website: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/104.
[21] . This usually means a tendency “to belittle belief and strict adherence to principle as genuine and dismiss it as a cynical exploitation of the masses by politicians. As such, Western observers see material issues and leaders, not the spiritual state of the Arab world, as the heart of the problem. Quoted by Pipes God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam , National InterestWinter 2002.
[22] The Mau Mau Uprising [1952-1960]: an insurgency by Kenyan rebels against the British colonial administration.
[23] James Burnham. Suicide of the West. An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. New York: The John Day Company.1964, pp.70-71
[24] Ibid.,p.115.
[25] B.Netanyahu , “Today, We Are all Americans ,” in New York Post , 21 September , 2001 .
[26] Benjamin Netanyahu, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995, p.82, quoted in Douglas Murray,Neoconseravtism: Why We Need It. New York:Encounter Books, 2006, pp.118-119.[27] Steven Emerson , International Terrorism and Immigration Policy January 25, 2000United States House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims . House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims Hearing on International Terrorism and Immigration Policy.
[28] Christopher Hitchens. The Nation September 2001.
[29]Daniel Freedman, Bernard Lewis: U.S. May Lose War on Terror, New York Sun, September 13, 2006.
[30] At Daniel Pipes’ weblog , http://www.danielpipes.org/
[31] See Niall Ferguson. The Pity of War, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., New Edn. 2006.
[32] J.Conrad , Under Western Eyes ,Harmondsworth :Penguin Books ,1957 , p.85.
[33] Christian Godin. La Fin de l’Humanité, Seyssel (France): Éditions Champ Vallon, 2003.p.71.
[34] Sayeed Abdul A’la Maududi, Jihad in Islam. 7th Edition December 2001, Lahore, Pakistan .p8
[35] Sayeed Abdul A’la Maududi, Jihad in Islam p9
[36] Quoted by Eliot A.Cohen , World War IV .Let’s Call This Conflict What It Is. Tuesday, Nov.20,2001 .Opinion Journal ( www.opinionjournal.com).
[37] James Burnham. Suicide of the West. An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. Chicago: Regnery Books, 1985 [Ist edn. 1964] p.197.
[38] James Burnham. Suicide of the West. An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. Chicago: Regnery Books, 1985 [Ist edn. 1964] p.200.
[39] Quoted in Robert Skidelsky. John Maynard Keynes.The Economist as Savior. A Biography. 1920-1937 .Vol.2. Harmondsworth, U.K: Penguin Books, 1995 [Ist edn. 1992] p.520.
[40] Daniel Bell, “The Fight for the 20th Century: Raymond Aron Versus Jean-Paul Sartre, ” New York Times Book Review, February 18, 1990, p.1., quoted in Paul Hollander. The End of Commitment. Intellectuals, Revolutionaries, and Political Morality. Chicago:Ivan Dee, 2006, p.3.
[41] Mary Ann Weaver, author of A Portrait of Egypt. A Journey Through the World of Militant Islam. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001, in an interview at www.theatlantic.com/unbound/bookauth/ba990217.htm.
[42] Étienne Mantoux. The Carthaginian Peace or the Economic Consequences of Mr Keynes, London, Oxford University Press, 1946.
[43] Andrew Roberts. A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, New York: HarperCollins, p.161. Emphasis added.
[44] Andrew Roberts, op.cit., p162. Roberts is quoting Mantoux, op.cit, p.11.
[45] Anon. “Doctrine of Moral Equivalence – Address before the Royal Institute for International Studies – transcript“. US Department of State Bulletin. Sept 1984. Accessed. 02 Dec. 2007 at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_v84/ai_3369220.
[46] As quoted at: http://www.tnr.com/112601/notebook112601.html, accessed December 3, 2007
[47] Quoted at http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2001/cyb20011126.asp#3, accessed December 3, 2007.
[48] Sunder Katwala. “Gore Vidal claims ‘Bush junta’ complicit in 9/11
America’s most controversial novelist calls for an investigation into whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks to happen”, in The Observer, Sunday October 27, 2002.
[49] Quoted at www.american-pictures.com/english/jacob/Sontag.htm, accessed December 3,,2007.
[50] Brandon Crocker “Moral Equivalence Rides Again”, The American Spectator, 6/14/2005 at
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8297, accessed 2 December, 2007.
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