The most tragic aspect of all this is what Alishba Zarmeen has coined the Greenwald Syndrome -- the phenomenon of Western liberals, in a supposed show of tolerance, embracing an apologist stance in favor of the intolerant. My good friend and writer/activist Faisal Al Mutar, who escaped repeated death threats for his secular beliefs in his native Iraq, put it best: Many of [the Western liberals] have betrayed us liberals in the Middle East and other Muslim countries, and [inadvertently] sided with the Islamists against us. After being publicly accused by Glenn Greenwald of spouting and promoting Islamophobia, Sam Harris responded with these words, which should be read by everyone: Needless to say, there are people who hate Arabs, Somalis, and other immigrants from predominantly Muslim societies for racist reasons. But if you cant distinguish that sort of blind bigotry from a hatred and concern for dangerous, divisive, and irrational ideas -- like a belief in martyrdom, or a notion of male honor that entails the virtual enslavement of women and girls -- you are doing real harm to our public conversation. Everything I have ever said about Islam refers to the content and consequences of its doctrine. And, again, I have always emphasized that its primary victims are innocent Muslims -- especially women and girls. There is no such thing as Islamophobia. This is a term of propaganda designed to protect Islam from the forces of secularism by conflating all criticism of it with racism and xenophobia. And it is doing its job, because people like you have been taken in by it. The fear of being called Islamophobic once led many prominent Westerners to abandon their own values when they abandoned Salman Rushdie. It led Yale to publish a book about the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy, but without the cartoons. It led Comedy Central to censor the show South Park on more than one occasion for fear of offending Muslims, even though the show irreverently lambastes virtually every other religion on a regular basis, unhindered. This epidemic continues today with the new 9/11 museum film, the Brandeis fiasco with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, CAIRs whining over Honor Diaries, the Katy Perry video, and the Maajid Nawaz cartoon tweet controversy -- all within this year -- where too many Westerners are falling on the wrong side. As Ive written before, this is an effective deterrent. This is exactly how terrorism works. This is how perfectly intelligent, well-read writers, commentators, and broadcasters become silenced by the Islamophobia smear fear -- and rationalize themselves into becoming unaware victims of it. When youre unable to introduce Pakistan-style blasphemy laws in a secular, Western society, you have to find alternative ways to silence those who offend you, right? And thats where the Islamophobia smear comes in -- the ultimate, lazy substitute for a non-existent counter-argument. Dont fall for it.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 02:24:52 +0000
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