The Taliban, responding to Pakistan’s latest attempt to flush them out of Swat, has demanded that all government officials in the area must leave at once, or their families will be “arrested”. In today’s news we read that:
On Wednesday, [Taliban spokesman Muslim] Khan denied reports from many refugees emerging from the Swat Valley that Taliban militants had carried out a campaign of violence and intimidation in the region for the past two years.
Several terrified Swat residents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal from the Taliban, described how insurgents kidnapped and killed their critics, beheaded government informers and blew up girls’ schools.
Not at all, said Mr. Khan; they are only providing a benevolent public service:
“We are killing the people which are only no good for society, like thieves and people who are making problem for the poor people, like people who are working for army,” he said. “We are only killing these people.”
…and women who won’t wear the hijab, and people who listen to music, and girls who want to go to school, etc.
Read the latest here.
48 Comments
Leave the ladies alone. Kill the lawyers!
Is this the same Tilaban that was created by the CIA and subsidized by the Saudis to fight their war against the Russians and to kill all moderate Muslims in that region? If so, what has happened? and why isn’t this information is published, since this subject is important to you?
What’s your point, George?
since you follow this subject so maddeningly, you should mentioned that this group is the creation of your govt. despite the majority of Muslims. My point is that i am sensing an Islamphobia in your tune and maybe you should grow up .. or start making the distinction ..Get it? Wacko Waka boy!
George, if you find what I write maddening, then why read it? Life is short. Go read something you enjoy more.
And really: “Wacko Waka boy”? Very manly of you, of course – but if you won’t be civil, you can’t comment here.
I disagree with Malcolm’s Islamaphobia, but Malcolm is civil. And I value civility above almost anything else in political discourse.
I was civil considering that i think you are racist, anti-Islamic and Islamaphobia freak. This is not just my opinion only, many think that you squatter on the Internet searching for the littlest negative news about Muslims so you can publish it on your site. For a self portending Atheist, you are a lot like those freaky Christians in their US army suits, who go around Iraq telling Muslims that the Massiah ‘Bush’ has come to rescue them(Check Jesus killed Muhammed in Harper Magazine).. anyways, i am civil considering that you are a racist and hate mongering blogger.
George is not civil.
Malcolm does appear to have some issues with race, and especially with Islam. His views are misguided. But he is also quite intelligent.
George,
One is not civil “considering” this or that: one is civil, or one is not.
What I criticize in these pages are ideas, not races or ethnic groups. Ideas leap from mind to mind like viruses, and there are some idea-complexes in particular, pandemic in much of the world, that are especially apt to take a virulent and malevolent form in some of the minds they occupy. I think that it is up to those of us who are cognizant of the problem, and the danger it poses to the civilized world, to speak up. That’s all.
You are welcome, of course, to your own opinion, and here in the West — in illustrative contrast to certain other cultures I might mention — you are free to express it. Start your own blog, and make yourself heard.
If you wish to express yourself here, though, you will be civil, and I will thank you also to be cogent. I welcome dissenting views, and I have learned a great deal over the years from the criticism of thoughtful and intelligent commenters. Mere spluttering and name-calling is not constructive, however, and if you can’t do any better than that, you can’t comment here.
Jack,
“Quite intelligent”! I hardly know how to thank you.
Finally, to both of you: a “phobia” is an irrational fear. There is nothing irrational about acknowledging that Islamism poses a serious threat to the civilized world; indeed, it would be irrational not to.
To Jack and George,
Guys this Malcolm guy is weird. He is definitely racist but does not want to call him on it. It is funny how you think that your “Irrational” fear of Islam is acceptable. To your undignified comment i have these remarks:
1. “What I criticize in these pages are ideas” this sounds familiar..as i have read that this from the Nazi movement lit. in Europe when they were going after the Jews.
2. “here in the West” .. i sense that you have your claim on the “West” and Muslim Americans are your guests. Well learn this; Muslims are part of the “west” that you speak of, you and your kind, since the Muslim Slaves that were brought here 400 years ago to Malcolm X to me and my children.
3. “Civil” .. are we supposed to show respect to those who spread hate? are we? Keep it up George, this guy is a fundamental and needs to be told so for others to see. He strikes me as a desperate 50ish old fool, divorced and has no life.. you probably know the kind..
Ahmed, George
Civility towards those with which you disagree shows that you acknowledge them as a fellow and also imperfect human being. So yes, you show respect to those who spread hate, though I don’t think that Malcolm has earned the moniker of “spreader of hate”. Why do you show respect to those who are spreaders of hate, or for those who you disagree with? Because they are all God’s creatures, if you are religious. Jesus said to turn the other cheek. Mahatma Ghandi was civil towards even those who oppressed him and his people. Hell even ObiWan spoke civilly to Darth Vader. ( : There is, simply put, a better way than to return hate with hate. To fail to uphold common respect for each other’s humanity, will only cause us to lose the best part of ourselves. It is also the principle of justice and equality.
As for Malcolm: you make many intelligent and educated comments on many topics. That, and your civility, are the only reason I regularly read your blog- despite some of your faults.
As for Islamism and your phobia: the problem isn’t your concern for the dangers of Islamism. The truth of those dangers should not be under-emphasized. Yet neither should they be over-emphasized, which I think you do. Furthermore, you have the tendency to identify Islam in general with Islamism. Coupled with your anti-immigrant-ism, there is reason for concern. Indeed, you like to say that Islam itself is dangerous to the West in a way that other religions are not. But Islam is as amorphous a concept as is Christianity, or for that matter Protestantism, in the US. That Islam has increasingly become radicalized is not particular surprising given its socio-economic-political situation for the last century or two, and that as part of the Judaic/Christian/Islamic triangle, it carries the seeds of radical violence in its religious dna- a look at the political and religious milieu of first century BC to first century AD Judea- with its religious radicalism, religious extremist assassins, and tumultuous struggle for political, religious, and cultural purity from the West (Rome), is an apt analogy to the political movements in modern Islam. Now, some modern Judaism is, in my opinion, dangerously racist, but in general I don’t see Judaism as a dangerous religion. This indicates to me, though I already knew it, that a religion may change its character given the political circumstances practitioners of the religion find themselves in. Such is also true of Islam.
Ahmed is correct to point out that terms like the West are essentializing, totalizing, and exclusionary. It excludes Islam from it, indeed diminishes the role Islam has had in the development of Western society, historically and in contemporary life. It also tends to mean White people. Still, I suspect Ahmed’s objectivity.
Be careful. But the rest of you? Be smart and be civil. Uplift your discourse.
For my previous comment, please delete the sentence “But the rest of you”. It is misleading. Thanks.
Jack,
Well said, and you are right about my objectivity as i have become sick and disheartened by people like ‘Malcolm’ who through their blogs, and lots of free time on hand, have filled the net with misplaced criticism of Islam which reflects more on who they are than Islam itself. As a Muslim American who has always contributed to my society and full aware of the history of my religion and its contribution to western frame of mind, i find it frustrating that haters and Islamaphobists are getting away with insulting Islam as if it was invented on Sept 10th. This is the reason Objectivity sometimes escapes me. Thank you for pointing that out though.
Jack, I disagree. I think, for reasons I have explained at length elsewhere, that Islam is unique among the major religions in its innate tendency toward fundamentalism, and its intrinsic ill-suitedness for Western-style societies. This is certainly not meant to express any ill will toward the legions of moderate Muslims, such as Ahmed, who are welcome and well-integrated members of Western societies. I also freely acknowledge that other religions have hardly been free of fundamentalist and often violent excesses. Readers will know that I am no fan of organized religion generally, and hardly reserve my criticism exclusively for Islam.
I also think it is hardly unwarranted, or unusual, to speak of “The West”, or of “Western culture”, and I am certainly in solid scholarly company to do so. The terms refer to a constellation of political and social philosophies including democracy, religious tolerance, secular government, individual liberty, freedom of the press, and so forth, that indeed do constitute a distinct cultural “essence”. And it is the difference in these essential philosophies that have been at the root of 14 centuries of steady and unresolved conflict with the Islamic world. Again, as I have repeated over and over, my comments here have nothing at all to do with race, but are, rather, entirely about culture and ideology: in short, about memes.
I am sure your criticism here (and even that of these other commenters) is laudably well-intentioned, and I also would like nothing better — believe me — than to live in a tolerant, harmonious, peacable world. But these are plainly evident cultural and historical realities, and to ignore them, even for the most admirable reasons, is, I think, naive and unrealistic.
M,
You speak as if you are holding the moral authority over Muslims or the rest of us in this society, starting from welcoming Ahmed to ‘your” society. Be careful as we may start to think that you are not really part of the tolerant society that Jack, Ahmed and are from and you are not. In my studies i have found that older white men are hard to convince or change their opinion. I am saying that because of what Ahmed and Jack have clearly explained is very uplifting and an indication of what is ‘not’ wrong with Islam. I am a history major and believe me you need to read what the Church and colonialist Europe had done to Muslims to understand the whole story. People such as Cheney, Bush and others told us that we were naive and look where we are today. I have always find it funny that radicals always push their agenda by accusing others of being naive.
I went through some of your blogs and i agree you are surely biased against Muslims and i don’t think that speaks well of your ‘whatever’ agenda you have.
Ahmed: regarding civility, perhaps you ought to listen to President Obama’s address to Notre Dame?
Then allow me to quote from Obama’s commencement address:
So many good things in that speech expressed more eloquently that I am able:
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Well, Mary, it seems I can’t win: if I were not to express amiable sentiments of comity and brotherhood toward my fellow American Ahmed (and I offer them here once again), I would be charged, no doubt, with racist bigotry — yet when I do so, in a spirit of genuine human warmth, I then must stand in the dock accused of white-male paternalism.
You write:
It appears that my real offense, in your eyes, has mostly to do with my age, sex, and race. It is safe enough these days to disparage “older white men”; one feels, I think, rather virtuous when one does so. Ask yourself, honestly, if you think you would be as comfortable, or would be supported as cheerily by your professors and peers, if you were to make similarly disparaging generic slurs against black women, or trans-gendered people, etc. (And by the way: perhaps one reason it’s harder to convince “older white males” — and older people generally — to change their opinions (and are you, honestly, so open to being persuaded by them?) is that they’ve simply had much more time than you have to think and learn about things, and have seen a lot more of the world, and its grim realities, than you.)
I hardly see myself as any sort of “radical”, either; all I have done is to express disapproval of violent religious fundamentalism, and sought to understand its origins.
I find ironic your vaguely threatening admonition that I had better be “careful” lest I be accused of insufficient “tolerance” (perhaps the most heinous political crime one can be guilty of these days). My criticism in these posts is, however, reserved for a worldview that is far less tolerant than any you are likely to encounter at college — less tolerant even, if such a thing can be imagined, than academic champions of “tolerance” are toward defenders of traditional Western culture. But there is no rational brief to be made for tolerance toward those who are themselves radically intolerant, and I will remind you that even my egregious “intolerance” takes the relatively benign and innocuous form of written criticism, rather than beheadings, suicide bombings, stonings, honor killings, riots, etc.
I admire that you are a history major; keep at it.
Ahmed, I can sympathize.
But let me tell you about a friend I had a long time ago. We did lots of stuff together, but it was hard for him, as a Muslim, to have non-Muslim friends, who put him in a lot of uncomfortable situations vis a vis his faith. He truly was very conflicted: he wanted to integrate, he wanted to do things that non-Muslims did, but he felt very constrained by it.
Eventually, I think, he chose a side. But what side?
The last time he spoke to me (over a chat client), he threatened my life, my life for merely refusing to assent to his assertion that all Jews are pigs and deserved to die.
Jack,
Well.. i cannot speak for what experience you had with a friend you had, but i can speak clearly for myself, my friends, family and my community, and they have no issues integrating as they and I deeply believe that we live in an immigrant culture that has the good and the ugly. I am here because of the ugly stuff coming from radicals and hate mongers, starting from Bin Ladin to Bush and his doctrine and ending with guys like Malcolm.
People make choices based on their own experiences and upbringings and i for one don’t have issues with Jews, in fact many of my good friends are Jews who are working on Pro Palestinian issues more passionately than any Arab or Muslim i know, just because they believe in whats right and know well enough their own history and the struggle of their own people, and don’t wish it on others (Palestinians)
Malcolm to Mary said:
‘it seems I can’t win: if I were not to express amiable sentiments of comity and brotherhood toward my fellow American Ahmed’.. You need to understand one thing and one thing only so we can put this issue to rest; You are no more affect by radicalism than me or the average Muslim. Once you get that in your head and start to make the distinction and speak as negatively of other radical religions such as radical Judaism in Israel and the US and radical Christianity pretty much everywhere in the world. Once you start calling things by their names i.e radical Islam as such and not as “Islamzation” like you so hatefully put it, then you can win.
Ahmed,
First of all, we here in New York City have most assuredly been affected by Muslim radicalism; 3000 of my townspeople, including friends and neighbors of mine, died when our city was attacked in the name of Islam. So spare me the blithe dismissals, please. You may wish to pretend — and it is certainly understandable why you would — that radical Islam is a negligible problem in the world, but we have seen ample evidence to the contrary.
I use the term “Islamism” not “hatefully”, but because it accurately refers to a particular ideological faction of the broader Islamic community: one that actively and aggressively seeks to replace secular society with Islamic law. I am not making this word up, and it is not a gratuitous slur: it is a broadly accepted academic term, with a clear and specific meaning.
I have no reason to doubt you when you say that the word “Islamist” does not apply to you, your friends or your family — but again, to glibly (and, I might add, ignorantly and insultingly) dismiss my, or anyone else’s, use of the term as a mere spasm of irrational “hate” is once again to deny reality: as a glance at the United Kingdom, where even the Archbishop of Canterbury has cravenly acquiesced to demands that sharia be integrated into British law, or the rest of Northern Europe — where the press, and secular law, are under heavy assault by a growing population of poorly assimilated Muslims who wish to restrict free discussion and criticism of religion — will amply confirm.
I do speak, and speak often, of my distaste for religious radicalism in all forms, in particular our ludicrous home-grown Christian fundamentalists. However, of all the many forms of religious lunacy abroad in the world, it is in my opinion radical Islam that poses, by far, the gravest threat to free and secular societies.
If you are as aloof from all this radicalism as you say you are, then I suggest you stop taking it so personally; you’ve made it quite clear that I am not talking about you, or your own system of belief. At the very least, sir, I will thank you to drop the absurd and offensive conceit that we bloodied citizens of New York, who see in our shattered downtown a daily and tragic reminder that Islamic radicalism is very real indeed (and who reasonably expect that another attack is inevitable), have no cause to be concerned.
Mr. Undeniably Racist,
( Don’t take offense to that, it is just what you are. I am an engineer and my coworkers call me that from time to time )
Point One:
I too live in New York since 1970, and call it home to me and my family, and people i know and i am friends with had family members died on Sept 11., SO GO FIND ANOTHER REASON to cover your racist and Islamaphobic views .
Two:
These people did not die in the name of Islam (just to get your attention to how racist and full of hate you are), they died in the name of ‘Radicalism’, which you are a representation of.
Three:
You do use the term “Islam-ism” as “hatefully” as you could. You just thought you could get away with it, but you are not.
Four:
Are you really so oblivious to the fact that you are more than anything else on this blog, day after day, a story after another promoting anti-Islamic propaganda almost every other day.
Not to mention your inexcusable anti-Palestinian ‘agenda'(???) Do yoi find them easier to criticize just because they elected Hamas? Where were you before they did? Israel has been killing Palestinians, demolishing their homes and taking away their private properties, and giving it away to immigrant Jews, for 60 year now
My advice to you is to really cool it down on the racist stuff and just criticize things as they are and if you want to be creditable start pointing out radical Judaism and Christianity with the SAME VOLUME!
Right.
Well, we’ve both had our say at this point, I think, Ahmed, and are just talking past each other now. Yes, New York was attack by radicals, just as you say: Islamic radicals, who attacked in the name of Islam, as they understood Islam.
I don’t have a racist bone in my body, but I can see there is no convincing you of that.
Good luck to you, and take care. Last word to you, if you like.
Ahmed;
Funny how you picked up on his anti Palestine views. This guy is a Jewish Atheist, which does not mean much unless it is accompanied by his repeated views against Islam. He is a Jewish guy who is advancing his pro Israeli agendas through attacking Islam and Muslims. So you are barking the wrong tree here..
I’m not Jewish, Mary.
Mary,
Hahaha. Thanks, now i get it.
Malcolm, Peace be upon with you as i leave here, and you may find peace within either ideologies you follow. My Islamic believes insists on me to forgive your insults and your inappropriate remarks at times. I hope my interaction with you has helped you in some ways to be a little more sensitive to issues we are dealing with As Americans and as a human race. Thank you and God bless.
Ah – I’ll be civil here (at least attempt to be so).
Mary, while you’re bicycling around your (thoroughly civil – obviously burkha clad) campus I suspect you also appreciate your ability to acquire the education you, again, so obviously, aspire to and are able to participate in achieving. You might even be in receipt of financial aid? Albeit, probably not from “old white guys” set in whatever places that occasionally require one to acquiesce to submitting to whatever infidel ideology that in the Kashmir to Kandahar “female-friendly educational school districts” that obviously exist? Perhaps you can post your comments from those “.edu” domains?
Ahmed, if you’ll extend an invitation (which I will happily agree to in the spirit of reconciliation-also agree to reciprocate) for both Malcolm and myself, we (at least I) would enjoy a dinner invitation. I’ll bring my camcorder to show via YouTube how really magnanimous you, your kith and kin, truly are. Actually, I can’t speak for Malcolm, only for myself – but I will spread a red and white checked picnic cloth on the grounds of the Twin Towers where moderate Islamists pray in the direction of.
Mind – I realize it’s “only a point on a map” Mecca lying on the far horizon East. (I only make the picnic site recommendation contingent on our receiving permission from the appropriate authorities in the jurisdiction.)
What’cha say Ahmed? I like curried lamb stew, and I can happily do without your proscibed “swirl-cut honeyed ham” – cholesterol you know. (Mary – I’ll not mention that bacon cheeseburger you had at McDonalds Monday.)
For an apertif, we’ll barbeque an infidel. (I’ll have to sit that out too – cholesterol you realize, being an “old white guy”) – but I enjoy spectacles as much as the next person.
Mary. Wear that plaid burkha all your friends say you look so good in.
Malcolm;
You are an asswhole! start using your name you fuckin’ racist shit.. you can bring the bacon as i luv baccon anytime of the day, but not at your cheap Mac..
Sorry Geo,
I ain’t Malcolm. Said what I said, true enough, but really until you learn how to spell the “a” word correctly, I can see you’re only wearing the outer wear (as expected).
How is it that you spelled “bacon” correctly the first time but not the second?
Is it perhaps “baccon” is your underage girlfriend whom you hope to marry?
That, would make sense.
JK “Malcolm”
I have a problem with spelling but i get laid every niiight, Something you are strange to. Oh by the way Facebook cannot help dumb “a” like u.. Has a Muslim f876 ur thought-of-once as ur lady? it must be.. If so i opolgize for all Muslim nation ’cause we don’t do ugly sh65 ..
Uh, Geo,
I can type one thing definitively, I am not Malcolm. Well actually I can type two things – spelled correctly – I am not Malcolm and you Geo are a dumbass. (“Asshole” doesn’t onclude a “w.”)
I apologize for the copying and pasting here, but notice I do put quotation marKs, “but i get laid every niiight…”
I suspect you do. I also suspect when you lay down at night you open your Hustler and whisper to yourself (as if to another in some parallel universe) “Ahhh baccon, make me happy.”
I further suspect “baccon” does as you request. I only hope you have a carpel tunnel syndrome specialist on your “approved medical provider list.” Otherwise, your getting “laid every night” is gonna end soon. Unless you’re ambidextrous.
As I’ve repeated a few times – I’ve not been counting – apparently neither have you, nor apparently (in your case) been reading: I’m JK, not Malcolm, who does a helluva lot bettter defense than I do incidentally – as the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.”
Geo, it should be readily apparent, (even to a dumbass) you don’t have to reference a dictionary as often as you definitely would have to – were you verbally sparring with Malcolm.
Recognize anything here Geo?
With me you don’t need a dictionary. I would ask one thing, are you performing a(n) “oolgize” or a “eulogize?”
No, don’t bother, I recognize dumbass however it’s spelled.
Very well said all. Most impressive indeed, and I hope everyone is feeling better now. Are we quite finished here, I hope?
Ahmed, a word?. I would suggest that we reserve our strongest ire for those who truly deserve it.
For example, Michael Savage on his radio show yesterday told a guest caller that he was a pig for calling for social justice. Social justice! Savage, of course, has the distinction of being banned from the UK, as are several Islamist and Jewish radicals. That man is dangerous for America. Not just for what he believes (how he came through that way with a degree in anthropology, none of us can figure), but for how he is willing to dehumanize the opposition. Such a person, Malcolm is not.
Jacob
JK, I’m not sure your comments really do you service.
JK,
I see that you are an idiot and not a d.u.m.b.a.s.s. At this point i conclude your fucking little self as a fat fucksock, you fucking womb-broom. I am a Muslim which means i am superior to you and your (kind) ..lay down and take it like u always do you cat-shagging cockhound..
I am out.
Geo
Ps. Sorry to Jacob: (Isn’t Clinton doing something about that guy? despite him calling her names last year.. I sometimes love the British for doing stuff like that as they did with Dutch delinquent..), Ahmed, Marry and to Malcolm if he is not JK
Well, there we have it, out in the open: Muslims are “superior”, as amply demonstrated just above by their exemplar, George.
In this miserable thread we have been informed that white people, Jews, and non-Muslims are, in various ways, inferior — and have learned it from the very same commenters who have castigated me for racism and intolerance.
I do hope we have all had our say now.
Malcolm,
And we all know now that it has always been you! who asked Mary to put a ” Burka” on and Ahmed to have some pork and put pictures of his family on Youtube you shameless cowered ..as you are trying, in your miserable mind, to insult them..Of course Muslims are Superior to you racist halfwits .. nothing was mentioned about Jews , so stop your lies.
George, that wasn’t me. And yes, it was concluded by Mary a few comments back that due to my views I must be Jewish.
I have patiently indulged this idiocy long enough; we’re done here.
Jack,
You are correct.
Malcolm,
I think Mary meant to explain why you are an apartheid supporter, a supporter of the radical Jewish regime of Israel, as any human being with any sense of good or righteousness in him/hers would never do that, especially after watching the recent war crimes committed against the children of Gaza.
Mary, wanted to point out that you are most likely a Zionist whose Ahmed should stop wasting his time on. As there is no hope in getting into any sort of conversation with a Zionist, as the case would be with a Zionist. She meant to say that, but you as evident with your posting had shameslessly turned it into an anti Jewish or whites thing.. So shame on you Malcolm for being a racist, a twister of truth and a suppoter of an apartheid regime.
“All had our say now”
George
Lovely getting to know you too, George.
Likewise, Malcolm. There is a saying here in the west; ‘You cannot have your cake and eat it too’. Meaning that you cannot pretend to be an Atheist and disproportionally aim your criticism on just one religion. You need to be fair in order to be taken seriously as a Not For Ulterior Motive. There are many Muslim bashing on the net, but that is exactly what they are! they do not claim to be anything else. They are racist, islamaphobic, anti-immigration etc.. We know that, and they know that. However, hypocrisy is not just bad manner, it is need to be called on. Here is a Western Website with a comparative view of the main religions and their opinions of issues such as tolerance. I took women as an example, where Islam looks like a feminist when compared to the ugly sexism of the old-testament and Christianity. http://www.religioustolerance.org/fem_bibl.htm
“Had our say now”, right? Good. All done then.
Done for now.
Done for good, amigo. I’ve been civil and patient, but enough is enough.