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The Woke Army attacks anyone in its way. Johannes Eisele/AFP/ Getty Images
LoonWatch.com was born on April Fool’s Day 2009. At precisely 20:33:38, someone used the pseudonym “Zuhair Thomas” to register the new website with GoDaddy, an internet service provider based in Arizona. What “Zuhair” created was a platform for anonymous character assassins, who used the names of little-known fish species — “Emperor”, “Garibaldi”, “Danios”, “Darter” — to conceal their identities. Their targets were so-called “loons”: anyone who spoke out against Islamic extremism, or in favour of Muslim reform.
For years, they targeted me, calling me an “Islamophobe”. I am a Muslim. But I had had the temerity to call out Muslim establishment leaders who won’t acknowledge the Islamic extremism lying at the heart of crimes such as those of the Boston Marathon bombers. I am far from alone in suffering harassment on LoonWatch. Other Muslim reformers — such as Syrian-American physician Zuhdi Jasser and Pakistani-Canadian writer Raheel Raza — were also targeted; so, too, were ex-Muslims — including Somali-American author Ayaan Hirsi Ali — and agnostic thinkers such as comedian Bill Maher and scientist Richard Dawkins. Indeed, LoonWatch has denounced conservatives in general, as well as the FBI, the US military, the state of Israel and, more recently, Hindus and the state of India. I wondered: who was behind this network?
After a decade of research, I have revealed the architects of LoonWatch in my new book, Woke Army. They are none other than officials at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which presents itself as the face of American Islam and the nation’s largest Muslim “civil rights” organisation. It is anything but. Rather, CAIR is a front for an extremist form of Islam. (The organisation didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.) I also discovered that it is not acting alone. Although the internet often makes cancellations seem like spontaneous uprisings, the kind of character assassinations taking place on LoonWatch are targeted attacks by a loosely organised coalition of leftists and Islamist sympathisers. They seek to destroy, in the court of public opinion, anyone who strays from the “progressive” party line.
You’ve heard their catechisms: racism, not freedom, is America’s bedrock; white people are oppressors and black people are oppressed; meritocracy is white supremacy. And, as my own trolls so often implied, it is unconscionable to link Islam to the ghouls who murder in the name of Allah. Opinions straying from these principles cannot be tolerated.
These puritans are prolific beyond LoonWatch. I first encountered them after the beheading of my friend and colleague, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in 2002. He was kidnapped in Karachi and then killed for being American, Jewish and of Israeli heritage. Danny’s savage murder in the name of Islam propelled me from the news pages to the opinion pages, where I rejected the extremism of my friend’s killers and advocated for an Islam compatible with human rights, women’s rights, and secular governance. For this, I was pilloried, labelled not only an “Islamophobe” but also a “Zionist media whore”. I was accused of being an agent of Israel, and of having sexually transmitted diseases. My son, born after his father abandoned us, was called a “bastard”.
The creation of LoonWatch — a watering-hole for these extremists — presented an opportunity to unmask some of the individuals enabling this hate. In 2018, I filed a defamation lawsuit, Nomani v. John Doe et al., winning the power to subpoena internet service providers for the real identities of 48 “John Doe” anonymous attackers. This led me to a treasure-trove of files, including one that revealed the identity of “Zuhair Thomas”.
His order was recorded in GoDaddy’s internal “Shopper Info” files with the note: “Verified by Fraud Dept — Customer OK”. But data in the documents makes it possible to identify “Zuhair” as Muhammad Tauseef Akbar, a staffer at CAIR’s Chicago chapter, who used the moniker “Garibaldi” to harass critics of the organisation. Over the years, the bills for the account he set up were paid by the credit card of Ahmed Rehab, a longtime official with CAIR’s national headquarters and the executive director of CAIR Chicago. Rehab’s email, home address and work phone number appeared on the documents, although he used “Emperor” as his fake name on LoonWatch. This GoDaddy account also bought other websites on which CAIR critics were anonymously attacked — including IslamophobiaToday.com and IslamophobiaSucks.com.
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SubscribeRadical Islamists, BLM thugs, Climate alarmist puritans , Vegan bullies, “Eco-warriors”, “Social Justice Activists”, Activist “charities”, the hate-filled “Trans” liars, and the extreme political Left.
Vicious, coercive bullies, all of them. Cut from the same ugly cloth and united by their sociopathic hatred. Wanting nothing good, nothing positive, out of life. Just inciting visceral hatred, and seeking coercive control of their fellow humans.
Every one of them represents a waste of everything that could be any good in human life, and in their own lives.
Horrible, horrible, people.
Precisely, well said.
Broadly agree with your comment, but would note that only one of the groups in your list has a handbook dating back to the 7th century (AD).
Indeed. And also containing its own handy pocket guide section on “…how and when to beat your wife…”
Indeed. And also containing its own handy pocket guide section on “…how and when to beat your wife…”
Precisely, well said.
Broadly agree with your comment, but would note that only one of the groups in your list has a handbook dating back to the 7th century (AD).
Radical Islamists, BLM thugs, Climate alarmist puritans , Vegan bullies, “Eco-warriors”, “Social Justice Activists”, Activist “charities”, the hate-filled “Trans” liars, and the extreme political Left.
Vicious, coercive bullies, all of them. Cut from the same ugly cloth and united by their sociopathic hatred. Wanting nothing good, nothing positive, out of life. Just inciting visceral hatred, and seeking coercive control of their fellow humans.
Every one of them represents a waste of everything that could be any good in human life, and in their own lives.
Horrible, horrible, people.
An interesting insight into an all too familiar story whereby anti-racist rhetoric is in fact a cover for leftist anti-democratic and authoritarian racism and the internet is used to promote a false and defamatory narrative against those who oppose real racism and social cohesion. Unfortunately it would seem mainstream Democrats in the US are easily co-opted into this false narrative.
What does racism actually mean? please define?
The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
Currently this is NOT the orthodox position although it was until fairly recently , within my own lifetime for example.
Charles Stanhope has given you a definition which encompasses some of what I take racism to mean but which I think falls short of the reason that racism is regarded as pernicious. A belief that the race to which you belong possesses superior qualities of some sort is a fairly common belief however erroneous and is not in itself pernicious. Indeed as a non-Jew I am inclined to believe that the disproportionate number of highly successful Ashkenazi Jews that are distinguished in intellectual, financial and musical spheres suggests that as a group they do possess a disproportionate superiority in these areas, whether this is inherent or cultural is open to debate. Of course that does not means randomly selected Jew will automatically have superior qualities in these areas to a randomly selected individual from some other ethnicity.
A sense of superiority or even inferiority is not necessarily a problem in itself. The problem arises when people decide to treat others less favourably on the basis of their apparent ethnic or racial category. At one extreme lies the German National Socialist genocide of the Jews but the two receptionists at a dentists who disregarded a Nigerian friend and continued typing and speaking on the phone until a white person came in whom they immediately attended to also demonstrated racism. Any more favourable treatment of someone on the basis of their perceived ethnic or racial background in contrast to the less favourable treatment of a person of another racial group is racism.
I do not accept the suggestion that discrimination against someone on the basis of race is acceptable if it involves an individual who belongs to a group that allegedly has power and that is not racism – despite the efforts to promote such a distorted definition.
A sense of fairness requires that we do not discriminate against an individual on the basis of group identity. Once such discrimination becomes widespread social cohesion is damaged and resentment and hatred is promoted.
Of course practical issues can arise in seeking to treat everyone fairly and equally where there is sound evidence that racial groupings do have different cultural habits. The disproportionate targeting of stop and search towards one ethnicity can be perceived as a rational response to a different propensity to carry concealed weapons if this is factually correct or racism if in incorrect. The facts may be open to dispute – I make no comment on them.
The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.
Currently this is NOT the orthodox position although it was until fairly recently , within my own lifetime for example.
Charles Stanhope has given you a definition which encompasses some of what I take racism to mean but which I think falls short of the reason that racism is regarded as pernicious. A belief that the race to which you belong possesses superior qualities of some sort is a fairly common belief however erroneous and is not in itself pernicious. Indeed as a non-Jew I am inclined to believe that the disproportionate number of highly successful Ashkenazi Jews that are distinguished in intellectual, financial and musical spheres suggests that as a group they do possess a disproportionate superiority in these areas, whether this is inherent or cultural is open to debate. Of course that does not means randomly selected Jew will automatically have superior qualities in these areas to a randomly selected individual from some other ethnicity.
A sense of superiority or even inferiority is not necessarily a problem in itself. The problem arises when people decide to treat others less favourably on the basis of their apparent ethnic or racial category. At one extreme lies the German National Socialist genocide of the Jews but the two receptionists at a dentists who disregarded a Nigerian friend and continued typing and speaking on the phone until a white person came in whom they immediately attended to also demonstrated racism. Any more favourable treatment of someone on the basis of their perceived ethnic or racial background in contrast to the less favourable treatment of a person of another racial group is racism.
I do not accept the suggestion that discrimination against someone on the basis of race is acceptable if it involves an individual who belongs to a group that allegedly has power and that is not racism – despite the efforts to promote such a distorted definition.
A sense of fairness requires that we do not discriminate against an individual on the basis of group identity. Once such discrimination becomes widespread social cohesion is damaged and resentment and hatred is promoted.
Of course practical issues can arise in seeking to treat everyone fairly and equally where there is sound evidence that racial groupings do have different cultural habits. The disproportionate targeting of stop and search towards one ethnicity can be perceived as a rational response to a different propensity to carry concealed weapons if this is factually correct or racism if in incorrect. The facts may be open to dispute – I make no comment on them.
Yes, Anti-Racism is merely a Will to Power. They pretty much say it themselves:
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/how-to-fix-politics-in-america/inequality/pass-an-anti-racist-constitutional-amendment/
Thanks for the reference; hiding in plain site.
Thanks for the reference; hiding in plain site.
What does racism actually mean? please define?
Yes, Anti-Racism is merely a Will to Power. They pretty much say it themselves:
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/how-to-fix-politics-in-america/inequality/pass-an-anti-racist-constitutional-amendment/
An interesting insight into an all too familiar story whereby anti-racist rhetoric is in fact a cover for leftist anti-democratic and authoritarian racism and the internet is used to promote a false and defamatory narrative against those who oppose real racism and social cohesion. Unfortunately it would seem mainstream Democrats in the US are easily co-opted into this false narrative.
Thank you for this necessary piece. It makes me realise that often the problem of Woke authoritarians is even more severe than I imagine in a worst case scenario.
Your use of the term ‘woke authoritarians’ in some sense illustrates the problem. These people have an inexhaustible supply of derogatory epithets to describe those who oppose them; we struggle even to find words that describe their ideology. That needs to change.
Precisely. I use “doctrinaires”, but it’s still too polite.
Petty parochial megalomaniacs.
Correct. Language itself is in play in this vicious cultural revolution. I hate the word woke. The Progressives are Identitarians. That is their movement – but this word also has no bite. In the UK what bind a ghastly alliance of Progressive Left to the New Establishment is a Legally enforced Equality Cult, extant since 2010. We are being tormented – and our values threatened by – not just this Leftist ideology but by a form of national pyschological hysteria which makes ALL forms of discrimination – including wealth disparity – a form of evil. Call it an Anti Discriminatory Mania or M.A.D. it exists in all of us now. Woke is MAD.
Precisely. I use “doctrinaires”, but it’s still too polite.
Petty parochial megalomaniacs.
Correct. Language itself is in play in this vicious cultural revolution. I hate the word woke. The Progressives are Identitarians. That is their movement – but this word also has no bite. In the UK what bind a ghastly alliance of Progressive Left to the New Establishment is a Legally enforced Equality Cult, extant since 2010. We are being tormented – and our values threatened by – not just this Leftist ideology but by a form of national pyschological hysteria which makes ALL forms of discrimination – including wealth disparity – a form of evil. Call it an Anti Discriminatory Mania or M.A.D. it exists in all of us now. Woke is MAD.
Your use of the term ‘woke authoritarians’ in some sense illustrates the problem. These people have an inexhaustible supply of derogatory epithets to describe those who oppose them; we struggle even to find words that describe their ideology. That needs to change.
Thank you for this necessary piece. It makes me realise that often the problem of Woke authoritarians is even more severe than I imagine in a worst case scenario.
What the article doesn’t really grapple with is why normal, middle-of-the-road muslims don’t seem to care very much that their religion is being twisted by unelected “community leadership”. It is hard not to get the impression that a lot of them don’t really care enough to make the view of “reformers” the dominant one in Western Islam. From my experience at university this was an uphill battle and it seems only to have got harder since with even muslims being called racist and islamophobic (which I don’t think would have been done 10 years ago). The article does a brilliant job of dealing with this one, disturbing case (CAIR) though.
Isn’t it just fear – the same fear that prevents the rest of us from defending traditional values?
No it is not just fear. There is no such thing as a middle of the road Muslim, the faith dos not allow for it, and at on level or another they are on the same page as those you would call extremists and they are never going to pick you over them
Apparently you don’t know many Muslims.
Most Muslims are unhappy with the extreme and violent behavior, but are not anxious to speak out since they feel rather helpless since there is no single establishment to push back against, unlike the Catholic Church, for example. And for some there is a fear of being shunned by their neighbors. They are like most people in other groups who don’t want to rock the boat.
I suppose I have to educate you.
I work in one of the modern day multicultural Edens that our large cities have become.
I would guess for the last 6 or 7 my white colleagues and I have been in a minority in my work place.
In my gym I am regularly the only white face in there.
With very rare exception, by choice the Pakistanis remain separate and apart both inside and outside work. They do buy in to any of the values that are suppose to characterise western society. If you ask them about those that commit violence in the nm of Islam you will find it difficult t elicit anything other than excuses and justification so you can only guess how dep their sympathies run. You are and always will be a Ka**r to them.
God help us when we end up in the minority
Reality is no place for you I’d like to buy a world a conk an teach it how to sing morality, no place at all.
I suppose I have to educate you.
I work in one of the modern day multicultural Edens that our large cities have become.
I would guess for the last 6 or 7 my white colleagues and I have been in a minority in my work place.
In my gym I am regularly the only white face in there.
With very rare exception, by choice the Pakistanis remain separate and apart both inside and outside work. They do buy in to any of the values that are suppose to characterise western society. If you ask them about those that commit violence in the nm of Islam you will find it difficult t elicit anything other than excuses and justification so you can only guess how dep their sympathies run. You are and always will be a Ka**r to them.
God help us when we end up in the minority
Reality is no place for you I’d like to buy a world a conk an teach it how to sing morality, no place at all.
Apparently you don’t know many Muslims.
Most Muslims are unhappy with the extreme and violent behavior, but are not anxious to speak out since they feel rather helpless since there is no single establishment to push back against, unlike the Catholic Church, for example. And for some there is a fear of being shunned by their neighbors. They are like most people in other groups who don’t want to rock the boat.
No it is not just fear. There is no such thing as a middle of the road Muslim, the faith dos not allow for it, and at on level or another they are on the same page as those you would call extremists and they are never going to pick you over them
This is a really important point that doesn’t get nearly the attention that it should. The impression that I get is that it is not that your middle-of-the-road muslim doesn’t care enough. Rather that just like everyone else they’ve just been ground down by the professional woke to the extent that they aren’t going get involved and fight a losing battle. I agree totally with what you are saying. In the 1990s the idea that muslims would be called islamophobic would be risible but now, as woke has captured institutions, it is commonplace because the identitarian has become the purpose and victimhood has become the vogue.
Identity politics has the three great advantages – it’s free, it’s social media friendly and it’s open ended. There’s no cost and no one can ever end it and even if you make progress in the real world the internet will pick up the strain.
We, the public at large, need to take some blame of course. We stood by and watched as institutions were captured – it’s all too late now. Too often we simply shrugged and said, ‘that crocodile won’t eat me.’ To some extent of course what the article is talking about is really the internet rather than anything per se to do with religion. What the internet has done is taken any bad trend you can think of an amplified it.
As fun as it has been to watch Nicola Sturgeon founder on the rocks of her own woke nonsense there can be no denying that she showed how far past the cautionary tale we are when it comes to woke capture. The SNP has as strong a purpose as you can think of and woke even managed to dilute that. Religious institutions are no different – at my own church I’m fighting a losing battle in trying to keep the emphasis on ministry above diversity.
Indeed it is interesting and, one suspects, rather telling to see that the author of this strong article doesn’t actually say how she thinks we can move past woke capture. ‘It’s time to see this project for what it is,’ she says. Well…yes. We can all see it, but how to dewoke is much harder. Ron De Santis is trying in Florida, but he will likely fail.
Unfortunately woke will not be defeated institutionally dug in as it is without a comparable narrative that highlights that woke is not simply an excess of kindness and care for the oppressed but an evil and bigoted ideology that is the successor to classical Stalinism and German National Socialism.
We need to make those who are inclined to support woke ideology pariahs comparable to their authoritarian siblings. The woke pretend that politics has become more antagonistic and fail to accept that it has become so as a result of their own attack dogs. Unfortunately, so long as woke remains dug in the route taken by De Santis is the only route. Indeed the silent majority need to be galvanised to adopted the tactics of the woke so that the woke shuffle way from their ideology shamed into a colour blind and classic liberal position.
Real liberals need to recapture the institutions that have been corrupted so that the views of Thomas Sowell become the dominant views in universities and institutions. Is it impossible? It is if sensible people think it is so. We must think more like the enemies of civilisation who never gave up on their determination to capture the universities and institutions. We must become as focussed and determined as they are.
I don’t think he will. We moved to Florida largely because he is running the state, and he’s likely to go national. The Normals are fed up and looking for leadership, no matter what the media enablers of the Mental say.
Unfortunately woke will not be defeated institutionally dug in as it is without a comparable narrative that highlights that woke is not simply an excess of kindness and care for the oppressed but an evil and bigoted ideology that is the successor to classical Stalinism and German National Socialism.
We need to make those who are inclined to support woke ideology pariahs comparable to their authoritarian siblings. The woke pretend that politics has become more antagonistic and fail to accept that it has become so as a result of their own attack dogs. Unfortunately, so long as woke remains dug in the route taken by De Santis is the only route. Indeed the silent majority need to be galvanised to adopted the tactics of the woke so that the woke shuffle way from their ideology shamed into a colour blind and classic liberal position.
Real liberals need to recapture the institutions that have been corrupted so that the views of Thomas Sowell become the dominant views in universities and institutions. Is it impossible? It is if sensible people think it is so. We must think more like the enemies of civilisation who never gave up on their determination to capture the universities and institutions. We must become as focussed and determined as they are.
I don’t think he will. We moved to Florida largely because he is running the state, and he’s likely to go national. The Normals are fed up and looking for leadership, no matter what the media enablers of the Mental say.
I agree with Hugh that it’s fear but I also think it’s confusion about the truth.
The recent podcast series about the Trojan Horse Project in Birmingham U.K. is a prime example of how moderate Muslims are being deliberately lied to by extremist thinkers with the aim of trying to force the moderates to believe that every Western country is against them.
Despite the overwhelming evidence provided by meticulously researched report confirming that such a plot to turn normal comprehensive schools in East Birmingham into hotbeds of Islamic extremism, the podcast sought to twist the narrative and focused on the fact that the author of the original letter that brought about the government’s investigation into the conspiracy had never been found and that the letter was a hoax. The fact that the letter itself was the only means by which desperate teachers could get anyone take the situation seriously, was never once examined.
This sort of manipulation of the truth, told by Western educated, jovial, friendly sounding men is probably partly why the moderates are afraid to speak out. They simply don’t understand the extent to which they are being manipulated.
The media are the ‘useful idiots’ in most cases. These people have performative morals – virtue signaling – rather than moral values. They play to the crowd and lie and spin to feed the needs of the crowd to feel virtuous. It’s sickening and dangerous.
The media are the ‘useful idiots’ in most cases. These people have performative morals – virtue signaling – rather than moral values. They play to the crowd and lie and spin to feed the needs of the crowd to feel virtuous. It’s sickening and dangerous.
The CAIR regional president in Minnesota also said during the Hamline debacle that if things like this (Hamline professor showing image of Muhammad) then a “Charlie hebdo” would happen here. Very alarming stuff
is their religion being twisted, though? Which Quran have you been reading? Upon reading the Quran with its incessant tones condemning non-followers and its supremacist disposition, how are the values of CAIR incompatible with Quranic tones?
Islam, the movement, does not sit comfortably in 2nd place.
You can find a Chris Hitchins video on YouTube where he beseeches his audience to come to terms with how the term ‘Islamophobia’ will be used to supress criticism of Islam. Whilst it is accepfed and used in casual conversation amongst political and cultural elites, and collegiate social justice warriors, no amount of protest from the author will amount to anything more than a hill of beans.
The death of Chris Hitchins was an enormous blow to sanity,
Somehow apostasy must be marketed as an unashamed self-improvement exercise. YouTube’s ‘Apostate Prophet’ (and others) bravely pursues the road to sanity. Please support him.
Well said. Witnessing the brave moderates/reformists/ex-muslims that stick their head above the parapet and get it cut off (sometimes literally) is hardly an encouragement for the silent majority to join in the call for reform within Islam’s main schools.of thought. Islam means submission and goes about getting everyone to submit, with force, if necessary, as shown by the founder, who is revered. The hardest part to fathom for me is how the left overlooks EVERYTHING (evidence, examples, world history, victims) to support ‘radical’ muslims in the West with their not-so-hidden agendas. Blindly supporting BDS or everything Palestinian for example (Israel has to also be held to account for their sins here too in a terribly difficult situation).
Well said. Witnessing the brave moderates/reformists/ex-muslims that stick their head above the parapet and get it cut off (sometimes literally) is hardly an encouragement for the silent majority to join in the call for reform within Islam’s main schools.of thought. Islam means submission and goes about getting everyone to submit, with force, if necessary, as shown by the founder, who is revered. The hardest part to fathom for me is how the left overlooks EVERYTHING (evidence, examples, world history, victims) to support ‘radical’ muslims in the West with their not-so-hidden agendas. Blindly supporting BDS or everything Palestinian for example (Israel has to also be held to account for their sins here too in a terribly difficult situation).
Because they never go against the Ummah.
Isn’t it just fear – the same fear that prevents the rest of us from defending traditional values?
This is a really important point that doesn’t get nearly the attention that it should. The impression that I get is that it is not that your middle-of-the-road muslim doesn’t care enough. Rather that just like everyone else they’ve just been ground down by the professional woke to the extent that they aren’t going get involved and fight a losing battle. I agree totally with what you are saying. In the 1990s the idea that muslims would be called islamophobic would be risible but now, as woke has captured institutions, it is commonplace because the identitarian has become the purpose and victimhood has become the vogue.
Identity politics has the three great advantages – it’s free, it’s social media friendly and it’s open ended. There’s no cost and no one can ever end it and even if you make progress in the real world the internet will pick up the strain.
We, the public at large, need to take some blame of course. We stood by and watched as institutions were captured – it’s all too late now. Too often we simply shrugged and said, ‘that crocodile won’t eat me.’ To some extent of course what the article is talking about is really the internet rather than anything per se to do with religion. What the internet has done is taken any bad trend you can think of an amplified it.
As fun as it has been to watch Nicola Sturgeon founder on the rocks of her own woke nonsense there can be no denying that she showed how far past the cautionary tale we are when it comes to woke capture. The SNP has as strong a purpose as you can think of and woke even managed to dilute that. Religious institutions are no different – at my own church I’m fighting a losing battle in trying to keep the emphasis on ministry above diversity.
Indeed it is interesting and, one suspects, rather telling to see that the author of this strong article doesn’t actually say how she thinks we can move past woke capture. ‘It’s time to see this project for what it is,’ she says. Well…yes. We can all see it, but how to dewoke is much harder. Ron De Santis is trying in Florida, but he will likely fail.
I agree with Hugh that it’s fear but I also think it’s confusion about the truth.
The recent podcast series about the Trojan Horse Project in Birmingham U.K. is a prime example of how moderate Muslims are being deliberately lied to by extremist thinkers with the aim of trying to force the moderates to believe that every Western country is against them.
Despite the overwhelming evidence provided by meticulously researched report confirming that such a plot to turn normal comprehensive schools in East Birmingham into hotbeds of Islamic extremism, the podcast sought to twist the narrative and focused on the fact that the author of the original letter that brought about the government’s investigation into the conspiracy had never been found and that the letter was a hoax. The fact that the letter itself was the only means by which desperate teachers could get anyone take the situation seriously, was never once examined.
This sort of manipulation of the truth, told by Western educated, jovial, friendly sounding men is probably partly why the moderates are afraid to speak out. They simply don’t understand the extent to which they are being manipulated.
The CAIR regional president in Minnesota also said during the Hamline debacle that if things like this (Hamline professor showing image of Muhammad) then a “Charlie hebdo” would happen here. Very alarming stuff
is their religion being twisted, though? Which Quran have you been reading? Upon reading the Quran with its incessant tones condemning non-followers and its supremacist disposition, how are the values of CAIR incompatible with Quranic tones?
Islam, the movement, does not sit comfortably in 2nd place.
You can find a Chris Hitchins video on YouTube where he beseeches his audience to come to terms with how the term ‘Islamophobia’ will be used to supress criticism of Islam. Whilst it is accepfed and used in casual conversation amongst political and cultural elites, and collegiate social justice warriors, no amount of protest from the author will amount to anything more than a hill of beans.
The death of Chris Hitchins was an enormous blow to sanity,
Somehow apostasy must be marketed as an unashamed self-improvement exercise. YouTube’s ‘Apostate Prophet’ (and others) bravely pursues the road to sanity. Please support him.
Because they never go against the Ummah.
What the article doesn’t really grapple with is why normal, middle-of-the-road muslims don’t seem to care very much that their religion is being twisted by unelected “community leadership”. It is hard not to get the impression that a lot of them don’t really care enough to make the view of “reformers” the dominant one in Western Islam. From my experience at university this was an uphill battle and it seems only to have got harder since with even muslims being called racist and islamophobic (which I don’t think would have been done 10 years ago). The article does a brilliant job of dealing with this one, disturbing case (CAIR) though.
Well, taken a fair few a long time to see what for many normal folks has been obvious from the start…. grifters attempting a power putsch. Obscene and egregious as beneath it all there are some aspects that do still need tackling, but they obliterated all sense of proportionality – the turning away from MLKs mantra says it all and should be the line we reinforce behind. There’s some hope, but it will take the many of what we’re told are moderate Muslims and the sensible in all communities to seize back the narrative and stop this horrid, pernicious neo-Marxist grift in its tracks and then crush it. If not them, then I shudder to think what comes next. Speak up people
The old adage of “All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men (and women) to do nothing” has never been more true.
The old adage of “All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men (and women) to do nothing” has never been more true.
Well, taken a fair few a long time to see what for many normal folks has been obvious from the start…. grifters attempting a power putsch. Obscene and egregious as beneath it all there are some aspects that do still need tackling, but they obliterated all sense of proportionality – the turning away from MLKs mantra says it all and should be the line we reinforce behind. There’s some hope, but it will take the many of what we’re told are moderate Muslims and the sensible in all communities to seize back the narrative and stop this horrid, pernicious neo-Marxist grift in its tracks and then crush it. If not them, then I shudder to think what comes next. Speak up people
Unfortunately the misuse of language extends far beyond the use of anti-racist slogans in the defence of racism. Increasingly the language of democracy and pluralism is also used to conceal the ambitions of some quite brutal authoritarians, especially on the left.
We all need to stop colluding in this. The first step being to develop a new set of terms to describe statist authoritarians so that we no longer have to refer to them as ‘Democrats’ or ‘socialists’.
I think the late C Hitchens referred to it as ‘Islamo-Fascism’ which I think is fairly on the money.
One element of Muslim radicalisation appeal is never mentioned, aka allowed to be discussed. Whereas black and white young men, most especially at the less educated end of the socio demograph, have heroes, and role models such as footballers and musicians, as well as sexy women on virtual reality tv and elsewhere, muslim youth does not: they therefore have no ” street cred”….. except via radicalisation and terrorism.
Or Progressives
I think the late C Hitchens referred to it as ‘Islamo-Fascism’ which I think is fairly on the money.
One element of Muslim radicalisation appeal is never mentioned, aka allowed to be discussed. Whereas black and white young men, most especially at the less educated end of the socio demograph, have heroes, and role models such as footballers and musicians, as well as sexy women on virtual reality tv and elsewhere, muslim youth does not: they therefore have no ” street cred”….. except via radicalisation and terrorism.
Or Progressives
Unfortunately the misuse of language extends far beyond the use of anti-racist slogans in the defence of racism. Increasingly the language of democracy and pluralism is also used to conceal the ambitions of some quite brutal authoritarians, especially on the left.
We all need to stop colluding in this. The first step being to develop a new set of terms to describe statist authoritarians so that we no longer have to refer to them as ‘Democrats’ or ‘socialists’.
The Left’s “tell” and forever tactic is confession by projection. They scream accusations of moral and ethical “crimes” they themselves are guilty of, and they don’t even bother to be coherent about it. The political and media cowards cited in this article provide them cover, and merrily they steamroll along.
I don’t think they even care anymore how they come across. No-one is stopping them or calling them out on it. Then again journalists have become like courtiers to the political class.
Great line “confession by projection”
I don’t think they even care anymore how they come across. No-one is stopping them or calling them out on it. Then again journalists have become like courtiers to the political class.
Great line “confession by projection”
The Left’s “tell” and forever tactic is confession by projection. They scream accusations of moral and ethical “crimes” they themselves are guilty of, and they don’t even bother to be coherent about it. The political and media cowards cited in this article provide them cover, and merrily they steamroll along.
Diversity is overrated
Diversity is overrated
“for an Islam compatible with human rights, women’s rights, and secular governance”
But is such a thing possible? Islam is an explicitly violent religion. The Koran is mostly sermons threatening the believer with hellfire if he gives his sword a rest. True, the Judaism of the early Old Testament was even worse, at least in places, but … anyway I wish the author every success.
The Muslims of the Ahmaddiya sect are quite close to embodying these ideals but in their homeland, Pakistan, they are ruthlessly persecuted by the overwhelmingly Sunni majority meaning that the only places where they can live peacefully and practice their religion are invariably non-Muslim countries. Japan, for example, has a sizable community of Ahmaddiya Muslims.
Good question Ray. I believe that muslims need to start treating Islam and their holly book like most christians in the West treat Christianity and the bible. Never bother to read it cover to cover, learn the context in which the texts were written, pick the verses that comport with their worldview (love others, be kind, etc.) and ignore others or find an excuse as to why they don’t apply in our day and age. The New Testament has passages where women are second class, jews are condemned, instructions on slavery, etc.
The Muslims of the Ahmaddiya sect are quite close to embodying these ideals but in their homeland, Pakistan, they are ruthlessly persecuted by the overwhelmingly Sunni majority meaning that the only places where they can live peacefully and practice their religion are invariably non-Muslim countries. Japan, for example, has a sizable community of Ahmaddiya Muslims.
Good question Ray. I believe that muslims need to start treating Islam and their holly book like most christians in the West treat Christianity and the bible. Never bother to read it cover to cover, learn the context in which the texts were written, pick the verses that comport with their worldview (love others, be kind, etc.) and ignore others or find an excuse as to why they don’t apply in our day and age. The New Testament has passages where women are second class, jews are condemned, instructions on slavery, etc.
“for an Islam compatible with human rights, women’s rights, and secular governance”
But is such a thing possible? Islam is an explicitly violent religion. The Koran is mostly sermons threatening the believer with hellfire if he gives his sword a rest. True, the Judaism of the early Old Testament was even worse, at least in places, but … anyway I wish the author every success.
in the name of “anti-racism”, real racism is being practised
Yes, as with antifa, BLM, and so many others.
in the name of “anti-racism”, real racism is being practised
Yes, as with antifa, BLM, and so many others.
Thank you for this excellent piece Ms. Nomani. I have tried over an over again to make similar points (although I am not from a Muslim background but a Catholic one), only to be labelled an “Islamophobe” and the usual ad hominem smears. May I plug my book here? Apologies if that is cheeky. I love your work!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Identity-Islam-Twilight-Liberal-Values/dp/1527516520
Thank you for this excellent piece Ms. Nomani. I have tried over an over again to make similar points (although I am not from a Muslim background but a Catholic one), only to be labelled an “Islamophobe” and the usual ad hominem smears. May I plug my book here? Apologies if that is cheeky. I love your work!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Identity-Islam-Twilight-Liberal-Values/dp/1527516520
Good article. Only thing I would mention is that the two links on the school board meeting were unavailable in Europe and came up with an error message about data protection. I’m not suggesting the remedy for this but it is a bit jarring. Might be one for the editors to check next time.
Good article. Only thing I would mention is that the two links on the school board meeting were unavailable in Europe and came up with an error message about data protection. I’m not suggesting the remedy for this but it is a bit jarring. Might be one for the editors to check next time.