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New York, 4:25 PM
Sun Dec 6
13 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/10/09
Can we also coin the phrase "going tunku" for when someone says something so idiotic, it makes you go blind for a couple minutes? #tunkuvaradarajan
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Terror terror terror! #religion
11/10/09
I got this new album that totally rocks. I'm going to "go Negro" and drive around blasting it. This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated African-American—a friendly welfare recipient in New York, say, or a racy comedian—discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his race in an act of antisocial aural assault against his fellow Americans.
I'm totally ready for that physics test. I'm going to "go Chinese" all over it. This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Chinese-American—a friendly dry cleaner in New York, say, or an office worker in middle America—discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his motherland in an act of excellence at science, ruining the curve for his fellow Americans.
I feel so depressed. I might just "go Jap" and kill myself. This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Nipponese-American—a friendly sushi chef in New York, say, or Pat Morita—discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his Axis history in an act of samurai violence against his fellow Americans.
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In the hours and early days following the incident, a number of liberal websites insisted that it was Islamophobic bigotry to even discuss the possible role of radical Islamist ideology in the attack. Some of these very same outlets had exposed fundamentalist Christian proselytizing and neo-Nazi recruitment within the US military. They had also done stories on lone wolf right wing terrorism. But when radical Islamism may be involved, these same journalists went into whitewashing, see-no-evil mode. The very same politically correct willful blindness that allowed this horror to happen.
Unlike some liberal journalists and right wing cranks, I think that most Americans can understand that radical Islamism is not the same thing as Islam itself, and that "Islamist terrorist" is not synonymous with "Muslim."
Asra Nomani, journalist and Muslim, on the Fort Hood shootings: "(W)e whitewash the truth of men like Hasan responding defensively, rejecting any links to Islamic teachings and, ultimately, I believe, denying the reality of a radicalized ideology of Islam that sanctions violence." #religion
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11/10/09
I really have to take issue with your central thesis here:
Unlike some liberal journalists and right wing cranks, I think that most Americans can understand that radical Islamism is not the same thing as Islam itself, and that "Islamist terrorist" is not synonymous with "Muslim."
False. They cannot. And worse, Fox News immediately and indelicately engaged in cultural politics and the mention of nothing more inflammatory than the man's name. Not only can Americans not distinguish between "radicals" and "Muslims" - American news networks cannot. #religion
11/10/09
1) Their actual stance was not about checking the facts before assuming anything and avoiding rushing to judgment. Rather, it was about sanctimoniously precluding possibilities, applying double standards based on the ethnic and religious backgrounds of perpetrators and condemning those who brought up the issue. In fact, it was they who rushed to judgment and made unwarranted assumptions.
2) They maintained that position even as the evidence piled up, only gradually making belated concessions to reality while sullenly raising the bar (suggesting, for example, that lone wolf terrorism is not real terrorism).
Avoiding the truth, whitewashing, and mouthing empty pieties is not "avoiding bigotry." Avoiding bigotry is making clear a distinction between a faith of over a billion held by patriotic Americans and statesmen (like our former UN ambassador) and a revolutionary totalitarian ideology based on extreme theological interpretations. #religion
11/10/09
That's because there's nothing more American than what Hasan did. Is this a great country or what? Forty-three years after Whitman ascended the UT tower, a Muslim got to do it, too. #religion
11/10/09
1) Leftists of the 'anti-imperialist' variety. To them, any discussion of radical Islamist ideology - even from the most sober and factually grounded sources - is the New McCarthyism, a bogus rationale for neo-colonialism that serves elite interests. Further, Islamic terrorism is not fueled by religious fanaticism but resistance to imperialism and capitalism. (How this applies to Darfur or to bombings of Shiite mosques by Sunni fanatics is left unexplained.)
2) Self-appointed Muslim spokespeople associated with superficially moderate groups like CAIR that want to silence any criticism of severe fundamentalist tendencies within Islam. In some cases, this is an understandable defensive reaction due to fear or persecution. In other cases, it's because the groups making such claims (again, like CAIR) have more radical affiliations than they wish to admit. In contrast to these familiar talk points-parroting spokespeople, some of the most candid and enlightening discussion of the Fort Hood incident has been by reform-minded Muslims like Nomani.
3) Right wingers who are categorically bigoted against Islam. The most obvious group of conflaters. Geert Wilders. Pat Robertson. Need I say more?
4) Middle of the road liberals, typically white, privileged, and well-educated, who are acutely attuned to the danger of religious radicalism when it comes to Christian fundies and Red Staters in general, but self-censor any such sentiment when it comes to Muslims. Why? Because they like to congratulate themselves on how anti-racist and anti-bigoted they are, but they fail to realize that applying a different standard to a minority group is disrespectfully condescending - to that group. Making their 'anti-bigotry' hollow indeed. #religion
11/10/09
Wikipedia:
"The École Polytechnique Massacre, also known as the Montreal Massacre, occurred on December 6, 1989 at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people before killing himself. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the male and female students. After claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. ... He killed fourteen women and injured four men and ten women in just under twenty minutes before turning the gun on himself." #religion
11/10/09
I'm not sure the relevance of your (reasonable) demographic analysis. We began the discussion with your assertion that most Americans can distinguish between "radical" and "regular" Muslims. My opinion hasn't changed, irrespective of your summary. Demo group 5 - your uninformed, news-watching layabout - is being told:
"The names tells us a lot, does it not, senator?"
Do they dismiss that perspective based on legitimate analysis or understanding of geopolitics or culture? Doubt it. #religion
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Still...Pat Robertson has much more to lose by the focus staying on religion period, as he is one of its main pervertors in the U.S.--and a lovely cash cow it is for him.
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"What we are witnessing in India is the growth of a sort of Hindu Taliban movement. Although it is difficult to gauge the numbers accurately, the various extremist groups are believed to have tens of thousands of supporters. In recent years, Muslims have been their principal victims."
[www.nytimes.com] #religion
11/10/09
You say Islam is a political ideology, not a religion.
SO WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST THIRTY YEARS?
Sincerely,
Everyone #religion
11/10/09
11/10/09
He makes it sound like the Hulk.
Nidal Hasan was a mild-mannered Army psychologist. Then, one day, he was exposed to a dangerous amount of the Qu'ran. Unable to control the turmoil raging within, when he bows towards Mecca five times daily, he turns into
THE ISLAMIC HULK!
"RAWR! HULK MAD! HULK ADOPT RADICAL FUNDAMENTALIST ISLAM AND TAKE VIOLENT STANCE AGAINST THE SYMBOLS OF WESTERN EXCESS! HULK SMASH AMERICA BECAUSE OF INVOLVEMENT IN MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS! HULK SMASH WOMEN WHO NOT WEAR BURQA!" #religion