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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Getting to know your neighbours

The Timbonator first alerted us to this story about a man who founded a Muslim television station in the US to combat stereotypes being charged for allegedly beheading his wife - but the story is all over the blogosphere. Here are some original quotes from the accused, Muzzammil Hussan:
"Bridges TV sheds light on the numerous contributions that Muslims make to American life. Through this network, Americans get to know their Muslim neighbours."

"Every day on television we are barraged with stories of a Muslim extremist, militant, terrorist or insurgent. But the stories that are missing are the countless stories of Muslim tolerance, progress, diversity, service and excellence..."

"Hassan says that over time, non-Muslim Americans will come to realize they and their Muslim neighbours share many of the same values - raising families, pursuing families and finding peace."

And more along the same lines here. For the record, a ShadowLands prediction:

Rather than denouncing violence against women in their community, defenders of the Religion of Peace will try to claim the moral high ground by collecting various bad taste jokes etc in blog comments and, as always, seek protection in victim-hood. That's how you defend the indefensible. Betcha we can find evidence of this over the next few days...

2 comments:

Egg said...

Nemo contra factum suum venire potest - No man can contradict his own deed

Anonymous said...

Muslims have some serious PR work to do. They tend to stand out from the crowd with the implacable antagonism to western values, or those of pretty much any other religion. Other markers include oppression of women, honour killings, sudden jihadi syndrome (as well as slow-burn terrorist character development), and a tendency to cling to the idea that they still own territories that they once conquered but have withdrawn from or been evicted from.
We hear much about “resistance”, and motivation to get rid of “invaders” and “occupiers”, while at the same time there is grim determination to retake lands which are historically, say, Spanish or Jewish. Egypt was not always an Arab country, and had a large Coptic Christian population who have been repressed and are still constantly under attack. For all the talk about moderates, I am reminded of Hitchens’ opinion that Islam is, by its own definitions, impossible to reform. It is the Last Word on everything. There have been some promising noises coming from an Islamic scholars group in Turkey, but it makes few headlines.
In any event, it is difficult to believe in the bona fides of a group who have an official policy of taqiyya (dissimulation).
To avoid standing out from the crowd you can always adopt the demographic approach of becoming the crowd. Then perhaps you get things like 13 men of no appearance (albeit caught on security video) undertaking a bulk appropriation of new but unregistered vehicles from a car dealer in Sydney’s Wild South-West.
Of course, I could be wrong about that!