Sept. 21, 2006: Bud Talkinghorn #2 & More
Please, a little water with your Muslim whine
I find it rich that Islam is so offended by the Pope's historic allusion to the sack of Constantiople by the Muslims. Mind you, the Pope could spend days on allusions to past Catholic barbarities--the Inquisition, conversion by torture of native peoples, and The Thirty Years War, to name a few. However, if the Pope wanted to be really nasty towards Islam, he wouldn't need to go back centuries. Islamic nations have a heap of skulls piled up in the last three decades: the blind eye turned to their fellow black Muslims in Darfur, the massacre of Christians in the south of Indonesia, the Sunni jihadis' attempts to create a bloodbath between them and the Shia in Iraq, to name a few. The list is extremely long and spans the Islamic globe ... and now has entered the West.
My guess is that the shame about their benighted homelands is so great that no avenue must be opened to legitimate inspection nor criticism. That is why the Islamic nations vote as a bloc to squelch any U.N. condemnation of their repression and unrestrained mayhem, e.g. the Algerian civil war, Mauritania's continuing slave trade, or Hezbollah's ruinous adventure against Israel. They and the infidel thug nations are in collusion, each propping up the other. Perhaps the outrage emanates from that old maxim, "The best defense is a good offense". While religious freedom in their countries is rare, and criticism of the "infidels", especially Jews, is a constant, yet, Muslims demand obsequiousness from others. To press their demands, the political and religious authorities can always employ the vast unemployed "Arab Street" to rage, burn, kill and loot in protest. The dictators love to let their oppressed peoples vent once in a while, so long as it is externalized. As Syria's former dictator, Hafez al-Assad showed in Ham'a / Hama (20,000 murdered in 1982 by the army), fundamentalist ideology doesn't play well on the domestic front.
Ironically, the violent protests against the West's freedom of speech have only solidified our resolve not to be intimidated. Now, even the leftish press is fighting back through columns and editorial letters. This culture of victimology, carefully nursed (and distorted) by radical Islamic elements is backfiring. Just an aside here, but Hedy Fry, the former Liberal Minister of Multiculturalism, was the only candidate in a leadership poll shown as having sub-zero support. "The racists are burning crosses on the lawns of Prince George as we speak" simply didn't cut it as leadership material.
Like the British, Scandanavians and Dutch, Canadians are starting to read the handwriting on the wall concerning radical Islam at home. The millions of Muslims killed by fellow Muslims in the last quarter century get scant concern, but, oh boy, don't let the Pope mention a Muslim atrocity half a millennium ago. Making mountains out of molehills does the Islamic cause no favours. Time they looked within for real targets of outrage.
© Bud Talkinghorn
The "Big Picture" from Fort Dork
CBC, a.k.a. Fort Dork, has launched another version of Carol Off's "Counterspin". The premise was that Avi Lewis would show a documentary and then follow it up with a panel discussion. On paper it sounded promising, but the spin was typically CBC'ish, Wednesday night's premier documentary had Richard Dawkins, a scientist, presenting the viewpoint that religion is the cause of most evil. In fact, the documentary's title was "The Root of All Evil--The God Delusion". If he had centered in on Islam's inflexible code, as well as that of fundamentalist Christianity, then I would have been content. Alas, he used almost all the time to sneer at American evangelicals and their claim that everything in the Bible is true. Obviously Avi is a man smart enough not to have a "fatwa" or death sentence issued against him--a la Salman Rushie. [Or one could say he's too gutless to peer into extremist Islam too far for fear of backlash? After all, Daddy Stephen Lewis works for the UN, where several tiny Muslim states make up several times the clout in votes as does each Western democracy such as the US, the UK and Canada -- wouldn't want to ruffle those touchy fellows. Frost Hits the Rhubarb]
That would have been irritating enough, but Avi Lewis rubbed salt into the wounds. Much of the time he cornered a representative from a Canadian evangelical group. He attempted to show how illiberal and fatuous his viewpoints were. Of Aly / Ali Hindy, probably Canada's most vehement exponent of radical Islam whose own network includes some of the alleged terrorists rounded up within the last few months, he asked one question--and accepted Hindy's puffball answer. There was no sneering follow-up to expose the poisonous Islamic triumphalism of that faith. Like Dawkins, Lewis is not going to court disaster with a frontal attack on Islam. No matter how CBC pretends to be neutral and balanced, they can't change their leftist spots. The female Methodist minister was allowed to get away with her "God is love, love, love" spiel. With a room full of potential opinion and comment, I counted her being allowed to speak at least four times. Except for a few statements from the audience-- the majority of whom were merely "atmosphere" people--the center of attention was the Christian guy. Like Ralph Benmergui, Avi Lewis is a CBC ghost who cannot be exorcised. Surely, if CBC wanted to broaden their appeal beyond their usual group-think crowd, they would have appointed a moderator other than Lewis. Even a new lefty voice would have been appreciated. On the other hand, CBC has always been a cottage industry for the social engineering folk.
Two other things stuck out in the panel discussion. One was how much background checking Lewis had done on the Christian chap. He even knew that he had met with an American evangelical political organizer. The second thing was the affront that Lewis and many in the crowd showed when this man openly admitted that he wanted Christians to bloc vote for candidates -- ones who are sympathetic to Christian values. Horrors! Gasp! How dare he force his narrow values on Canadians! Doesn't he understand that only the socialist agendas can be countenanced in elections? [I would add that, if Lewis were able to get wild applause and a vote for leftist/socialist/UN ideas, that would have been acceptable bloc voting. Some views are "more equal" than others, I would posit. Stalin knew that. FHTR]
Too bad. The concept of the program had real potential. Hard-nosed questioning of Ali Hindy's prejudices would have been welcomed. It is to be seen if Lewis will stack further audiences with university radicals, as Off was prone to do. I suppose I should be thankful that Lewis didn't let Carol Off's blow-hard Hussain Ibbish on to completely dominate the rap. Next week we get a doc and "discussion" on global warming. See if you can spot David Suzuki disguised as a college student panel member.
© Bud Talkinghorn
My comments on the film and program:
For an anti-religion film, there was far too much concentration by Richard Dawkins on Christianity and too little on, for example, Islam. There was a lengthy section on fundamentalist Christians in the US. How convenient for the CBC. Emphasize the anti-Christian message without a parallel emphasis upon the one religion today that is showing its utter irrationality ending, at the merest provocation, in violence and death. For the CBC, fortuitously, the program in showing Christians in a negative light would allow once again a linking in viewers' minds of Canadian Christians with the American ones ( I have noticed an increase in this lately on CBC/MSM). Note was taken of how many Christians support the US President; of course, this is only the opening salvo in the CBC/MSM's election attacks on the Stephen Harper Conservatives as being too close to the US Pres. and, always, understood is that any Canadian right-wing, fundamentalists might have something to say about how Canada is governed ... by voting.
The Canadian minister or head of a Christian council (McVety) did mention voting. Leftists should have voting power to influence governmental direction but woe betide any Christian who thinks he should be able to do the same. After all, extreme left wingers like the NDP, the UN-supporting Stephen Lewis with his network of comfortable, champagne socialists--some of whom believe themselves to be an elite, even sophisticated academics uttering "correct speak / right thought", the Liberal/MSM cabal who have run Canada for years--all think their voices should count, but those who believe in a God should not be accorded the same respect. Their participation in the democratic process might be ... too Christian? Well, one doesn't have to attend a church nor believe in any god to say this is not right. Every citizen's beliefs deserve a hearing and respect ... unless they are intolerant and exhorting death, destruction and terrorism. Then they should be silenced. I prefer a more permanent solution. No more immigration for those of intolerant beliefs. No more bending to their touchy ways. From what was not included nor emphasized on the program, I would say we have enough potential intemperate and touchy ones here, already.
Islam as it is practiced throughout the world, is too intolerant for a Canadian democracy, as the leftists would find out if Islam ever became very powerful and got its way here. But Avi Lewis wasn't willing to explore that one -- except through Dawkins' filming of a Jew in Jerusalem who had converted to Islam. How long did someone have to search to find him? Additionally, why did the program host not search for more local voices who would actually speak? Avi could have found intolerant fanatical Muslims in imam Aly Hindy's Salaheddin mosque in Scarborough, for example, which would have been quite enlightening for viewers. A number of very dodgy alleged terrorists and extremists have been connected to that mosque. The professor of Islamic
The Mothercorps has learned its lesson well. Do not tick off the followers of Mohammed. Allah Akbar! FHTR
posted by News Junkie Canada at Thursday, September 21, 2006
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