Where Tolerance Meets Stupidity
I'm sometimes accused of racism for expressing the view that murder-fomenting (and murder-doing) Muslims have no place in our society:
Sorry if I find it hard to tolerate people who want to murder me because I don't believe in Allah. You can be tolerant, I'm going to be a little afraid at Charles de Gaulle on Friday.I have plans to see my boyfriend Friday night, and I'd like to live to have that happen.
Are you really tolerant of people who want you dead?
I feel the same way about murder-fomenting and murder-doing astrologers or people of other irrational persuasions. I don't hate all astrologers (or really any astrologers). I think any astrologers who'd murder people who don't wear their astrological sign around their neck, and believe in whatever "Leo rising" means (Viagra's working?) should be removed from our society and either put in prison or dumped somewhere where they can't hurt other people.
Sorry, but I'm not really clear on why that would be racist. Can somebody explain? Again, I don't hate any particular people, I'm just not fond of people who want me dead because I don't walk around in a pup tent and believe in Allah. Is that a racial issue, or simply a case of having working brain cells and a modicum of a survival instinct?
As for why I'm going to be a little edgy tomorrow while flying home, get a load of this bureaucratic genius, from an article by Katrin Bennhold in the IHT:
The French authorities charged with assessing security risks at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped 72 suspect Muslim workers of their security clearance, but about a dozen others are still working in the most restricted areas, including some cleaning planes and handling baggage for flights to the United States, according to a government security official and the airport workers themselves.
Some terrorism experts are asking why the government has not moved faster to suspend access for employees who may constitute a security risk, especially since details have emerged about some of the suspended workers. Several of them are suspected of having trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and one was friends with the "shoe bomber," according to the security official in charge of the case.
...Jacques Lebrot, the official in charge of the investigation, said in an interview that some of the employees who had received the letter were still working because French law required him to give them an opportunity to respond before he could take away their accreditation, and it took time to summon them all.
Suddenly, I'm reminded of George Bush sitting there with glazed eyes reading The Pet Goat as the World Trade Center came down.
I'm reminded of an episode of South Park (Cartoon Wars Part II that got censored because it showed a depiction of Muhammed in a completely innocuous way. Which was actually the whole point of the episode: we can't be intimidated into deciding what is and isn't grist for the humor mill. But apparently, just showing an image of Muhammed in any medium is enough to provoke the jihadists.
I don't understand this, though, since South Park has already shown Muhammed, even as a pivotal character in Super Best Friends. Seems strange that Comedy Central would be balked by jihadists now when anyone who knows the episodes of South Park has already seen them use an image of Muhammed. Isn't it a little late to be worried about jihad?
Patrick at November 2, 2006 11:26 PM
You may want to read Robert Spencer's "The Truth About Muhammad" by Regnery Press, NYC, 2006. Goes a long way toward explaining to a non-Muslim/Westerner just what the basis is for the "message of Allah."
Spinoneone at November 3, 2006 5:31 AM
It has been my experience to observe that those who profess to have no prejudices are usually the ones to have the most glaring problems with people not like themselves. My prejudice is with gay men, but I have no issues with gay women. Go figure?
Roger at November 3, 2006 9:06 AM
Let me guess, Roger. You're concerned that all gay men want to stretch open your booty hole.
Lena at November 3, 2006 9:33 AM
Lena,
Not really a big concern, if someone wanted to finger my colostomy incision, I’d let ‘em.
Roger at November 3, 2006 9:48 AM
That's... so... hot.
Lena at November 3, 2006 9:51 AM
Muslims don't want you dead. People who live in countries that your country's armed forces have invaded, or countries whose head of state your CIA has deposed (to include democratically elected heads of state such as Salvador Allende), bear you some ill-will. That's especially understandable if the purpose of the invasion was to grab or retain control of natural resources, while publicly proclaiming a demonstrably false pretext.
An election is imminent in your country. Vote out the agressors.
Stu "El Inglés" Harris at November 3, 2006 10:19 AM
By the way, Amy: Fabulous photo. Not a pore in sight!
Lena at November 3, 2006 10:22 AM
By the way, Amy: Fabulous photo. Not a pore in sight!
I was just about to make the same comment! Is it genes, sunscreen, or a top-secret skin care regimen? Dish!
deja pseu at November 3, 2006 11:05 AM
Muslims don't want you dead. People who live in countries that your country's armed forces have invaded
What about people to whom we've given money and weapons in fighting their regional conflicts, though. They all love us, right? They'd never later turn against us and attack us for completely unrelated reasons of hateful fundamentalist ideology. If you believe that, well, do some more reading about the world.
Stu's point here is indicative of what I find to be the worst of leftist thought these days - it all boils down to the U.S. being the bad guys here. It's stupid, simplistic and wrong.
I really loathe the Bush administration for many reasons and will not support the politicians who have handed them so many blank checks. I think we as a country have made many errors in the past. But the Islamic terrorists are responsible for themselves. They chose to be nuts who think they're getting a bunch of untainted ethereal poon for blowing themselves up at people. We make mistakes. They suck. There's a difference.
justin case at November 3, 2006 11:17 AM
Muslims don't want you dead. People who live in countries that your country's armed forces have invaded, or countries whose head of state your CIA has deposed (to include democratically elected heads of state such as Salvador Allende), bear you some ill-will.
Wow. So in 2001, the Yemeni Osama Bin-Laden planned the destruction of the Twin Towers (which almost killed me personally, BTW) by a dozen Saudi citizens while under the protection of the Afghan Taliban because of the USA's previous resource-grabbing invasions of Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan respectively? Must have missed school the day when they went over those wars in history class. Now that I know that those wars are the reason I almost got killed, I'll read up on them.
And as for Allende, its no wonder there are so many terrorist attacks against the USA by Chileans. After all, the CIA apparently had a hand in preventing that now impoverished land from building a Cuban-style utopia.
Seriously, though. I apologize for the above sarcasm. But one thing that always bothers me about comments like Stu's is that they seek to excuse hideous acts of violence backed up by unhinged, hateful rhetoric as the natural response to a range of prior bad acts by "America" or "the West", while implying that Americans or Westerners ought to respond with equanamity and stoicism no matter what outrage is perpetrated against them and theirs.
Youth unemployement among French Muslims high? How can we NOT expect them to respond by setting fire to 25000 cars and buses, and the occasional odd Jewish man or Senegalese woman? USA intervenes militarily (along with Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc..) to prevent Kuwait from being gobbled up by Saddam Hussein's Iraq? Well, the "ill will" such an act generates _naturally_ leads to the mass murder of 3000 office workers in New York. Its perverse.
I'm sorry, if Osama Bin Laden is entitled to murder my frinds and co-workers because of coup that happened in Chile in 1973, then 5 years after my workplace was burned to the ground by Muslims, I am entitled to vote Republican.
Whether I really WANT to vote Republican, of course, is another matter...
C. Gray at November 3, 2006 11:38 AM
"Is it genes, sunscreen, or a top-secret skin care regimen?"
Semen facials, actually. Mmm, mmm, good!
Lena at November 3, 2006 11:52 AM
There is indeed much racism in the world today, but those who so frequently scream it out have discounted the meaning of the word to nearly nothing.
Being smart enough to dislike and avoid those who would kill you does not make you a racist. It makes you a survivor. I disagree often with Amy, but in this case she's talking for me as well as for every rational person in the world.
We don't hate Muslims. Or brown people or people who speak Arabic, or green people who speak Martian, for that matter. We do hate those who think religion justifies murder. We won't allow our throats to be slit in the name of Allah, or for the sake of political correctness. So sue us.
AskMom at November 3, 2006 12:29 PM
There is not much more to say. Three lines into this blog I saw a scared little girl. Wanting to kill everyone because she holds the actions of the extremist as a picture of a entire race. Scared white woman I don't understand them. We should kill them all. Well, thats the way you put it. Right?
John Hudson at November 3, 2006 1:28 PM
Amy's argument is not Muslim-specific, or at least I don't think it is. We should all bristle at the notion of "tolerance" where race-baiting, ethnic hatred, mass murder, slavery, torture or genocide are involved. Which is why I have a lot of problems with the Simon Wiesenthal Center-run Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, starting with the name.
I do think the intersection of murderous intent, geopolitics and religious adherence in the radical Islamic militant movement is anything but simple. Which is to say, everyone who has commented so far has a part of the truth and everyone who has attacked other contributors also has a part of the truth. My plea to all of you would be to appreciate the complexity of the question, without for a second underestimating the dangers at hand. We need to understand this shit, not just form emotional reactions to it -- the future of the planet depends on it.
modestproposal at November 3, 2006 2:51 PM
"My plea to all of you would be to appreciate the complexity of the question, without for a second underestimating the dangers at hand."
You sound like such a fag.
Lena at November 3, 2006 3:32 PM
> That's... so... hot.
Damn.
> Mmm, mmm, good!
Double damn. I was going to credit Photoshop (V7.0 or above) or good French light... But whatever works, y'know?
> Three lines into this blog I
> saw a scared little girl.
One line into your coment, I saw a fuckup blog visitor. Do you think "murder-fomenting (and murder-doing) Muslims" actually belong in our society, or did I misread you? Are you so afraid of decency's sharp edge that you can't even turn it that far?
> Vote out the agressors.
George W. Bush, despite ongoing lapses, has done more to suppress the Kissingerian tendency to subterreanian international mischief than any president in American history.
> We make mistakes. They suck.
> There's a difference.
Justin, I like you. You don't have to tell anyone, though.
> Whether I really WANT to vote
> Republican, of course, is another
> matter...
I like you too, C. Gray.
Crid at November 3, 2006 7:15 PM
Ironic, I've met more scary Christians. They picket outside the Planned Parenthood and such and are big on the death threats
Marissa at November 4, 2006 12:35 AM
"It has been my experience to observe that those who profess to have no prejudices are usually the ones to have the most glaring problems with people not like themselves"
Don't have a lot of time to post comments - just back and jetlagged and have to go write (at a no-Internet cafe). But, I thought I'd address this one.
Personally, I think of black people as people with darker skin than I have. I think of gay people as people who like to have sex with a different kind of people I do -- (I also think of people who like blond men as people who like to have sex with a different kind of people than I do [I like dark-haired guys]). I don't thing people are wrong or awful for their preferences -- it's simply like liking celery. I don't like celery, but I don't have a problem with people who do.
I do think people who believe in god (of any kind) are irrational, and I think people who support killing or kill other people should be imprisoned or drop-kicked to some island where they can only kill other people who think like they do. Is that...intolerant of me? Prejudiced? Well, boo hoo.
Amy Alkon at November 4, 2006 9:03 AM
"There is not much more to say. Three lines into this blog I saw a scared little girl. Wanting to kill everyone because she holds the actions of the extremist as a picture of a entire race. Scared white woman I don't understand them. We should kill them all. Well, thats the way you put it. Right?"
Are you on crack? Or just unable to sound out words and understand their meaning? Or was this a comment you meant to leave on another person's blog, and you inadvertantly left it on mine?
And thanks, Deja -- sunblock and a working flash, I guess!
Amy Alkon at November 4, 2006 11:10 AM
Stu writes:
Doesn't matter who you vote for. Republicans have it and always will. The Diebold voting machines were made by Republican donors and leave no paper trail.
Oh, yes, they certainly would do that.
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