Muslim Attempts to Censor US Religious and Political Speech
Michelle Malkin has excellent coverage of an issue that will get no play in the mainstream media, but which ought to worry Americans of all political stripes. There's further coverage here. Perhaps the best summary of the issue is Robert Specer's, here, however.
It seems that the book-ordering service that conservative opinion journal National Review runs in cooperation with a publisher (and which NR has no editorial control over) had the blasphemous gall to offer two books that were critical of islam and of the "Prophet" (murderer, megolomaniac, tyrant, bygamist, rapist, child molester) Mohammed (peace be upon him) specifically. This invoked a call to jihad from the Council for Arab Islamic Relations (CAIR), which does not regard criticism of the blessed "Prophet" as acceptable speech. And since CAIR believes that the "Koran should be the highest authority in America and islam the only accepted religion on the earth," it doesn't really care what your opinion, as a mere dhimmi-to-be, is on the subject. "Islam," after all, means "submission."
CAIR is very well-heeled and is using its clout to pressure advertisers and threaten legal action. This is a well-established pattern for CAIR. Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper likens them to a "muslim NAACP" and CAIR has gone to school on that organization's tactics. Unfortunately, their ultimate aims are a bit different. CAIR seeks "rights" for muslims only in the same sense that Hitler sought German "rights" in Austria and the Sudentenland.* Interestingly, CAIR has used the Dept of Defense list server built for the American Forces Press Service to distribute some of its literature, but then its supporters in the Pentagon seem to have some clout themselves. Hmmmm.
The book that caused the most consternation, The Life and Religion of Mohammed by Fr. J.L. Menezes, is an 80-year-old Catholic tract written by a missionary priest in India, explaining islam and how to minister to muslims. Its treatment of islam is reverential, even if it disagrees with islam's central premises. The other book, Sword of the Prophet by Sergei Trifkovic, is pretty much just a fact-based treatise on islam's view toward violence. Neither contains material that can't be found by half an hour worth of googling.
So far, NR has caved under the muslim mau-mauing. Removing Life and basically apologizing to CAIR for carrying it (Sword was removed for awhile, but is back up, thankfully). This, not CAIR's objections, is what worries me. CAIR can froth at the mouth all it wants. That's its perfect right. No...what it worrisome is summed up well by one reader:
If CAIR can effectively silence so stolid a defender of liberty and Christianity over the years as NR, then it's probably time for Americans of all persuasions to worry--CAIR and the muslim lobby in general have far too much power and influence in this country. After all, this is National Review, not the UTNE Reader or some college stud-zine.
Monk
* Oh dear...there I've gone and dropped the "H-bomb," which I've been so critical of the Left doing with respect to W. Well, folks, if the jackboot fits, they can wear it.
Update (4/06): Srdja Trifkvic comments on the censorship, "Caving in to Jihad," invoking this infamous communist practice.
It seems that the book-ordering service that conservative opinion journal National Review runs in cooperation with a publisher (and which NR has no editorial control over) had the blasphemous gall to offer two books that were critical of islam and of the "Prophet" (murderer, megolomaniac, tyrant, bygamist, rapist, child molester) Mohammed (peace be upon him) specifically. This invoked a call to jihad from the Council for Arab Islamic Relations (CAIR), which does not regard criticism of the blessed "Prophet" as acceptable speech. And since CAIR believes that the "Koran should be the highest authority in America and islam the only accepted religion on the earth," it doesn't really care what your opinion, as a mere dhimmi-to-be, is on the subject. "Islam," after all, means "submission."
CAIR is very well-heeled and is using its clout to pressure advertisers and threaten legal action. This is a well-established pattern for CAIR. Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper likens them to a "muslim NAACP" and CAIR has gone to school on that organization's tactics. Unfortunately, their ultimate aims are a bit different. CAIR seeks "rights" for muslims only in the same sense that Hitler sought German "rights" in Austria and the Sudentenland.* Interestingly, CAIR has used the Dept of Defense list server built for the American Forces Press Service to distribute some of its literature, but then its supporters in the Pentagon seem to have some clout themselves. Hmmmm.
The book that caused the most consternation, The Life and Religion of Mohammed by Fr. J.L. Menezes, is an 80-year-old Catholic tract written by a missionary priest in India, explaining islam and how to minister to muslims. Its treatment of islam is reverential, even if it disagrees with islam's central premises. The other book, Sword of the Prophet by Sergei Trifkovic, is pretty much just a fact-based treatise on islam's view toward violence. Neither contains material that can't be found by half an hour worth of googling.
So far, NR has caved under the muslim mau-mauing. Removing Life and basically apologizing to CAIR for carrying it (Sword was removed for awhile, but is back up, thankfully). This, not CAIR's objections, is what worries me. CAIR can froth at the mouth all it wants. That's its perfect right. No...what it worrisome is summed up well by one reader:
The editor of the premier magazine in the ideological battle with communism lays down without a fight in the face of fascism.
The editor of a Christian-principled magazine won't defend a Christian's right to declare Muhammad a false prophet and thus he actually defends the worst of totalitarian policies.
If CAIR can effectively silence so stolid a defender of liberty and Christianity over the years as NR, then it's probably time for Americans of all persuasions to worry--CAIR and the muslim lobby in general have far too much power and influence in this country. After all, this is National Review, not the UTNE Reader or some college stud-zine.
Monk
* Oh dear...there I've gone and dropped the "H-bomb," which I've been so critical of the Left doing with respect to W. Well, folks, if the jackboot fits, they can wear it.
Update (4/06): Srdja Trifkvic comments on the censorship, "Caving in to Jihad," invoking this infamous communist practice.
posted by Monk | 15:19
