Hint: It Starts With an F
Jason Kuznicki on Sep 28th 2007
It’s weird. There’s not a single idea in the Islamo-Fascism Petition that I disagree with. It’s first-rate stuff (that is, provided you can get past the dodgy capitalization and spelling). It’s not at all the “vile crap” that one of Jim Henley’s commenters claimed it to be. I reproduce it here with my full approval. Except you’d hope that they could spell “fascist” consistently from one line to the next:
Islamic Jihadists around the world have declared war on America, Israel and the West and have made clear that:
* The goal of the Islamo-Fascist jihad is world domination
* The Islamo-Fasacist Jihad demands the suppression of all Infidels
* The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Women
* The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Gays
* The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Christians
* The Islamo-Fascist Jihad is a war against Jews
* The Islamo-Fasacist Jihad is a war against non-religious peopleIn opposition to this, we affirm four key principles denied by the jihadists and threatened by them:
* The right of all people to live in freedom and dignity
* The freedom of the individual conscience: to change religions or have no religion at all
* The equality of dignity of women and men
* The right of all people to live free from violence, intimidation, and coercionWe call upon all campus political, cultural, ethnic and religious groups to stand with us in opposing all forms of religious supremacism, violence and intimidation.
Beautiful sentiments indeed… and yet I mistrust the proponents’ motives. The following is why I will not sign the petition:
Perhaps most importantly, a petition forces students and faculty to declare their allegiances: either to fighting our terrorist adversaries or failing to take action to stop our enemies. For this reason, we encourage you to make a special effort to bring this petition to those groups who might be least likely to sign it, for example to campus administrators, student government officers, and the Muslim Students’ Association.
The point is not, then, to stand up for freedom: It is to declare that if you do not jump whenever I tell you to jump, then you are an enemy of freedom. Don’t we have a word for this… I dunno, somewhere in our rich political vocabulary?
Filed in The Barracks
Funny. Mind you, I don’t think the desire to force people to take sides is ‘fascist’ per se — it’s far too common for that. It’s just cultural illiberalism.
you might as well sign it.
9/11 was the start of a chain reaction that will lead to inevitable conflict of morals and values.
in 50 years your grand kids will ask you why you havent done any thing against the muslim family values opression of wives and daughters.
on the same token, i hope they will ask you as well why you let christian fundamentalism and nationalism run rampant in the US ;-)
i kind of like the idea behind the petition, as miserably as it might have been executed.
force people to take position and at the same time gauge your environment.
its campus, right? they are kids, arent they?
i guess what i m trying to say is, have an opinion and unite with people. the dickheads always have the numbers and we do nothing about it.
screw the overthinking and make a stand.
Disclaimer (in case my employers bloodhounds are following my net trail):
Some or all of this post was written by Mr Becks. For reliable information of any sort, you must consult an officially qualified professional in your local area. I will deny any personal involvement in this comment.
in 50 years your grand kids will ask you why you havent done any thing against the muslim family values opression of wives and daughters.
on the same token, i hope they will ask you as well why you let christian fundamentalism and nationalism run rampant in the US ;-)
If they ask me these things, I will tell them about this blog. I’ll also tell them about my professional life, a good chunk of which is devoted to publishing Arabic translations of op-eds, pamphlets, and books defending individual liberty.