When Did You Stop Beating Your Foreign Policy?
Maybe the key passage in “A Student’s Guide to Hosting Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week”:
Distributing a petition is an excellent protest tactic for several reasons. First, it is a very easy and cost-effective way to draw attention to the issues at hand. Second, a petition can serve as an advertisement for other events, such as film screenings and panel discussions (when you ask students to sign the petition, hand them a flyer about the other activities you have planned throughout the week). 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.
That is, the reason to present the petition to “the Muslim Students’ Association” is so they won’t sign it. Then you use their refusal to dance when you shout to paint them as, to coin a phrase, “on the other side.” This ties in with the weird obsession the Volunteer Auxiliary has shown about groups like CAIR in the years since 2001, and it brings up my question of the day:
How much of the hype about “Islamo-Fascism” is driven by the long-term aim of keeping American Muslims from using their growing demographic strength to press for changes in American policy in the Middle East – to delegitimize, for this group and this group only, the ethno-religious political pressure that has in the past impinged on American policy toward Ireland, Israel, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe? My suspicion is, quite a lot. Other opinions?
Comment by The Modesto Kid —
September 28, 2007 @ 8:59 am
That sounds most reasonable. “Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week” on the other hand, well, it sounds pretty ridiculous.
Comment by Thoreau —
September 28, 2007 @ 9:05 am
How much of the hype about “Islamo-Fascism†is driven by the long-term aim of keeping American Muslims from using their growing demographic strength to press for changes in American policy in the Middle East – to delegitimize, for this group and this group only, the ethno-religious political pressure that has in the past impinged on American policy toward Ireland, Israel, China, Cuba and Eastern Europe? My suspicion is, quite a lot. Other opinions?
True. I wonder which thought scares them more: Unassimilated Middle Eastern immigrants, or fully integrated Middle Eastern immigrants who have an equal seat at the table with the rest of us.
Comment by LarryM —
September 28, 2007 @ 9:40 am
You’re being much too kind to these freaks. I’m sure that delegitimatizing Islamic immigrants is a side benefit from the perspective of the animals who are spreading this vile crap. Their main goal is to stir up anti-muslim hatred to advance the cause of genocide. That’s where we are headed folks, and that’s why, 200 years from now, if there is anything left of civilization, “American” will be a bigger curse word than “Nazi.”
Comment by Gsnorgathon —
September 28, 2007 @ 10:59 am
Aww, come on, Jim – next thing you know, you’ll be saying that our latter-day “Minutemen” are racists, too.
Comment by Alex —
September 28, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Volunteer Auxiliary? Stiftungtastic.
Comment by sglover —
September 28, 2007 @ 1:42 pm
Wow, JH — that’s some wonderfully devious strategic thinking, there! One quibble, though: Isn’t the “growing demographic strength” of the Islamic vote infinitesimal, and likely to remain so for quite a while? Muslims might be able to use the Dearborn area much as the Cubans have used Dade County. Trouble is that Michigan’s in a generation-long economic and population implosion, and its electoral votes are going to be less and less valuable.
Then again, when it comes to the paranoid fever sweats of David Horowitz, external reality is pretty much always a third- or fourth-tier concern….
Comment by Jackmormon —
September 28, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
The Iranian exile community—which is ridiculously prosperous, by and large—used to tend really Republican. The same I think used to be true for a lot of Muslim Americans. Not anymore!
Comment by matthew hogan —
September 28, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
In the case of Daniel Pipes and S Emerson I think their entire goal is to prevent domestic organized lobbying by Muslim groups. Islamist terror actually helps rather than hinders them.
Comment by incognito —
September 28, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
Hmmm, interesting comment. And on that subject a true story but the source will be incognito. Once upon a time, your source attended a wedding in the DC area. The rabbi, though something of a peacenik, claimed to be friends with the whole Steven Emerson group and seemed to know the persons involved. After engaging in some private discussion with your source, his interlocutor said “You know, I’d support them if I felt they were sincerely trying to fend off Muslim terrorists, but it seemed they are more interested in shutting down organized political activities by any Muslims.” To which the clergy person who seemed to know them replied, “You know, I wouldn’t say you are totally wrong in that observation”.
True story, though anonymous and third hand.
Trackback by democracycellproject —
October 9, 2007 @ 8:15 am
Islamofascism Awareness Week…
Coming to a college campus near you: Islamofascism Awareness Week. Time to get your fear and bigotry on. Here’s the “Student’s Guide to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week”. Jim Henley notes the key passage: Distributing a petition is…
Trackback by Radio Left —
October 23, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
Horowitz Inflates Number Of Schools Participating In His Divisive Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week…
Think Progress
On college campuses across America this week, conservatives are gathering together to listen to right-wing luminaries such as Ann Coulter and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) as part of David Horowitz’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness We…