[R-G] Blowback from the GOP's holy war

Tue Feb 5 17:41:41 MST 2008

On Feb 5, 2008 7:40 PM, Suzanne de Kuyper <suzannedk at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The Islamic community will respond in such a way this
> goverment will have to listen, and it will not be with
> any violence but with legal arguments, irrefutable
> ones.
>
> The hate speech from the G O P is stunningly applied
> as if the targets are puppets with no chance of
> rebuttal.  Nothing could be further from the truth.
>
> These wars of choice have costs never ever counted by
> the strongest proponents of them and describes an
> arrogance so profound as to cause those who speak from
> it as quite blind and deaf to reality of the 21st
> century.
>
>
> --- Anthony Fenton <fentona at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> > Blowback from the GOP's holy war
> > The 2008 Republican race has left a bitter legacy of
> > sloganeering
> > against Muslims. It may well haunt the party this
> > November.
> > By Juan Cole
> >
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/01/islamophobia/
> >
> > Feb. 1, 2008 | For much of January, one might have
> > thought that the
> > Republican candidates for president were already
> > competing against a
> > single opponent. Not one called Hillary or Barack,
> > but with a moniker
> > even more chilling in the eyes of hard-line
> > Republicans: Islamic
> > fascism.
> >
> > The American public, worried about mortgages,
> > recession and a
> > seemingly interminable war in Iraq, was unimpressed
> > -- those who fear-
> > mongered the most about Muslim terrorists have
> > faltered at the polls.
> > Even the remaining front-runners, John McCain and
> > Mitt Romney, have
> > said bigoted things about Muslims and their
> > religion. But
> > Islamophobia as a campaign strategy has failed, and
> > it may well come
> > back to haunt the Republicans in the general
> > election.
> >
> > Back when the GOP presidential field was still flush
> > with tough-
> > talking right-wingers, no one was more outrageous in
> > targeting
> > Muslims than Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado, who
> > suggested that Muslim
> > terrorists inside America were plotting the imminent
> > detonation of an
> > atomic bomb on U.S. soil. How to prevent this Tom
> > Clancy scenario?
> > "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an
> > attack on this
> > homeland of that nature would be followed by an
> > attack on the holy
> > sites in Mecca and Medina," Tancredo declared.
> > "Because that's the
> > only thing I can think of that might deter somebody
> > from doing what
> > they otherwise might do."
> >
> > That sort of wild-eyed bigotry only fuels the cycle
> > of mistrust and
> > vengeance. One can only imagine how much more
> > difficulty Tancredo
> > generated for U.S. diplomats attempting to explain
> > to America's
> > Muslim allies why a presidential candidate was
> > talking about nuking
> > Islam's holiest cities, the larger with a population
> > nearly that of
> > Houston.
> >
> > But the failure of Islamophobia as a campaign
> > strategy is no better
> > illustrated than by the spectacular flame-out of
> > Rudy Giuliani.
> > Throughout his campaign (deep-sixed after his dismal
> > showing in
> > Tuesday's Florida primary), the former New York
> > mayor evoked the
> > Sept. 11 attacks at an absurd rate. Giuliani and his
> > advisors
> > appeared to revel in demonizing Muslims. They also
> > reveled in their
> > own ignorance -- never learning the difference
> > between "Islamic" and
> > "Muslim."
> >
> > "Islamic" has to do with the religion founded by the
> > prophet
> > Mohammed. We speak of Islamic ethics or Islamic art,
> > as things that
> > derive from the religion. "Muslim," on the contrary,
> > describes the
> > believer. It would be perfectly all right to talk
> > about Muslim
> > terrorists, but calling them Islamic terrorists or
> > Islamic fascists
> > implies that the religion of Islam is somehow
> > essentially connected
> > to those extremist movements.
> >
> > Giuliani complained that during their debates,
> > Democratic rivals
> > "never mentioned the word 'Islamic terrorist,'
> > 'Islamic extremist,'
> > 'Islamic fascist,' 'terrorist,' whatever combination
> > of those words
> > you want to use, [the] words never came up." He
> > added, "I can't
> > imagine who you insult if you say 'Islamic
> > terrorist.' You don't
> > insult anyone who is Islamic who isn't a terrorist."
> >
> > But people are not "Islamic," they are Muslim. And
> > one most certainly
> > does insult Muslims by tying their religion to
> > movements such as
> > terrorism or fascism. Muslims perceive a double
> > standard in this
> > regard: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols would
> > never be called
> > "Christian terrorists" even though they were in
> > close contact with
> > the Christian Identity Movement. No one would speak
> > of Christofascism
> > or Judeofascism as the Republican candidates speak
> > of Islamofascism.
> > Muslims point out that persons of Christian heritage
> > invented
> > fascism, not Muslims, and deny that Muslim movements
> > have any link to
> > the mass politics of the 1930s in Europe.
> >
> > Giuliani's pledge to take the United States on an
> > offensive against
> > Islamic fascism, which he also said would be a
> > long-term battle,
> > failed to excite the imagination of voters. It may
> > well have alarmed
> > them in a way different from what Giuliani intended:
> > If, by
> > Giuliani's logic, the United States is only on the
> > "defensive" now,
> > with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, what would being
> > on the offensive
> > look like? Would Giuliani have started four wars?
> > Interestingly,
> > Giuliani did especially poorly in Florida among
> > retired and active-
> > duty military personnel.
> >
> > Giuliani was also hurt when the co-chair of his
> > veterans' campaign in
> > New Hampshire, John Deady praised Giuliani for being
> > able to stop
> > "the rise of the Muslims," an effort necessary to
> > continue, he said,
> > until "we defeat them or chase them back to their
> > caves, or, in other
> > words, get rid of them." When asked if he was really
> > condemning all
> > members of the religion, Deady replied, "I don't
> > subscribe to the
> > principle that there are good Muslims and bad
> > Muslims. They're all
> > Muslims." Deady was forced to resign after a video
> > of his remarks was
> > put on the web by the Guardian. Other Giuliani
> > advisors have had some
> > bigoted things to say about Muslims as well. Rep.
> > Peter King of New
> > York complained that "unfortunately we have too many
> > mosques in this
> > country." Daniel Pipes, a professional Islamophobe
> > advising Giuliani,
> > once said it would be dangerous to let American
> > Muslims vote.
> >
> > Meanwhile, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has done
> > well among
> > evangelicals but has had difficulty attracting votes
> > from other
> > segments of the Republican Party, had a revealing
> > response to the
> > assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir
> > Bhutto. "I am making
> > the observation that we have more Pakistani illegals
> > coming across
> > our border than all other nationalities except those
> > immediately
> > south of the border," he said. He added, "And in
> > light of what is
> > happening in Pakistan it ought to give us pause as
> > to why are so many
> > illegals coming across these borders." In fact,
> > there are almost no
> > Pakistani illegal aliens to speak of in the United
> > States. Only 13
> > percent of the estimated 12 million persons in the
> > United States
> > illegally are estimated to be Asian, but almost all
> > of them are East
> > Asian. Pakistani and Indian immigrants, moreover,
> > are among the
> > wealthiest immigrants in the country.
> >
> > Current GOP front-runner John McCain has been prone
> > to
> === message truncated ===
>
>
>
>
>
>
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