Winning Friends
I figured that sooner or later one of our friends in the Arab Middle East would respond to the Emperor's sloppy use of the term "Islamofascist," but I didn't expect it to be our best friend, Saudi Arabia. Surprise! From Saudi Arabia's Al-Riyadh:
President Bush used the expression "Islamo-fascism," and American media has tried to switch around the phrase to read "fascist Islamists." Since September 11, the American administration has focused on blaming everything on Islam, both as a religion and as an ideology, rather than a particular sect of Muslims … similarly in Britain, which while disingenuously toying with expressions such as "religious tolerance," "mutual interest," and "religious co-existence," and so on, in reality it behaves completely opposite of this, agitating against Islam and coming to America’s defense by openly opposing Islam as a religion and an ideology, rather than simply taking action against Muslims who are terrorists …
...The West still deals with Arabs and the Islamic world with the mindset of a colonizer with guardianship over Arab land … for if we conclude that America simply looks upon the [Arab or Persian] Gulf and Iraq as oil fields with abundant natural resources, then how to explain Washington's attention to Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Somalia, and Sudan, for are these producers of petroleum or other strategic economic commodities? Unfortunately, the attitude of the Western colonizer toward the Arab world remains, and this is what drives U.S. behavior; this is what has motivated America and Britain into a headlong rush to the East …
...All Islamic peoples must awaken to action in partnership with the Kingdom to defeat the idea of "fascist Islam," circulated politically and through the media by America … and when we say that Islamic peoples, governments and institutions must confront these declarations, we mean that these must oppose American attempts to make Islam out as the enemy of non-Muslims and mobilize countries against Islam and its children. [Emphasis added]
The article contains a rather nice summary of the past slicing and dicing of the Middle East map by the colonial powers, and it is clear from the cited section that many in the region see the current US and British actions as a repeat of that history. One can hardly blame them, especially with so many coalition troops in the area.
What is important, however, is the reaction to the buzz word selected by the Emperor: fascism. Its use is no more accurate than the use of the same term in the '60's by the radical left. The usage isn't intended to be accurate, just inflammatory. That Muslims would also be inflamed by such an open insult shouldn't come as any surprise, but apparently our current regime couldn't have imagined the consequences of such language.
Heckuva job, Georgie.
President Bush used the expression "Islamo-fascism," and American media has tried to switch around the phrase to read "fascist Islamists." Since September 11, the American administration has focused on blaming everything on Islam, both as a religion and as an ideology, rather than a particular sect of Muslims … similarly in Britain, which while disingenuously toying with expressions such as "religious tolerance," "mutual interest," and "religious co-existence," and so on, in reality it behaves completely opposite of this, agitating against Islam and coming to America’s defense by openly opposing Islam as a religion and an ideology, rather than simply taking action against Muslims who are terrorists …
...The West still deals with Arabs and the Islamic world with the mindset of a colonizer with guardianship over Arab land … for if we conclude that America simply looks upon the [Arab or Persian] Gulf and Iraq as oil fields with abundant natural resources, then how to explain Washington's attention to Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Somalia, and Sudan, for are these producers of petroleum or other strategic economic commodities? Unfortunately, the attitude of the Western colonizer toward the Arab world remains, and this is what drives U.S. behavior; this is what has motivated America and Britain into a headlong rush to the East …
...All Islamic peoples must awaken to action in partnership with the Kingdom to defeat the idea of "fascist Islam," circulated politically and through the media by America … and when we say that Islamic peoples, governments and institutions must confront these declarations, we mean that these must oppose American attempts to make Islam out as the enemy of non-Muslims and mobilize countries against Islam and its children. [Emphasis added]
The article contains a rather nice summary of the past slicing and dicing of the Middle East map by the colonial powers, and it is clear from the cited section that many in the region see the current US and British actions as a repeat of that history. One can hardly blame them, especially with so many coalition troops in the area.
What is important, however, is the reaction to the buzz word selected by the Emperor: fascism. Its use is no more accurate than the use of the same term in the '60's by the radical left. The usage isn't intended to be accurate, just inflammatory. That Muslims would also be inflamed by such an open insult shouldn't come as any surprise, but apparently our current regime couldn't have imagined the consequences of such language.
Heckuva job, Georgie.
posted by Diane at 3:37 AM
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