Posted by:
Henry Bemis
(
)
Date: January 06, 2018 02:24PM
Frankly, this whole post strikes me as pure fantasy. Moreover, your response begs my basic question; What is at stake for you personally? This is way beyond some general interest in Muslims.
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"On behalf of Islam or on behalf of Muslims? I think you’ll find the later is my preoccupation."
COMMENT: Muslims are members of Islam, and subscribe to the doctrines and dogmas of Islam. They perpetrate the religion just as Mormons perpetrate Mormonism. Sure, there are deceived adherents in both religions that are basically good, honest, and deserving of personal respect. However, they are not deserving of respect as Muslims or Mormons! Why, because *that* identification of itself is harmful to others and to society.
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"Why the preoccupation? For the same reason I would have been preoccupied with Jews (not Judaism) in the 1920s-and 1930s. A world-wide consensus has been formed to make Muslims the “other”, for which this headline and the many others like it go to serve."
COMMENT: Why do I doubt your first statement? After all, Muslims were not interested in the plight of the Jews when the Jews were being slaughtered! Moreover, Jews of the 20s, and 30s, and 40s, etc. did nothing "jihadist" or socially destructive to cast themselves as socially "the other." Muslims, on the other hand, have done the opposite, insisting that they are religiously, doctrinally, and socially superior, and refusing as a religion to discredit its violent elements who are merely taking its doctrines seriously in seeking Islamist jihad. Where is there such doctrine or practice in Judaism?
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"Most of us were taught about Hitler’s Holocaust. But we were often taught it with a terrible flaw at the centre, which fetishized Jewish people. Jews are not a “special case”. There is nothing specific about Jewishness that brought the Holocaust. In fact, as far as Holocausts go, as gruesome as Hitler’s was, it wasn’t even the biggest or most dramatic."
COMMENT: Are you serious? This is the kind of statement that is born from Islamic propaganda. Thank you for admitting that the Holocaust was "gruesome," quite the understatement. It was by all measures horrific. And please tell me what your justification is to excuse or minimize the Holocaust simply because such barbarity was done to others as well. (For example the Armenians.) This is an anti-Jewish statement and attitude, pure and simple; and it is ridiculous and offensive on multiple levels.
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"Sometimes Hitler’s Holocaust is taught to the exclusion of the others in the 20th century, which further creates the impression of a Jewish special case. On the flip side of this, sometimes it is thought that there is something unique about Germans that brought about Hitler and his “final solution”. Again, this is wrong. Germans are no more a special case than Jews are."
COMMENT: There is a reason why the Jewish Holocaust is emphasized, and why it *is* a special case. And, the fact that it could have been perpetrated by some other political power, or society, does not diminish it. Why on earth are you so committed to diminishing the Holocaust.
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There is some interesting work out there on the Big Five Trait Theory and Nazis, work that clearly shows that anyone could end up agreeing with a “final solution”, not just Germans, and that any group can become the “other”, not just Jews.
COMMENT: So what? Again, how does that justify your Islamic based diminishing of the Holocaust, obviously a position designed to promote your pro-Islamist agenda. It's ridiculous. You can't support Islam on its own merits, so you are forced to paint it and Muslims as victims?
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Right now, world-wide, Muslims are the other.
COMMENT: Excuse me while I will get out my violin. Unlike the Jews, Muslims are nowhere near a social stigma that warrants fear of mass extermination as "the other." American Muslims who integrate into American society generally do fine as American citizens and neighbors. I have numerous Muslim clients, done of whom view themselves as victims, or "the other." I doubt it is any different worldwide--unless a community has been the victim of a Muslim suicide bomber.
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"There’s more to say but no time to say it. The OP headline is part of a much larger, broader campaign to make Muslims the other, a “virus” or “cancer” or “menace”, a “special case” of evil, perniciousness, what you will. Denials of that are expressions of ignorance, an ignorance purposely created and cultivated."
COMMENT: Again, pure B.S. fantasy, and Islamic propaganda.
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What’s needed, Henry, is for you and I to hash out our political differences off-line, for they appear to be deep.
COMMENT: I do not think I could do it. I find this post not just wrong, but repulsive. I am extremely disappointed by its source; someone who is very intelligent, and who should know better.
Notwithstanding, thanks for the response.