New Statesman - Apocalypse now?
Johann Hari reviews America Alone, the quasi-novel by Mark Steyn recently published by Regnery (the same publishing house behind a lot of Robert Spencer's dross) which gives a warning of an Islamist-dominated "Eurabia" which will supposedly be in existence by about 2020, when Muslim birth rates in Europe have caused the continent's Muslim population to dominate the decadent whites; the USA will be the only holdout, he thinks. Hari calls Islamism a "fascistic menace" (I would expect him to call it a menace; calling it fascistic is pretty typical of his section of the western secular left's continual misuse of the term), but notices that Mark Steyn basically shares most of its critique of the west, and displays racism and contradicts himself also.
Technorati Tags: mark steyn, johann hari, america alone, eurabia
I switched to reading the Independent a while back for a few months, at the time when Toynbee vs Bunting was getting a bit tiring. Hari was the one reason I switched back to The G, plus Yasmin Alibi-Brain. Hari's understanding of Islam seemed to be solely derived from conversations had with a couple of blood curdling Wahhabis whose tressle table was often parked near Hari's tube station entrance. This clinically insane duo, Hari assumed, was the perfect example of Islam, the whole of Islam and no further learning was required, besides the odd chat with an upper middle Ismaili colleague, one presumes.
Anyway, I am off to interview the head of the Klu Klux Klan to learn more about the USA, but I'll cross check what he says with Pat Robertson just to make sure I get a balanced view.
"Hari's understanding of Islam seemed to be solely derived from conversations had with a couple of blood curdling Wahhabis whose tressle table was often parked near Hari's tube station entrance. This clinically insane duo, Hari assumed, was the perfect example of Islam, the whole of Islam and no further learning was required, besides the odd chat with an upper middle Ismaili colleague, one presumes."
That's exactly the opposite of what hari says. He has written dozens of articles about how Islamists are only a very small minority of Muslims and it is essential to differentiate among Muslims. Look for example at this article:
http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=957
Are we reading the same article? As always, Hari tries to lump relatively moderate Muslims together with the nutters, often by acts of grotesque misreprentation. For example, he states al-Qaradawi endorses wife beating. No he doesn't!! In fact, he interprets the ayat in the Qur'an in the most humane way, pointing out that Muhammad (aws) never lifted a finger to his wives. Another is to suggest that the various forms of Islamism are like the difference between Stalin and Hitler - well, I'M an Islamist and I don't believe in violence as a political tool AT ALL (see Jonathan Schnell and Badshah Khan to learn why), nor do I conceptualise the Shariah as some kind of fixed Napoleanic code emptied of humanity as many Salafis seem to. Hari might have perused the discourse of Muslims other than the muppets she met outside her tube station, but only to check whether they look suspect enough to be lined up along Gonzo and Kermit. The accusation of Islamophobia that Hari whines on about are made because of his and others willful ignorance of my faith, his and others convenient obliviousness to how Muslims are negatively represent by the political classes and the media (and on the latter, the research is unequivocal) and how he and other aid in that grim enterprise.