RDS Says: “I made that post knowing full well there are chances that they are simply trying to hold Geller to her own words that she wants to “save the Muslims” ….. I want to give them the benefit of doubt. When rhetoric gets heated, it is the truly oppressed who suffers”.

Indeed @RDS, when is fully known to everyone how Geller’s rhetoric is way over-heated with hate of Muslims/Islam, we all know those that end-up truly suffering in the process are none-other but the Muslims. So let’s indeed give those ladies the benefit of doubt that they went there to hold Geller to her own words at calling for the oppression of Muslims/Islam, men and women alike, in American soil.

@ relief:

> What would the reaction here be if someone wrote: “They dont concider
> some people ‘human’…therefore the infidels dont have ‘human rights’

That’s not quite the same thing. Western culture has a deeply ingrained belief that Islam (and all non-western cultures) are inherently wrong. Universalism SOUNDS nice, but in practice, it means that everyone who wants to be left alone is treated as an enemy. What if you don’t want to be subsumed into some generic cultural morass. What if you value your own independence. Does that automatically make you a terrorist?

Even today, when much of Europe is secular, if not outright atheist, you see a deeply ingrained antipathy towards Islam in particular. Its directed at other ‘pagan’ or ‘heathen’ religions to a degree, but Hinduism, Buddhism and the like are not seen as outright threats, or even competition to ‘westernism.’ Islam has a system of scholarship which can exist entirely separate of western scholarship. It does not inherently value the same cultural references, and moreover, it offers an option of conversion to white Euro-Americans. Hinduism doesn’t. Buddhism doesn’t have much missionary zeal, and while Buddhist women are discouraged from marrying non-Buddhist, western culture generally views Southeast Asians as less masculine and dominant. And Wicca, Asatru and other neo-Pagan religions are either made up as they go along or heavily reconstructed from cultures that were already destroyed. But Islam offers a legitimate alternative.

We need not look very far. Western literature rather presumes that Christianity is the true, or only, religion. Dante places both the Prophet Muhammad and Ali in the deepest circle of hell. Martin Luther went further in calling him the devil himself. And satirist Voltaire made a play mocking him as the founder of a heretical sect, though this last one is perhaps forgivable as Voltaire satirized pretty much everyone. Nonetheless, the image of Muhammad as a liar, a con man, a deceiver who created a perverse heresy of the ‘one true way’ remains deeply seated in western culture.

More to the point, the cherished cultural norms of many Muslim majority countries are seen as oppressive. Western culture brings with it baggage, and it seeks to displace the traditional values and heritage of other parts of the world. Western clothing is nigh ubiquitous, save in parts of South Asia, the Middle East and Muslim Africa. When people wear hijabs it is called ‘oppression.’ Men who wear kurtas or kaffiyeh are labelled as potential terrorists. Choosing to eat halal becomes a political statement rather than a freedom. Muslim bookstores, grocers and the like are called ghettoization, yet this same charge is not levelled against Christian book stores. Even TV channels like al-Jazeera are marginalized when they attempt to market towards a non-Arab audience.

Western culture promotes an idea of equality, but only in so much as it benefits the spread of a supposedly universalist western culture. When other cultures push back, they are crushed. Just look at the historic narrative. Muslims are vilified for conquests in Asia and Africa, but there’s a certain degree of acceptance towards white conquests of the Americas and Australia. Its glossed over, excused, or simply blamed on some other group. The Spanish, or the Portuguese, or the British. American atrocities are brushed away as unfortunate necessities, perhaps something the Indians brought on themselves. If we Muslims are to be presumed guilty because of something that Tamerlane did centuries ago, why shouldn’t I blame whites for the Holocaust, or the Spanish Inquisition, or hundreds of massacres of Indians in both North and South America?

> It’s interesting to me that people posting here so often deal in
> stereotypes (“white”, “redneck”, “islamophobe”, “western discourse is
> full of racism” etc.”). If sterotyping all Muslims is wrong (and it is),
> then so is sterotyping all white people or westerners. You all do see
> that, right?

First of all, there are plenty of white Muslims. Depending on your definition of ‘white’ that could include much of the Middle East, to say nothing about Muslim majority countries in Europe like Turkey, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and now Kosovo. And that’s before we even get into the issue of converts.

Anyway, I don’t think anyone is stereotyping all whites either. That being said, the audience of many of the Islamophobia sites on both sides of the Atlantic is overwhelmingly white, and perhaps not surprisingly, the BNP, Freedom Party and other groups have some disturbing ties to white supremacism. That IS something that needs to be addressed. And, as I have said before, much of Spencer’s narrative hinges on his supposed ‘heritage from the Ottoman Empire.’ Him being revealed as just another whitey in a crowd of WASPs, and one who had to convert to the Melkite rite, doesn’t really help his image now does it?

Lets look at the facts. There were several Arab Americans – not necessarily Muslims – who were denied entrance to Geller’s little conference. Why? Because they would have upstaged her. Its the same reason that Geller STOLE the Mokdad name. It looks good for her. If an Arab American criticized or disagreed with her, it would show her for the racist sham that she is. Her audience is overwhelmingly white trash, and I say that because its true. You can be white trash and hail from New York you know. Its not an anti-Southern thing. In fact, I would dare say that most Southerners are good, decent people who would be appalled and disgusted by the the bigotry that Geller and her kind are spewing.

Watch the video and tell me that I’m wrong though. Geller declined to let anyone with an Arab name or look in, especially the hijabis. Yet the non-Arab friend MAGICALLY was able to book two seats? A little odd, no? Answer me why SOME people were allowed in. Answer me why the fat old guy said he was on a ‘no entry’ list. Until you can address that, its pretty futile to try defending the Islamophobes.