by Garibaldi

Remember Daniel Pipes, the guy who former President George W. Bush nominated to lead the “US Institute of Peace,” and who was supported in that endeavor by the AJC, ADL and Neo-Con outfits such as his buddy Johnathan Schanzer‘s Foundation for the Defense of Democracies?

Well, here he is on the conservative news portal “Real News” (Glenn Beck affiliated) in a segment hosted by S.E. Cupp relaying his “peaceful words” on the conflict in Syria:

In the days when Pipes was nominated to that silly “Peace” institute he was supporting the Iraq War (before that, in 1987 he supported Saddam), remarking that the invasion would “reduce terrorism,” today he supports prolonging the civil war in Syria for as long as possible–”for strategic reasons.” Apparently, he’d be whistling Yankee Doodle if the Syrian civil war were to continue until the apocalypse!

He says, “I don’t want to see this end. I don’t want to see them turn their guns on us or our allies.”

His logic?

As long as they are not aiming their guns at “us,” such bloodshed, while really, really, oh so terrible (believe him for godsakes, he says “his hearts bleeds for all the suffering of the Syrians”) is in “our strategic interests.” Strategic interests is the lie that is pushed in every one of our interventionist wars, in our support for genocidal maniacs and our history of blocking attempts at peaceful conflict resolution.

This sick mentality is what produces future uses of the Orwellian term “imminent threat,” it also produces real “blowback,” and increases “anti-Americanism,” one of our gravest national security threats.

(h/t: Cindy)

Anti-Muslim Bigotry on the Island: Sri Lankan Muslims in the Face of a New Civil War?

by Shaamima (MuslimMatters)

The island nation of Sri Lanka celebrated its 65^th Independence Day on the 4^th of February amidst conflicting emotions. Although no stranger to tourism brochures as the idyllic holiday getaway, this teardrop isle has also had its fair share of the spotlight in making international headlines – there was the incapacitating tsunami of 2004, the 3-decade-long civil war and the war-crime allegations that followed, and more recently the very public (and dubious) impeachment of the country’s chief justice.

There is however, another internal conflict that is yet to reach international waters.

Still reeling from the after effects of a long-standing civil war Sri Lanka seems poised for yet another, this time with another face attributed to the enemy – the minority (9%) Muslim population of the island.

For rising tensions, the result of a freshly administered hate campaign against the Muslims minority by fringe groups of the extremist Buddhist variety, have challenged cosy notions of post-conflict harmony finally taking root.

At a rate that is worryingly escalating, said fanatical nationalist groups have taken to the streets as well as social media forums to denigrate Islam by picketing scaremongering slogans, all claiming ludicrously that the Muslim population is plotting to unseat Buddhism as the official state religion of Sri Lanka.

In true doomsayer-esque fervour, these supremacists warn of the infiltration of Halaal certified food into mainstream eating outlets as a threat to a pure Buddhist state, and in keeping with the times have even taken to posting inflammatory material on the internet mobilising the online community for a nation-wide boycott of all Muslim-owned businesses. More ambitious allegations include claims that madrasas are serving as breeding ground for terrorists, and that Sharia’a law is out to take over the island with its ‘draconian’ implementation of law and order.

It has to be stressed that this vehement sentiment is not representative of the opinion of the vast majority of the Sri Lankan non-Muslim population, nor is this hate reciprocated by the moderate Muslim community. And while Sri Lankan Muslims can take comfort in this, what is undeniably cause for concern, is:

• The deafening silence from the government to these obvious instigations, and the impunity with which said groups are allowed to operate – leaving room for many to harbour suspicions that this hysteria is in fact a well-financed operation not just by the higher-ups, but even possibly an external lobby.
• The disconcertingly growing audience paying heed to the hate being spewed – some Facebook groups have garnered up to 15,000 ‘likes’ and Twitter followings of similar proportions.
• The increasing presence of anti-Muslim hate-speech (however absurd) making its way into local, mainstream media
• The detrimental long-term effects in the psyche of non-Muslim Sri Lankans in this misleading generalisation of all Muslims.

Muslim-Sinhala relations have never been cause for concern until very recently – the symbiosis with which they existed could in fact have served as a model example of ethnic harmony in a pluralistic, society dating back hundreds of years.  However, what with the LTTE forces having served their 26-year term, Muslims have now seemingly replaced the ex-adversaries as the new enemy target.

Not much has been done as of yet to quash these attacks, except for the occasional online campaign calling for religious harmony and the one-off retaliatory article from Muslim mediators refuting absurd claims.

All eyes are now on the current regime, seeking out truth in their claims that the inculcation of religious tolerance (by taking urgent measures to quell these instigators of hate) is truly top priority on the political agenda.

Charles Johnson

If none of you have noticed by now there is a civil war raging in the Islamophobic Anti-Muslim blog-world. We expect to talk about this in greater detail but at least one site has dedicated itself to tracking the ins-and-outs of what they hilariously term the “Great Soap Opera.”

It has gotten to a level where web media outlets such as The Washington Independent have taken notice and started writing about it. Gawker also mercilessly ripped apart the players involved in this melodrama which pits the leader and founder of the so called “anti-jihad movement,” Charles Johnson against his former followers and friends Robert Spencer, Baron Bodissey (!) and loon blogger Pam Geller. Enjoy!

It’s hard to know what to make of Charles Johnson, the batshit crazy founder of Little Green Footballs, engendering the hatred of his even batshit-crazier former compatriots.

Johnson and his recent penchant for heretical thinking has sparked a full-on blogger civil war (and got Glenn Beck all mad), pitting stupid brother against stupid brother. The Washington Independent took a look yesterday:

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, jazz musician and Web designer Charles Johnson has devoted his blog, Little Green Footballs, to exposing Muslim extremism in and outside the United States. His targets have included the Council on American-Islamic Relations, filmmaker Michael Moore, Reuters, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dan Rather, and the late pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie – who some LGF commenters (not Johnson) call “St. Pancake,” a tribute to the Israeli steamroller that killed her. LGF helped write the lexicon of the self-styled “anti-Jihadist” blogosphere – from “moonbat” (“an unthinking or insane leftist”) to “anti-idiotarian” (“anyone who grasps the significance of and does his or her best to combat the post-9/11 political alliance between the ‘Old Left’ and militant Islam”).

But in the early days of Barack Obama’s presidency, LGF has become better known for the various fights it picks with many on the right – including conservative bloggers, critics of Islamic extremism, and critics of Islam in general who used to be Johnson’s fellow travelers.

At issue is an anti-Islamic conference in 2007 organized by some of Johnson’s acolytes. Among the invited attendees were members of a Belgian political party with ties to neo-Nazism, which is a perfectly natural fit, seeing as how the conference was organized around the idea that you should hate people who are different from you. Johnson took issue with the idea of his beloved anti-Islam movement being associated with neo-Nazis, and used his blog to attack members of the movement who got to cozy with extremists.

The whole thing has gotten out of hand, he told the Independent: “I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore. It’s all a bunch of kooks.”

Well imagine that! If you organize people around the notion that all Muslims everywhere want to kill white Americans, some kooks show up at the table.

Johnson’s experience with the nutjobs-of which he is one-on the right is an object lesson in why soft-headed liberals like to keep an eye on seemingly respectable people who flirt with hatred and racism in their political messaging. Because even if those people stop short of actually saying, “Let’s round up the Muslins,” they tend to attract, and lend credence to, the people who are going for that in the first place.

Johnson should be commended for taking a stand against neo-Nazis and Glenn Beck. And he should still be condemned for spending the last eight years giving them ammunition and inspiration. If neo-Nazis are into your ideas, Charles, you might want to rethink them.