(Glenn Beck interviews Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy.)
Shariah: The Threat to America, a report released by the Center for Security Policy in Washington DC on Wednesday, is an attempt to provide a veneer of seriousness in support of the hysterical ravings of people like Pamela Geller.
The fact that Washington’s foreign policy establishment won’t take the report seriously is beside the point since Islamophobia needs neither the consent nor the interest of the establishment or the mainstream media in order to continue its advance across America.
The fact that 52% of Republicans believe that President Obama supports the imposition of shariah is sufficient evidence that a new McCarthyism has already gained a firm grip on this country while opposition to this movement has barely begun to solidify.
Under a heading, “The Enemy Within,” the new manifesto for Islamophobes warns: “a massive demographic shift has brought adherents to shariah — a doctrine that, by definition, opposes all others — deep into the non-Islamic world. [p.127]”
Although the report describes shariah as “the crucial fault line of Islam’s internecine struggle,” with moderates on one side and Islamists on the other, the authors decline to express any opinion about which side of this “fault line” most American Muslims reside. Indeed, the focus on shariah merely seems to be a ploy through which Islam as a whole can be attacked by those who profess no hatred for Muslims.
At the very same time, shariah is likened to a disease — a disease spread by Muslims.
The growth of Muslim populations in the West augurs the inexorable spread of shariah into Western societies — less by violence than by dint of natural procreation, unchecked immigration, and the incessant demands of an aggressive minority that refuses to assimilate. Logic should tell us, then, that the growth of shariah in the West threatens Western-style liberty: threatens freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and upends religious and sexual equality. [p.130]
For those willing to shun evil, a path to redemption is laid out: “… every effort should be made to identify and empower Muslims who are willing publicly to denounce shariah…”
But there’s also a call for a Muslims-keep-out sign at the border: “Immigration of those who adhere to shariah must be precluded, as was previously done with adherents to the seditious ideology of communism.”
Is it possible that America could succumb to the folly that the Islamophobes are demanding?
Well, it’s worth considering the fact that two decades after the end of the Cold War and more than fifty years after the passing of McCarthyism, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service still scrutinizes prospective citizens to see if any communists are trying to sneak into this country.
In fact, Sharia presents about the same threat to America as that posed by the Bible. Had America’s founders stuck to the principle “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,” it seems unlikely that the colonies would ever have sought independence. It wasn’t Christ who objected to taxation without representation.
Thomas Jefferson rightly believed:
…that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right…
Ironically, the Islamophobes manifesto that Frank Gaffney is now promoting, cites the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (in which the passage above appears), even while doing exactly what Jefferson condemned: proscribing American citizens as unworthy of public confidence unless they denounce their religion.
Maybe these fear- and hate-mongers should pay more attention to the principles upon which America was founded and worry less about Islam.
Back in late antiquity, the Church Fathers invented a genre called Adversus Judeos (“against the Jews”) that persisted right up to the time of Martin Luther, who wrote *The Jews and their Lies*. Central to the genre was the characterization of Jews as a disease. Hitler picked up on that, and it was his chief rationale for exterminating the Jews. Some of this anti-Muslim critique sounds as if it were lifted right out of that genre. Clearly, history teaches no lessons.
RE: “Maybe these fear- and hate-mongers should pay more attention to the principles upon which America was founded…” – Woodward
MY COMMENT: The “Geller-Gaffney Axis of Disingenuous Absurdities” gives neither a tinker’s damn nor a rat’s ass about the principles upon which America was founded!
RE: “…the focus on shariah merely seems to be a ploy through which Islam as a whole can be attacked by those who profess no hatred for Muslims.” – Woodward
SEE: Here Come the True Believers: The Great Muslim Scare ~ By Lawrence Davidson, Counterpunch, 09/16/10
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.counterpunch.org/davidson09162010.html
Thanks for this article – the referenced doc of the Center for Security Policy is quite a revelation! I started reading across and under section “The Team B II Consensus” I read:
“a. Sharia is firmly rooted in Islam’s doctrinal texts and is favoured by ….”
“b. Shariah has been, for over a half-century, lavishly financed and propagated by …”
That’s when I stopped reading – do this people know what they are talking about? All I do understand is that they want – by hook or by crook – try to paint Sharia as some kind of a new “Al Qaida” organization with heavy funding by some Islamic organizations and individuals.
To put it simplified: Sharia is nothing else but the collection of laws based on the teachings of the Qur’an and exists since some 1’400years. Some of the behavioral codes, punishments etc. are taken from the Qur’an if it is laid out there in details; these are the parts which can not be changed or altered. Other punishments like e.g. death for stoning and apostasy are NOT in the Qur’an and have been laid down according to the then prevalent forms of punishments; these can be changed in accordance with the development/understanding of mankind.
The same goes e.g. for inheritance – this is clearly outlined in the Qur’an provided that there is no existing will. So, if there is a will it goes according to that piece of paper; if there is none than it goes according to the stipulations in the Sharia based on the Qur’an.
BTW – the same should go for democracy which is clearly outlined in the Qur’an.
And so on and so forth.
Is truly anyone buying this scare tactic which is nothing but nonsensical hot air? I mean, everybody can inform him/herself easily via the Internet.
How far are “they” willing to go? Is truly the sky the limit?
Is truly anyone buying this scare tactic which is nothing but nonsensical hot air?
Is it possible that America could succumb to the folly that the Islamophobes are demanding?
I would personally gave a firm affirmative to both. Firmness based on pertinent references from San Francisc’s own Eric Hoffer, Walter Lippman from the Guardian article and especially from David Sirota today’s post at salon.com.
SEE: Synthetic novelty is not reality – in which Sirota brings the work of historian David J. Boorstin’s 1961 classic ,”The Image” into the issue of what is happening in all this.
The greatest share of how Pamela Geller,Terry Jones,Gaffney-in Hoffer’s words the True Believers, has been brought forward by the media and the availability of the True believers that want to be both united and listened to.
In his work “The Image,” Boorstin famously predicted that real news and serious discourse would eventually be replaced by a “new kind of synthetic novelty” called “pseudo-events” — synthetic for their media-manufactured artificiality, pseudo for their lack of authenticity. These contrivances are what attract attention to the likes of Gaffney and friends as well as the interst of Fox News, CNN and even that liberal starndard of print news- the New York Times.
So yes, with such a reference there is a good chance the American public could buy into the nonsensical ,hot air scare tactic and succumb to the folly that the Islamophobes are demanding. Not very encouraging.
Better late than never; When these scare mongers believe their own B.S., then it’s time that the side who belives it, is ready to fall. The words are hollow, the majority of the American public don’t buy the crap, but this is pushing the country towards another revolution, only this time, it’s not going to be like the 60’s. The arrogance of the washington elite along with the Congress, underestimate the public today. Besides, the so called powerr elit, are on the verge of becomming a minority in the next 20 years, which begs the questionn; where will they go to hide?