{"id":609,"date":"2006-05-23T18:07:53","date_gmt":"2006-05-23T18:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/05\/23\/national_review\/"},"modified":"2013-05-07T18:41:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T23:41:33","slug":"national_review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/akramsrazor\/2006\/05\/national_review\/","title":{"rendered":"National Review on Denmark’s “Democratic Muslims”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There\u2019s an unremarkable piece in The National Review<\/a> by Andrew Stuttaford on Denmark\u2019s Naser Khader and his Democratic Muslims group.<\/p>\n

Predictably, the article cites Ahmed Akkari\u2019s infamous quip<\/a> about killing Khader by blowing up the Ministry of Integration as prima facie proof of dangerous extremism, as opposed to what such silly melodramatic declarations generally are in the real world, exagerrations for dramatic effect and\/or rants to let off steam. <\/p>\n

Yes, I said \"silly\", not \"outrageous\" or \"dangerous\".\u00a0 I don\u2019t know Akkari, but I do know that like everybody else, Muslims sometimes joke in poor taste, overreact, exaggerate, misspeak, or otherwise stick their foots in their mouths by saying things in way that can misconstrued as endorsing violence, prejudice, or some other dark force in human affairs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

When a cleancut non-Muslim does so towards Muslims, the media briefly and mildly chides the offender for his unenlightened words; the offender explains that his words have been misunderstood either because they were taken out of context or because they do not represent his values; and the world forgives, forgets and moves on.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

When a Muslim commits the same sin, a firestorm of indignation erupts, along with a that now familiar chorus of I-told-you-so\u2019s from the bigot gallery, the offender is instantly tried in the media, found guilty of the worst possible intent (regardless of his explanation), and branded an extremist for for all eternity.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So, Muslim utterances are to be judged by a special standard.\u00a0 That\u2019s the beauty of the circular reasoning of Muslim bashers today.\u00a0 No matter what Muslims actually say, their words get spun as incriminating, which reinforces the stereotypes fueling this whole cycle in the first place.<\/p>\n

The same pundits who explain away \"Bomb Mecca<\/a>\"-type rhetoric against Muslims and Islam take Akkari\u2019s quip as an unamibiguous threat rather than what probably was given the context, an expression of hostility towards an unpopular and polarizing figure among Muslims.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Imagine if Clarence Thomas, an outspoken critic of Affirmative Action and rightwinger whose politics are deeply out of step (if not downright offensive to) the values of most African Americans, were being considered to head the NAACP.\u00a0 To many Black people, this would not only be an insult but a grave threat.\u00a0 Would it be all that shocking if Al Sharpton were were to joke that he\u2019d blow the place to smithereens before he let that come to pass?\u00a0 Well, the situation was similar in the case of Khader being considered for the post of Minister of Integration.\u00a0 By Khader\u2019s own words, his foremost qualification for such a post is that he\u2019d be his conservative Muslim opponents\u2019 \"worst nightmare\".\u00a0 Sounds like an unlikely peace maker, and a figure who\u2019s guaranteed to raise Muslims\u2019 hackles and inspire passionate reactions.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s the \"How is this any of your damn business?\" factor.\u00a0 Is it frankly anyone\u2019s business, much less that of non-Muslims who aren\u2019t even part of the Danish Muslim community, what kind of jokes Akkari makes in private to his associates?\u00a0 Is it my business whether you tell offensive jokes to your buddies?\u00a0 Is it a legitimate subject of public outrage if X person makes politically incorrect jokes behind closed doors?\u00a0 Is this something for the government to be sticking its nose into, all you proponents of \"small government\"?<\/p>\n

Imagine if the FBI started tracking deeply offensive statements about or possible threats against Muslims\u00a0 comparably.\u00a0 I bet a single table\u2019s dinner conversation at a reception at just one of the various Beltway institutes promoting endless conflict with Islam and Muslims (e.g., AEI, WINEP,\u2026) would keep the agency busy investigating nebulous threats for days.\u00a0 Worse, imagine if they started monitoring prominent online fora like LittleGreenFootballs<\/a>, where Muslims, Arabs and Islam are slurred in language that would make a Klansman blush, as they do Islamic\u00a0 websites.<\/p>\n

I will give the author a bit of credit, though, for realizing that Khader\u2019s cultural brand of Islam is out of sync with that of many if not most Danish Muslims.\u00a0 (He notes his doubts that Khader\u2019s religious sensibilities reflect those of most Danish Muslims.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n

The irony is that were Khader not the avowed foe of the National Review\u2019s enemies and were Islam-bashing not the new rallying call for much of the American Right, he\u2019d probably getting tarred as another postmodern liberal intellectual.\u00a0 But happily for him, geopolitics trumps religious values these days.\u00a0 (There was a time when a conservative American publication might\u2019ve been less kind to Khader\u2019s worldview, as the criticisms of Salman Rushdie from prominent American conservatives during the 1980s show.)\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s an unremarkable piece in The National Review by Andrew Stuttaford on Denmark\u2019s Naser Khader and his Democratic Muslims group. Predictably, the article cites Ahmed Akkari\u2019s infamous quip about killing Khader by blowing up the Ministry of Integration as prima facie proof of dangerous extremism, as opposed to what such silly melodramatic declarations generally are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,8,19,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-denmark","category-muslims-in-the-melting-pot","category-the-gwot","category-the-jihad-against-islam","category-washington-and-the-middle-east"],"yoast_head":"\nNational Review on Denmark's "Democratic Muslims" - Akram's Razor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There's an unremarkable piece in The National Review by Andrew Stuttaford on Denmark's Naser Khader and his Democratic Muslims group. 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