Friday, January 08, 2010

Does the Left's support of shari'a mask a secret racism?

Muslims living in Muslim countries may not have the courage or
capability to fight the introduction of sharia, but those of us who live in
North America and Europe carry the responsibility to stand up to the thugs
who relish authoritarianism. We need to realize that segments of the non-
Muslim community in the West, especially the guilt-ridden Left that comes
out in support of sharia, are practising racism of lower expectations, where,
under the garb of diversity, Muslims are being encouraged to ghettoize and
withdraw from the mainstream.

Tarek Fatah
Chasing a Mirage
p 264

2 comments:

Don said...

This is one of those things that looks rather strange on the surface.

Although leftists are certainly guilt-ridden about many things, there may be some practical (if dangerous) politics at work here.

First, Islam and the left have one important idea in common: victory ultimately boils down to political domination. In that respect, they have more in common with each other than with Christianity, whose attitude towards the political is more complex.

Second--and this is more true in the U.S. than in Europe--I suspect that leftists want to use Islam as a counterweight to Christianity, which has been the traditional opponent of their agenda for several centuries. This is playing with fire, to be sure.

There's no question that the left, having identity politics as their most powerful weapon, would like to "ghettoise" Muslims. But the Muslims intend for Sharia to apply to everyone, including the left. Somewhere the blowback from this game is going to hit the left hard; it's hitting the hardest these days in the Netherlands.

But we all know that really self-righteous people never learn from their mistakes...

Abu Daoud said...

Hi Don,

Your remarks are very perceptive, really. Would you be willing to write a 5+ page article on the topic? You can publish it on your blog, I'll publish it here, and there's a good chance it can get into St Francis Magazine if it's good material.

Think about it and contact me through FB.

--AD