THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 54, March 25, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OMID SAFI'S EXQUISITE ART OF MORAL EQUIVALENCY
By Winfield Myers
"WHEN AMERICANS KILL VERSUS WHEN MUSLIMS KILL": OMID SAFI'S MORALLY REPUGNANT ATTEMPT TO CLAIM A DOUBLE STANDARD IN THE WAY
AMERICANS REACT TO MASS MURDER -- DR. SAFI ECHOING THE PARTY LINE OF THE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ESTABLISHMENT, WHICH BLAMES THE WEST FOR
THE MIDDLE EASTERN REGION'S POLITICAL & TECHNOLOGICAL BACKWARDNESS, WHILE LARGELY IGNORING THE REGION'S SYSTEMIC SOCIAL PROBLEMS, FROM
THE SUBSERVIENT ROLES OF WOMEN TO THE GLORIFICATION OF TERRORISM -- PROFESSOR SAFI'S LONG HISTORY OF DEFENDING ISLAMISM & ITS ADHERENTS &
SMEARING THE CRITICS OF THE ISLAMIST MOVEMENT
FULL STORY:
Last week, Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, used his blog "What Would Muhammad Do" at the
Religion News Service to claim a moral equivalency between Fort Hood jihadist Major Nidal Malik Hasan and U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales.
"When Americans Kill vs. When Muslims Kill" is a morally repugnant attempt to claim a double standard in the way Americans react to mass murder. In this,
Safi echoes the party line of the Middle East Studies establishment, which blames the West for the Middle Eastern region's political and technological
backwardness, while largely ignoring the region's systemic social problems, from the subservient roles of women to the glorification of terrorism.
Rather than proving his claim, however, Safi highlights what he attempts to deny -- that the double standard in Americans' treatment of Muslims leads
Americans to turn a blind eye toward Islamic radicals while condemning non-Muslims harshly. Willful blindness, not bigotry, is the hallmark of the
contemporary West's treatment of Islamic radicalism.
He writes:
"When Americans kill, it is portrayed as an aberration, an act
of a tormented and troubled individual. When Muslims kill, it
is covered as a signal of a communal, global genocidal
tendency."
And:
"In short, the assumption that [sic] when we Americans kill,
it is an aberration from our good nature. Even if the act is
abominable, it is said to be purely an individual act totally
disconnected from any larger institutional or political
context. However, when Muslims kill, it is a sign of a
worldwide, evil ideology of jihad and terrorism."
Hasan, a psychiatrist who slaughtered thirteen fellow soldiers while shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great"), psychologically abused his patients -- weary,
sometimes mentally fragile Iraq War veterans seeking medical treatment. He condemned their service to their country, attempted to convert some to Islam,
and told an Army captain that she was an infidel who would be "ripped to shreds" and would "burn in hell" because she was not a Muslim. His file reveals
years of unprofessional, highly aggressive behavior toward Army personnel driven by his desire to carry out jihad -- holy war -- against Americans. Private
business cards found in his apartment after his arrest stated that he was an "SoA (SWT)," an acronym found on jihadist websites that stands for "Soldier of
Allah" and "Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala," or "Glory to God."
Yet, in spite of a mountain of evidence against Hasan, official government reactions to his murderous rampage and to other actions by radical Islamists reveal
anything but bigotry against Muslims:
The official U.S. Department of Defense report on the murder
of the thirteen servicemen at Fort Hood does not mention
Hasan by name, nor does it mention the words "jihad" or
"Muslim," while "Islam" occurs only in a reference footnote.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder refused to state that radical
Islam played any role in the Fort Hood shooting or the
attempted bombing of Times Square in New York City in 2009.
Federal officials regularly resort to euphemisms, including
"overseas contingency operation," "a campaign against
extremists who wish to do us harm," and "countering violent
extremism" to describe America's wars against radical Islamists
and terror-sponsoring nations.
That Hasan got away with his actions without being expelled from the Army, if not prosecuted, is testimony to the West's pusillanimity in the face of radical
Islam and its apologists, not its bigotry against them.
Hasan is entirely representative of jihadists who infiltrate Western institutions and kill in the name of Islam. Bales, who gunned down sixteen innocent Afghan
civilians, is undeniably unrepresentative of U.S. military personnel, whether in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Countless Americans have given their lives to protect
Muslims from those same Muslims' brethren, including Americans lost through the implementation of military tactics that place U.S. personnel in increased
danger of death in order to spare civilians from casualties.
Safi's analogy fails also because Hasan was, in fact, in contact with radical Islamists and jihadist websites around the world (although Safi claims he acted as a
"lone person"), including the late Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni cleric with whom Hasan exchanged ten to twenty e-mails and at whose mosque he worshipped
in Virginia. In the wake of Hasan's actions, al-Awlaki called him a "hero" and wrote:
"The fact that fighting against the U.S. Army is an Islamic duty
today cannot be disputed. Nidal has killed soldiers who were
about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill
Muslims."
There is utterly no evidence that Bales acted from any religious motivation, or that he was part of a larger network. Moreover, where is any praise of Bales,
from anyone? Both President Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called Afghan president Karzai to apologize for Bales's act. Bales is under arrest,
held in solitary confinement, and faces charges that could lead to the death penalty. Safi, desperate to link two disparate killers, is grasping at straws.
Safi has a long history of defending radical Islamists and smearing his critics, all while posing as a progressive Muslim fighting for justice. From classroom
assignments in which scholars with whom he disagrees are labeled "Islamophobes" to charging falsely that Robert Spencer threatened to kill him, Safi lashes
out at those who would expose his efforts to shill for Islamists. In his latest apologia for terrorists, he insults the professionalism of the American military, the
decency of the American people, and the truth.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Winfield Myers, an American journalist and public intellectual, is Director of Campus Watch and Academic Affairs at the Middle East Forum, He is a graduate
of Young Harris College and the University of Georgia and studied History in Graduate School at Tulane University and the University of Michigan. Myers
taught Great Books in the Honors College at the University of Michigan, European History at the Universities of Michigan and Georgia and at Tulane
University and Xavier University of Louisiana. Previously, Myers was Managing Editor of American Enterprise, a monthly magazine formerly published
by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. Earlier, Myers helped found the Democracy Project and served as its Chief Executive Officer.
Myers is principal author and Editor of a Conservative college guide, Choosing the Right College, which has an introduction written by former U.S.
Secretary of Education William Bennett. Having served as Senior Editor and Communications Director at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Myers is now
founding Editor of the ISI Study Guides to the Liberal Arts.
Myers's writings have appeared in National Review Online, the Weekly Standard, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal,
the Washington Examiner, American Outlook, the American Thinker, Front Page Magazine, the Providence Journal,
Insight, and the Texas Education Review, as well as in other periodicals. Myers has been a guest on many radio shows, including BBC and
Radio New Zealand, and has appeared as an education expert on Fox News, CBN, Australian SBS TV, and PAX TV.
Republished with Permission of Winfield Myers
URLs:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/no_hasan_and_bales_are_not_equivalent.html
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/12195
The foregoing article by Winfield Myers was originally published in Campus Watch and the American Thinker (March 25, 2012) and can be found
on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East,
defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam, working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to
promote constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis
Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIV, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity