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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Politically correct war: The is-so-is-not-is-so-is-not

4 comments on Politically correct war: The is-so-is-not-is-so-is-not

Politically correct war
: The is-so-is-not-is-so-is-not yammering about webloggers being mean to Muslims just won’t end. It’s spreading like an oil spill.

Here’s the problem:

In the name of Islam, we were attacked. Our people were murdered on September 11. I was attacked that day. In the name of Islam, Israelis are attacked every week. In the name of Islam, a madman shut down our capital. In the name of Islam, a theater filled with innocents was terrorized and a hundred died in Moscow. In the name of Islam, hundred of innocents were murdered in a bombing in Bali. In the name of Islam, Hindus have been attacked in India.

Of course, not all Muslims took part in or supported those terrorist actions.

But where is their condemnation of them?

We should be deafened with the voices of religious and political Islamic leaders distancing themselves from these acts, condemning them, vowing to clean them up, for the sake of Islam.

Where are the fatwas calling these devils the devils they are?

I have not heard them.

As far as I am concerned, those who do not condemn these attacks condone them. Those who do not use their influence to stop them encourage them. As the bumpersticker says, folks: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Muslims of various stripes have declared war on us because they are Muslims and we are not.

And yet when we look back at them, when Charles Johnson dares to go to public sites on this web of ours and quote their own words and actions against them, he and we are accused of being politically incorrect.

Well, there is no way to wage politically correct war. War is not polite. War is rude. Our enemies are our enemies; those who support our enemies are our enemies; and I will call them our enemies unless they prove to be our friends.

We — and others around the world — are under attack in what der Spiegel (below) should have called the Islamic World War. There’s nothing correct, politically, about that.

4 responses to “Politically correct war: The is-so-is-not-is-so-is-not”

  1. Anil Avatar
    Anil

    Jeff, I think it’s disingenuous to characterize all of the criticisms as being accusations of “political incorrectness”. I’ve been accused of being many things, but *too polite* has never been one of them, and most people who proudly trumpet their political incorrectness aren’t being brave, they’re being rude. Calling a handicapped person exactly that instead of a “cripple” isn’t political incorrectness, it’s being a jerk.
    More to the point, the unwillingness of a lot of people to distinguish between the evil elements poisoning Islam and the true dangers can cost people their lives. It can lead to things like Charles justifying hateful literature being placed in front of a house of worship where our fellow Americans go every Sunday. Worst of all, it can lead to these criticisms being seen as the views of extremists.
    Maybe my opinion is informed by having had conversations with you in person, but I know you to be a rational, responsible man. If I could only judge you by your willingness to throw in with those who speak in generalities so broad as to be meaningless, I might think you weren’t capable of making such distinctions yourself, and I might use that as cause to dismiss your legitimate criticisms, concerns and fears.
    It’s funny that so many came after me, saying I was appeasing radical Islam, when I’m probably more in favor of war against Iraq than you are. But that doesn’t excuse people lumping an NOI member who perpetrated the sniper attacks in with the other Islamic extremists. Perhaps many people aren’t familiar with just how unrelated the two groups are. But inaccuracies here endanger the legitimacy of calls to action elsewhere.
    I’ve seen it happen in India, where Muslim terrorism yielded to Hindu terrorism where marauding gangs attacked, pillaged, and raped innocent muslims in their midst. It’s as important that we correctly identify our enemies as it is that we neutralize the threat they pose.

  2. Anil Avatar
    Anil

    (got the jerk thing wrong re: handicapped people. just flip that around.)

  3. Gerard Van der Leun Avatar
    Gerard Van der Leun

    I’m with Jeff here. In fact, I just got through posting something similar to this half an hour ago over on my blog under the title:
    WHY ARE WE SO COY ABOUT CONNECTING THE DOTS?
    I think we need to worry less about “offending” and more about “defending.” The US as Mr. Nice Guy feels good, but it really doesn’t work on certain groups.

  4. Robert Holmgren Avatar
    Robert Holmgren

    What’s galling is hearing the defenders of Islamic terrorists while the so called peaceful Muslums refuse to speak. It’s so obvious but when Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell and others offer this obvous fact the oligarchs in news media make them the terrorists. Orwellian I’d say.