Libertarian Librarian

That's the feeling I get reading through postings at MuslimVillage, a Web Forum based in Australia. A bunch of fairly normal people who happen to be Muslims and who are concerned over world perception of their religion. Well and good.

But, then I find this thread, and I find it disturbing that virtually every author (of the ones I recognize) listed by the thread creator and the thread contributors are either anti-American or apologists for the atrocities that some Muslims perpetrate in the name of their religion. Many are both.

Noam Chomsky. Hard to find an author more anti-capitalistic or anti-American than Chomsky.
John Pilger. Dislikes America, hates Israel, hates Bush, hates Blair, likes Hugo Chavez.
John Esposito. Apologist for Palestinian terrorists and fanatical Islamists.
Edward Said. Huge supporter of Palestinian statehood and apologist for Palestinian terror.
Juan Cole. Anti-Israeli bias and apologist for Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
Robert Fisk. So biased and well-known for his factual inaccuracies that "being Fisked" has become an idiom for pointing out biased or inaccurate reporting. Apologist for Islamic terrorists.
Charlie Reese. Apologist for Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
Karen Armstrong. Good will ambassador for Islam. Being published on CAIR's website is a pretty big strike against you in my book.
Justin Rai(y)mondo. A bit more balanced than the previous batch (which is why I put him last), Raimondo actually defended Pope Benedict, but he remains unabashedly anti-Israel.

I'll admit I don't know the rest of the authors listed. Maybe some of them are somewhere close to the middle. But if you were to make a list of anti-Israel, apologists for Muslim terrorists, at least 8 of the 9 listed above would be in the top 20. Probably the top 10.

Not surprising, perhaps, since it's a Muslim forum. Sure-- except that these aren't wahhabist fanatics. These are "average" people. The ones I keep hoping will speak out against the wahhabists and jihadists and terrorists that have, in large measure, hijacked their religion. Seems rather unlikely given their preferred reading. Sigh. Especially after I discovered this thread as well. Double sigh.

One final note. In the opening to the thread, the request goes out for, "...your favorite local/international Non-Muslim writers, journalists, religious scholars, academics, artists, policy makers and community edu-activists...."

Edu-activists?

I friggin HATE edu-activists. They aren't as bad as Illinois Nazis, but they're pretty bad. Be an educator or be an activist. I don't want the people teaching my kids, or anybody's kids, to be activists. Activists lose perspective, they lose the ability to think critically and analytically, they become lost in their cause-- whatever it may be. Passion in teaching is one thing-- that transmits itself to the students as "Gee, she really likes this topic, maybe I should pay more attention." Activism is a whole other brand of enthusiasm altogether. It transmits itself to the student as "Gee, this is really important. Good thing she told me which side is the right side of the issue."

And, bam, shut go the doors of open inquiry.

Labels: Religion