How to identify a genuinely progressive Muslim

August 2, 2017 • 12:00 pm

This idea is not novel with me: as my friend Malgorzata noted, it’s been suggested by several people, including here by Caleb Powell. The premises of the idea are these:

  1. There are lots of Muslims who cast themselves, or are cast by others, in the role of liberals, progressives, or “Islamic reformers.”
  2. Some of these Muslims get death threats from more extremist Muslims, while others don’t
  3. Extremist Muslims threaten death only to those “progressive” Muslims whom they see as impeding their program of Islamism
  4. Those “progressive” Muslims who don’t get threats are, I think, those whom Islamic extremists perceive as advancing or enabling their program—either by whitewashing Islam to squelch criticism, or by pretending to be progressive and pro-democracy when they really have another agenda.
  5. Therefore, if you want to discern whether a “liberal” Muslim is truly progressive, see whether he or she gets death threats from other Muslims.

Now I’m just throwing this out for your consideration, and have thought about it for just a short time, but I’ve made a little list. Two lists, actually. The first are those “reformers’ who do get threats from Muslims, and the second comprises The Unthreatened. The lists are below, and I’ve had a bit of help from some friends in the know.  I am responsible for any inaccuracies, of course (for example, some people on the second list may have gotten some threats).

Two caveats. The threats must be from Muslims, not from other people. Linda Sarsour, for example, says she gets threats all the time—but they’re not from Muslims. Second, the people on the list must be practicing Muslims, or say that they are. Ex-Muslims—people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ali Rizvi, Sarah Haider, Faisal Al Mutar, and Maryam Namazie—all get death threats because they’re apostates, and apostasy is a capital crime in Islam.

By the way, some of the people on the first list require police protection. I’ve put links (most from Wikipedia) to all of them so you can read about them.

So, the lists:

Muslim reformers who often get threats from other Muslims (i.e., people to pay attention to):

Maajid Nawaz
Asra Nomani
Hassen Chalgoumi
Bassem Eid
Tarek Fatah
Raheel Raza
Zuhdi Jasser
Taslima Nasrin
Irshad Manji
Tahir Gora
Imam Mohammad Tawhidi
Malala Yousafzai

Muslim reformers who don’t often get threats from other Muslims (people to be wary of):

Reza Aslan
Linda Sarsour
Tariq Ramadan
Hatem Bazin
Keith Ellison (the only a Muslim member of the U.S. Congress)
Mehdi Hasan

Caleb Powell’s “Who’s Who in Islam“, which was my very first link above, also gives a list of groups that, he believes, promote a regressive agenda—either deliberately or as a byproduct of their actions. I don’t know all of these, but the ones I recognize seem to be properly placed. Again, this is not my list, but it’s worth perusing. The links are also Powell’s:

Groups/Media/etc.– 5Pillarz, BDS, Brandeis, CAGE, CAIR, Electronic Intifada, Goldsmiths Feminists, French Collective Against Islamophobia,Greens, Hope not Hate, Iceland, LSESU Palestine Society, MPAC UK, National Women’s Studies Association,NUS, Rights Watch (UK), Six PEN Authors, Southern Poverty Law Center, University of Warwick, Yale Muslim Student Association,

 

Honey the Duck preening

August 2, 2017 • 11:00 am

I should have filmed this sideways or something, as the iPhone video isn’t that great. However, here you see my duck Honey having a postprandial preen, spreading oil over her feathers, dunking herself, and having a good shake. I’m told she’s the mother and non the timid daughter, because she’s molting and only adults molt. This explains why she’s still here when all her offspring have flown off to Ceiling Cat knows where.

Ducks oil their feathers by picking up oil from a gland at the base of their tail, the uropygial gland. They use their bills to spread this oil over their bodies. When Honey dunks herself in the water, it just rolls off in droplets: water off a duck’s back!

Soon her feathers will be big enough to fly and she’ll be gone. And I’ll be an empty nester!

The beast at the breast of the Left

August 2, 2017 • 9:15 am

The more I learn about the Regressive Left, the more I see a hidden streak of bigotry within it, and it’s often anti-Semitism. First they threw out Jewish lesbians during Chicago’s Dyke March because those Jews were supposedly expressing Zionism, and then we have the constant attacks not just on Israel, but on Zionism. And of course there’s also the constant demonization of “toxic whiteness” and “toxic masculinity”, as well as the admiration for terrorists, as shown in my post on the Women’s March and Women’s Strike, with the organizers showing love for cop-killers and other murderers. Nobody on the Left mentioned has mentioned save one call-out by reporter Jake Tapper, who then was smeared by Feminist Icon Linda Sarsour’s as a member of the “alt-right.” Oh, and one intrepid New York Times reporter, whom I’ll mention below.

So far Fox News and many conservative websites, as well as the more liberal Daily Beast, have spotted this streak of hatred and bigotry in Sarsour and her allies, but of course they have their own Christian agenda. (That does not mean that we shouldn’t pay attention to what they say.) Now, however, the news is making its way into the real mainstream press: the New York Times. (You’ll never see it in the liberal New Yorker, whose unspoken agenda is to never criticize Islam—or, indeed, any faith.)

The NYT writer who’s calling out the Regressive Left is Bari Weiss, a staff editor. Not long ago she wrote a column about the anti-Semitism of the Dyke March: “I’m glad the Dyke March banned Jewish stars“. The title was of course provocative, but what she meant was this:

I’m sorry for the women, like Ms. Grauer, who found themselves under genuine threat for carrying a colorful cloth falsely accused of being pernicious.

But I am also grateful.

Has there ever been a crisper expression of the consequences of “intersectionality” than a ban on Jewish lesbians from a Dyke March?

I wrote about that column here, and have posted a fair amount about Sarsour, a woman who seems to have pulled the wool over the eyes of many feminists on the Left, and not just women, but men and organizations like the ACLU. In yesterday’s Times, Weiss exposes the bigotry of not just Sarsour, but two of her three co-organizers of the Women’s March, all of whom have extolled dubious characters and anti-Semites. You can see Weiss’s piece by clicking on the screenshot below:

I won’t reprise what Weiss says about Sarsour and her love of sharia and hatred of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, her fight with Jake Tapper, as well as the admiration of the Women’s March and its organizers for criminals like Assata Shakur, Rasmea Odeh, and Donna Hylton—all these issues I’ve discussed before. Let’s see instead how Sarsour and two more of the Women’s March organizers, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez, have fawned all over the leader of the Nation of Islam (“Black Muslims”): Louis Farrakhan, a Chicago resident and an unhinged, bull goose anti-Semitic loon.

From Weiss’s piece:

What’s more distressing is that Ms. Sarsour is not the only leader of the women’s movement who harbors such alarming ideas. Largely overlooked have been the similarly outrageous statements of the march’s other organizers.

Ms. Mallory, in addition to applauding Assata Shakur as a feminist emblem, also admires Fidel Castro, who sheltered Ms. Shakur in Cuba. She put up a flurry of posts when Mr. Castro died last year. “R.I.P. Comandante! Your legacy lives on!” she wrote in one. She does not have similar respect for American police officers. “When you throw a brick in a pile of hogs, the one that hollers is the one you hit,” she posted on Nov. 20.

Ms. Perez also expressed her admiration for a Black Panther convicted of trying to kill six police officers: “Love learning from and sharing space with Baba Sekou Odinga.”

But the public figure both women regularly fawn over is Louis Farrakhan.

On May 11, Ms. Mallory posted a photo with her arm around Mr. Farrakhan, the 84-year-old Nation of Islam leader notorious for his anti-Semitic comments, on Twitter and Instagram. “Thank God this man is still alive and doing well,” she wrote. It is one of several videos and photos and quotes that Ms. Mallory has posted of Mr. Farrakhan.

Ms. Perez is also a big fan. In the fall, she posted a photo in which she holds hands with Mr. Farrakhan, writing, “There are many times when I sit with elders or inspirational individuals where I think, ‘I just wish I could package this and share this moment with others.’ ” She’s also promoted video of Mr. Farrakhan “dropping knowledge” and another in which he says he is “speaking truth to power.”

Here’s the photo mentioned above. The equivalent would be if some admired progressive, like Bernie Sanders, were to be photographed with his arm around white supremacist Richard Spencer, with added plaudits. Can you imagine the outcry from the Left were that to happen?

And here’s another Instagram photo I found, with both Mallory and Sarsour extolling this Jew-hating crank in the comments:

But is Farrakhan truly an anti-Semite? Well, that’s been clear for years to those of us who live in Chicago, but let Weiss tell us:

Readers born after 1980 will probably have little idea, since [Farrakhan] has largely remained out of the headlines since the Million Man March he organized in 1995. But his views, which this editorial page has called “twisted,” remain as appalling as ever.

“And don’t you forget, when it’s God who puts you in the ovens, it’s forever!” he warned Jews in a speech at a Nation of Islam gathering in Madison Square Garden in 1985. Five years later, he remained unreformed: “The Jews, a small handful, control the movement of this great nation, like a radar controls the movement of a great ship in the waters.” Or this metaphor, directed at Jews: “You have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell.” He called Hitler “a very great man” on national television. Judaism, he insists, is a “gutter religion.”

In one of the several widely available YouTube videos he’s made about the Jews, he told black Americans that “the control of the Synagogue of Satan over our people must be exposed.” He adds: “These satanic ones have not only controlled hip-hop but they control, according to their own words, the very messages that are brought to the public.” He goes on to offer a truly remarkable analysis of the hip-hop industry in which “intelligent” rappers are rejected by the “satanic minds” who insist that they “want filth” and encourage “vulgarity” and “savagery.” This is the first 10 minutes of an hour.

Mr. Farrakhan is also an unapologetic racist. He insists that whites are a “race of devils” and that “white people deserve to die.”

Feminists will find little to cheer in his 1950s views of gender: “Your professional lives can’t satisfy your soul like a good, loving man.” Recently he told Jay-Z that he should make Beyoncé put on some clothes. He alsoopposes gay marriage.

If that wasn’t enough of a rap sheet, Mr. Farrakhan also loves Scientology and believes 9/11 was a false flag operation.

“When God puts you in the ovens, it’s forever.” The mildest thing I can say about that is “Holy crap!” This is someone whom Sarsour and her allies admire? How can anyone who purports to show solidarity with Jews have anything to do with this man? Even the Southern Poverty Law Center, with its flawed judgment, is savvy enough to list the Nation of Islam as a “hate group” that is anti-gay and anti-Semitic. Both the Nation of Islam as well as its leader have a long history of racism and bigotry.

Remember, too, that if Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins made any statements even close to what Farrakhan said, they’d instantly be called out, demonized, and destroyed by the Regressive Left. But when Farrakhan says it—and his history and anti-Semitism are no secret—well, it’s just fine. The brother looks great! The brother does not age; God bless him! My family! Sarsour and Mallory lap it up!

What a pair! Do those who admire these women know about this stuff? And if they do, do they care? This just confirms my suspicion that the Regressive Left is deeply tinged with anti-Semitism. And I wonder if the American Civil Liberties Union still “stands with Linda.”

Weiss also answers the inevitable chiding that we should be ignoring the shenanigans of the Regressive Left and spend our time going after the more dangerous machinations of Trump and his minions. But this is what I tell myself when I feel bad about criticizing the organizers of what was, after all, a feminist march:

I can already hear the pushback. What’s a few impolitic tweets and photos compared to the horror show of this administration? Save your outrage for the transgender ban in the military, for the lies that spew forth daily from the press briefing room, for the cuts to Planned Parenthood, the shady business with Russia, and, and, and.

. . . Will progressives have more spine than conservatives in policing hate in their ranks? Or will they ignore it in their fury over the Trump administration?

I am sure that Linda Sarsour, and perhaps the other leaders of the Women’s March, will block me for writing this. Maybe I’ll be accused of siding with the alt-right or tarred as Islamophobic. But what I stand against is embracing terrorists, disdaining independent feminist voices, hating on democracies and celebrating dictatorships. If that puts me beyond the pale of the progressive feminist movement in America right now, so be it.

Most of the people who read this site already agree with me about the reprehensible behavior and agenda of Trump, as well as the ridiculous and kneejerk way the Republicans are running the government. My fulminating against them, much as I hate them, won’t accomplish much on this site. You can get that almost everywhere. But perhaps I can at least alert the Left to the vipers lurking at its breast.

My lame attempt at a political cartoon:

__________

Here’s a list of all articles written by Bari Weiss, at least as given on Muck Rack. She’s a progressive who hasn’t put up with the bigotry of some segments of the Left.

h/t: Grania, Enrico

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ smarts

August 2, 2017 • 8:30 am

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “bad,” came with this email note:

I don’t think it’s a good idea for atheists to make a big deal of religion/intelligence research. But it’s okay for a gag.

I agree with the artist, as there’s no useful point to emphasizing the correlation, even if it’s real. If Jesus is citing a real study, and you know of it (I don’t), please put it in the comments.

Readers’ wildlife photos

August 2, 2017 • 7:30 am

Tim Anderson from Australia wrote in yesterday in with some raptor photos. His notes:

Yesterday, I went for a drive through the countryside hereabouts. In the space of an hour I managed to photograph the birds in the attached pics. In order of attachments:

Nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides):

Brown falcon (Falco berigora):
Black falcon (Falco subniger):
Australian darter (Anhinga novohollandiae):
Red Browed Firetail finch (Neochmia temporalis):
White-faced Heron (Egretta novohollandiae):

I’m not certain about some of the identifications: most Australian raptors are brown and are about yea big – the diagnostic notes usually talk about the colouration of the inner eyelid.

I also saw a couple of other raptors,  but the pics were rubbish. As it is the bowels of winter here, it may be that they have to be a bit more bold to catch whatever prey ventures out into the open. It seemed like every second tree had a bird of prey in it.

And the Daily Mammal from reader Jonathan Harvey, who is unduly modest about his photo of a Procyon lotor:

I enclose one photo of a raccoon taken a few months ago in one of the less traveled sections of Golden Gate Park [San Francisco]. I don’t know if it is high enough quality for your Reader’s wildlife photoes, but I  submit it.

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

August 2, 2017 • 6:30 am

Good morning on the second day of August, 2017: a Wednesday here in the States. It’s also National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, and I have had a few of these recently, as they’re a nice summer treat (surprisingly, the main demographic who consumes them includes people between 30 and 44). Are these (shown below) eaten in other Anglophone lands? (The gourmet versions, with the ice cream slathered between fancy cookies and the like, can get very fancy and pricey.)


On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. “What’s that?”, you say. “It was July 4!” Probably not; that was when the Declaration was adopted, but at least some signing almost certainly occurred later. As Wikipedia notes:

Historians have generally accepted McKean’s version of events, arguing that the famous signed version of the Declaration was created after July 19, and was not signed by Congress until August 2, 1776. In 1986, legal historian Wilfred Ritz argued that historians had misunderstood the primary documents and given too much credence to McKean, who had not been present in Congress on July 4. According to Ritz, about thirty-four delegates signed the Declaration on July 4, and the others signed on or after August 2. Historians who reject a July 4 signing maintain that most delegates signed on August 2, and that those eventual signers who were not present added their names later.

On August 2, 1790, the first U.S. census was conducted. At that time the population was a little less than four million, and that includes everyone, including slaves. Needless to say, it’s a very rough estimate. On this day in 1870, the world’s first underground tube railway, the “Tower Subway”, opened in London. In 1939, the positron—the antiparticle of the electron—was discovered by Carl D. Anderson; this was the first antimatter particle seen, and, as I recall, its existence was predicted by Dirac. On August 2, 1939, Einstein and Leo Szilard wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt, urging him to start developing an atomic bomb, which began the Manhattan Project. Finally, on this day in 1943, John F Kennedy’s torpedo boat, the famous PT-109, was sunk by a Japanese destroyer, and Kennedy saved all but two of his crew.

Notables born on this day include John Tyndall (1820), Myrna Loy (1905), Shimon Peres (1923), James Baldwin (1924), Carroll O’Connor (1924), Peter O’Toole (1932), Garth Hudson (1937), Wes Craven (1939), and Isabel Allende (1942). Those who died on this day include “Wild Bill” Hickok (1876), Enrico Caruso (1921), Alexander Graham Bell (1922), Warren Harding (1923), Wallace Stevens (1955), and William S. Burroughs (1997). Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, little Hania, who used to live upstairs and loves Hili, is inspecting the Princess with a magnifying glass:

Hili: What are you looking at?
Hania: I’m looking at the pattern in your fur.
Hili: It is beautiful, isn’t it?
 In Polish:
Hili: Czemu się tak przyglądasz?
Hania: Oglądam wzory na twoim futrze.
Hili: Prawda, że są piękne?

Ben Goren writes in from Arizona: he’s adopted a female kitten, Vega, who’s finally made friends with the resident cat, the shy and irascible Baihu. Here’s Ben’s report and a photo:

Vega is wonderful. Perfect bill of health at Friday’s follow-up vet exam (including negative FIV and leukemia results). She and Baihu are definitely friends…Vega thinks Baihu is her best cat friend, but Baihu would still say, _just_ friends. She’s sleeping in my lap as I type.

And, of course, we’re spoiling her silly…she (and Baihu) even got quite a few pieces of leftover sashimi after Misa and I ate as much as we could the other day.

Out in Winnipeg,we have a dappled Gus and his friend Fred the Squirrel, who’s looking for peanuts: