Thursday, February 12, 2009
Salman Rushdie, the fatwa and the cowardice of the elite, by Helios d'Alexandrie
I would like to thank Annie Lessard, Marc Lebuis available for visitors to Point de Bascule in depth interview of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. I could not help but to think of watching it at the risk that he took public in expressing his vision of things. Men hunted and threatened with death, it was long. Although Khomeini's fatwa weighs as much as before, the murderous rage which he is the object remains strong, as evidenced by the manifestations of hatred that greeted his ennoblement by the Queen of England.
With hindsight, it is possible to measure the effects of the fatwa, a veritable sword of Damocles hanging over his head, but also above the head of all the thinkers and writers about Islam. This is the first time in history that a threat to one writer has been felt by all others as if it was addressed personally.
Few were those who from the outset, have approached the long-term consequences of the fatwa. This fear of causing offense, or rather the fear of being punished with death for having offended Islam, has not only lent a hand to political correctness, but it was also internalized by the majority of decision makers in democracies. It is the battered woman syndrome who accuses herself her violent husband. Theo Van Gogh to Geert Wilders through the Danish cartoonists and Benedict XVI, the reaction of the media, politicians and elites was predominantly reproving those who dare to criticize Islam, not that the criticism is unjustified, but because Islam is not critical for fear of consequences.
The role of fear should not be underestimated. This is not respect for the religions that is a barrier to criticism. If so, which denigrate Christianity and the Church are subject to dry up. We observe exactly the opposite. As for compensation, not daring to criticize Islam or Muslims, it multiplies the attacks against all that is Christian.
Practical consequence of these developments, the anger of Muslims was justified and the right to criticize Islam has been de facto abolished. Now, those who dare to exercise that right are subject to stigma or to prosecution for incitement to hatred. It was possible to realize in the case of the Mohammed cartoons. The vast majority of newspapers in Europe and North America had practiced self-censorship and have not published, and the few publications that have violated the bans have been prosecuted.
One can safely argue that history provides no example of a phenomenon equivalent. In the thirties, the fear of the Nazis and the war pushed the democracies on the path of appeasement. However, the criticism against Nazism have continued in these countries until the occupation by the German armies. Contrary to German fascism, Islamic fascism is remote. It raises the fear is internalized, it now determines the behavior of people, it turns them into bonded employees, it makes them dhimmis.
Cowardice is the deliberate choice of fear as motivation. This choice can not be done without shame and bad conscience, and that is why these feelings are repressed and covered by compensation for moral principles. Cowards come to accept and promote unacceptable on behalf of the entity; this is called the inversion of values. As luck would have it, Islamic fascism provides a substantial moral arguments they need: the rejection of racism and "Islamophobia", "freedom" to practice their religion, the right not to be " offended "and not to perform tasks against their religious beliefs.
Out of respect for these "principles" and in the name of "openness" and "living together", the increasing pervasiveness of religion in public space, the full veil, gender discrimination, polygamy, domestic violence, hate sermons in mosques, the praise of terrorism, an anti, anti-Semitism, contempt and rejection of the host society, are increasingly tolerated as to be part of normality.
In Quebec, the event Hérouxville was extremely traumatic for the elite. The quiet courage of the citizens and elected officials of this small rural municipality in all likelihood is up to the surface feelings of shame and bad conscience as well-meaning elite carefully repressed. They have space for a moment aware of their cowardice. It was more than they could bear, it was necessary to stigmatize any price Hérouxville, denigrate its citizens, dragged in the mud, shaming, and breathe the bad conscience in the minds of Quebecers. The aggressiveness and relentlessness whose elites have evidence against Hérouxville is an index that does not deceive the psychological distress that has hit on this occasion.
"I fear more the cowardice of the Western Islamist violence!" This statement of Ibn Warraq is instructive, is a writer who sets out to lift the veil that covers Islam and countless ugly. Like Salman Rushdie, he is tracked down and his head is a price. He provided his reasons to fear the dagger of the assassins, however he sees the cowardice of Western elites as a greater danger.
And he is right. In the Netherlands, political leaders have the same aggressive attitude with respect to Geert Wilders that the elites of Quebec in respect of Hérouxville. The courage of some is unbearable to the cowardice of others, so those who show courage must be absolutely destroyed. It is as if the leaders of the Netherlands Theo Van Gogh murdered a second time. Like Van Gogh said, Islamists have died laughing, they need not lift a finger, the cowards do all the work!
Twenty years ago Khomeini issued his fatwa against Salman Ruhsdie. He knew when he inoculated virus cowardice in the minds of Western elites? Perhaps the fatwa was only reactivate and make it more virulent virus already in place. Since the advent of Nazism in the thirties, the fatwa has set in motion a process of concession and appeasement to avoid confrontation, but it is expected that as in the thirties, the same causes will produce the same effects.
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Labels: Canada, Fatwa, Helios d'Alexandrie, Islam, Netherlands, Religion and fanaticism, Salman Rushdie
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 8:39 AM 
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