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Since the Know Your Right Wing Speakers bio on Michael Medved just went up, I thought I’d hop over to Medved’s site to see what the latest from the Mustachioed Madman was. A fresh blog post from Medved was there to greet me and it did not disappoint. He begins:
The latest example of political correctness run amok involves the BBC describing the Islamists who planned bombings in London and Glasgow as arising from “the disfranchised South Asian community.”
Medved goes on to claim the terms “South Asian” and “Indian” are “misleading.” He denounces “[t]he refusal to use the words “Muslim” or “Islamist” to identify these terrorists,” and continues: “But of course, they’re all Muslim.”
This isn’t all that shocking coming from Medved, who calls Islam “a primitive religion” and insists there is “a violence problem in the Muslim world because that is an inherent problem in Islam.” What is shocking is that President Bush invited this guy to the White House talk to him about Middle East affairs. Glad the president’s talking to the experts.
The latest from Medved is by no means as ridiculous as Michael Savage’s comments which Cara dutifully reported yesterday, but it just reinforces the need for progressives to reclaim the airwaves from rabid right-wingers.
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"liberal media which is attacking American values and distorting the truth," I'll direct you to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," Link
Stay tuned at campusprogress.org for Five Minutes With Mark Green, the president of Air America Radio, who is in the trenches trying to counter Rush Limbaugh and his ilk with more progressive voices
No?!
Then listeners don't know what's good for them - we must broadcast only progressive radio for the good of the people! All hail Chavez! (Er, ignore that last point ... )
No?!"
No, is right. This is an incredible urban myth which I believe was started by Air America itself. No doubt they would claim they were just joking. I did some research on this subject for an undergraduate class I was taking. The truth is that in most major markets through all of 2006, Air Americas's listnership was so miniscule that Nielson could not even assign it a rating. That means their percentage of the audience did not even rise to a level of 1% of total listeners. This is about as pathetic of a rating as there could possibly be. Do some research and quit spreading mis-information.
What a bigoted jerk. Everyone knows most of these terrorists are Scandinaian Protestants.
Religion is easy to exploit. Smart people, decent people, and people whose heads aren't lodged firmly between their glutes understand this and avoid making blanket characterizations about religions based on the perversions adhered to by various psychopaths and assholes. Terrorists and Mr Medved prefer blanket characterizations based on the perversions of the faith because it suits their ends at the expense of everyone else. Demagogues follow pretty set patterns, and rule #1 is find an "other" and make them look scary. "Terrorists," "Wahabbist fundamentalists," and "violent extremists" are all apparently too specific to allow for a real good demonization, so Medved expands his "fear 'em and hate 'em" demagoguery to include the entire Islamic world. That's what makes him a jackass.
Really, I'm not going to write up an entire lit review for you, but don't think for a second that the literature doesn't exist. It's not widely read here because it doesn't have much of a popular audience here. There was a great piece in Foreign Affairs (in June '05, IIRC) about women in Islamic countries (called "Women in Islam" if I remember right), and this site has quite a bit worth reading: Link
Just out of curiosity, what other than terrorism news do you usually read concerning the "wider Muslim community" (a pretty broad term to use when discussing over a billion adherents to Islam)? My guess is that the question you meant to ask, or at least ought to be asking, is why this criticism is so rarely covered in news outlets you regularly read.
It's not rare, the western media just doesn't publicize it and you don't bother to look for it. Perfect example: In 2005, 170 Muslim clerics and scholars from all over the globe representing almost every single sect and school of thought in Islam banded together and issued a joint fatwa condemning ALL acts of terrorism in the name of Islam (for more, read Link. This type of intersectarian cooperation was hitherto unprecedented in the Muslim world but came about in order to defend the true meaning of Islam from those who seek to manipulate it for their own purposes.
Do some more homework before you criticize the Muslim community. In fact, cruise this website put together by students from Colgate University with the help of the American Academy of Religion: Link. I'd especially like to point out the numerous denunciations of acts of terror from Muslim leader worldwide and the vigils held by Muslims everywhere in memory of those killed in 9/11 and other attacks.
In the latest response, Roy can't decide whether I'm a "turd," a "cockroach" or a "worm." Read it below:
Zach - You Turd
Dear Mr. Zach -
Great you're a liberal/progressive/cockroach. Whatever you prefer.... South Asian? Indian? Misleading? I would lean on the simple argument that not everyone from Southern Asia or India are of the Muslim faith. The Voodoo Doctors(Oh no I've offended a voodoo Doctor. Get over it) in this case were Muslim, and have a desire to destroy Western Civilization. The Funniest part of this equation is that worms like you are the people that the Muslims want to kill first... Hopefully the patriotic freedom loving Americans will prevent your demise from occurring. Sadly we will still have to listen to your socialist appease the monster dribble, however, freedom is freedom.
Sincerely,
Roy
However (And TBH the question of "Would Al-Qaeda still be terrorists if they didn't have militant Islam?" hasn't crossed my mind before so this is tentative), I'd say in Al-Qaeda's case it's fair to say that without their warped view of Islam they wouldn't be terrorists, at least not with the aims they currently hold, because their aims are explicitly religious - the re-establishment of the Caliphate. The guys involved might be the personality types where if Wahabbism didn't exist they'd still be up to something else dastardly, but it'd be a whole 'nother beast entirely with different tactics and motivation, not merely Alternate Universe Al Qaeda with a copy of Hitchens' latest in hand.