Paul Berman has a new book coming out, The Flight of the Intellectuals, in which he attempts to define the "moderate Muslim"–who coincidentally of course is pro-Israel. So Ayan Hirsi Ali who’s suggested that we bomb Iran is lauded as his moderate Muslim interlocutor. An early supporter of the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq, Berman epitomizes the liberal "internationalist" who dovetail with neocon objectives. Nowhere in his pompous narrative is any concern evinced for his favourite middle eastern state: Israel. It is also coincidental that those Muslims he opposes are strident and wildly popular critics of Israel.
What’s a poor Muslim to do? Tariq Ramdan’s crime was to suggest that French Jews supported the war on Iraq because of Israel. Paul Berman’s definition of a moderate Muslim? One who exults when Gaza is bombed by Israel and lauds its humanitarian tendencies and the munificence of Western civilization.
From the book promo:
Paul Berman—one of America’s leading public intellectuals (Foreign Affairs)—conducts a searing examination of the West’s fumbling efforts to establish a healthy discourse with “moderate” Islam, or to even properly identify what a “moderate” Muslim is. He does so by simultaneously presenting concise and penetrating studies of several of the Muslims we’ve embraced—such as Tariq Ramadan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the Ayatollah Khomeini—and the journalists and intellectuals who first encouraged us to embrace them, such as Michel Foucault in Europe and Ian Buruma in the United States.
Buruma on Berman‘s favorite Muslim:
On Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I wrote that I admire her, and agree with much of what she says, but not with everything. The problem with neocons and neoleftists is that any disagreement with their idol is taken to be a hostile attack, not just on Hirsi Ali, but on everything she stands for: secularism, free speech, and so on. Berman describes this observation as a "campaign" that is really no loftier than a "low vendetta." I think he has made my point very nicely.
Berman should look at where the search for a “moderate” you could work has been successful in the past. The US found Mahmoud Abbas and trusts him to the point that it supplies him with weapons for his forces with Abbas’ guarantee that they will be used exclusively against his fellow Palestinians.. During WWII the Germans searched for a moderate Norwegian and managed to find Quisling. Surely Abbas and Quisling meet the criteria as the intellectuals Berman searches for, if not up to the caliber of the Brits who spied for the USSR.
I have seen a CD movie about the testimony and revelations of a former pioneer Hezbollah organizer Iranian. The ancient teachings of Quran are totally adverse to the concept of modern western justice and morality particularly on matters requiring spiritual basis… sadly but realistically there could never be a ‘good’ true Muslim (which is ironically ideally embodied by Islamic Jihadists) before a western mind. If there are some, these ‘good ones’ are not genuinely complete and true Muslims.
Sorry to say, Berman seemed not to be a Quran well-read person. His affection with the Muslims if any, could be lip-service only. If he truly appreciates Islam and the Muslims, he must appreciate and hold dearly their true beliefs.
You have shown yourself to be a religious wacko. Now I understand why you lack secondary school education, you thought that peddling mythical stories about the big guy in the sky was enough.
Look at the bright side. You can get a good job as a Kashroot inspector.
Hirsi Ali is emphatically NOT Muslim; she describes herself as an atheist and explicitly rejects Islam. As there is no hereditary/ethnic component to Islam, one cannot be a “Muslim atheist”.
Agreed! Its a choice – either Islam or death!
This simply shows your own idiocy. The choice has never been “Islam or death”. Islam has always seen all prior religions as being of divine origin and worth protecting, and Muslim civilizations have protected other groups repeatedly throughout history.
link to zope.gush-shalom.org
RE: “During WWII the Germans searched for a moderate Norwegian and managed to find Quisling.”
This says it all. Thank you Les.
So then, a moderate Jew is one who is pro Al-Qaeda like Adam Gadahn?
OK. So just to be clear here, what Berman is saying is that Adam Gadahn is a moderate Jew, the ONLY moderate Jew out there in the whole wide world?
Strange.