Berman’s judgement is impeached from the center-right

by on May 27, 2010 4
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Wow Paul Berman really catches it for his new book in the NY Observer, from Lee Siegel. The only intellectual flight is Berman's, and why write a 300-page book about a trivial dispute? J'agree. Proportion. And here is Hussein Ibish writing that Berman doesn't know what he's talking about when he characterizes Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, as somehow paradigmatic of Palestinian thinking. Thanks to Jack Ross.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Neocons, US Politics

{ 4 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. lareineblanche says:
    May 27, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    That Lee Siegel piece is great fun.

    From Ibish’s article :
    On Hirsi Ali being portrayed as “…a ‘persecuted dissident intellectual’ champing Enlightenment values” by the likes of Berman.
    This is a typical tactic employed by self-appointed “intellectuals” of the “left” to camouflage a basic and primal fear of Islam and Arabs in general, disguising it under a hypocritical, self-righteous stance on women’s rights and gay rights (which they were much less vocal about when it couldn’t be used to their advantage against people like Ramadan).
    People like Ali and Rushdie are being used as poster children in this bogus “clash of civilizations” product they would like to sell us (ever since Huntington), and exploited in order to crush any honest debate.

    Maybe a better title would be “The Plight of the Pseudo-Intellectual”?

    • demize says:
      May 27, 2010 at 4:02 pm

      Your quite right. I had the misfortune of reading Sam Harris’ twaddle. He hates religion, but man he really hates Islam, but Buddhism isn’t so bad.The book struck me as dishonest. Seems a few of the “Atheist” authors reserve a particular disdain for Islam, Hitchens being one other example.

  2. demize says:
    May 27, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    More so than being used, they’ve both opportunistically allowed themselves to be deployed in the role of House Muslims. Ali in particular.

    • Shafiq says:
      May 27, 2010 at 4:05 pm

      But when you declare yourself an apostate, logically you stop being Muslim. They can’t be classed ‘good Muslims’ and the rest of us ‘bad Muslims’ if they aren’t Muslim in the first place.

      It seems logic isn’t a strong point for these people.