my post on the swiss minaret ban and my follow-up about the necessity for European Jews and Muslims to make common cause has attracted the attention of Stormfront. woot! neonazis were just about the only group of psychos I hadn’t yet pissed off 
It’s actually a trifecta, because the text of my post they quoted included a link to my earlier post about the definitions of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Now, I just need to get that Anwar Al Awlaki fellow to read my posts… hasn’t taken the bait yet.
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I think comparing this instance of “Islamophobia” (i.e. opposing the building a symbol of a religion that has a very strong correlation with violence, misogyny and anti-semitism) to the many examples of bigoted xenophobia that are common in the Muslim world is like comparing a bump to Mt. Everest.
It’s still bigotry (though very, very minor), and should be opposed; but you could come up with a better way of dealing with people opposed to minarets than comparing them to racist neo-nazis. That’ll just make them deaf to your arguments and (probably) drive them further into the neo-nazi way of thinking.
Speaking of Islamophobia, the Swiss foreign minister (who has been criticized by the right for appeasing Iran, donning a headscarf and generally appeasing) is afraid that “the ban on the construction of minarets poses a risk to Switzerland’s security.”
This is not going to help anyone.
From what I’ve seen of the far right/anti immigrant movement in Europe and the United States, their enemy is not really Muslims or Jews. Their enemy is the Left. But Muslims are becoming very convenient tools for hate-based anti-immigrant parties.
During WWII, the majority of fascists considered the communists to be their main enemy. But anti-Semitism (and general suspicion about ‘auslander’) was easier to exploit than anti-communism. By connecting the Jews with the Left, the fascists were able to drum up more support.
Now the far right is using the Muslim/Left association to win votes. Anti Immigrant parties like the BNP and the FPO in Austria have won elections and are using their opposition to immigration to build a political base.
If Muslims riot, bomb or boycott in reaction to this ban, this will only help the far right. If the Left expresses fear that Muslims will riot, boycott and bomb in reaction to this ban, this will also help groups like the FPO, the BNP and of course, the people who created those racist signs, the right/populist Swiss People’s Party.
An interesting point of history–don’t know whose point this supports, it’s just a point–is that the Nazis and some others were able to exploit anti-semitic fears in their anti-communist arguments by tying the two together; Communism and Jewishness were also linked, and they liked pointing to prominent people of Jewish ancestry (including Marx himself) in the Communist movement.
The irony of course being that Communism really was (and is) extremely evil. So when you see fascists going after communists, well, it’s sort of like seeing, I don’t know, child molesters attacking mafiosos. Well, evil people attacking evil: I guess that’s… good?
As for linking a religion with hatred: yeah, that’s a real, real good way of winning people over from that religion. Attack the religion of their entire family and community as vile and evil. That’ll be seriously helpful. If you want to talk about having a clear-minded view of the problem, that’s something that surely doesn’t help.
They don’t need minarets anymore, when its time to do the call for prayer they can just send everyone a text message.
By the way Aziz, mad props for attracting the ire of the Stormfront.
Meh, pissing off Stormfront is no big deal. When you get misquoted by them to support their insanity, then you win.
As for linking a religion with hatred: yeah, that’s a real, real good way of winning people over from that religion. Attack the religion of their entire family and community as vile and evil. That’ll be seriously helpful. If you want to talk about having a clear-minded view of the problem, that’s something that surely doesn’t help.
Who is linking who’s religion in order to win someone over?
Didn’t you know that Awlaki was a Stormfront sleeper agent?
Dish, it all makes sense now!
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