Sunday, July 29, 2007

Officer Lust?

Raouf, your interview with Radio Netherlands was excellent - not least because it was interspersed with comments by Officer Elly Lust. Am I hallucinating- surely they made that up?! I have now to quote the response to the article that you got online by a certain Hans from Canada:

"Not the Devil, but Hirsi Ali made me do it!" - Rauf Moussad is willfully confusing cause and effect here, I think. Sad to see that, as an intellectual, Moussad is following the usual Muslim/Leftist tactic of blaming problems of Islamic cultures on those outside it, never accepting their own responsibility. His remarks make the usual appeal to the reflex of self-hate of "evil colonialist racist" Liberal Western societies, who can easily be made to feel guilty about anything. Maybe those kids at the supermarket just didn't finish school. Maybe their segregated upbringing (secured and encouraged by Multiculturalism) didn't prepare them for life in modern society, but instead indoctrinated them to see the Dutch as enemies. Self-exclusion better describes it than victimhood. Historian Efraim Karsh wrote (in "Islamic Imperialism") that Muslim societies' problems can only be started to be addressed when their own inner dynamics are given more importance, instead of assuming they are mostly defined by the West's actions. After all, it's not only Islam's relation to the West that are troubled..."

Now surely you have an answer to this, Raouf habibi? The thing about Hans' comment is its tone of smugness and the scorn for 'Muslim communities' inner problems that is veiled in the neo-imperialist language of so-called tough love and realism; it goes something like this: 'We' here in the Western world have magnanimously and humbly - and for too long - admitted guilt over our rather embarrassing colonialist past, but enough is enough - accept that we are sorry and accept that it is the past and we can't do anything about it, so stop whining and start putting your own houses in order - I mean look at the mess you are making - all that tribalism and factional fighting and burning of your women - at least 'we' don't do that anymore - we have been to school and learnt good, modern values whilst 'you people' insist on staying in your neighbourhoods and resenting our good fortune and freedom and insisting on your backwards ways. Well, frankly we've had enough - either you adapt and shut up or you can go home...

Thank you Hans' for your generous words of understanding.

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