For example, he manages to make Muslims the victims of the Fort Hood shooting by saying:
This holiday celebration comes soon after the tragic incident at Fort Hood, when the atrocious act of a mass murderer put Islam and Muslims under some pressure to either denounce or defend their faith.Somehow, whenever a Muslim commits an atrocity under the auspices of Islamic teachings, Muslims are the victims. This is asinine. But he continues:
The psychotic act of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, MD, a Muslim American military psychiatrist at Fort Hood who went on a rampage killing 13 U.S. soldiers and wounding 30 others, has prompted two diametrically opposed reactions.What a misrepresentation of the truth! The people who are saying Islam is violent (the authors of this blog, as well as thousands of others) have no need to say "Islam ALONE" is violent, as if we are picking on Islam. Yet that is how he portrays those with whom he disagrees, and he does so emphatically. He also characterizes all the Muslims in an opposite group, as apologetic and arguing that their faith is peaceful and benevolent. I wonder if he would like to talk to Maj. Hasan, or his imam, or the boys in Revolution Islam, or Sadiq Abdul Malik, or anyone from Hamas, or al-Qaeda, or...
On one side are people who say that Islam -- and Islam alone -- is inherently violent and by extension Muslims are constitutionally driven to murder, while on the other are apologetic Muslims who argue their faith is peaceful and benevolent -- unrelated to criminal acts such as Hasan's.
As Dabashi doles out the drivel, he manages to ignore all the violent teachings of Islam, instead equating it to Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, etc. Just once, I'd like to see someone defend Islam as a peaceful religion in light of its actual violent teachings. Just once. But, of course, this is CNN: no objective view of Islam will be found here.
Then, the grand finale: Dabashi concludes his article with a panegyric on Malcolm X. According to this CNN article, until Americans ruminate on Malcolm X and incline themselves towards him, racism against Muslims will continue. Really, I kid you not. He said:
Until Americans come to terms with the fact that they are deeply indebted to a Muslim revolutionary for the fruits of the civil rights movement they enjoy today, Islam and Muslims will continue to be seen as archetypically alien and an everlasting danger to American lives and liberties.So that is the grand conclusion of this CNN masterpiece: Americans consider Islam dangerous not because of Islam's violent teachings, but rather because they forgot to include Malcolm X in their history books. Another wonderful reality check by CNN, courtesy of Hamid Dabashi.





