It's almost like they hate us for our freedoms, or something
France is under attack because it won't adopt laws against blasphemy.
As the government of France warns its citizens that they could be at risk in the wake of the latest Mohammed-cartoons controversy - a controversy, it should be noted, which arose because a teacher was literally beheaded for showing the cartoons in a classroom discussion about freedom of expression - The Spectator’s Kunwar Khuldune Shahid notes the irony in Islamic countries savaging the French while excusing actual anti-Muslim genocide in China:
Emmanuel Macron’s staunch defense of the right to publish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed proved popular in France. But now the president has a big fight on his hands abroad: French products have been removed from shops in Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan — and calls for a boycott are spreading.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the latest to join in: today he urged Turks to stop buying French goods. In a televised speech, he also told world leaders to intervene ‘if there is oppression against Muslims in France’. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s leader Imran Khan has accused Macron of ‘deliberately provoking Muslims’ as Islamabad hauled in the France ambassador for a dressing down. Khan wrote on Twitter:
‘(The) hallmark of a leader is (that) he unites human beings, as Mandela did, rather than dividing them. This is a time when president Macron could have put healing touch and denied space to extremists rather than creating further polarization and marginalization that inevitably leads to radicalization. It is unfortunate that he has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists. Sadly, president Macron has chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims, including his own citizens.’
Yet in the case of Pakistan, it’s hard not to see an element of selectiveness about the calling out of Islamophobia — and who gets the finger of blame pointed at them by Khan. Macron’s comments were certainly punchy. He said Islam is a religion ‘in crisis’ and claimed in the wake of the killing of a French school teacher that ‘Islamists want our future’. But is this really worse than China’s treatment of the Uighurs?
In Xinjiang ‘reeducation’ camps, Muslims are allegedly being forced to eat pork, drink alcohol and denounce Islam, as Chinese authorities look to coerce local Uighurs into abandoning their Islamic identity and beliefs as a ‘guarantee’ that their allegiance is with the state and not their religion. These internment camps — of which there could be as many as 380 — are touted as part of Beijing’s ‘counter-terror’ measures. Yet this war on terror looks instead like something far more sinister: the systematic elimination of a people.
But rather than condemning the treatment of Muslims — when the Uighurs so desperately need powerful people to speak up on their behalf — Muslim-majority countries like Saudi Arabia, leading the Gulf states, have appeared to defend China, suggesting it has ‘the right to carry out anti-terrorism and de-extremization work for its national security’. Turkey, which is currently aspiring to replace Saudi as the leader of the Muslim world, is similarly largely silent on Uighur oppression. As for Pakistan, it suggests Uighur camps are a ‘non-issue’.
I’m old enough to remember the post-9/11 debate about whether Islamists hated the United States and other Western countries for their freedoms and democratic values, or whether it was blowback from their foreign policies.
The French believe Muhammad is a target for satire as much as Jesus Christ or any other religious leader, no more, no less. If that results in boycotts from the Islamic world, while China’s concentration camps are excused and even justified, score one for the “hate us for our freedoms” camp.
Kevin Williamson’s writing is not to everyone’s tastes, to put it mildly. But unlike several of his National Review colleagues who spoke out against Trump in 2016 but happily donned MAGA hats in 2020, he still can’t stand the guy:
…the Trump administration has succeeded most where Trump has the least to do with it. The nat-pops may turn up their noses at “Conservative Inc.” but that is who has delivered such benefits as we have received from the Trump administration. All Peter Navarro and the rest of those crackpots has done is bankrupt a lot of farmers and drive up the expenses of beer brewers and manufacturers.
Trump has long taken an energetic personal interest in two issues: trade and immigration. You may have noticed that there is no big, beautiful wall being paid for by Mexico under construction along the southern border. No serious person ever expected that there would be, of course, but when his party controlled both houses of Congress, Trump never even attempted to put together a serious border-security plan. He didn’t even start trying to do something on immigration until Republicans had lost control of Congress, which put him into the position of trying to wheedle his way toward some symbolic victory (and even that has been blocked by the courts) or to put his vaunted skill as a “negotiator” to work and move a reform through a divided Congress. While Trump has railed against Mexico, there are more illegal immigrants from Central America and Asia in the United States today than there were ten years ago. That is a problem that isn’t going to get fixed without Congress. Where’s the Great Negotiator? In reality, Trump’s talent for negotiation is mostly fiction. Sure, you can blame it on Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for being small-minded partisans — or blame Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy for being swampy — but a negotiator who can work only with those already inclined to give him what he wants is no negotiator at all. He’s just a guy who once played a negotiator on TV.
Similarly, Trump’s trade war with China (and much of the rest of the world) has been an unqualified failure — even by the president’s own favored metric: The trade deficit for goods hit an all-time high on Trump’s watch, and the overall (goods and services) trade deficit is higher now than it was at any point during the Obama administration. The Chinese have weathered it just fine, and the Europeans are putting together new measures to protect themselves from what they regard as predatory interference from the United States.
Which brings me to the practical case against Trump: He stinks at his job.
Williamson doesn’t mention it - surprisingly, because his uncompromising opposition to abortion is what got him fired from The Atlantic before he even got started there - but federal funding for Planned Parenthood has gone up since Trump took office. It’s almost like owning teh libs and making them cry is a higher priority than actually carrying out conservative policies.
Thanks to the addictive Steve Hoffman music forums, today I learned that The Osmonds basically recorded a Led Zeppelin song in 1972.
The more music I hear from the seventies, the more I find myself wondering if that decade was really so bad.
I like Williamson’s writing and subscribe to his newsletter. He brings up things that otherwise would not cross my path, or that one would not think of exploring. He stays factual and makes his case well. His points make actual sense, which cannot always be taken for granted these days! :)
I think it’s always unwise to dismiss someone just because their personal views differ from one’s own. The point of reading is to find out what’s happening in other people’s minds, get interesting and thought-provoking input, and generally develop oneself by learning from others. If we only read those authors who reflect what we already know or believe, it misses the point. Williamson is worthwhile for anyone interested in a different, well-presented point of view.
Ironically, despite being born in 1970, I have very little awareness of 70s music. My parents listened to a mix of classical composers, out-of-the-way ethnic (such as a goatskin bagpipe from some tiny, remote village in Albania...), Greek, Russian, Chinese, etc., Harry Belafonte, the Irish Rovers, Jimi Hendrix, Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, numerous Beatles records, and many others. My dad’s vinyl collection still spans about an eight or nine foot shelf. When I have time, I like to go exploring (you can find Rufus Guinchard on iTunes, for example! :) Right now I’m trying to figure out how to download music online on a PC, since that’s still relatively new to me and my late nights are usually spent working, rather than enjoying my interests. On the other hand, being swamped with work is definitely a good thing right now after the long covid hiatus...and given that I have plans for the future.