Saturday, March 18, 2006
Irshad Manji Speaks, Who's Listening?
Irshad Manji is one of one billion Muslims in this world. She is not Palestinian, nor is she Palestinian-American or Palestinian-Canadian, nor Palestinian anything. And she's not even a practising Muslim. She neither reads nor writes Arabic. Yet that doesn't stop Ms. Manji, one in a billion, from proferring advice for "young [educated]Muslims" in the New York Times' op-ed pages today.
The question is who among young educated Muslims, or any Muslims for that matter would give this schill who justifies Israeli apartheid/land theft the time of day? Manji is featured prominantly on the "Righteous Muslims and Arabs Webpage"; those featured are lauded as "righteous Muslims and Arabs who risk life and limb defending liberty, freedom, Israel, the US and Western Democracy,"
thus rendering her credibility among both literate and semi-literates in the Arab and Muslim world nil.
And what makes THE WALL the subject of this self-proclaimed Muslim refuse-nik's op-ed entitled "How I Learned to Love the Wall," a Muslim issue, anyway? It affects both Palestinian Christians and Muslims for whom Manji has no credibility. The only audience lapping up her words that put a happy face on a monstrous wall are the gullible non-Muslim and non-Arab readers of the New York Times. Manji is not stupid; she obviously knows how to make a quick buck, and certainly doesn't need to be disspelled of the illusion that anyone in the Muslim world is listening to her.
What Manji offers is nothing more than slick Zionist Hasbara befitting of a righteous Muslim 'defending Israel.' While seemingly concerned about the hardship the Wall causes, she manages to get in the word 'suicide' or some derivation of 'bomber' seven times, and gets in a plug for Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East: "Israel is open enough to tolerate lawsuits by civil society groups who despise every mile of the barrier...."
She conveniently leaves out that the International Court of Justice in the Hague has ruled that the Wall is illegal, nor does she mention that the wall cuts deep into the West Bank, annexing some forty-seven percent of the West Bank, relegating Palestinians to twelve percent of historic Palestine.
Manji, instead, focuses on "Qassam missiles [that] can kill two or three people at a time," says the wall was "birthed" by Shaheeds, lauds the IOF soldiers for letting her take pictures, puts down "Western" activists, writes that the Wall is for the Arabs' own good: "innocent Arab lives have been spared along with Jewish lives."
She fails to mention that ninety-five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers before any Israeli children were killed in suicide bombings.
In a grand finale, the savior of the all the young dudes of the Muslim and Arab world admonishes do not "walk away from these questions as my interlocutor in Abu Dis did. If we follow in his footsteps, we are only conspiring against ourselves."
You see Manji tells us at the beginning of her admonitory op-ed that an old man in Abu Dis said to her "We are all one."
Naturally, the old man wasn't spared the variant of the 'how do you feel about suicide bombing' question that is de rigeur upon any first encounter with a Palestinian.
"How do you explain that to a suicide bomber?" our righteous Muslim queried.
"The man smiled. 'No understand,' he replied. 'No English. Thank you. Goodbye.'"
One could only hope Manji had exhibited the same grace: 'No Arabic. No Palestinian. No Muslim. No story for NYT. Goodbye.'
The question is who among young educated Muslims, or any Muslims for that matter would give this schill who justifies Israeli apartheid/land theft the time of day? Manji is featured prominantly on the "Righteous Muslims and Arabs Webpage"; those featured are lauded as "righteous Muslims and Arabs who risk life and limb defending liberty, freedom, Israel, the US and Western Democracy,"
thus rendering her credibility among both literate and semi-literates in the Arab and Muslim world nil.
And what makes THE WALL the subject of this self-proclaimed Muslim refuse-nik's op-ed entitled "How I Learned to Love the Wall," a Muslim issue, anyway? It affects both Palestinian Christians and Muslims for whom Manji has no credibility. The only audience lapping up her words that put a happy face on a monstrous wall are the gullible non-Muslim and non-Arab readers of the New York Times. Manji is not stupid; she obviously knows how to make a quick buck, and certainly doesn't need to be disspelled of the illusion that anyone in the Muslim world is listening to her.
What Manji offers is nothing more than slick Zionist Hasbara befitting of a righteous Muslim 'defending Israel.' While seemingly concerned about the hardship the Wall causes, she manages to get in the word 'suicide' or some derivation of 'bomber' seven times, and gets in a plug for Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East: "Israel is open enough to tolerate lawsuits by civil society groups who despise every mile of the barrier...."
She conveniently leaves out that the International Court of Justice in the Hague has ruled that the Wall is illegal, nor does she mention that the wall cuts deep into the West Bank, annexing some forty-seven percent of the West Bank, relegating Palestinians to twelve percent of historic Palestine.
Manji, instead, focuses on "Qassam missiles [that] can kill two or three people at a time," says the wall was "birthed" by Shaheeds, lauds the IOF soldiers for letting her take pictures, puts down "Western" activists, writes that the Wall is for the Arabs' own good: "innocent Arab lives have been spared along with Jewish lives."
She fails to mention that ninety-five Palestinian children were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers before any Israeli children were killed in suicide bombings.
In a grand finale, the savior of the all the young dudes of the Muslim and Arab world admonishes do not "walk away from these questions as my interlocutor in Abu Dis did. If we follow in his footsteps, we are only conspiring against ourselves."
You see Manji tells us at the beginning of her admonitory op-ed that an old man in Abu Dis said to her "We are all one."
Naturally, the old man wasn't spared the variant of the 'how do you feel about suicide bombing' question that is de rigeur upon any first encounter with a Palestinian.
"How do you explain that to a suicide bomber?" our righteous Muslim queried.
"The man smiled. 'No understand,' he replied. 'No English. Thank you. Goodbye.'"
One could only hope Manji had exhibited the same grace: 'No Arabic. No Palestinian. No Muslim. No story for NYT. Goodbye.'
