ISLAM IN AMERICA

INTOLERANCE
by Lawrence Wright
SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

hen a dozen cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammed appeared in the conservative Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, in September, 2005, there was only a muted outcry from the small Danish Muslim community, and little reaction in the rest of the Muslim world. Six months later, however, riots broke out and Danish embassies were burned; more than a hundred people died. Assassination threats were made, and continue to this day.
Last year, when plans were announced for Cordoba House, an Islamic community center to be built two blocks north of Ground Zero, few opposed them. The project was designed to promote moderate Islam and provide a bridge to other faiths. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Sufi cleric leading the effort, told the Times, in December, “We want to push back against the extremists.” In August, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously against granting historic protection to the building at 45-47 Park Place, thereby clearing the way for the construction of Park51, as the center is now known. A month later, it is the focus of a bitter quarrel about the place of Islam in our society.
The lessons of the Danish cartoon controversy serve as an ominous template for the current debate. One reason for the initial lack of reaction to the cartoons was that they were, essentially, innocuous. There is a prohibition on depictions of the Prophet in Islam, but that taboo has ebbed and flowed over time, and only two of the twelve published cartoons could really be construed as offensive in themselves: one portrayed the Prophet as a barbarian with a drawn sword, which played into a racial stereotype; the other showed him wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb. Newspapers in several Muslim countries published the cartoons to demonstrate that they were tasteless, rather than vicious. The cartoons, in other words, did not cause the trouble.
So what happened? A group of radical imams in Denmark, led by Ahmed Abu Laban, an associate of Gama’a al-Islamiyya, an Egyptian terrorist organization, decided to use the cartoons to inflate their own importance. They showed the cartoons to various Muslim leaders in other countries, and included three illustrations that had not appeared in the Danish papers. One was a photograph of a man supposedly wearing a prayer cap and a pig mask, and imitating the Prophet. (He turned out to be a contestant in a French hog-calling competition). Another depicted a dog mounting a Muslim in prayer. The third was a drawing of the Prophet as a maddened pedophile gripping helpless children like dolls in either hand. The imams later claimed that these illustrations had been e-mailed to them as threats—although they never produced any proof that they hadn’t made the drawings themselves—and so were fair representations of European anti-Muslim sentiment. The leaders saw them and were inflamed. The Sunni scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi demanded a Day of Rage. So far, we have had five years of rage.
In the dispute over Park51, the role of the radical imams has been taken by bloggers and right-wing commentators. In this parable, Pamela Geller, who writes a blog called Atlas Shrugs and runs a group called Stop Islamization of America, plays the part of Ahmed Abu Laban. Geller has already contributed to the phony claim that President Obama is a Muslim (which twenty per cent of the American public now believe is true), by promoting a theory that he is the bastard son of Malcolm X. Because of Park51’s location, Geller compares the community center (or the “9/11 Monster Mosque,” as she terms it) to Al Aqsa, the ancient mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—a flash point for Jewish extremists in Israel.

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Geller framed the argument for the New York Post, which added the false information that Park51 was going to open on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Deliberate misrepresentations of Imam Abdul Rauf as a supporter of terror further distorted the story, as it moved on to the Fox News commentariat and from there to political figures, such as Newt Gingrich, who compared Abdul Rauf and his supporters to Nazis desecrating the Holocaust Memorial Museum by their presence. These strident falsehoods have undoubtedly influenced the two-thirds of Americans who now oppose Park51. The cynicism of this rhetorical journey can be traced in the remarks of Laura Ingraham, who interviewed Daisy Khan, Abdul Rauf’s wife and partner in the project, in December. “I can’t find many people who really have a problem with it,” Ingraham told Khan then. “I like what you’re trying to do.” Ingraham has since been brought into line. “I say the terrorists have won with the way this has gone down,” she said last month, on “Good Morning America.” “Six hundred feet from where thousands of our fellow-Americans were incinerated in the name of political Islam, and we’re supposed to be considered intolerant if we’re not cheering this?”
Culture wars are currently being waged against Muslim Americans across the country. In Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Muslims have been worshipping for thirty years, a construction vehicle was burned at the site of a new Islamic center. Pat Robertson, the fundamentalist Christian leader, warned his followers on the “700 Club” that, if the center brings “thousands and thousands” of Muslims into the area, “the next thing you know, they’re going to be taking over the city council. They’re going to have an ordinance that calls for public prayer five times a day.” As in the Park51 controversy, fearmongering and slander serve as the basis of an argument that cannot rely on facts to make its case.
The most worrisome development in the evolution of Al Qaeda’s influence since 9/11 is the growth of pockets of Islamist radicalism in Western populations. Until recently, America had been largely immune to the extremism that has placed some European nations inperil. America’s Muslim community is more ethnically diverse than that of any other major religion in the country. Its members hold more college and graduate degrees than the national average. They also have a higher employment rate and more jobs in the professional sector. (Compare that with England and France, where education and employment rates among Muslims fall below the national averages.) These factors have allowed American Muslims and non-Muslims to live together with a degree of harmony that any other Western nation would envy.
The best ally in the struggle against violent Islamism is moderate Islam. The unfounded attacks on the backers of Park51 and others, along with such sideshows as a pastor calling for the burning of Korans, give substance to the Al Qaeda argument that the U.S. is waging a war against Islam, rather than against the terrorists’ misshapen effigy of that religion. Those stirring the pot in this debate are casting a spell that is far more dangerous than they may imagine. ♦


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当我在谈愤青时我在谈什么

五毛最新励志语录：成就大事业，拒当小愤青。刚看到我还以为是呼吁大家别去浪费时间反日反美呢，所以说五毛和我对愤青的定义是相反的。五毛谈起愤青这个词心里想的估计就是我这一号人，而我谈起愤青心里想的却是五毛，当然是比较冲动是魔鬼的五毛。聪明的五毛是不大愤的，他们的座右铭是江CORE的闷声发大财，愤青们too simple, sometimes naive. 这真是个神奇的词，你中有我，我中有你，再一次显示了中国人民智慧的博大精深。

其实看透中国也没那么难，主要是这烂摊子早已千疮百孔了。可就是有那么多人觉得世界一片光明，看到了一些阴暗，就吓得赶快把头往沙子里一埋就开始自我催眠：我要励志，他的成功可以复制。脑都残了还总想着成功，有病吧？拆那工地上都热火朝天成这样了，他还觉得是个案，不见棺材不掉泪，只要那推土机还没有开到他的家门口，他是不会从新中国狂想曲里面醒来的。

可能是中国人民想成功都想疯了，拒当小愤青都能跟成就大事业联系起来。话说中国对成功啦事业啦的定义也很简单，不是当大官，就是赚大钱，而且一般当了大官也隐含了赚大钱的意思。虽然自己当蚁族喝地沟油想回家火车票都买不着，但看到领导和煤老板们都纷纷过上了和国际超级富豪接轨的日子，心里还是有中国人由衷的自豪感。只要坚持每天出门带三个表，总有一天自己也能过上人上人的好日子。你以为整天想着发财外加看两本专门为脑残量身定做的破书就能家财万贯，做梦呢吧？不过中国人民确实找到了一条行之有效的成功之路，现在每年考公务员的时候估计都万人空巷，超过高考成为中国第一大考试指日可待。

五毛整天忙着给不明真相群众做价值观输出，我除了亲朋好友，跟其他人就不浪费时间了。新中国几代人十几亿脑残，开导的过来吗？再说了，对话也得讲对话基础，志愿五毛们连基本的法律民主自由观念都没有，思维还停留在冷兵器时代呢，满口日人民报混球时报调调，对大喇嘛李登辉布什一干人等恨之入骨，还指望别人给你从ABC开始做义务教育，别逗了。五毛他们可是有收入的，不然怎么叫五毛呢！而且清华北大的骨干五毛们的钱途是不可限量的。

我的理想没有五毛这么远大，做个快乐的正常地球人就行了，不想使唤别人，也不想被别人使唤，更不想被人开除我的球籍。我的口号是，走走寻常路，拒当小脑残。

胡萝卜来淫大了

其实本来其实这事儿也轮不到我写。俺山高皇帝远，只能看新闻联播精选跟粉丝的照片录像解解馋，不像那帮身临其境的奴才能有谢主龙恩的福分。所以写的过于天马行空还请各位多多海涵。当然，某些人浑身G点并且“擅长被得罪”，那就免了。

早在我进入这所大学的那天，我的美女师姐就跟我聊过江CORE曾经到访的趣事。那天的食堂饭菜是那么的丰盛，价格却又是如此的亲民，直接让许多善良的人民群众出现了“我们已经跑步进入了共产主义”的幻觉。于是我看了看学校大门口“实事求是”的石头，又看了看食堂门口严厉处罚罢餐同学们的通知，觉得这是一个神奇的地方。

其实某大也挺悲哀的，由于中国特色的厚此薄彼和贫富差距，作为一个穷逼时常要看着隔壁两个学校流口水。最大的卖点就是它的communism背景,号称第二党校，据说校友会上还曾挂出过“欢迎未来的国家领导人”的牛逼哄哄的横幅，搞的大伙儿都特HIGH。所以我师姐评价这个新校长纪宝成很有手腕，把江core哄过来转了一圈，给学校搞了一大笔钱，从此走上了带三个表建世界一流大学的不归路。

转眼我快要毕业了，某大这一套“主子奴才是您创办的您可不能不管奴才啊奴才一定为您肝脑涂地”的战略也玩的越发娴熟了，主子也发现这个奴才还是管用滴，有希望培养成主子生死存亡关头的文化打手。于是双方一拍即合，这一次临幸的换成了影帝。窃以为这真是一对绝配，某大光荣的演艺传统再次发挥的淋漓尽致，正所谓棋逢对手惺惺相惜。后来北大学生会那帮人技艺不精，被影帝轻易识破了“我知道你们都是安排好的”，更彰显了我校学生的深厚功力。这是后话，按下不表。

其实影帝来的那天我还是有些踟蹰的，也有想去观赏一番的冲动。可惜我天生太懒，没有粉丝围堵偶像的执着，只好作罢。当然我这境界跟浙大那位蛋定帝还是有差距的，在影帝和欢呼的革命群众眼皮底下还能够旁若无人的酣睡，这鸭梨已经超出了一般人能够承受的极限。但是可恨的是隔壁的王洋平时也是以懒猪形象示人，也不知这货哪根筋出了毛病，就刚好那天早起下去打水，享受到了在宿舍楼下和影帝握手的待遇。这可真是货真价实的偶遇，不像这次和胡萝卜的偶遇是安排好的。（不过大家都纷纷表示，不愧是人大的同学们，演技也都不错啊。虽然都是安排好的，但演出了偶遇的惊喜。）于是我们都很开心的去捏他的胖手，他也很高兴的宣称自己一个星期不洗手了。后来。。。后来影帝就去北大了，然后PKU的同学们又演砸了。。。孔庆东老师记下了当时的情景：5月4日，温家宝总理亲临北大，我的学生陈灏庐有幸跟温总理握手并交谈，随后许多同学都抢着来握陈的手，沾点福气……过不多时，灏庐接到电话，母亲在医院里溘然去世。

废话了那么久，发现净是美好的回忆了，还是继续说正事吧。首先是背景介绍：北京某高校原定九月十日开学，因当天国家领导人到校，最近该校临时通知开学改为九月七日，数千学生不仅蒙受改退票损失，有的更是买不到票。连门口卖水果什么的小摊贩前几天都接到了通知，让7号起就不许出摊了。不许联想啊。

于是我就有幸看到了某高校话剧团精彩的表演。路边挤满了一大撮不明真相莫名兴奋的围观群众，那排场都直逼十里长街送总理了。有什么好看的，你们难道都是饿坏了的兔子吗？据说还有近千学生被围在体育馆里等待接见，图书馆300米内不许看见人，教学楼里，学生不允许出现在门口。胡萝卜走到哪里，哪里就会有即兴的演出。新闻学院的家伙们整了一出访谈节目，是不是要让胡萝卜上去面对面一下介绍一番艺术人生的感想？财金的更牛叉，直接拉一堆老中青教授排排坐，热烈讨论鬼才知道他们在谈什么的一些问题，然后胡萝卜推门进去，哎呀，我来看望大家了，这么巧都在呀，一条龙一站式服务，刚好省了我一间一间的敲门。妥妥儿的。大家玩的都可高兴了。

推上有人说，能上新闻联播的群众演员演技都很高超，人民大学就差没让胡总书记推开寝室门偶遇三个学生打麻将三缺一了。这样的赞誉真是怎么样都不过分。

我小时候看历史书，荒淫无度的皇帝们经常会让手下的太监宫女们扮成百姓，然后搞一条街玩制服诱惑，好像颐和园就有那么一条街来着。现在人人奋勇当先做群众演员，不怕苦不怕累还觉得是无限的荣光，不愧是新社会，啧啧。

其他人也没有闲着。在广场上，某大校长拿着扩音器给大家喊话，这是一个伟大的时刻！咱们有胡萝卜吃了！于是广场上的兔子们山呼海啸。我使劲揉了揉眼睛，告诉自己没有穿越到那个年代。我们要建世界一流大学，一流大学好啊就是好。是真的，我听说好大学都是那么喊出来的。最后还有大亮点，一个粗犷的声音对该校长勇敢的表白了，宝宝我爱你！这也是真的，一个人无耻的底线也是可以被不断的突破的。

胡萝卜终究是要走的。比起某大的群众演员来，他的表演实在是太苍白了，他的台词也实在是太不给力了，一个机器人都能完成他的活，或者有时候我真的怀疑他是需要充电的。看看他，再看看the king who is fucking,我明白了什么是50步笑100步。我猜想，某大如此兴奋，皇帝临幸的感觉，大抵就是如此吧。

P.S. 胡萝卜来的当天是某人的忌日，某大校长说得很对，这确实是伟大的一天。

joke

My Wife Told Me

Everybody on earth dies and goes to heaven. God comes and says "I want the men to make two lines. One line for the men that dominated their women on earth and the other line for the men that were whipped by their women. Also, I want all the women to go with St Peter."

Said and done, and there are two lines. The line of the men that were whipped was 100 miles long, and the line of men that dominated women, there was only one man.

God got mad and said. "You men should be ashamed of yourselves. I created you in my image and you were all whipped by your mates. Look at the only one of my sons that stood up and made me proud. Learn from him! Tell them, my son, how did you manage to be the only one on that line?"

The man said, "I don't know, my wife told me to stand here."

Big People Words

A group of kindergartners were trying to become accustomed to the first grade. The biggest hurdle they faced was that the teacher insisted on no baby talk.

"You need to use 'big people' words," she'd always remind them.

She asked Chris what he had done over the weekend. "I went to visit my Nana."

"No, you went to visit your GRANDMOTHER. Use big people words!"

She then asked Mitchell what he had done. "I took a ride on a choo-choo."

She said, "No, you took a ride on a TRAIN. Use big people words."

She then asked Bobby what he had done. "I read a book," he replied.

"That's WONDERFUL!" the teacher said. "What book did you read?"

Bobby thought about it, then puffed out his little chest with great pride and said, "Winnie the Shit."

The Farting Lesson

Little Johnny kept disrupting his third grade class by regularly letting loud farts.

His teacher kept him after school. When she insisted on knowing why he exhibited such offensive behavior, Little Johnny said, "I do it because I can do it better than anybody, and I'm very proud of that fact."

The teacher says, "If I show you I can do it better than you, will you stop?"

Little Johnny agreed and the teacher placed two pieces of paper on the floor with identical piles of chalk dust on each one. Johnny dropped his pants, squatted down, farted and blew all but a tiny little speck of dust off the paper.

The teacher dropped her panties, lifted her skirt, squatted down and farted, but when she was done there was not a trace of chalk dust left on the paper. Johnny was astonished and asked if he could see her do it again. She was willing and as she repeated the process, Johnny peeked up underneath her skirt.

"No wonder you won!" he exclaimed indignantly, "You've got a Double-Barrel!"