DIANA WEST: IRONY AND THE AL-QAEDA LIST ****
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/2433/Irony-and-the-Al-Qaeda-List.aspx
The Atlantic Wire notes the appearance of the above image in Inspire magazine, which may be described as Al Qaeda’s English-language jihad glossy, a naseous-making and surreal propaganda product of global jihad.
Not surprisingly, the AQ magazine’s Hollywood-style artwork is nauseous-making and surreal, too. Here we see Al Qaeda, adopting the cartoonish lexicon of George Bush, the Old West (Wanted, Dead or Alive), the Obama administration and Communist/labor/Left organizing (“Yes We Can”) to remind its followers and, probably more important, the rest of us that it is targeting a list of law-abiding, peaceable people whose *crime* in the eyes of Islam is *blasphemy.*
Below is an analysis of the AtlanticWire’s Daschiell Bennett’s account, which I can assume took me longer to write than the hasty-seeming account. (As did, no doubt, this lengthy post on the New York Times’ hatchet job on Lars Hedegaard.) I find the attitudes Bennett conveys so casually, however, of particular interest.
(Hat tip Andrew Bostom; links in the AtlanticWire original.)
Daschiell Bennett
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The lede:
Al Qaeda has published the latest issue of its jihadist recruitment magazine Inspire, which includes a handy, up-to-date list of all the people they hate the most.
I know “irony” is the preferred, smart approach, particularly to difficult subjects, but it’s time to consider that the relentlessly oblique treatment is evidence of the moral exhaustion that characterizes the mainstream response to expansionist Islam.
Published under the heading, “Wanted: Dead Or Alivefor Crimes Against Islam,” the magazine includes the nine men and two people they’ve targeted as their biggest enemies.
(He means “two women” — Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Molly Norris. I don’t get the “people” thing — some new convention?)
In case you’re not clear on what they want, exactly, the list also includes an image of one of the wanted, Koran-hating pastor Terry Jones, being shot in the head. Beneath that is the caption, “Yes We Can: A Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away.”
Not subtle.
More punchline than comment, this catchphrase of “irony” (“not subtle”) preserves a certain distance from the import and implications of the foul image of assassination Daschiell Bennett describes — incidentally, a far cry from the vivid writing of his eponymous namesake. At the same time, however, Bennett uses only the crudest language to identify Jones: the “wanted, Koran-hating pastor.” Not only does he choose to allow “wanted” to pass without scare quotes — this isn’t an FBI bulletin, after all, but a disgusting jihad terror tactic — he even conveys the Islamic essence of Jones’ supposed crime. One wonders if he would have described a lightning-rod-opponent of similar religious and imperial supremacism as a “Mein-Kampf-hater”?
Bennett continues:
More than half the names on the list (a couple of which are misspelled) are related to various cartoon controversies that date back to 2005, when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishedcartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed.
Here we go again — the dhimmi style-book convention on “the Prophet Mohammed” which, of course, does not apply to “the Prophet Moses” or “the Savior Jesus Christ.”
It also includes two famous Dutch politicians who have been openly critical of Islam, the man who spread the notorious “Innocence of Islam” video, Jones, and of course, Salman Rushdie.
Note: Bennett’s “man who spread” link sources The American Muslim website, whose editor Sheila Musaji’s work frequently appears on the Muslim Brotherhood English-language website. But more important, what does he mean by writing that the man “spread” something “notorious” about Islam? The Koranic echoes are unmistakable, whether Bennett knows it, summoning lines from the Islamic book about spreading corruption through the land, spreading mischief, etc. — Islamic crimes of blasphemy and the like. In the modern idiom, such Islamic crimes now extend to posting a video clip on Youtube, something Bennett, likely unconsciously, has in some way validated
If you’re noticing a common theme, it’s that these are not people who have killed Muslims or even waged war on al Qaeda directly. No, the greatest crime imaginable is insulting the Prophet Mohammed, which most—if not all—of these people would gladly admit to being guilty of. Presidents Obama and Bush will have to wait their turn.
Here’s the full list, with background.
I don’t want to read more than this slim text will bear, but it is bears noting Bennett’s failure to modify “the greatest crime imagineable” with an “Islamic” disclaimer of sorts. Maybe his discretion came out of a moment’s hesitation over the use of “Islamic” vs. “Islamist” to describe the “crime.” Since the prohibition against “insulting” Mohammed is universally Islamic, maybe he decided to leave it blank. Mustn’t offend …. What is left, however, is a reading of the “greatest crime imaginable” as a declarative matter of consensus — as if it is the greatest crime imaginable.
I note this by way of preface to Bennett’s “background” descriptions which, quite shockingly, tend to underscore the specifically Islamic nature of the grievances against these varied standard-bearers of free speech.
Geert Wilders: Founder of the Dutch “Party for Freedom”; has been quoted as saying “I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam.”
He’s a hater.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Somali-born Dutch activist and politician; has written that “We are at war with Islam,” not just “radical Islam” and it must be defeated; married to British historian Niall Ferguson (though that’s probably not related).
She’s a war-monger.
Morris Sadek: Egyptian-American Coptic Christian; he spread the anti-Islam video”Innocence of Muslims” that sparked violent protests in several Muslim countries.
He spread corruption through the land.
Carsten Juste & Flemming Rose: Editor-in-chief and cultural editors at Jyllands-Posten when the paper chose to publish cartoons mocking Mohammed.
Serves them right for breaking Islamic law.
Kurt Westergaard: Cartoonist who contributed to the Jyllands-Posten controversy; his turban-as-bomb drawing became the most famous of the cartoons.
Say no more.
Lars Vilks: Dutch [sic] cartoonist who published his own Mohammed drawings more than a year after the Jyllands-Posten incident.
Couldn’t he see what would happen if he broke Islamic law, too?
Molly Norris: American cartoonist who proposed “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” as a protest against both censorship and the idea that images of Mohtammed should be forbidden.
Norris, identifiably Lefty, gets the most sympathetic description, which, of course, would serve to describe the basic aims of the rest of list.
Stephane Charbonnier: Editor of Charlie Hedbo, a French satirical magazine that has published several mocking images of Mohammed on its cover (and got its office firebombed as a result.)
Cause — publishing mocking images of Mo — and effect — firebombed office. No Islamic law, Islamic volition in between.
Terry Jones: Florida preacher who has burned Korans in protest of Islam.
Say no more.
Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses, etc.
Etc.
Without comment, without context, and in the end, even without irony, the AtlanticWire has just passed along Islam’s rationale for the AQ most wanted list.
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