Canardistan
From Silvers
Back to The Danish Cartoon Fiasco
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Canardistan?
"When the ducks of Canardistan get hold of a bad idea, they just cannot let it go."
Canardistan is a magical place. Facts never muddy the waters of duck pond at Canardistan. While the duck pond is surrounded by a range of impassible and hideous black and white mountains, the ducks do not mind because they cannot see beyond their short bills. Whenver a duck in Canardistan quacks it is wholly original and perfect. No duck has ever quacked (ever!) that way before. The ducks are extremely noisy, and always seem to be quacking over everyone else's quacks. But none of the other ducks mind because all the ducks in Canardistan are hard of hearing.
This is why statements do not work, ducks quack a lot, do not hear, nor see very well.
Ducks who've got full time residency in Canardistan
- Joining Irshad Manji and Thomas Friedman in the duck pond are the editorialists at the New York Times who wrote,
"It is time for moderate Muslims to abandon the illusion that they can placate the Islamists by straddling the fence. It is they who must explain to their people that the cartoons were an isolated incident, and not the face of hostile crusaders. It is they who must make it clear to their people that blowing up mosques, beheading hostages and strapping on belts of explosives are far, far greater evils than a few drawings in a distant paper. They must do so because their future is at stake — not Denmark's."
Yes it is time for "moderate" Muslims to get off that fence! Thank you! It kind of hurt sitting up there all this time. I don't think any of us thought to be self-critical before this helpful call to action. Danke!
- Irshad Manji thinks that no Muslim but her has ever, ever been self-critical of Islam or thought about gender before. She insults the front-line activists and thinkers who have been part of the Muslim process of self-criticism since the time of the Prophet. In particular, I would like to point out her insult to the generations of Muslim women and their Muslim allies who have carried on the fight for gender equality in Islam.
- Thomas Friedman thinks that no Muslim ever, ever has written a fatwa against terrorism. Even though I know personally that he has been sent and forwarded resources of such fatwas, he ignores them.
Efforts to get Messages through to Canardistan
Extreme Islamic Home Makeover
Perhaps this video made by some college students would make it through the mountain passes of Canardistan. Extreme Islamic Home Makeover is a little long for a short college prank movie, but still very funny and demonstrates that moderate Muslim critique is in the most unlikely places.
I'm at a loss
The following statement put out by Canadian Muslims demonstrates 1. They read the editorial piece quoted above since they adopt its language, and 2. They try to tell the world what Muslims have been doing all this time to resist extreme trends within Islam. The people who have signed here are long-time activists who have been fighting this good fight for years. They admit all the problems, and they pick up the NYT editors' call to end the silence. I am bothered by two things here, by repeating the language they 1. make the editors think that they are directly responding to the editorial, and this will encourage more paternalistic nudging, and 2. by adopting that language, they unintentionally make it seem as if they are voices in the wilderness, repeating the editors' call to their fellow Muslims.
I have to say I have no idea how this sort of thing should be done. Those of us who speak, must continue to speak and facilitate others who need it. But there must be a way to do it that does not play into the paternalism of the white man's burden. How? My first feeling is that we should be clear in statements such as these that we have been doing this for a long time and we are saddened that these people continue not to notice. We should not play into their language. We should stand our ground, but it should continue to be our ground.
These signatories are front line activists, couragous women and men who should be praised and honored for their years of hard work for their fellow Muslims.
A plea from 11 Canadian Muslim academics and activists: Don't be silenced by extremists
Authored by: Jehad Aliweiwi, Former Executive Director, Canadian Arab Federation Taj Hashmi, Sessional professor, Simon Fraser University Amir Hassanpour, Associate professor, University of Toronto Tarek Fatah, Host, The Muslim Chronicle, CTS-TV Tareq Y. Ismael, Professor, University of Calgary Jacqueline S. Ismael, Professor, University of Calgary El-Farouk Khaki, Secretary General, Muslim Canadian Congress Shahrzad Mojab, Associate professor, University of Toronto Haideh Moghissi, Professor, York University Munir Pervaiz, Secretary, Pakistan-Canadian Writers Forum Saeed Rahnema, Professor, York University
A curtain of fear has descended on the intelligentsia of the West, including Canada. The fear of being misunderstood as Islamophobic has sealed their lips, dried their pens and locked their keyboards.
With hundreds dead around the world in the aftermath of the now infamous Danish cartoons, Canada's writers, politicians and media have imposed a frightening censorship on themselves, refusing to speak their minds, thus ensuring that the only voices being heard are that of the Muslim extremists and the racist right.
Emboldened by the free rein they have received, Canada's Muslim extremists and their supporters flexed their muscles at Queen's Park last week, with speakers promising to drown the Danish people "in their own blood".
A protestor carried the sign "Kurt Westgaard - countdown to justice has begun ... it's just a matter of time."
Elsewhere, in Pakistan, a Muslim woman was pictured carrying a sign, "God Bless Hitler," and a Muslim cleric placed a $1 million reward for the murder of a Danish cartoonist. Embassies were burned, churches ruined and hundreds died in different Muslim countries.
Undoubtedly, Muslims were angered by the insulting cartoons. But the overblown reaction was partly due to their pent-up frustrations, and partly the result of orchestrated mischief by certain Islamist leaders.
Islamic societies, run by variances of autocratic regimes, are in turmoil. Ravaged by rampant corruption, a widening gap between rich and poor, and suppression of dissent, the people in these societies have lost hope in their own futures.
The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the unending occupation of the Palestinian territories and the quagmire of the Kashmiri dispute, have led many Muslims and non-religious peoples of Islamic origin, to view the West as the source of their countries' problems.
The growing popularity of the extremists in Muslim societies, the electoral success of the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, Shia radicals in Iraq, and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, rather than signifying the growing religiosity of the peoples of the Middle East, reflect political despair in the region.
In the West, people of Muslim origin, be they religious or secular, are facing growing racism, Islamophobia and discrimination reflected in immigration policies and anti-terrorist legislation.
The cartoon crisis was the straw that broke the camel's back.
The Muslim extremists seized the opportunity and added fuel to fire. The calculated role played by the two Danish Muslim extremists, backed by Islamic fundamentalist regimes, is a case in point. They not only aggravated an already inflammatory situation, but added their own infuriating images, never published in the West, as they took their case to clerics in the Middle East.
Both, Imam Abu Laban and Ahmad Akkari have escaped the attention and scrutiny their acts deserved. These two men, who now sit in the comfort of their homes in Denmark, should be held accountable for their criminal actions.
For too long the media have created an image that portrays communities from the Muslim world as a monolith entity, best represented by extremists.
The media have created a false dichotomy that pits these Muslim extremists against the West. The fact is that in all Muslim countries, progressive citizens are trying to break loose from the tyranny of the autocrats and clerics and wish to develop a civil society where citizenship is based not on inherited race or religion, but the equality of all, irrespective of faith, race, sexuality or gender.
In Tehran today, the city's bus drivers are on strike. Thousands have been arrested; entire families have disappeared. Yet, this has not made a blip in the western media. If the same bus drivers were burning books or embassies, this would certainly be on the evening news. This is an appalling example that only outrageous, violent expressions of faith by Muslim extremists are taken as the aspirations of people from Islamic societies.
It is time for Canadians to stand up for the hard-won democratic values that the Muslim extremists oppose.
By rejecting the agenda of the extremists, Canada's intelligentsia would be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Muslims and secular individuals from the region who reject both Islamophobia and Islamism. Islamism is not the new revolutionary movement against global forces of oppression, as a section of the left in this country erroneously perceives.
Today, the religious right and autocracies in the so-called Islamic world are united in their call for passing legislation to make any discussion on religion a criminal offence. This, at a time when many writers in Jordan, Iran, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan are rotting in jails, facing charges of apostasy and blasphemy.
We call on Canadian politicians and intellectuals to stand up for freedom of expression. Our democratic values, including free speech, should not be compromised under the garb of fighting hate. To fight Islamophobia and racism, we do not need to sacrifice free speech and debate.
(The Toronto Star, 2/28/06)
