Remember the Enlighenment? Well, technically neither do I--I wasn't born yet--but I liked to think I lived in a time deeply rooted in its values of truth, logic and rational thought.
W-R-O-N-G! Emotion rules the day folks.
We are now probably a decade or two into the Age of Relativism, where "Plight makes right!"
If you are a victim, or can convince others that you are (remember, objective truth has no meaning in this new world), then you can get away with whatever crimes suit your needs or purposes. All that matters is the immediate amelioration of your PAIN (even if it means that others will suffer and, ironically, become victims of the "objective" variety).
For the past five years Masood has remained unyielding in his condemnation of Islamist extremism, so I was incredulous when I learned that he was recently arrested by federal immigration agents. Could this be the same man I knew?Local Muslim groups say no. They charge that the imam has been unfairly targeted because of his religion, and that he'll be absolved. They're likely right. After six days in jail, Masood was released on bail Nov. 21, after a hearing attended by hundreds of supporters, including many Jews and Christians familiar with his work.
But as I looked into the case, I realized that, even if they'd been wrong, I'm not so sure I'd mind. According to initial reports from immigration officials, Masood's arrest was connected to a visa scheme that provided "religious worker" visas for immigrants, mostly Pakistanis, who came here and then worked secular jobs. So this is, ironically, a story about Muslims who are guilty of being insufficiently religious.
In "The Best Defense," Alan Dershowitz writes of the revolving door of rabbis his synagogue saw in the late 1930s. One would be sent over from Europe, the congregants would declare they were unsatisfied with his services, let him go along his way, and send for another. This went on for nearly a decade. "Everybody in the neighborhood," he writes, "understood this charade for what it was: a small-scale rescue operation designed to save European rabbis who were endangered by Nazism."
Pakistan today is not Nazi Germany. It is, however, an impoverished military dictatorship where less than half the population is literate and sectarian violence is commonplace. Islamist movements remain a continual attraction to young men with few prospects, particularly on the northwest border with Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden is still believed to be hiding and tribal law reigns supreme. As the Bush administration attempts to fight terrorism by occupying Iraq and propping up dictators , respected community leaders here go to jail on suspicion of moving young men out of a violent cesspool and into leafy Massachusetts suburbs -- where they've found full-time work and a supportive community. Which vision will succeed? The one that wages war on an entire generation, or the one that seeks an alternative for young men growing up under a cloud of poverty and extremism?
Masood was able to disprove any connection to visa fraud, but he remains under investigation for minor violations of immigration rules in the early 1990s; if found guilty, he and his entire family risk deportation to Pakistan.Americans routinely decry the lack of "moderate" Muslim voices. It's time we ask ourselves where they've gone, and why.
Yup, that's right. Let's beat out another rif in the "It's all America's Fault" refrain! This time? We're to blame for Muslim extremism! Yes! AND, what's more, the Holocaust (the same one so many Pakistani clerics DENY HAPPENED) is analagous to the rise of extremism in Pakistan!
Yes folks, those poor Pakistani men have just as little choice in their beliefs and behavior as those poor Jews who were marched into the gas chambers (you know, the ones that didn't really exist....). Hmmm....Let's see, become militant murderer with intolerant apocalyptic worldview, or go to America illegally? There are no other options of course. I am but a cog in the machine...
Hey, at least that constitutes a choice (if it bore any resemblance to reality that is). Jews faced certain DEATH if they remained in Germany. Pakistani men? Not so much. Last time I checked, they aren't "required" to become suicide bombers if they stay. Sure, there aren't many opportunities, but how about coming here legally? Is there some urgency I don't know about?
Either way, let me say fraud is "wrong," I just think it's a stretch to equate what was going on in WWII to what's going on in Boston, 2006. I'm pretty sure the US gov't knew perfectly well what was going on back then, and since none of these rabbis was suspected of being a Nazi SPY, I bet they just looked the other way and focused on bigger problems. Pakistan is a nation chock full of people who want to kill each and every one of us (not just our Jewish citizens), and their people may be fleeing poverty, but not certain persecution and death.
I find it pretty disgusting for this writer to be using the Holocaust and Alan Dershowitz to make her case. Disgusting, and yet predictable. Whenever possible, link those nasty Jooooooos to your victimization and you have a foolproof formula for eliciting a massive colletive "AAAWWWWWWWW, you POOOOOOOOR THING!"
And isn't that the weapon of choice for those working hard to put the last nail in the coffin of our civilization anyway?
Posted by insomnomaniac at December 11, 2006 11:43 AM | TrackBack