Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Chapter One from East to West by Schwartz

Schwartz does an excellent job of entertaining his readers with the PreAmerican history of Spanish and Mexican California. We do not have the grand drama of the Texas Revolution. However the influences of the Texas and French revolutions reverberate in California.

Schwartz also points to the French debacle in Haiti as a motivating factor behind the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon's army in Haiti was routed by disease , nepotistic leadership and crafty foes. There was an excellent article in Military History Quarterly around two years ago.

We also get to visit local uprisings against Mexico. Argentian adventurers trying to lead a revolt against Spain. Schwartz also provives vivid portraits of literary figures who passed through California.

The best parts are ahead as the sections on Steinbeck and Sinclair start on page 269
and I am at page 73. We may disagree with Schwartz on Islam but his talent, intellect and flair for writting are clearly evident.

Some quick Stephen Schwartz facts

1 Schwartz's father was a far left Jew and his mother was a non practicing Catholic. He was never Jewish in any definition except by those of the far left who assume that any Jewish blood makes one a Jew. Richard Poe and Jamie Glazov are also pointed to by the far left as Jews but are in fact Christians. The great Richard Poe is also Hispanic but unlike Geraldo never gets any credit or recognition.

2 Schwartz does not bash Western Civ at anytime. He praises Western Civ and points to Islam's place on the perifery. We can debate Islam's role in a coherent rational manner. However Schwartz has never espoused the idiotic notion that Islam civilized the West or denigrated Shakespeare or Greco Roman advances.

3 Schwartz has unequivocally condemed terrorism. He has also been critical of the double games of Cair. He has also beaten Justin Raimondo to a pulp for his stupidity and mendenacity. Schwartz is clearly an American patriot as opposed to Anum who trashes America at every opportunity.

The question for each of us is what do we say to Patriotic Muslims like Schwartz. We can disagree with him on history and theology. However should he have the right to freedom of intellect to pursue his brand of Islam. My answer is that we should respect Schwartz as a first rate talented author and respect his patriotism. Schwartz has never advocated burning books or killing nonbelievers. If we are to be true to our Western notion of freedom we should respect his notion of a cosmopolitan Islam that respects other faiths and seeks to live as members of civilized society.


Mr Beamish in 08, Ducky to be banished to North Korea and 167 RIP

Coming Soon to a theatre near you Mr Beamish stars in the new and improved version of the new Algerian Classic "Man in the Iron Gasmask ". Maybe Mr Beamish will make a Movie Poster for the new venture.

6 comments:

Dan Zaremba said...

Beak,
You are being spammed!
Is this guy really a Muslim?

Always On Watch said...

Why is Schwartz so patriotic? Could it be that he is a secularized Muslim convert? Is he practicing his personally revised version of Islam and thereby doing a type of rationalizing?

I wonder how many Muslims there are like Stephen Schwartz?

Lots of questions on my part.

nanc said...

aow - i've been thinking about this post of beak's all day and i cannot buy into a moderate islam - it would be like admitting that jehovah's witnesses are christians. it doesn't wash. sure he's a great writer, but he's amiss in his take on islam. it's like people who take the feely good parts of the bible and build a religion on it.

for that matter, the persons who wrote the koran were brilliant writers - don't they have a billion plus followers?

otherwise a very good review of the first part of the book.

beakerkin said...

Felis , AOW and Nanc

Schwartz is a real Sufi Muslim with
a different set of views from our own. Needless to say I have had numerous fights with him on FPM and some of his views are odd and unsavory.

However he has supported the war in Iraq and Afghanistan , unlike many Muslims. He is a foe of CAIR and is highly critical of the Wahabi influence in this country.
Unlike the word games of CAIR he criticizes terror without equivocation.

Schwartz envisions a modern cosmopolitan type of Islam. He has called for the opening of Mecca to all faiths. However, I am not packing my bags to visit.

Schwartz has creamed Justin Raimondoon several ocasions leaving Raimondo sputtering for days. Raimondo considers Schwartz a high profile foe and spends more time trying to debunk his articles.

A person is known by their friends and enemies. Stephen Schwartz is a friend of David Horowitz, Ronald Radosh, Nina Shea and Rocco Dippo of the Autonomist. In fact Rocco has a fairly recent post about lunch with Schwartz in DC. We can safely asume Rocco is a patriot.

A person is also known by their enemies . He is the Ultimate foe of CAIR and Justin Raimondo. He has placed his life on the line and has recieved numerous threats.
He has a lengthy body of work that explains his positions that can be viewed at Tech Central Station and Front Page Magazine.

The bottom line is I do not always agree with Schwartz but I respect him as a writer and thinker. Schwartz's friends and enemies speak louder and more eloquently then I ever could.

Always On Watch said...

Anyone who criticizes CAIR is worth reading.

Dan Zaremba said...

Anyone who criticizes CAIR is worth reading
True.
But, even Sufi Muslims recognize The Quran as Allah's words.
Sufism has many different schools anyway.
Now, obviously he wasn't born into this religion.
This I find very difficult to comprehend.
I think the man is living his dream that you can "match" "unmatchable".