Thursday, March 04, 2010

Why I Support Stephen Schwartz

The cornerstone of America is intellectual freedom and respect for our traditions and culture. Stephen Schwartz as a man of literature and letters understands and embodies those traditions.

The future is largely unknown and assuming linearity of trends has proven not reliable. There were those that predicted the Soviets would win the Cold War. There were those who claimed we would be in an ice age and contrived theories about global warming. Who can forget the population madness.

Schwartz is a member of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. He understands and celebrates American values and tradition. Schwartz would likely agree that there are many problems in the Islamic community. However, many of our perceptions are tied to the disastrous alliance of so called Islamic activists and the mindless far left. One does not have to look to hard to find decent Muslims who want to earn a living and respect property rights.

In general the aim of far left types is power for its own sake. They are more fundamentalist and intolerant in their views than the folks at the 700 Club and exponentially more bigoted. The aim of the far left is divide and conquer.

Most of us have legitimate concerns about Islam. However, the reality is Shariah law
is not going to usurp family and business law. Our Constitutional values are in danger from Marxist activists who seek to impose their values upon us. The questions
of what to do with families that violate certain laws are difficult to answer. Part of our culture celebrates the family and polygamy is not compatible with our culture.
Legally, second wives are not married under the law. The State should not pay a nickel to support such families. However, the children of such families are United States Citizens. Jailing people for polygamy creates more wards of the state. This is a problem that is more common than people presume and the parties are not all Mormons.

I certainly do not want to be like France. However, the Burkha does create some problems. At work this was resolved by having a female verify the identity of the woman who arrived for the interview. I offered to have a female do the interview and
this was deemed not necessary. This is a reasonable accommodation as is offering Halal meals or letting people bring their own food. What is not reasonable is allowing governmental ID to be compromised. Sorry, but if you want a driver's license or passport you need to follow the rules. Law Enforcement officers should be considered similar to doctors and showing photo ID is part of the norms in almost all societies.

If Muslims do not want to adopt children this is okay. They are not forbidding the rest of us from doing so. As far as divorce law our current system is dreadful and only lawyers like it. That being said our greedy lawyers will fight tooth and nail to ensure they profit from your misery. 90% of the misery is caused by fighting over money. Both parties should be able to initiate a divorce. The system will improve when it stops rewarding people for making up allegations and goes straight to division of property without blame.

Schwartz has questioned this disastrous alliance of Muslims to the far left. The far left feeds Muslims a diet of populist antisemitism, hate your country and cry victim.
Of course the rest of us see this and correctly react negatively to this. The question is why do Muslims riot in France and not Dearborn. The folks in Dearborn are
expected to work. There is not an army of paternalistic socialists tossing out subsistence welfare checks and being the pied pipers of societal destruction. It is no accident that employed people do not tend to riot.

Finally, there is terrorism and this is a legitimate issue. Making excuses like saying Timothy McVeigh yada yada yada is condescending. A look at who started mindless terrorism as a branding strategy shows this starts as a far left phenomenon.
Osama and his crew are merely aping publicity whores from red brigades all over the world. Would anyone have heard of Bill Ayers had he stayed in daddies country club?
Ultimately, none of these publicity stunts ever produced a benefit and caused server
retributions.

What makes Schwartz unique is that he does not dismiss many of our legitimate fears.
He does not mince words saying that terrorism is evil and ultimately hurts Islam. What makes him unique is that he grasps Americanism at its core of individual rights
and liberties and tries to bring his community withing this concept. He also appreciates literature, art and music.

There was a point in time when all Jews were on the left. This is becoming less and less true with every passing year. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many young Republicans who were Jewish in NYC. Of course having encountered hyperbolic Marxist
antisemitic bigotry in Universities only increased this trend. Even my nephew has moved somewhat to the right.

We do not know what the future holds. However, my guess is sooner or later Muslims will grasp that the alliance with the far left has not benefited them. Looking for a place in America and celebrating your culture has always provided better results than forming alliances with the enemies of society.

12 comments:

Always On Watch said...

I have a lot of respect for Stephen Schwartz.

Of course, he vilified by many Moslems as "not a true Muslim."

StephenSchwartz said...

Greetings -- thanks very much for your support.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz
Center for Islamic Pluralism
Washington, DC
www.islamicpluralism.org

StephenSchwartz said...

In reality I have not been attacked by very many Muslims as not a true Muslim. This is for two reasons. The first is that Muslims are forbidden to question the profession of faith, because only God can judge one's sincerity. Numerous Muslims who oppose CIP have told me they do not doubt my Islam but think I have bad opinions or am on the wrong path.

The second reason is that radical Muslims prefer to ignore CIP rather than denounce us because to do the latter draws attention to us and exposes Muslims to our arguments. This was first noticeable when I published my book THE TWO FACES OF ISLAM. Aside from some extremely nasty Saudi apologists, the worst of which was an Arab Christian named Jihad al-Khazen who writes for Saudi media, most Muslims either voice cautious approval, because so many of them hate Wahhabis, or stayed silent. In the places where we have real support, including among British anti-radical Muslims and in the Balkans, few would dare claim I am not a Muslim.

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz

Always On Watch said...

Mr. Schwartz,
Thanks for the clarification.

Numerous Muslims who oppose CIP have told me they do not doubt my Islam but think I have bad opinions or am on the wrong path.

Do they try to persuade you of "the right path"? If so, how is that path defined?

beakerkin said...

Mr. Schwartz

My concern is not so much about Islam as about America and the challenges presented by Islam to us.

We assume that the future flows in a straight line. This is the type of thinking that lead to talk of population bombs, global cooling and then warming. Presuming that Muslims raised in Europe will not be impacted by European culture misses the point.

This may sound condescending to some but gainfully employed people
really don't riot. If there are riots in Europe by Muslims it is largely due to the inability of stagnant economies to create jobs and some discrimination. Radicalism is the stock and trade of people with no lives and nothing to lose.

We have also forgotten that immigration is not a right it is a privilege bestowed by the American
people. If you come to the United States you are expected to find a job, obey the laws and respect others. If you can't do this than you really need to go somewhere else.

There are some who think that it is their right to practice polygamy in the United States. This
is not a right and if you want to live this way kindly return home.
The face of polygamy in the USA is not limited to folks in Utah.

I understand the right to argue for changes of laws. However, if one comes here and accepts residence or citizenship there are
certain laws that need to be respected. What is annoying is the sense of entitlement that the people who violate the laws of polygamy feel.

As for terrorism what we are seeing is Muslim radicals aping Bill Ayers. The discussion over what the Red Army types accomplished or their legacy has largely been framed by their sympathizers. The Red Army types were treasonous criminals whose actions hurt the causes they supported.

We as a society have never really sat down and looked at the basic truth that political terrorism does
not work. Sorry to enlighten all the Weathermen but their actions caused more support for the opposition.

The notion that terrorism causes a reaction and prolongs the conflict
just hasn't been discussed.

beakerkin said...

What is there to oppose in the CIP?
Wanting to respect others? Grasping that appreciation of literature and art are part of society? That it is easier to practice your faith peacefully and you will be respected more if you respect others.

Those who oppose the CIP have a vested interest in prolonging pointless conflicts that hurt America and Muslims as well. Are
Muslims really served by the antics of people smacking planes into office buildings or shooting kids?

Does the man up the block want his kids to have a good job and the same thing you want for your own kids? If you are not named Lynne Stewart does he want you to wear a Burkha.

Radicals need to destroy the present in order to create utopias that do not exist. The fact that they hurt the people they claim to speak for is predictable.

Ducky's here said...

The challenge Islam presents to America?

Stop faking it, Beak. All you care about is Israel and the West Bank claim jumpers. Your allegiance is with the Israeli Apartheid Regime and your concern is that Islam won't roll over and play dead.

beakerkin said...

Ducky

Thank you for demonstration classic
Marxist Anti-Semitism. You have proven that in a discussion of domestic family law commies are not capable of separating traditional antisemitic themes.

The truth is that there would have been peace 40 years ago. Jews and Arabs would have resolved these issues if the Communist left did not keep stirring the pot for their own populist adgendas.

At a certain point not maybe in my lifetime one of two things will
happen.

1) Arabs will deduce that they have been used and abused by commies. The hate the west and bomb throwing doesn't produce jobs
and in an age of limited EU bribery
responsible leadership emerges.

2) Israel falls not due to Arabs, but due to its refusal to deal with Communists in its ranks.

Daffy said...

Beakerkin, read the following exchange between Spencer and Suleyman:

http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=10797

Ducky, read the following recent article by Alan Dershowitz:

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/03/05/let%E2%80%99s-have-a-real-apartheid-education-week-2/

Ducky's here said...

Yeah, Alan Dershowitz. There's an objective source.

It remains, even when he was over at that puke GayEagle's site (he's making cracks about the Jewish banking lobby now, Beak) Beak didn't much care who Gay Eagle slandered so long as the comments about Jews met with Beaks approval.

Beak doesn't mind bigots so long as they fully support the Israeli Apartheid Regime's efforts to hold Gazans in a prison.

beakerkin said...

Duncy

You don't mind bigots and murderers
as long as commies are doing the killing.

Gazans in prison??? Lets see stop terrorism and build an economy and they will be fine. The folks at Hamas like to toss commies out of high rise windows. Could you send some of your comwads from the ISM up to the above the fifth floor.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Beak-

I was over there today, and guess what Bad Eagle had to say about Jews in his latest post? This is going to piss you off, I suspect, so take a deep breath and wait for it. Ready? Here goes, and I paraphrase here-

"Sometimes I think the media is nothing but an in-house dialogue between conservative Jews and liberal Jews."

I swear he actually said that.