We know Reza Aslan is a stickler for misrepresenting the truth. I have discussed him once before here. His obsession with omitting key details of Islamist violence has made him a proper unicorn since his takeover of Western media. He also found comfort in the hearts of [pseudo] liberals obsessed with their own western colonial and imperial guilt who also have no problem limiting human rights for people [in the east and west] just so it doesn’t “offend” religious fanatics.
On January 8, 2015, he was on CNN (yet again) with Don Lemon, discussing the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
ASLAN:"They make fun of Muslims for a very specific reason to sort of show, or maybe demonstrate, that look if you maybe want to be in this country, if you want to be in France, then you have to deal with the French values, you have to rid yourself of your own values, ideals, norms and you have to take on French values."
In the case of Charlie Hebdo—the massacre took place because the “French value” was to uphold free speech [over religious appeasement]. But that isn’t a “Muslim value”—am I hearing this right? I’ll let my head fall on the table for a minute here…
With all the different races and cultures that create France’s multicultural landscape, only those practicing Islam are being specially targeted by the French society? So the Kouachi brothers simply reacted by killing cartoonists and police officers?
Even though both men were born and raised in France—Aslan believes they were being forced to “take on French values”.Ironically, he is admitting that being religious means people can never truly integrate into secular societies—that religion will be at a constant war with the provision of human rights above the law of religion itself.
Jihadists had heavily indoctrinated the Kouachi brothers with Islamic tribalism [on recruitment at a young age] which resulted in mental lacerations that kept them further apart from civil society and convinced them to contribute to the tyranny of those wanting an Islamic totalitarianism. And that’s what Islamists do—they take advantage of young children and preach anti-western and anti-secular sentiments to the point where they feel victimized whenever their Islamic values aren’t placed above human rights—then Aslan proceeds to reiterate these clearly erroneous placement of blame on the west as well. Somehow, the west is “accountable” when they refuse to sacrifice fundamental human rights for the bigotry of religious fanaticism.
ASLAN:“And there have been a number of laws passed not only in France, with regard to prohibitions on Islamic dress, but throughout Europe about whether you can build mosques, about whether you can build minarets, etcetera. And this tension, this polarization I'm afraid has led to a lot of acts of violence. Not just the tragedy yesterday...”
Surely, Aslan’s eyeballs will bulge momentarily after hearing one of the gunmen literally admitting to being influenced by the scriptures to die as a martyr for Islam [back in a 2005 documentary on Muslim extremism] but he would probably brush that off as well and make another mental note to deflect and deter criticism of Islam and shorten it to an “identity crisis” and “clash of civilizations” to place a collective blame [on those being abused by Islam]. Where did he get his Ph.D. from—Fox News?
Infidels must have been asking for it with their enticing secular nonsense—so of course it makes sense to shout “Allahu Akbar” while slaughtering them. But it still has nothing to do with Islam!
One of the brothers told a female worker at Charlie Hebdo that she is being left alive because she is a woman, but she must convert to Islam and wear a hijab. See—women are not compelled to wear the hijab at all!
ASLAN:“And particularly in France, an aggressively secularizing country that has never really tolerated multiculturalism or the kind of cultural religious diversity that is the hallmark of the United States, you can see how that would create the kinds of tensions that would bubble up occasionally into acts of violence on both sides. We have seen a lot of anti-Muslim violence in Europe as well as Muslim violence against Europeans.”
He claims a multi-racial “Muslim” group is having hostility with a multi-racial “European” group and yet he only blames one group for the atrocities.This is what I call ‘mind-numbing idiocy’—and as if that weren’t enough, his hyperbole narrative implies severe racism against the “Muslims”.
Why is the controversial caricature being referred to as “racist”? It sounds rather unsophisticated to me. Who exactly is Charlie Hebdo being racist towards—blacks—whites—browns—olives? I think my hair just turned white.
Islam is represented by Asians, Africans, Americans, Australians and Europeans—so who exactly is being racially discriminated by the satire…? I’m genuinely curious.
I’m sure Aslan has heard of Anjem Choudary. If we are to scan through his social media pages—he incites hatred and violence against non-Muslims and calls for an Islamic colonialism in the west [in accordance with the Quran and Sharia Law].
The way free speech works is Choudary can spout as much hate speech against non-Muslims as he wants and still he hasn’t been violently victimized by ‘anti-Muslim bigots’ in the west,whereas anybody else who satirizes or criticizes Islam under the same banner of free speech—they get shot and killed or threatened by Islamists who are protecting the “honour” of Islam exactly as any citizens living in countries governed by the law of Sharia are terrorized for blasphemy.
Aslan’s narrative is so dangerous that it suggests Islamists violence and threats are part of multiculturalism and should be respected. He is defaming multiculturalism itself with his nonsensical rationale—which creates more room for the rednecks that chant “Go back home!” not just to immigrants but also to people of colour who were born and raised in the west.
Masking every wrong on European colonization and [western] foreign and national policy continues to keep even our fellow women, children and men in the east shackled in mass terror day and night under the grip of their countrymen’s law concentrated with religious insanity.
Do the people of the east not deserve a better standard of human rights from their own government and citizens? How is the “west” preventing the east from granting human rights to its own people? Is Dick Cheney responsible for their jurisprudence—is he the one enforcing the draconian blasphemy laws? Just don’t blame“religion” if you want to be Aslan’s friend though—because this lion only roars in the west.
Conforming to secularism did not happen overnight in the west—it took centuries of bloodshed to even accept the idea—and it’s still not perfect, but it has a lot more human rights to offer than the east. While slavery is abolished in the west—it’s still alive and well in much of the Middle East where it’s openly practiced. Aside from ISIS’s brutality, ask why the people from India, Philippines, China, Sri Lanka,much of Africa, etc. who arrive to the Middle East on a worker visa, hoping for employment,are unable to return home to their loved ones.
While Islamists indoctrinate and force children to gear up in suicide vests and blow themselves up—we have Aslan [and others like him] claiming these unprecedented scale of terror around the world committed by Muslim extremists is a mere response to racial and cultural oppression by the west and doesn’t involve Islam in any way.
Recently, Amnesty International reported Boko Haram had killed approximately 2,000 people—mainly children, women and the elderly. What was the “west’s” involvement in this Islamist frenzy to create an “Islamic State” in West Africa;who erased the accountability of these eastern tyrants? Just ignore the meaning of “Boko Haram” if you’re feeling too cute for critical thinking.You can click here to view details and satellite image of Boko Haram’s attack on Baga, Nigeria.
I will discuss Raif Badawi repeatedly until reality sinks in. Why is he rotting in a Saudi prison? He was charged with “insulting Islam” after promoting free speech. He will receive 50 lashes every week—his spine will bleed and fester for 19 more weeks if he does survive the remaining 950 lashes. He also faces 10 years and approximately a quarter of a million dollars in fine. His initial sentencing was death for apostasy before it was “reduced”. Alas, hypocrisy enables people to condemn Saudi Arabia while making apologies for the Kouachi brothers.
Liberal/non-Muslims are already on a trial in a kangaroo court created in the delusional minds of Islamists who also processed the voir dire on the values of Sharia but apologists claim Islamists are the victims. So let me ask these apologists a few questions…
1) Why do you not march for minorities [Kurds, Yazidis, Balochs, non-Muslims, etc.] facing apartheid in Islamic nations?
2) Why do you silence discussion on the double standards, hypocrisy and contradiction Muslims often display in both east and west?
3) Why are you so eager to discredit and neglect the plight of those victimized by Islamists—victims who are as diverse in race and nationality as the Islamists themselves?
4) What can a verdict be[in a trial built on fallacies] when the doctrine of Islam is incompatible with liberalism?
Just take a proper look at Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Qatar,Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Algeria, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, Morocco, Sudan, Brunei, Malaysia, Oman, etc. and if these countries aren’t evident of human rights strife directly resulting from the consequences of embracing Islamic values—just please stop pretending to be indignant about injustice because you’re satirizing yourselves without the help of Charlie Hebdo.
Islamists stormed the magazine’s office due to their material which was enabled by freedom of speech but Aslan frills it up as a result of France “forcing” Muslim people to renounce their “norms”. His accusatory tone aimed at western people is the only thing generalizing all Muslims into one insidious category—so I denounce him for implicating the Muslim “norm” as being disconnected with liberal values.
The Kouachi brothers are not martyrs of multicultural and racial struggle—they are anti-liberal and anti-human-rights Islamists who assassinated 12 innocent people to honour their Islamic pride as commanded by the Sharia Law.
I’d like to welcome Aslan and his cheerleaders to the 21st century where multi-generational bigotry meets common sense and their redundant, preposterous apologia gets dismissed as quickly as religion dismisses human rights—and that is precisely why Islamists fear liberalism—because it is slowly ending the epoch of rule based on delusions and its momentum is creeping into the Islamic nations perilously governed by such madness.
Growing up must be so hard for some people—especially when they are told they can’t hijack the world for their own foolish sentiments.
Aki Muthali is a freelance writer, who's a feminist. Born and raised in Sri Lanka, she currently lives in Canada. She’s also an illustrator and a painter. Follow her on Twitter
