Where the Islam critics may be of help

I should qualify my criticisms of the Islam critics by adding what a friend pointed out, that though they do not have practical solutions to the Islam problem, their drumbeat on the horrors of radical Islam may at least have had the positive effect of moving conservatives away from knee-jerk liberalism on the Muslim immigration question. For example, the commentators and editorialists who lambasted my hero Rep. Virgil Goode last week for his statement about the need to stop the increase of Muslims in the United States all seemed to be liberal, at least based on Robert Spencer’s quotations of their statements at FrontPage Magazine. Meanwhile, the mainstream conservative publications, which like the liberal organs would normally be scandalized by any negative characterization of an entire immigrant group and by any straight talk about stopping its migration hither, to my knowledge did not join in the attack on Goode. However, based on a Google search, none of the conservatives seems to have come to Goode’s defense either. Ironically, even Spencer, as I’ve pointed out, while appearing to defend Goode’s brave position, did not actually do so but only defended Spencer’s own, much more moderate position, without letting the reader know that this was what he was doing. So perhaps the Islam critics are achieving some good, or Goode, but, if so, it is only by indirect means and is marginal to the main question. It’s as though the Islam critics don’t want to deal with the immigration issue themselves, but are hoping that others will do it for them. Thus Robert Spencer, who does not himself address Muslim immigration in any serious way, regularly publishes at Jihad Watch his firebrand associate Hugh Fitzgerald, who certainly does.

(If anyone has seen any conservative editorials on Goode pro or con, please send them to me.)

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Dimitri K. writes:

That is a great point. Our conservatives are afraid of losing their accreditation if they approach the forbidden topic of religious discrimination. They are waiting for someone else to do it. This resembles the behavior of penguins.

When a bunch of penguins is going to get into the sea, they are afraid of doing it because of seals. They all wait until the bravest one jumps into water. If he is not eaten by a seal, all the bunch start jumping, too.

LA replies:

Dimitri’s point assumes that the penguins are eager to jump into the water, they are just waiting to make sure that they won’t get eaten, before they jump. But I don’t think this is the case with the Islam critics. I think what the Islam critics want is not someone else to call for immigration restrictions first in order to show them that it’s safe for them to do it, too. I think what they want is someone else to do it, period.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 01, 2007 08:20 PM | Send