McCarthy on Pastor Jones

Dean E. writes:

Andrew McCarthy says it’s a waste of time dealing with a nincompoop like Pastor Jones, and he says he’s cheered by the universal condemnation heaped on this “moron” for “this useless provocation,” this “gratuitously offensive gesture.” McCarthy then goes on to explain what presidents and popes and all right thinking citizens should actually be up in arms about: the hypocrisy of the left, and the hypocrisy of Moslems.

McCarthy has been pointing out their hypocrisy for quite some time now, and has done good work opposing Islam. But did that good work ever bring him to the attention of popes and presidents? Did his work ever threaten to expose, in one great dramatic demonstration, the lies being told that Islam is a religion of peace? Did his laborious writings ever produce a general panic that Islam would erupt in an orgy of bloodshed and thereby warn America, in a clear, succinct, and undeniable way, of the mortal danger of Islam, and the lethal folly of encouraging Moslems to live in large numbers among us? McCarthy says, “let’s hope someone is able to talk some sense into the Rev. Jones.” Why is that? Isn’t it because if Rev. Jones burns the Koran the Moslems will rise up in an orgy of violence against Americans? Isn’t that exactly why everyone is terrified of one American burning one little Koran? We’re all frightened to death of the Moslems because of what we know they’ll do to us? And if we all know we’re in mortal danger from Islam, so much in danger that if any one nincompoop of us were to burn even one little page of the Koran we’ll be slaughtered by the Religion of Peace, wouldn’t it be best not just politely to point out the snake in the grass, but also to prod the damn thing with a stick to force it out into the open? Is Rev. Jones’s Koran burning “gratuitous” if it ultimately serves to save America from Islamic terror and bloodshed? Does keeping our heads in the sand and crucifying Rev. Jones make us safer, or does it simply hand our enemies another victory?

That the liberal left does not want their Islamic snake allies forced out into the open is understandable. But that our conservative leaders should join the liberal lynch mob protecting the snake is incomprehensible, boneheaded, moronic, gratuitous, suicidal folly.

Dean E. continues:

There was that equivalence McCarthy drew between the Koran burning—a piece of propaganda arguably designed to help us, and the prisoner-abuse photos—a piece of leftist propaganda clearly designed to harm us. According to McCarthy, they both “serve no purpose other than to pull the hair-trigger of Muslim rage.” Except one was calculated to demoralize us and strengthen Islam, while the other was designed to strengthen us and defang Islam. Other than that they’re exactly alike. But I understand how the tidal wave of universal liberal condemnation was too much for any mainstream American to stand against. I can do it anonymously on a small blog, but I don’t have the courage to face the ruination in store for anyone doing as Rev. Jones did. It is terrifying.

LA replies:

By coincidence, I read that McCarthy column yesterday, and I was planning to do a critique of it—going through it making bracketed comments. It seems to me that McCarthy is increasingly all-over-the-place, though at the same time he remains, as I’ve often said, the best of the mainstream commentators on Islam in that he gets very close to saying—without ever quite saying—that Islam itself is the problem.

James P. writes:

Dean E. wrote:

“That the liberal left does not want their Islamic snake allies forced out into the open is understandable.”

What has been even more useful about this episode is that Jones has forced the liberal left snakes out into the open. The President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and four-star generals lining up with Islam to oppose a single insignificant American citizen. Imagine that! If that doesn’t open people’s eyes, what will? Jones has caused the political elite to state clearly and unambiguously that they support foreign enemies rather than the American people. And everyone in the country, if not the world, knows it. Has McCarthy ever done anything of comparable significance?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 10, 2010 03:05 PM | Send