For centuries leading upto the Holocaust, the dominant prejudice in Europe was anti-Semitism. European Jews were the subject of all kinds of suspicion, from blood libels to the suggestion that Judaism allows its followers to relinquish their promises and contracts. One common Jewish ritual prayer was often cited as evidence that Jews could break their promises and hence where inherently untrustworthy.
Today's bigots reproduce that prejudice against the faith which bares the closest resemblance to Judaism. Some Muslim sources, especially those in the shia tradition, speak of taqiyya, a special teaching which allows a Muslim to hide his or her faith in times of severe persecution.
Anti-shia polemicists from sunni circles sometimes use the idea of taqiyya as a tool to discredit shi'i Islam and to make the outlandishly silly claim that shia Muslims cannot be trusted and have some secret agenda to take control over Muslim institutions and countries.
Yet the bigotry of sunni supremacists is nothing compared to the extreme bigotry and prejudice of the nazis that congregate around Tim Blair's blog hosted by the Daily Telecra ... woops ... Telegraph. Blair happily entertains and allows onto his blog the rants of those whose prejudices he shares, or at least which he considers within the ballpark of acceptable discourse.
Hence, the recent incident involving Sheik Hilaly has given Blair's buddies an excuse to unleash the kind of Nazi-era bigotry Blair's blog is famous for. Here is a sample:
What does the Koran say about an imam lying to manipulate infidels?Who are "his outfit"? It's obvious. Then Daniel Lewis, ever a defender of even the worst Israeli atrocities, happily repeats the Nazi-era slur against a group he loves to hate.
Well, it’s all ok...taqqiya means not a single word his outfit says can be trusted.
TT (Reply)
Thu 19 Mar 09 (01:56pm)
Daniel Lewis replied to Daniel LewisOnce again, Blair's buddies take the Tele back to the 1930's. Just replace "Jew" with "Muslim" and you can almost hear the thugs marching down Kippax Street.
Thu 19 Mar 09 (05:52pm)
... Keysar Trad should be along shortly to offer the usual lost in translation defence.
Please sir, may I have some more hyperlinks?
Words © 2009 Irfan Yusuf
Bookmark this on Delicious
