Do Islamists Want “American Freedom?”

[Valin]

Contentions:

Michael Rubin

10/16/12

 

I missed this very smart article when it first came out, but it’s well worth reading. Apropos of Alana Goodman’s comments yesterday and using Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an example, Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey’s most talented columnists, examines how so many Islamists talk about their desire to embrace “American freedom” when it suits them but ignore such freedoms when they contradict Islamist precepts. A few excerpts:

 

(Snip)

Did we? Really? Why, then, was Mr. Erdogan “saddened by President Barack Obama’s remarks” that a ban on the unworthy film mocking Prophet Mohammed would violate free speech? Simple. Because the prime minister and his chorus of willing devotees adore American freedoms when American freedoms do not ban the headscarf, but hate American freedoms when American freedoms do not ban an anti-Islamic blasphemous video either.

(Snip)

 

Alas, while those facing the imposition of Islamist mores by intolerant rulers now believe that the West’s “useful idiots” have fallen by the wayside and “only a few enthusiasts” ignore the hypocrisy inherent in Islamist complaints, they are wrong: Saudi, Qatari, and Emirati donations to universities like Georgetown, Columbia, and Harvard ensure that new generations of useful idiots accept the “childish and selfish” as smart and sophisticated.