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A jihadi and a Bushie walk into a bar…

Posted in Q & A on Jun 10, 2008

The other day, somebody emailed an interesting question:

“Irshad, read this story about a jihadist lady who lives in Europe.  She blogs about the need to destroy the West.  She acts within the law, which makes her non-violent, and she seems willing to accept public disapproval for what she believes in.

Why don’t you select her as an agent of moral courage? By your own definition, moral courage is about speaking truth to power for the sake of a greater good.” - Amin

Gold star for the effort, Amin.  Love that you’re thinking about these things, bro. But the blogger you’re wondering about, Malika El-Aroud, is no agent of moral courage. Here’s why:

1) What “truth” is the sister speaking? Fact is, more Muslims have been tortured, raped, imprisoned, maimed and murdered at the hands of other Muslims than by any foreign imperial power.

That’s not to deny Western colonization.  It’s to point out that colonization comes in many skin shades, including Islamist colonization of other Muslims.

For example, in Sudan, Black Muslims are starved, raped, enslaved and slaughtered by Arab militias, all with the consent of an “Islamic” government. Where’s Malika’s fury against that genocide? Do Muslim lives count only when snuffed out by non-Muslims?

2) Moral courage requires you not only to speak truth, but to speak it within your own community.  That’s far more intimidating than pointing fingers at the nameless, faceless enemies of the outside.

When you indict outsiders, you can wear your indictment as a badge of honor.  “Look!” Malika effectively tells her jihadi readers.  “Look what I’m doing to stand up for Us against Them.  I know where I belong.”

Far riskier, emotionally and otherwise, to call out injustice within your tribe.  At that point, the security blanket of instant belonging disappears. Sister Malika ain’t going there.

For Malika to have moral courage, she needs to tell her anti-American, anti-Israel brethren the truth about what Muslims are doing to one another.  Beyond the genocide in Darfur, there’s this:

* in Pakistan, Sunnis target Shiites every day;

* in northern Israel, Katuysha rockets launched by Hezbollah have ripped through the homes of Arab Muslims; and

* in Egypt, the riot police of President Hosni Mubarak routinely club, rape, torture, and murder Muslim democracy activists. Read more from a young Egyptian.

3) What “greater good” is Malika striving to achieve? The defense of Muslims?  Please.  If this woman cared about fellow believers, she would take the $1,100 monthly welfare check that she gets from the Belgian government and donate part of it to Iraqi war widows.

Watch this news story about the 2 million widows of Iraq.  It points out that they receive a maximum of $41/month from their government.

Maybe Malika should learn from Scott McClennan, George W. Bush’s former spin doctor.  He’s the author of What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with Washington.

On June 1, McClellan told NBC’s Tim Russert that he plans to donate a portion of his book royalties to families of the Iraq war victims — the very people hurt by McClellan’s lies when he was selling the war.

How does this situation compare to Malika’s? Many of Iraq’s women have been made widows by Muslim insurgents, the people whom Malika is encouraging in her blog posts.

You know you’re pathetic when a Bushie has more integrity than you.

But let’s not end on such a negative note.  Many Muslims in Europe qualify as agents of moral courage.  Here’s a video about Hind Fraihi, a young Muslim woman who shares Belgian citizenship with Malika.

Unlike Malika, Hind gives hope to both Islam and the West.