Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Prince And The FOX

Once there was a very wealthy Saudi prince who was worried about a FOX nipping at his heels and bringing attention to things better left hidden.

The prince thought about trying to fight the FOX, but being intelligent had an even better idea: he would feed the FOX and befriend him, thus insuring that the FOX would do his bidding when he wanted him to.

And that is pretty much the story of why FOX news decided to suddenly go after Geert Wilder as a 'fascist.'

The prince in the story, of course is Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who now owns over 7% of FOX's parent company, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Some of you may remember Prince Talal as the Saudi potentate who offered Rudy Giuliani $10 milion after 9/11, provided we recognized that the attack was 'Israel's fault.' Mayor Giuliani told him to take his blood money and shove it, but others have been much more accommodating.

Like Rupert Murdoch, the CEO and principal stockholder of News Corps, the parent company of FOX News, who has decided to make Abu Dhabi the headquarters of his global media operations in the Middle East and recently cut a deal to invest $70 million dollars in the Rotana Group, an enterprise controlled by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

The attack on Wilders by Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer, A.B. Stoddard, and Bill Kristol represents a major change in what we're seeing on FOX - and even more on what we're not seeing.

In the past, the member of the Dutch National Parliament appeared frequently as a guest on FOX News. Last February, for example, Bill O’Reilly welcomed Geert Wilders to America, condemning the UK for refusing him entrance to the country in the face of Islamist threats.

It's also much more common to see the likes of CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper on the air these days providing 'analysis', while experts with first hand expertise on Islamist terrorism like Walid Shobat, Robert Spencer,Steve Emerson and Brigitte Gabriel who used to appear all the time are now conspicuously absent. Dave Gaubatz and Paul Sperry, who in the past would have been sought after as FOX guests as the authors of the surprise best seller "Muslim Mafia" (a major expose of CAIR and the Ikhwan, Muslim Brotherhood), are nowhere to be seen.

As for the Geert Wilders flare up, it literally defies belief.

Beck, of course is a media buffoon who I'm not a particular fan of, so it's to be expected he would take the short sighted view. But I can only view Charles Krauthammer's veiws in the matter to be flawed and naive, something the good doctor is not exactly known for:

What he says is extreme, radical, and wrong. He basically is arguing that Islam is the same as Islamism. Islamism is an ideology of a small minority which holds that the essence of Islam is jihad, conquest, forcing people into accepting a certain very narrow interpretation [of Islam].

The untruth of that is obvious. If you look at the United States, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. are not Islamists. So, it's simply incorrect. Now, in Europe, there is probably a slightly larger minority but, nonetheless, the overwhelming majority are not.

But the other issue is free speech. He was speaking in London today. He had been unwelcome, not allowed in a year ago, but it was appealed, and he was [admitted].

And remember, Holland has a really … bad history here. Five years ago, Theo Van Gogh, a filmmaker, had made a film about Islam which was about the oppression of the women under Islam in certain countries — an Islamist in Holland caught him in the middle of the street in broad daylight, slit his throat and impaled a knife on his chest with a letter on the knife — imagine that scene — which threatened the life of a Dutch MP, who was of Somali origin, who had helped him on that script. She is now in the United States as kind of a seeker of asylum.

So this is place in which physical intimidation — it's almost impossible to speak openly about critiques of Islam.

I will give you one other example. The cartoons of Mohammed — Yale University [Press] has issued a book on it. There are no cartoons in the book, and you know why. It's not a matter of sensitivity. It's a matter of sheer fear about what could happen if it was published that way.

If Islamists are such a small minority, why do Geert Wilders, Ayaan Ali ( the other Dutch MP Dr. Krauthammer is talking about) and others need to be under 24-7 security?

How does one define 'Islamist', anyway? Is it limited to al-Qaeda, the Muslim brotherhood and their adherents, or does it extend to the millions who tacitly support and finance them? And what about th emillions of Muslims apparently willing to go with the flow and simply keep quiet about it? Do wahabi financed outlets like CAIR, the Holocaust denying Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Public Affairs Council come under the heading?

And how does one define a 'small minority'? Ten per cent? Twenty per cent? With 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, you do the math.

Has Dr. Krauthammer, a Jew, ever pondered on how large the part of the earth there is that he is simply unable to set foot in because someone could cheerfully cut his throat in the name of Allah and suffer no significant penalty?

Geert Wilders and others live with this reality, and have simply decided that this is an issue that bears discussion. And he's been willing to put his life on the line to do it.

As such, he's simply ahead of the curve, when you compare the percentage of Muslims in the Netherlands with the percentage here in America.

In view of the unfortunate tendency of many Muslims not to speak out and provide a viable alternative, so far the answer to whether Islam can co-exist as a sizeable part within a free society or not is trending a lot more towards Geert Wilder's take on things than not.

That's deeply saddening, but it's also simply the truth.








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7 comments:

B.Poster said...

Please understand I'm NOT necessariyly advocating this as a solution to the problem of Muslim/Islamic terrorism. In WWII the Greatest Generation interned Japanese living in the United States in prison for the duration fo the war.

The current enemy of Islamic terrorists and the nations who actively and passively support them pose a far greater threat to the United States than Imperial Japan ever did or likely ever could have. While the threat is greater than that posed by Imperial Japan, the problem is different. As such, the same solutions that worked when dealing with Imperial Japan might not necessarily work when dealing with Islamic terrorists or the nations who support them.

Given the differences between this enemy and the the Imperial Japanese, as well as the differences in the dometic and international political environments of today when compared with the situation in WWII, internment or deportation of Muslims is probably not going to viable, however, I do think an indefinite moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries and closely monitoring the mosques is a pretty good idea.

It makes little sense to invite a group of people to your house when somewhere between 1 percent to 10 percent and possibly a higher percentage of this group wishes to do you serious harm. Other countries work actively to defend themselves, their citizens, and their interests. The United States should not be expected to be any different in this regard.

Finally, a complete withdrawl of all military personnel and support personnel from Middle Eastern countries should begin immediately and it should be completed as soon as our transport vehicles can get them out. In addition, all foreign aid of any type to these countries should cease immediately. Having these troops there only provides excuses for the enemy to inflame the situation and the foreign aid only aids and abetts the enemy. It would seem to make no sense to continue these policies. In any event, we can't afford the foreign aid any way. Part of this will mean STAYING OUT OF ISRAEL's WAY as she deals with Islamic terrorist threats in her own neighborhood.

Herman Benschop said...

Geert Wilder is NOT a former member of the Dutch parlement, as stated in the post. He is the current leader of nine parlementarians as of this moment and his Freedom Party is expected to win an additional 20 seats in the June elections.

Freedom Fighter said...

Correction noted, Herman.

Anonymous said...

The sad reality here is that Charles Krauthammer is a good and proud Jew. But it seems that he along with all of Fox has lost its way and that with the Saudi fascist only owning what about 5-10% of the company. I watched Fox and Friends yesterday and all they talked about was how Jews have no right to build in Jerusalem and it was the reason there was no peace with the Palestinains. I guess even the land of Israel should be Judenrein like the rest of the Middle East and what will be the true future of Europe.I guess in some repsects Hitler won didn't he? Oh and BTW,the Fox intellects discussing these events were a weatherman, sportscaster and beauty queen, true intellects all. Thank heaven for the internet and people with some honor and backbone. it's time to dump Fox like we dumped all the other corrupt news channels.

B.Poster said...

If an Israeli owned this much of an American news channel, the media would froth with rage over such an event, however, when it is a major Saudi official, they are silent. Saudi Arabia is the leading supporter of Islamic terrorism on earth.

First of all we need to recognize Saudi Arabia as an enemy. Then we need to act accordingly. Part of this means understanding that Saudi Arabia poses a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan ever did and likely ever could have. There are eseentially two options I see for dealing with Saudi Arabia. They are:

1.) Invade Saudi Arabia. Take over the country and imprison or execute its leaders. Essentially treat them the same way Nazis were treated at the end of WWII. Sure we might want to have show trials for them. I'm thinking Nuremburg style trials. Once the country has been conqured, we would then control the oil and how it gets distrubted. This would help us to keep the revenues from its sale out of the hands of Islamic terrorists. While we are doing this, the Saudi education system would need to be reformed. What they are teaching right now is incompatible with them and us being able to live peacefully together on the same planet. We reformed Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan at the end of WWII. A similar transformation will need to happen to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

2.)Withdraw all forces from the Middle East and redeploy them to defensible positions along our borders. Develop all of our own oil and gas reserves and build more refineries. Doing this would give us a fighting chance to defend our country and would give us more leverage in negotiations with Saudi Arabia and other oil suppliers. In addition, an indefinite moratorium should be placed on immigration from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. It seems quite stupid to allow enemies unfettered access to your house.

While I like idea number 1, I don't think we can implement it right now. The military is worn thin. It lacks the manpower, the equipment, or the training necessary to carry out such a mission. The economy is deeply struggling and the national debt is massive. As such, I see no way to be able to afford this type of mission.

GW said...

Good post. Like you, I am not surprised that Beck should take that position - he really is a bufoon. I hear him speak and I cringe. That said, Krauthammer just floored me. I would love to here Krauthammer justify his views, hopefully in one of his weekly columns. I disagree with him one time out of fifty, but never to the degree to which I disagree with him on his assessment of Wilders. The reality is, if Europe does not soon see many more clones of Mr. Wilders, it faces incredible problems indeed.

Freedom Fighter said...

I couldn't agree more, GW.

Glad you enjoyed this one.