The Strange Fellowship of Fundamentalists and the Left
09 Nov, 2008
- Cut to the recent Mumbai attacks, within a few hours of the news about the attacks breaking on US websites, I received an e-mail from an Honors student at the university where I am enrolled as an adult student. It parroted the same kind of nonsense that the Indian CD had come up with, namely that the attacks in Mumbai were a "Zionist plot." I had a few choice words to slam the clown who sent me the e-mail with before I put him on my spam list and decided to ignore him at the university. This nut happens to be of European descent and he has been "smart" enough, somehow, to find himself enrolled in the Honors program of a prestigious university. Clearly, his mental faculties did not seem all that much better than those of the people who swallowed the 9/11 conspiracy theories. But this was not all. As I scanned the various websites that were reporting the massacre in progress, an oracle of the American Left, Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, kept screaming to his flock (and I use the word "flock" here intentionally) that the attacks were certainly those of local elements in India. The farce was that Newsweek kept this complete inaccuracy (if not a deliberate falsehood) on its website for considerably longer than other websites and even television channels that had begun to point out the fedayeen style of the attacks and hint at the one group that had shown a proficiency in carrying these out, the Lashkar e Tayyiba.
There is a lot more that is common to those who stupidly swallow
propaganda of either the left wing variety or of the religious kind.
Both lots do not look to credible sources of information to get
their news from. Both groups look for conspiracy theories and revel
in their masticating upon them like cattle regurgitating and chewing
cud to swallow it over again. There is hardly any difference to them
whether this "news" comes from a propagandist like an anonymous
mullah hidden away somewhere in a studio making propaganda nonsense,
a left winger at a university somewhere in the world, or an icon of
the left like Fareed Zakaria who was content to spout what was
nonsense at first and a lie when it had been disproved, though
Zakaria and Newsweek chose to run it anyway.
Beyond the blatantly obvious (and hilarious to those who would look at them objectively) lies of the fundamentalists and extreme left wingers, there is disinformation by moderate leftists as well in the media. Hospital reports in India have confirmed that the Chabad Rabbi Holzberg, his wife Rivka and other Jews, who were killed by the terrorists were immediately tortured and killed at Nariman House when the terrorists took the building over. The doctors who performed the post mortems on these people have spoken of horrendous torture done to them before they were killed. There have also been reports from India that the Rabbi's two year old son Moshe who survived his parents' killing, was actually rescued by a servant when he crawled out from under his dead mother covered in her blood because the thugs who murdered his mother seemed to think that the child was dead too. None of this appeared in the mainstream US media. It might be argued that the account of Moshe's rescue by his parents' servant Sandra Samuel was not verifiable and that that was why some among the US media refused to carry it. But that aside, why did no major US newspaper carry information from the doctors in Mumbai who spoke of torture? No one asked for pictures of the mutilated bodies of the Rabbi, his wife and the others to be published. Wouldn't it be prudent for those following this story to know about what kind of sadists the killers were? What did the media have to gain by hiding this information from its audience?
There can only be one reason why this disinformation is spread by both the fundamentalists and the left wingers—neither wants the attackers, whether this means the 19 men who carried out the 9/11 attacks or the 10 who carried out the Mumbai ones—to be seen in a bad light. A description of the torture of the rabbi and his wife would have caused widespread revulsion among people including members of the left; the couple were not even 30 years old. By keeping this information quiet, those who carried out the attacks become humanized to an extent. All of a sudden, the thugs are not people who massacred defenseless individuals because the facts about what they did are hidden. And both the left wingers and fundamentalists alike can now indulge in conspiracist discussions about what the causes for the attacks were, the hidden facts be damned. It is through lies like that these strange bedfellows jointly confer a measure of legitimacy on the thugs who plan and carry out what most decent people would consider crimes against humanity.
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Mr. Mehul Kamdar lives in the U.S. He maintains a blog.
Name: Left meets Islam
Date: Monday December 08, 2008
Time: 21:32:44 -0500
Comment
Its funny that the commies and the lefties support Islam o much when i reality they are allowed to flourish only in Democracies where Freedom of expression is not subdued. Look at the state of the Commies in Islamic Paradises, they at the best underground organizations where they cannot even spell out their political ideology openly. Providence makes strange bed partners. Perhaps the left in its zeal to defame Democratic nations somehow forget that the Muslims wont spare them if they ever do come to power in the now Democratic nations. The Left is basically trying to revive itself using the Muslims as proxies, however they forget that Muslims have a history of ditching their Allies, and their case will be no exception. Many Banglas in Indian swear by the virtues of communism when in reality Communists in India are themselves going the Capitalist way. Perhaps Freedom of Speech and action was never meant to serve the stupid Philosophies and these ideologies should be banned from existance.
Name: jackiebrownstone
Date: Monday December 08, 2008
Time: 22:23:32 -0500
Comment
Both left and right of center political parties need vigilance. If the deluded, deceitful adherents of islam (many of whom are good people simply supporting the wrong cause) are able to suceed in establishing sharia law in every nation on earth as the despicable book the quran commands them to do, the future would be a dark one indeed. Even the murderous muslims lording over those dhimmis able to survive would have an unjust class system. Once aware these basic, undisputable facts, it is truly disturbing that any person could approve of islam.
Name: The fate of Indian commies.
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 01:19:00 -0500
Comment
When Us collaborated with Osama Bin Laden to kill russian comrades mercilessly Indian commies were crying foul against US. When the same Bin Laden attacking the west the left is supporting the Bin laden. It is the same gun Laden and his comrades using to kill the americans. The Gun is having the blood of the russians on it. See the pity of falling by Indian left.
Name: commies r same as muslims,they want 1 party rule and death to all those who dont believe in their ideology
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 03:05:08 -0500
Comment
commies r same as muslims,they want 1 party rule and death to all those who dont believe in their ideology of us v/s them.muslims says islam v/s world,commies say us v/s the non commies.both r disease and must be exterminated.
Name: JD
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 03:20:51 -0500
Comment
It's terribly easy to believe there was torture present in Chabad House. We do, however, have a snapshot in time for when it would have had to happen. At the time baby Moshe, now unjustly an orphan, was rescued by his nanny it appears he was merely wounded but perhaps unconscious. The nanny remarked that she saw the baby between the Rabbi and his wife, grabbed him to rescue him, and ducked out as fast as she could. At the time she said it looked like the Rabbi was merely wounded in the leg. So any torture that happened was after the nanny rescued poor Moshe. (It may well have been because the baby escaped.) There is also a record of a phone call from the US to the Rabbi being picked up by one of the attackers. The attacker was very matter of fact and quiet giving little or no information. He kept claiming that the Rabbi and everybody else was unharmed. In retrospect the person translating for the phone call (from a Pakistani dialect) declares he has no way to say if they were alive at that time. But he is sure no talking on anybody's part would stay the intentions of the attacker. The phone ran out of power terminating the connection. Somewhere along the line the Rabbi ran out of chances as did all the other Jews present. I believe the chances were slim to none, regardless. The one note regarding "torture" I did catch remarked that the attackers were also brutalized by the police that ended the affair. It's a shame the attackers or at least one of them could not have been captured and interrogated as a check on the other that was captured. All in all this strongly appears to the Muslim ideology being Muslim to the core. It's so sad so many hundreds of millions of people are victimized by this evil ideology.
Name: vbv
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 05:13:06 -0500
Comment
Leftist ass-holes always empathise with fanatical muslims and jihadis - take the political parties in India the CPIM,CPI,Forward Block,etc. The just kept mum or ignored the Mumbai blasts. If it had been some small mosque they would have come out in full strength to show their solidarity with the socalled minority community,mainly muslims. This is the general pattern of the leftist in India and I fail to notice how islam can be a 'bumchum ' of the leftists. Islam has no love for the leftists or communists, or they would not have waged a violent bloody jihad on Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Leftists menatlity is as devious as their filthy idealogy, so it is difficult to decipher!
Name: vbv
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 05:13:16 -0500
Comment
Leftist ass-holes always empathise with fanatical muslims and jihadis - take the political parties in India the CPIM,CPI,Forward Block,etc. The just kept mum or ignored the Mumbai blasts. If it had been some small mosque they would have come out in full strength to show their solidarity with the socalled minority community,mainly muslims. This is the general pattern of the leftist in India and I fail to notice how islam can be a 'bumchum ' of the leftists. Islam has no love for the leftists or communists, or they would not have waged a violent bloody jihad on Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s. Leftists menatlity is as devious as their filthy idealogy, so it is difficult to decipher!
Name: Why commies love Islam?
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 06:22:55 -0500
Comment
Democracy is the enemy of both Communits and Muslims. So (enemies enemy is my friend is the logic that keeps Muslims and Communits together. Both of them are hate filles ,stupid and against democracy.
Name: Why commies love Islam?
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 06:22:56 -0500
Comment
Democracy is the enemy of both Communits and Muslims. So (enemies enemy is my friend is the logic that keeps Muslims and Communits together. Both of them are hate filles ,stupid and against democracy.
Name: Why commies love Islam?
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 06:23:02 -0500
Comment
Democracy is the enemy of both Communits and Muslims. So (enemies enemy is my friend is the logic that keeps Muslims and Communits together. Both of them are hate filles ,stupid and against democracy.
Name: DH
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 07:22:36 -0500
Comment
"So (enemies enemy is my friend is the logic that keeps Muslims and Communits together. Both of them are hate filles ,stupid and against democracy.".....During the Balkans war the Serbs were widely regarded as "communists" and the Muslims - like the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviets - as "freedom fighters". Hence the wide support for the Muslim fighters during these conflicts among the political right in the US and the rightwing western press who did their own fair share of demonization of the Serb people (seen as the main obstacle to "reforming" Yugoslavia's less than neoliberal economic system). Also remember: Ronald Reagan likened the Afghan anti-Soviet jihadists to America's founding fathers and meant it. Stupidity in dealing with Islam is not the sole preserve of the political left.
Name: J H
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 08:54:11 -0500
Comment
As an anarcho-pacifist I suppose I am as far left-wing as one can be . I detest the violent , misogynous and intolerant brutality and barbarism of Wahabi and Salafi ideology and practice , while respecting the tolerant Sufi mystics . I find the rabid , right-wing opposition of some correspondents to the left offensive and and absurd . Please cite the credentials of the "left-wing" people . I greatly admire the courage and conviction of the appostates who face death for opposing religious fascism , but do not wish to support the secular fascism of outfits like the BNP in Britain and elsewhere . Remeber , the USA supported the Taliban against the Afghan left .
Name: jackiebrownstone
Date: Tuesday December 09, 2008
Time: 09:12:15 -0500
Comment
Sorry about the off-topic rant of mine above. I didn't even read the acticle first. I was tired and just started typeing and sent it off. Embarrassing. Anyway, the atricle above is good and important one.
Name: I remember...
Date: Wednesday December 10, 2008
Time: 10:41:10 -0500
Comment
watching, believe it or not, Fox news breaking the story on the attacks. They actually had on there: muslim terrorists. And they did talk about the rabbi and his wife, very briefly, but they did. I hadn't heard any other source that said this. The other news channels all said: terrorists with no mention of religious afflication. How can it not be news worthy when it's done in the name of "religion"? Oh wait, it's that cult, that's why they don't want to mention it.
Name: Robert M
Date: Friday December 12, 2008
Time: 09:50:59 -0500
Comment
You know the constant attacks here and on Jihad watch against the "left wing" is truly bizarre. For a cause that wants more people in the west to open their eyes to what is going on, why drive so many people away. I live in Europe. I vote for left of centre parties as do millions of people in Europe. I am rather active in politics and I can assure you that at the meetings I go to and from the people I talk to there is in no way a deep love between Islam and the left. People talk about how wrong the sharia courts in the UK are. People talk about the need to not self censor just to please muslims. People don’t want our modern secular way of life changed by islam. In the Uk, It’s the left leaning National Secular Society that has formed the “One Law for All campaign” to stop the sharia courts. Across Europe the left parties are calling for immigrants to learn the local language, get involved in the local community and not live in immigrant ghettos. I would enjoy reading on this site about the strong right wing support in the USA for propping up Saudi Arabia, but I doubt that going to happen anytime soon.
Name: dd
Date: Sunday December 14, 2008
Time: 05:06:24 -0500
Comment
Both Communism and Islam require violence to flourish. Because of this love for bloodshed communism never flourished in India except in the states of Kerala and West Bengal where muslims are in larger numbers. But in states with 90% muslim population like Kashmir there is no communism because Islam satisfies their lust for blood. Only where muslim population is neither too low nor too high will communism flourish. Too low and there will not be enough muslim votes for blood shed so the commies will not flourish. Too many muslims and islamic violence will trump commie violence and commies cant exist in that space. Communism has a history of not flourishing in muslim majority countries, only in countries with medium muslim populations.
Name: DH
Date: Tuesday December 16, 2008
Time: 07:00:04 -0500
Comment
"Both Communism and Islam require violence to flourish." Remember why the Russian revolution happened in the first place! It was because millions of ordinary Russian people were being butchered and starving during a terrible war while the degenerate Russian privileged classes continued to live it up and the tsar's wife fooled around with a mad monk. Remember also that the Communists were atheists and as such were more successful that most regimes in deIslamising the Muslim populations under their control. The rightwinger Ronald Reagan, by contrast, regardess Communist "godlessness" as the GREATEST of their faults, regarded Islamic fighters in Afghanistan as ideological soulmates and was to see Afghan women who had the temerity to throw off their burkhas under the Communists gang raped for their "crime" by victorious mujahideen "freedom fighters". BTW...I am not and never have been a member of the Communist Party, Soviet fellow traveller etc etc. Just pointing out some facts to counter the undiscriminating anti-leftism on this and other sites.
Name: DH
Date: Tuesday December 16, 2008
Time: 07:02:04 -0500
Comment
Correction to my above post (you really should invest in an editing facility here): "Both Communism and Islam require violence to flourish." Remember why the Russian revolution happened in the first place! It was because millions of ordinary Russian people were being butchered and starving during a terrible war while the degenerate Russian privileged classes continued to live it up and the tsar's wife fooled around with a mad monk. Remember also that the Communists were atheists and as such were more successful that most regimes in deIslamising the Muslim populations under their control. The rightwinger Ronald Reagan, by contrast, regardless Communist "godlessness" as the GREATEST of their faults, regarded Islamic fighters in Afghanistan as ideological soulmates and was HAPPY to see Afghan women who had the temerity to throw off their burkhas under the Communists gang raped for their "crime" by victorious mujahideen "freedom fighters". BTW...I am not and never have been a member of the Communist Party, Soviet fellow traveller etc etc. Just pointing out some facts to counter the undiscriminating anti-leftism on this and other such sites.
Name: dd
Date: Thursday December 18, 2008
Time: 06:27:48 -0500
Comment
"Remember why the Russian revolution happened in the first place!" It happened because the tsar did not heed the changes of time. He was offered a parliamentary system of democracy but refused. But the king of England was wiser and accepted it so monarchy is still surviving there (though I dont think its useful anymore, it was useful in preventing communism in England at that time). You need not fear for the left because America is becoming communistic. Far from the hard working capitalism of their forefathers Americans are expecting the govt to bail them out left and right. One of the reasons I didn't migrate to America in 1990s was because I studied the laws of India and America (IANAL) and came to the conclusion that India was becoming capitalistic and America was becoming communistic. Example: India's largest Automaker Ashok leyland is cutting down production time and laying off workers in the current downturn instead of looking to the govt for a bailout, while American car manufacturers are looking for a govt hand out instead of shutting down unprofitable facilities. There can be no hiring if you ban firing. Workers are the most abused in communistic china, though communism is supposed to be FOR the workers.
Name: DH
Date: Saturday December 20, 2008
Time: 05:34:35 -0500
Comment
"Workers are the most abused in communistic china, though communism is supposed to be FOR the workers."....For a country to qualify as "communistic" it has surely got to apply something that qualifies as traditional communist economics. Economically china is the most ruthlessly capitalistic country in the world. We can see in China what Capitalism will get away with wherever it can - shoddy products, abysmal workplace health and safety, horrendous pollution etc etc. Western capitalists have upped sticks from the west and settled in china in droves to take advantage of the lax worker/environmental protection. China amply demonstrates that Capitalism and totalitarian government can happily coexist indefinitely.
Name: DH
Date: Saturday December 20, 2008
Time: 05:39:57 -0500
Comment
Further quote dd (above): "One of the reasons I didn't migrate to America in 1990s was because I studied the laws of India and America (IANAL) and came to the conclusion that India was becoming capitalistic and America was becoming communistic...: " Example: India's largest Automaker Ashok leyland is cutting down production time and laying off workers in the current downturn instead of looking to the govt for a bailout, while American car manufacturers are looking for a govt hand out instead of shutting down unprofitable facilities."...Indeed, Indian Capitalists are also free to work childrens' fingers to the bone from before dawn to after dusk and the countries' streets are running with sewage. What an "economic miracle"!
Name: DH
Date: Saturday December 20, 2008
Time: 05:53:02 -0500
Comment
To quote from an Afghan discussion forum "But fact remains that during the communists, Afghan women had far more freedoms and rights. We also have to be honest that “some” of the people resisting them specifically joined for this reason as well."
Name: DH
Date: Saturday December 20, 2008
Time: 05:59:23 -0500
Comment
BTW dd when exactly was this "hard working capitalism" that "forefathers Americans" were engaged in? Aside from the small matter of slavery when American cotton-capitalists made OTHER PEOPLE work their socks of FOR NOTHING, the US government has been up to its neck in the US economy from the very beginning. Have you never heard of the Louisiana purchase (Big government par excellence), the protectionist tariffs behind which the US grew into an industrial giant, or the massive grants and subsidies given to US railway companies?
Name: DH
Date: Saturday December 20, 2008
Time: 06:08:29 -0500
Comment
On this matter people might like to go to the following leftist web address: http://www.internationalist.org/afghanwomen1001.html