3. FrumForum
Sometimes Islamapologism doesn’t just come from the Left. You can even find it on the Right, believe it or not. One prime example can be found at FrumForum. The site, founded by David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, purports to be:
…dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican party and the conservative movement.
Apparently for one of the site’s bloggers, “modernization and renewal” means sucking up to Islamists and defending their right to attempt to destroy us.
Back in September, one particular blogger, John “Please Spell My Name Right” Guardiano (Oh boy, I hope I got it right…), a former NewsReal Blog contributor, devoted an entire post to criticizing conservatives, including NRB‘s own David Swindle and Calvin Freiburger, for daring to suggest that Islam is a political and sociological system rather than just a religion.
Guardiano called out Andrew McCarthy for speaking truth about Islam:
McCarthy has written that “Islam is innately political,” and that “Islam and Communism are aligned… Both are diametrically opposed to the core assumptions of American constitutional democracy: individual liberty and free-market capitalism.”
He has called Islam’s legal code “totalitarian.” He rejects the concept of moderate Islam as an “invention” that “does not currently exist.” He declares, in the subtitle of his book, that Islam — not radical Islam, but Islam — is a fifth column political movement intent on “sabotaging” America.
Guardiano went on to, in his own words, “dismiss” David Swindle as an “extreme voice” for making similar observations to those of McCarthy. He then managed to scoff at Newt Gingrich (and McCarthy again) for expressing concerns over the spread of Sharia law:
Sharia, he added, “is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and the world as we know it… I’m frankly very tired of being lectured about religious liberty…”
If Gingrich is tired of being lectured about religious liberty, it may be because he and others on the Right – including Andrew McCarthy – are insufficiently respectful of the First Amendment. Indeed, they’ve suggested – and, in McCarthy’s case, argued explicitly – that Islam is incompatible with American democracy.
More recently, Guardiano has once again decided to pick on conservatives for worrying about the potential Islamist influence on the political landscape in Europe:
Newt Gingrich at least recognizes that what happens in the world profoundly affects American liberty. However, Gingrich can see in Egypt only doom and danger, not hope and opportunity. Ditto most congressional Republicans: Consequently, they seem to have a soft spot for dictators and autocrats such as Mubarak.
Fox News’ Sean Hannity, meanwhile, is obsessed with the Muslim Brotherhood, which he seems to imagine is omnipotent and all-powerful. And if a GOP presidential candidate has said anything positive about Egypt, I’m unaware of it.
In short, fear and loathing — of Muslims especially — rules the Right. “Some 85 percent of Muslims believe that Islam should have a role in the government,” Hannity warns.
Is this really that surprising or necessarily disturbing? Egypt is a poor Muslim country with an autocratic political tradition. Why, then, would most Egyptians not want Islam to be an integral part of the law that governs them?
So in the eyes of John Guardiano, we shouldn’t worry about the “religion of peace.” Because, you know, the Islamists are all about democracy and freedom.
David Frum himself has managed to get his hands dirty in the whole Islamapology department. Frum weighed in on the controversy surrounding Grover Norquist and Suhail Khan, playing the role of crack investigative reporter as he spun the yarn of “The Secret History of the Gaffney-Norquist Feud.” I can almost picture him wearing the hat with the tag that says “Press” pinned to it like in the old movies.
The post, actually a series of smaller posts, tells a “secret history” of the Bush administration’s attempts to woo Muslim Americans to the Republican Party, a move that would have been an obvious lightning rod for controversy after 9/11. Frum actually refers to those expressing concern over Suhail Khan as “(mis)representing some very minor personalities as central figures in a giant continuing conspiracy.” Frum intimates that Khan’s dangerous associations are nothing to be worried about. Yet the truth is, we simply cannot ignore what Frum sees as “minor.”
Next: Neither Left, nor Right, nor sensible…
