Updates
A couple of brief update items. Azam Kamguian emailed me to tell me what an informant in Norway told her – that there apparently is no reason to think that Samira Munir was murdered. Which is a relief. No less sad for her, of course, but the fewer murders of this kind there are, the better. So that is, in a limited way, good news.
And I was inaccurate in what I said about Michael Bérubé and Meera Nanda and B&W. I thought he’d first read Meera here, but no, he read her 1997 article in Dissent – and, as he put it, realized he was going to have to worry about it sooner or later. Seeing her work on B&W just prompted him to start the worrying process.
Michael’s got a great story about dentistry, needles in haystacks, beef jerky, promises, garbage, pizza and such today.
Re Samira Munir,
I am glad for the ‘good news’but still disturbed at how quickly some were willing to turn it into another ‘muslim’ atrocity based on very little evidence. My point is not that such atrocities do not exist (they are real enough)but it undermines any principled opposition to the Islamist agenda to distort or manufacture tragedies and to demonise all muslims in the process.I have seen much on the net about ‘muslim cruelties’ in recent months that is simply fake. One small example, Harry’s Place commenters posted pics of an Iranian child suffering ‘sharia’ punishment (allegedly for stealing a loaf of bread) by having his arm run over by a car. I took a look at the pictures and realised almost immediately that they were likely those of a street performance (anyone familiar with Asia and with just a basic knowledge of hudud procedures would have known instantly). But try convincing those who would far rather believe in a UNIQUE muslim evil that they were mistaken-no way! Those pictures are probably being emailed around the world as I type.
The ugly Sydney lynch mob last weekend shows how easy it is to rouse hatred and violence against a specific ethnic/religious group and how undiscriminating such violence is- it is almost always the innocent who get bashed up.
Demonise all muslims in the process? Really? Are you sure you want to say that? I’d have thought it was far more a matter of pointing out what some Muslims do to other Muslims – what a minority of Muslims does to the majority of Muslims as well as ex-Muslims and children of Muslims.
And who “turned it into another ‘muslim’ atrocity”? I asked questions, I said I wanted to know more. And as for “very little evidence” – Munir had received death threats, and such threats are not always mere rhetoric.
So – sorry, but I don’t see what the problem is.
Or perhaps you’re talking about other places. But that’s not clear from your comment, as it wasn’t in your comments on the first Munir post. It’s irritating being apparently told not to do what one isn’t doing. There’s not much point in scolding me for what Harry’s Place does.