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A guy named Robert Lindsay stopped by IBA the other day. I wouldn't have found out about his blog if it weren't for the fact that he linked to us. Anyway, here's how Mr. Lindsay describes himself:


Independent Left journalist in California. Revolutionary, Christian, Pan-Arabist, liberation theology, antiauthoritarian, civil libertarian, mixed economy, Sandinistas, Hugo Chavez. BA Journalism, MA Linguistics, business owner, Green Party, Communist Party USA.


I like that. He sounds like a very eclectic guy. He's a Christian, like me. He's a business owner, like me. And, he's a member of the Communist Party.

I wonder if he's ever heard of the saying, "Property is Theft."

But, that's besides the point, for the most part.

Anyway, you've got to check out what he has to say about the Cartoon Jihad:


Those on the Left or in the Muslim community who think the Cartoon Wars have benefited either of us are terribly mistaken. The Cartoon Wars have been a shot in the arm for the Right in the US, Israel and Europe and they have been catastrophic for Islam. Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, the jihadists and all of their primitivist ilk are milking this thing for everything they can.

But for moderate, sane Muslims, for the Muslim World in general, and for the Left in the West, the Cartoon Wars are bad news.

The Left has ended up siding with a bunch of primitivist, misogynistic, reactionary, Medievalist dolts who have been slaughtering our comrades for decades now.

Islam looks like a bunch of crazed, idiotic, intolerant children who have no place in modern society.

The only possible consequences of the Cartoon Wars are increased support among non-Muslims for the War on Terror (War on Muslims), and increased support for the Muslims' worst enemies in Israel, the US, Britain, Russia, India and the nativist Right in Europe. The sensible European citizen figures the sane thing to do is to side with the anti-immigrant Right instead of the Islamist-accomodating Left.


I agree with Mr. Lindsay on two things there. The cartoon Jihad is a disaster for the Left (and for the Jihadis), and the Left has ended up siding with people who go counter to their professed beliefs in human rights.

Mr. Lindsay goes on to say:


I have been perusing various rightwing sites about the cartoon conflict, since the best news about the cartoons comes from rightwing sites.

Those sites include The American Thinker, Face of Muhammad, Infidel Blogger's Alliance, Gina Cobb, Tiger Hawk, Thomas the Wraith, Pedestrian Infidel, Gates of Vienna, CUANAS, hmmh..., Cox and Forkum, No Dhimmitude, The Fu2rman and Western Resistance. They have all covered the Cartoon Wars very well.

All of these sites are rightwing and they are all, or almost all, strongly anti-Islam. Most are also strongly anti-Muslim. I would argue that most of these sites cross the line into anti-Muslim bigotry.


I think Mr. Lindsay will be happy to know that the ONLY Muslims I have a problem with are the "primitivist, misogynistic, reactionary, Medievalist dolts who have been slaughtering our comrades for decades now."

In fact, while there are a few contributors here at IBA who would say that Islam is the problem, and not, as I say, that Islamic Jihadism is the problem, I think all of us would agree that,

1) if a Muslim does not believe in violent Jihad against the Infidel
2) if a Muslim does not believe women should be wrapped in burqas, and given no choices in their lives
3) if a Muslim does not believe in stoning gays, adulters and apostates, and alll the other "medivalist" strictures of Sharia

then none of us have a problem with the Islam of this Muslim.

The problem is, there are several governments (very powerful governments) in the Islamic world who allow, and in some cases, enforce these kinds of philophies (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, the Palestinian territories), and this needs to stop.


Mr. Lindsay also noted the following about us bigots:


These sites have some other commonalities.

They all support the Zionist Jewish settler-colonial invader entity in Palestine called "Israel" and its illegal war on the Palestinian people. They all despise the Palestinians, the original natives of the land who were displaced by Zionist colonization. They all state, echoing Golda Meir, that there is no such place as Palestine.

No, I don't deny that there is not a people called the Palestinians. If there were not, then the Jordanians and the Egyptians would not know who to keep out of their lands. The King of Jordan would not have known who to slaughter back in 1972. And, people like you wouldn't know who to give aid to now.

What most of us believe (and some of us articulate) is that there has never been a country called Palestine. And, the aspriring governments of the Palestinian people have been more concerned with destroying Israel, and killing Jews, then they have been with actually building a country.

And, somehow, that makes the folks who make up those governments look like "primitivist, reactionary, Medievalist dolts."

Interesting how that works, huh?

As for there being no country called "Israel," well, there was a country called Israel a couple thousand years ago, and a people called the Jews chronicled the history of that country, and their loss of it's land. And, after having been slaughtered repeatedly by the people of Europe, and, after their Sephardic brothers having maintained a presence in the land for thousands of years, the Jews moved back, and were granted a land by the British, and later by the United Nations.

That's what we say, Mr. Lindsay.

So now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to polishing my gun, and thinking up racist jokes about towelheads.

Funny thing is, I used to be a Leftie, until I saw how my friends were siding with the worst of the worst.

Maybe, Mr. Lindsay is at the same tipping point I found myself at a few years back.