A Comforting Falsehood
- From: jose el fontanero <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:21:44 -0700 (PDT)
A Comforting Falsehood
By: Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, June 29, 2009
The Stoning of Soraya M. is a riveting, immensely important film that
unforgettably and unflinchingly depicts the horror of the Islamic
Sharia punishment of stoning for adultery. But in today’s politically
correct environment, reviewers are rushing to divert attention away
from or downplay the root causes of the crime the film indelibly
depicts – and by doing so, are condemning more women to suffer
Soraya’s fate.
This phenomenon – which I call Islamophobophobia – was vividly
manifested in a review of the film by Kevin Thomas that appeared in
the Los Angeles Times on Friday.
Islamophobophobia: John Derbyshire coined the term to refer to his
distaste for those (foremost among them me) who study how Islamic
jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam in order to justify
terrorism and Islamic supremacism, and make recruits among peaceful
Muslims. But now that Derbyshire has coined the term, I think it
should be applied not only to a distaste for so-called
“Islamophobes” (an appellation that I reject in any case), but also to
an anxiety not to appear “anti-Islamic,” no matter what contortions
one may be forced into as a result. This kind of Islamophobophobia
especially manifests itself among politically correct types who find
themselves for whatever reason in the position of discussing some
human rights abuse or terrorist activity that its perpetrators justify
by reference to Islamic teachings -- they will discuss it, all right,
but will go to any length to make sure nobody thinks that it really
has anything to do with Islam, or that it is any different from what
those nasty Christians do.
This form of “Islamophobophobia” is in abundant display at the release
of the excellent movie The Stoning of Soraya M. Many fall victim to
Islamophobophobia not just because they are addled multiculturalists
or politically correct cowards, but because they really don’t want
innocent people to be victimized, and they think that it is somehow an
act of generosity or fairness to downplay the Islamic connection to
whatever wrongdoing they are discussing, and to play up the evils of
Christianity. What they fail to realize is that by deflecting
attention away from the real causes of the phenomena they oppose, they
are only helping ensure that those phenomena will continue.
And so it is with the Los Angeles Times review. It starts out well,
and even mentions Sharia. But inevitably there comes the almost
obligatory “Christians are -- well, at least were -- just as bad”
reference. Thomas points out that stoning remains prevalent “not just
in Iran, the film’s setting, but in countries throughout the Middle
East and sub-Saharan Africa that follow Islamic Sharia law.” Give him
points for not claiming that this is a cultural practice that has
nothing to do with Islam. Stoning for adultery is indeed part of
Sharia, and pretending that it isn’t, as actress Shohreh Aghdashloo
has falsely claimed, is not going to do anything to end this practice.
Why not? Because if one has decided that stoning is a cultural
practice that has nothing to do with Sharia, one will not oppose the
imposition of Sharia in any given place -- and with Sharia will come
stoning, sooner or later.
Thomas says that “what is so compelling about this film, directed by
Cyrus Nowrasteh, an American of Iranian descent who adapted Sahebjam’s
1994 book with his wife, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, is the way religion
can be exploited in the most obscene and hypocritical manner by those
in power to oppress others -- and how total power over others can
corrupt totally. Islam happens to be the religion here, but what
happens in the course of this important and uncompromising film
recalls evils perpetrated in the name of Christianity and other
organized religions as well.”
Actually, the particular horrors depicted in The Stoning of Soraya M.
could not have happened in any non-Islamic cultural context, for only
Islam sanctions stoning (and when the Islamic apologists start quoting
the Hebrew Scriptures, they should be informed that Judaism has
interpreted those passages quite differently for two millennia or
more, and that Christianity holds them to be superseded by John
7:53-8:11). Have Christians and believers in “other organized
religions” perpetrated evils? Of course. But to remind readers of that
in a review of this film is simply gratuitous Islamophobophobia on
Thomas’s part.
After all, what point does Thomas wish us to take away from his
review? That it doesn’t really matter if Iranian authorities are still
stoning women (and they are), because after all, Christians have done
bad things also? Surely not -- surely he doesn’t want us to be passive
and silent about this human rights abuse, does he? Or is his point
that we shouldn’t criticize Islam because of stoning, since
Christianity has also given rise to evil deeds? But here again, it
doesn’t matter, in regard to stoning, if Christianity were the most
evil belief system ever conceived in the mind of man. Even if it were,
if Muslims are stoning people in the name of Islamic texts and
teachings, there is no chance to end that practice unless those texts
and teachings are discussed critically and protested against. What
Christians may have done or not done is simply irrelevant.
So either way, Thomas’s Islamophobophobia only abets the perpetuation
of stoning. But to discard this Islamophobophobia and to speak honesty
about why stoning is practiced today would have landed him in the camp
of the “Islamophobes” -- and for some, a hideous and painful death
would be more welcome than that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and
the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of eight books, eleven
monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic
terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically
Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About
Muhammad. His latest book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is
Subverting America without Guns or Bombs, is available now from
Regnery Publishing.
.
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