If they're fashionable...

...do they have swinging parties? Are the chicks hot?

I am glad to see I wasn't the only one whom this article irritated. I didn't really know that there was a fashionable, intellectual left anymore. Maybe there is, and I'm just left out as always.

Anyway, the reaction of the right to Rushdie's knighthood is about what I would expect-a quick "congratulations" followed by a tirade about the Muslim reaction, blather about the left's wussified conciliatory attitude and it's supposed hypocrisy for supposedly not supporting Rushdie who fights the good fight against bigoted repression (just like those brave right wing constitutional heroes!) blah blah blah blah

Much is made of this quote by Ejaz-Ul-Haq-“The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws the ’sir’ title,” Mr. ul-Haq said.

It's a stupid comment, of course, and his little attempt at a save afterward doesn't cut it. The expected Muslim howling, riots, etc. will rightly be deplored. But expressions of violence like that are no stupider than, say, a multi-day celebration of a religious assassination in Milwaukee, for example . And, of course, they're only too happy to support denigration of Islam with a call to arms to protect civil liberties, freedom of speech, or whatever, but to do the same thing for someone insulting to Christians...not so much.

I was an atheistic teenager when Iran announced the Fatwa on Rushdie. Outraged by this kind of religious repression, I bought a copy of the book and immediately read it (take that, Iran! I'm sure the mullahs shake in fear knowing this). I still loathe this kind of mindless religious repression, and I support Rushdie's knighthood, even though I'm not a big fan of his actual writing. But it wasn't more than a year or two before this that I had to push through a Christian picket line to see "The Last Temptation of Christ," a movie that offended Christians, and they were no more open-minded about speech freedom than any Muslim fundamentalist. It wasn't long after that that abortion clinic bombings and threats entered my consciousness, and the news. Right-wing threats to all-powerful-activist-liberal-judges-who-try-to-ban-Christmas are greeted with a yawn by the right. The only reason that Christian Fundamentalist leaders haven't ordered Christian Fatwas, as far as I can see, is that they don't think they can get away it, not because they don't want to (oh, but wait, one DID kind of try).

This Christian Right-Wing outrage over the Islamic Fundamentalist Right-Wing outrage over the outrageous knighting of a mediocre writer is a bad-faith argument in the extreme. If I need my rights as an individual protected, I going to think twice before I turn to the political wing that brought us Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Black Sites, the torture memo, trumped up charges of voter fraud as a means to fix elections, Constitutionally dubious signing statements, the stripping away of Habeas Corpus, illegal wiretapping, and a Justice Department that reshapes its mission so organizations can "discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money." I'm sorry, but this just isn't the group of people that I would trust to protect my rights, or those of anyone else, and no amount of pontificating about the repressive Muslims is going to change that.

UPDATE: I finally get a commenter, and it's because I acted like a knob. I linked to In The Name Of Towelie to prove my Very Important Point, insinuating they were right wing Christians and the like, and it turns out they are nothing of the sort. Apparently reading the clearly written explanation as to who they are and what they do there was beyond my limited skills.

Maybe I should just go back to lurking.