Barry Rubin on Egypt – Looming Radicalization Spurring Moderates to Flee

Yet another link I had to share as I continue to wallow in allergies. This time, from Barry Rubin –

PJMedia – Rubin Report: Good-Bye, Middle East! Liberals and Minorities are Fleeing

Some excerpts, emphasis mine:

What’s so terrible about the ideological, agenda-based domination of the mass media and academia is that people don’t ask critical questions that undermine their political positions.

Here’s one:

The Egyptian government says it will put on criminal trial 16 people who distributed funds to Egyptian moderates from pro-democracy forces. One of them is the son of U.S. Labor Secretary Ray LaHood. The prosecutions are going forward despite Obama administration threats to cut off all aid to Egypt, which mostly goes to the Egyptian military, which happens to run the country at present.

If Egypt’s government is ready for a confrontation risking its U.S. aid over this tiny and insignificant issue, then why should we believe that the fear of losing U.S. aid will keep it from imposing Islamization on its people, sponsoring anti-Israel terrorism, becoming entangled in a war with Israel, and doing all sorts of much more important stuff?

Haven’t seen that anywhere else, right?

Doesn’t this incident undercut all of the soothing words about how Egypt (or Libya, or other countries taken over by Islamists) will be constrained by such things?

Note, among other context, that Egypt is presently facing a food crisis. This is a severe catalyst for unrest and/or a government lapsing into a more tyrannical structure.

And something relevant to radicalized immigrant communities preceding the moderates in places such as Canada. Emphasis again mine:

In Toronto, I was coming out of the provincial parliament building when a man from Pakistan struck up a conversation, thinking I was an influential legislator. He told me of how his community in Toronto is full of radical Islamists and of how scared he is. The man recounted that Islamists had taken over part of an official government building, against Canadian law, and turned it into a mosque where radical ideology was preached. A friend of mine checked it out and h his information was completely correct. Canadian officials were indifferent to this violation.

If you have the chance, do try to help these refugees who are fleeing Islamist tyranny by going to lands where saying there is such a thing as Islamist tyranny might be against the law. Because when these moderates, these women seeking to live modern lives, these Christians and Jews arrive in the lands of freedom, they will find no demonstrations in support of them by the locals, no university teach-ins, no concerned media, no awareness of their plight, little eagerness to hear their stories among the local people.

There seems to be an over-willingness by some in the media and in this debate to label those concerned about Islamism as islamophobes, bigots, haters, etc. I will remind my audience that even if you find examples of charged rhetoric towards Islam – Judaism remains subject to vastly more hate crimes than Islam, according to the FBI.

I would encourage all of you to read this piece – Why We Need Words like ‘Islamist‘

I and others like me focus our ire on the specific, radicalized sect of Islam that demands tolerance and offers none, trickles into communities with the intention of imposing their code on their neighbors, and attempts to establish Islamic religious law (sharia) into national law through legal channels. An ideology that seems to thrill in taking advantage of political correctness and an easily cowed media.

Moderate Islam is not an ideology I have a problem with. At the end of the day, I would like to see societal wide tolerance for all creeds and beliefs. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable goal, as long as we don’t allow ourselves to be distracted by taking political correctiveness to such a ludicrous degree that we outright ignore any offenses committed by the ‘right’ group, and frantically search for those from the ‘wrong’ group.

Have a happy Thursday everybody!