This week we heard about the experiences of Muslim women visiting the U.S. Capitol, satirized the fight for Aqsa Parvez’s gravestone, rolled our eyes at the assertions that hijab make make us sick, critiqued the Muslim in America Experiment, and linked our hearts out. We also provided daily updates regarding the Aasiya Hassan murder, and tomorrow, we’ll be having a roundtable discussion on the issue.
Tagged: Aqsa Parvez Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Fatemeh
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johnpi
Several blogs worth watching:
http://www.chasingevil.org – A blog by Christians dedicated to opposing intolerance, hate, fearmongering and bigotry. Check out this article about the latest cardboard cutout “reformed Islamic terrorist” making the rounds of Christian Zionist/Dominionist gatherings. His name is Daniel Shayesteh, and the folks at chasingevil.org document Shayesteh’s biographical evolution in the public record to “one who formerly trained Muslims in the strategies of Islamic Jihad.”
Top story there today is about a a Maine neo-Nazi who was shot to death by his wife last December, and who possessed “a cache of radioactive materials suitable for building a ‘dirty bomb.’”
Gates of Vienna Vs. The World Vs. LGF – This website is tracking the ongoing battle between rightwing extremist bloggers such as Pamela Geller who recently made an appearance beside Aqsa Parvez’s gravesite (satirized here at Muslimah Media Watch), and the rightwing site Little Green Footballs, which has renounced Islamophobia.
Top story there today is an excellent excoriation of Geller’s crocodile tears for Parvez, and a long look at her anti-Islam craziness.
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Lex, Agent of Chaos
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PI.info
Hi Lex,
I had heard rumors of a breakup at LGFs a while ago, but never really followed it, and was unaware that some portion of the “counter-jihadosphere” was in total crackup. I was reluctant to try to describe what was going on here since I don’t really know who’s who in it, other than to know that everybody involved comes with a bad rep for Muslim-bashing and general insanity.Is there anything (or anyone) of redeeming value coming out of this, other than the fact that a bunch of bad actors (not referencing their Thespian ambitions) have formed a circular firing squad?
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Lex, Agent of Chaos
Oh heavens, you don’t know? Well, yes, the “counter-jihadosphere” (as I not-so-affectionately call it) has been in full crack up mode since the “Brussels Counter-Jihad Summit of 2007″. Basically, a Flemish separatist party was invited called Vlaams Belang which has questionable ties to white supremacists and neo-Nazis. LGF’s Charles Johnson protested this while Gates of Vienna went on a full on offensive for VB, blogs took sides and it’s been war ever since! Sphinx and I have been chronicling it for quite some time. Basically it’s GoV/Atlas Shrugs/JihadWatch-RobertSpencer/LittleGreenFootballs2 VS. Little Green Footballs and sometimes the IBA. There’s someone else on the LGF Original side (yes, there really is a LGF2) but I’m half-asleep and forgetting my blogroll….LOL.
So we just write about the attacks lobbed across the web at each other, the most recent crack-up being the controversy over Geert Wilders and his “film” Fitna (review by me and Sphinx here), a movie that seems more like a YouTube reject rather than the object of so much contention it has become.
I’d tell you more, but I’m falling asleep while still arguing about “jihad” in emails…LOL….so I’ll leave one link to a post by Spencer turned to a post by us about the beginning of the controversy. Seems civil now, but at the moment they’re calling each other “idiots” and “bullies” among other things in their posts. It’s all quite satisfying, to be honest!
Nighty night for now;)
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PI.info
Thanks for the update. I enjoyed the writeup on Fitna. I noticed this:
Some of it was exactly what I used to say and edit together for my own films before I realized that cherry-picking the worst, most sensationalist stories was not an accurate picture of approximately 2 billion people nor of how they all view their Faith.
Looks like you’ve come a long way too. It’s interesting that now you’ve hooked up with a Muslim blogger (Sphinx) to resist the whole Islamophobic ‘war of civilizations’ claptrap. And that’s great, thanks. I’m adding you to my regular rounds of blogs I visit.
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Lex, Agent of Chaos
Yes, it is true. I was once an “insider” in this movement. I fell for the lies and now I work to try and change people’s prejudice against Islam and Muslims. I have even gone out wearing hijab to see how others would react (I’m of Greek-from Turkey heritage, and look like a “fresh off the boat Turk”…LOL….or any other Middle Easterner. I also now have a Muslim relative by marriage whom I’d defend to the death he’s so wonderful. I’m ashamed of what I used to write and ask Sphinx for forgiveness regularly, though he says I should stop that I’ve atoned enough. It’s never enough for me. That and I love mockery, what can I say.
I did put up a more serious post today though, an “interactive post”, and I invite you and anyone you might want to bring to participate in the experiment. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch claims to be baffled as to why Muslims (and non-Muslims as well) would find his works to be hate speech, bigoted or anti-Muslim or even offensive to Muslims or non-Muslims like me. So I put together a few examples from his site in a post and have asked readers to explain why this would offend a first time reader to his site, especially if they’re Muslim.
The post is here, and I’d love to hear your insight on this subject! At any rate, thank you very much for noticing us out there and having any sense of appreciation for our work; we thought we were just a couple of goofballs for a while there….LOL
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PI.info
Hi Lex,
THanks for the invite. I took a look at the interactive post you put up and it’s daunting in that there is so much there to respond to that I’m not sure where to start, and once I started I wouldn’t know where to stop. You’ve got the assertions of R Spencer, somebody else who writes on his blog, and a bunch of his commenters. There are a lot a subjects, and I’ve got a lot of other debates, so thanks but I don’t have the energy to engage this one.
The first little blurb of Spencer asserts the validity of Fitna, claims its use of Quranic references is sound, and that Muslims are on a hair-trigger for mass violence. Spencer wrote 165 words and you and Sphinx wrote over 1,800 words to do a satisfying job of taking down Fitna and its misuse of the Quran. For interactivity that’s a little less daunting (to me at least), try carving out maybe one single quote or issue or assertion.
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Lex, Agent of Chaos
Well, I want people to use as much info to consider that they have on Spencer, including anything else they find on his site. At any rate, Sphinx has just done a fabulous job of defending Islam and arguing down an anonymous commenter. You should read his comments, they are amazing. He doesn’t miss a thing, takes down every single point raised. He also knows the Qur’an and the Sunnah, whereas most of my Muslim friends do not.
This is getting rather interesting, I will admit. Kind of fun to just watch the comments if you want;)
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Fatemeh
This week on MMW, we looked at a sexist Egyptian beer commercial, ripped Toronto Life magazine for its coverage of Aqsa Parvez, questioned Tarek Fatah on domestic violence and honor killing, and interviewed Sahar Ullah from The Hijabi Monologues. We also published a very special Friday links this week, along with a few announcements.
Wow, thank you sincerely for the nice write-up here! I am the Lex of the “Soap Opera” site Gates of Vienna Vs. The World Vs. LGF who wrote the posts you mentioned. The Sphinx and I endeavor to bring our fine comedy stylings to anyone not delusional enough to take seriously the rantings of Pamela Geller, Charles Johnson, Robert Spencer, or “Baron Bodissey”, especially when they’re warring on with each other! We have found the implosion of the “counter-jihadosphere” to be gloriously funny and hope that they soon forget all about Muslims entirely and stick to the serious business of insulting each other and discussing very seriously the full import of comments from “Tasty Beverage”. If only they’d stop mentioning Islam, well, in any case we still think this crowd would be really no fun at parties. Not a bit.
Thanks again for the link and the write up, I’ll follow your site much more closely from now on!