The right wing commentariat is set up with little franchises. Mark Krikorian has the ban immigration franchise, Maggie Galllagher has the "defense of" marriage portfolio, and Michelle Malkin has the tin-foil hat department. Andrew C. McCarthy is in charge of the Creeping Sharia Horror division.
McCarthy's schtick is that every single Muslim is a potential terrorist, and that to question this assumption, as the left does, is to be an enabler or fellow traveler (now there's a good old term to recycle!) of terrorism.
But McCarthy is not alone in this. Our own Medical Department, Dr. Zombie, D.F.H., wrote about this in February , in Why Republicans are whining about Sharia law.
And in March 2011, our david mizner traced the mushrooming spread of state anti-Sharia laws and proposed laws to what he described as The Orthodox Jewish White Supremacist Behind the Anti-Sharia Movement.
Below the fold, I'll show how these folks are all hooked up in a not-very-vast right wing conspiracy to strike wingnut gold.
My understanding of white supremacists was that they had a certain, oh, how shall one say? ... antipathy for Jews, but apparently, at least according to Mother Jones, that's not a barrier for David Yerushalmi, whom MJ describes as
... an Arizona-based white supremacist who has previously called for a "war against Islam" and tried to criminalize adherence to the Muslim faith."
Oh, and did you notice this whack job is based in
Arizona, the Meth Lab of Democracy?
Qu'elle surprise!
But none of Mr. Yerushalmi's crazy-ass views have prevented being published in the conservative journal of record, the National Review. Here he is in NR, in June, 2009 making a rather restrained objection to the granting of sovereign immunity to the various Saudi satraps who were accused in civil court by the 9/11 survivors. And in December 2009, he warned NRO readers of the "threat of Shariah-Complaint Finance.
Sharia law compared to the Democratic platform
But let's have a look at this Sharia law that we leftists are supposed to love so much. Saudi Arabia, our "ally" in the Global War on Terror®, is well-described in our own State Department human rights reports as a cesspool of tyranny and abuse. (My words, not the State Department's.) From the state department's summary:
The following significant human rights problems were reported:
* no right to change the government peacefully;
* torture and physical abuse;
* poor prison and detention center conditions;
* arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention;
* denial of fair and public trials and lack of due process in the judicial system;
* political prisoners;
* restrictions on civil liberties such as freedoms of speech (including the Internet), assembly, association, movement, and severe restrictions on religious freedom;
* corruption and lack of government transparency.
Violence against women and a lack of equal rights for women, violations of the rights of children, trafficking in persons, and discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, sect, and ethnicity were common. The lack of workers' rights, including the employment sponsorship system, remained a severe problem.
And let's compare this to
the Democratic Party platform of 2008. While this is a rather ponderous document, an excerpt from the highlights of the table of contents may be representative:
Jumpstart the Economy and Provide Middle Class Americans Immediate Relief
Empowering Families for a New Era
Investing in American Competitiveness
Economic Stewardship
Renewing American Leadership
Ending the War in Iraq
Defeating Al Qaeda and Combating Terrorism
Revitalizing and Supporting Our Military Response
Working for Our Common Security
etc, etc.
Hmmm. "Imposing sharia law" must be under the "defeating Al Qaeda" heading.
The right wing's perpetual search for an Emmanuel Goldstein.
I well remember the days when the right wing, of which National Review was a leader, consistently accused the liberal wings of both parties (yes, there were conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans in those days) of sympathy for Communism -- year after year, it sold a lot of magazines.
We used to see maps of the world, where the communist countries would be shown all in red. (This was until, to pay for our wars, we needed to sell the country to the vast pawn shop which is generally known as "China" -- the ChiComs, as we use to affectionately know them, then became good guys.)
Then 10 years after 1991, there was no communism, at least of the Soviet Union variety, and the conservative cause languished.
Along comes 9/11. Within a very short time after awful day, the Republicans, for so the conservatives had become by this time, seized upon it as another stick to beat their opposition with. And so "radical Islam" became the Republican's Emmanuel Goldstein.
National Review and David Yerushalmi -- two peas in a pod.
And now McCarthy offers us his latest over at National Review. McCarthy begins with a discussion of how some nitwit in Australia decided to beat up his sister-in-law, ostensibly because she'd done something non-Islamic (go to the beach) with his wife. The highlights:
Innately, Islam is not moderate — just ask Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, who rejects as “ugly and offensive” the very term “moderate Islam.” Instead, Islam can be moderated, but only by a culture that is self-confident and self-assertive. Alas, that is no longer Western culture. So, the more Muslims immigrate, the less the West is moderating Islam. It is Islam that leaves its mark.
... we really have no idea how much sharia is seeping into Western law and jurisprudence. A year ago, without breaking a sweat — i.e., by just looking at published appellate decisions — the Center for Security Policy found 50 cases across the United States in which Islamic law factored into rulings. Most of these involved domestic relations — issues involving marriage and child custody. Yet, as a practical matter, there is no telling how extensively sharia has encroached on Western law; we know only that its reach grows as Muslim enclaves multiply.
...
Now, that "
Center for Security Policy" -- that's the same outfit that David Yerushalmi, the Jewish White Supremacist, is hooked up with as their general counsel.
These birds flock together, quote each other, and develop this alternative reality for the new American empire. Their current problem is that the Obama administration ain't buying their brand, but they expect to change this, I'm sure.