From Newshounds:
Today [Brigitte] Gabriel was on [Your World w/Neil Cavuto] to tell viewers, per the chyron, that "Terror Chat Rooms Buzzing Over Bhutto Assassination." She agreed with substitute host Terry Keenan's suggestion that we're seeing, "The same kind of victory dance we saw on the Internet after 9/11." Gabriel said the websites are calling Bhutto's death a "victory for the Islamic cause worldwide." She said, "Sadly and unfortunately, there is no sympathy in the Islamic world for Bhutto, especially on the Islamic websites." She complained that we have "not heard anything" from Muslim women, and that "we don't hear a blurb out of the Muslim community anywhere."
This is a ludicrous and baseless claim and needs to be addressed.
Brigitte Gabriel is the founder of the American Congress for Truth, which states its mission as to:
• Keep citizens informed through action alerts, issues and legislation
• Educate millions of citizens about our enemy, and what they can and must do to protect themselves and their country
• Arm activists with information to get involved and take action
• Motivate citizens to become active in decisions affecting national security and the American way of life
• Network organizations with like-minded goals to bring change
• Empower citizens to have a voice in their government
• Fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization
She was born to a Lebanese Christian family and immigrated to the US in 1989. She is an extremely respectable analyst of Arab and Muslim affairs, as is evidenced by the following quotes:
"The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It's the difference between good and evil [applause].... this is what we're witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no SOUL !, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call "Allah" which is very different from the God we believe....[applause] because our God is the God of love."
-at the 2007 Christians United for Israel conference
And I especially love this one from an interview in the Australian Jewish News:
FRENKEL: I find it astonishing that you've never met a practising Muslim one who thinks that he's adhering perfectly to the tenets of the religion -- who doesn't espouse hatred and have extreme views of the world.
GABRIEL: Does he drink?
FRENKEL: No.
GABRIEL: That tells me everything. He can tell you whatever line he wants to tell you. I asked you earlier, do you know what the word "Taqiya" is and you said no. And you've never read the Koran so you do not know what the Koran says about Jews and Christians.
No practising Muslim looks at you as a Jew -- if he knows you are a Jew -- looks at you in any way other than you are the enemy. He can give you any line, he can tell you, he can lie...
What that has to do with drinking, Gabriel does not explain. But you get the idea. This woman is a few cards short of a deck. And that's fine. I wouldn't expect anything less from Fox News. The network is once again using her to exploit the assassination of Benazir Bhutto to perpetuate anti-Muslim bigotry. Bhutto herself was a proud, practicing Muslim, thereby making the irony especially aggravating. Commentators on Fox such as Gabriel constantly complain that there are no moderate voices in Islam, but when a moderate (if not progressive) voice in Islam is murdered and an American ally is implicated, Islam is the one that is blamed.
The claim that there is "no sympathy from the Islamic world" for Bhutto's assassination is utterly baseless. The Center for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization Fox claims wants to replace the Constitution with the Koran, issued this condemnation of the killing:
"We condemn this cowardly terrorist act, and offer our condolences to the Bhutto family and the families of the others who were killed.
"We stand in sympathy with the Pakistani people, who suffered a great loss when violence rather than a peaceful political process, decided the fate of former Prime Minister Bhutto. Political assassinations fly in the face of Islamic and universal principles.
Note the specific use of the word "sympathy." The American Islamic Congress issued a similar statement:
Ms. Bhutto was a model of independence and courage for Muslim women around the world. After she was nearly killed upon her recent return to Pakistan, she could have taken a safe exit. Instead she chose to stand up and speak out despite the risks.
"Young Muslim women around the world should not let this murder dissuade them from speaking out and claiming their rightful place as equals in society.
As NewsHounds pointed out, the fact that so many people showed up to mourn her death (and torch a few cars while they were at it) completely contradicts Gabriel's assertion that there was no outcry from the Islamic community. What's more, there was a very high likelihood that, had she not been killed, Bhutto would have emerged victorious from the upcoming Pakistani elections.
If Gabriel had any brains at all, the question she would have asked was why the Bush administration has named a tyrannical dictator who has suspended the Pakistani Constitution in the recent past and may very likely do it again as our "staunchest ally in the War on Terror TM." Musharraf has been playing the United States for suckers, giving the administration lip service while allowing Al-Qaeda infiltration into the military and security services. A substantial, if not majority, percentage of the Pakistani people want modernist reform. The actions of the administration along with their right-wing allies in the media have compromised their efforts and the efforts of a remarkably brave woman.