Reply #88: I'd say very few people write constantly on one bit of particular 'stuff' [View All]

Where you and I differ is I am concerned when anyone writes about how Muslims are trying to take over a non-Muslim culture, partly because we have our own local versions of these people, and because it's every bit as ugly as the antisemitism that tries to make out that Jews are trying to control the world. It's not something to be ignored, and for most people it taints everything else that writer has to say, especially I/P related, as the subjects of Islamophobia and antisemitism are connected to it. I don't know how it works that antisemitism is connected to it, while Islamophobia is removed from the equation as being of no concern. If a writer says (and I don't care if they say it one or twenty times) that there's no such thing as Islamophobia or antisemitism, talks about how either Jews or Muslims are trying to overrun or control Western states, and (as in the case of Rubin) criticises Obama for trying to mend fences with the Muslim world, then I'd really question why anyone would be peddling that person as someone worthy of listening to.

When it comes to Rubin, apart from the lunacy of saying that the Norwegian summer camp was essentially a pro-terrorist training program, and the examples that LB offered in this thread, I tracked down the article I read where Rubin accuses Obama of appeasing Muslims.

'Obama has a strong sympathy and empathy for Muslims. In theory, that’s just fine but it has led to a policy of trying to win the love of the Muslim-majority world rather than to develop strategies that work and protect U.S. interests.'

http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2011/05/obamas-muslim-problem.html

So, what according to Rubin is what Obama should be working on? Well, the fight against Islam, of course! I'll bold the really disturbing bit)

'Yet we see this theme everywhere in terms of Obama policy: the attempt in Afghanistan to win over the "moderate" Taliban elements; the effort to get Syria to abandon its alliance with Iran in order to be a friend of the United States; the building and restoration of mosques with U.S. taxpayer money; the wooing of the Muslim Brotherhood; and so on.

http://israelinsider.net/forum/topics/barry-rubin-now-we-see-what

Anyone who thinks that after the dark years of the Bush administration there isn't a need for the US to do some bridge-building with Muslims is seriously detached from reality, or doesn't see that Bushco did or said anything that needed redress....