The Muslim Double Standard
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/20/the-muslim-double-standard/
NewsRealBlog’s David Horowitz recently spoke at UC San Diego. During this speaking engagement a Muslim student, Jumanah Imad Albahri, asked Horowitz to back up his accusations on the Muslim Student Association. In his response Horowitz asked her if she believed in the liquidation of all Jews. He reaction: “For it.”es. NewsRealBlog interviewed Jyette Klausen who has written five books on the Islamic problem. She is a professor and researcher on the issue of church-state law in Europe and the integration of Islam at Brandeis University. Yale University Press censored one of her books because it contained pictures of Mohammed.
NewsRealBlog: Do you see a double standard on the part of Muslim students at Universities?
Jyette Klausen: In the UK I have been concerned that non-Muslims students have so willingly absorbed the lesson preached by the radicals that Islam “forbids” this and that, and everyone who disagrees is Islamophobic.
NRB: Do you have any examples of this?
Klausen: When I showed the Danish cartoons during a talk at a UK university, a few non-Muslim students came up afterwards and said ‘We are surprised you showed those images that are so offensive to Muslims without first asking permission from the audience.” Meanwhile, the one Muslim student in the audience laughed his head off. “I am a Marxist,” he explained, “go on, insult religion. It is all, you know, “opium for the people.
NRB: Are you referring to all Muslim students?
Klausen: The secular Muslims are religious but not politicized. They are often the first in the line of fire from the radicals.
NRB: Do you think western countries have an equal attitude toward all religions?
Klausen: In Western Europe there is a lot of reaching out by Mayors to the Muslim communities and not as much to Christians and Jews. There is not an equity approach to the different faiths. I am in the process of writing a book on this.
NRB: Do you see a lot of Muslims speaking out against the Islamic extremists?
Klausen: In the UK there was leading Muslims who defended the extremists and made excuses for them. Today, in America, people are falling off the radar because they are Muslim Americans. I don’t think radicalized Americans are lone terrorists but I consider them volunteers of a movement.
NRB: Can you summarize what happened with your book, The Cartoons that Shook the World?
Klausen: Yale’s chief legal counsel told me that they had decided to remove the illustrations of Mohammed from my book because they were concerned about America’s interests abroad. I was told if Yale published those illustrations it would cause riots in Pakistan, Muslims would be offended, and that I should be afraid of my own life because defacing Mohammed is a death penalty offense in Pakistan.
NRB: What was your reaction?
Klausen: I thought it ridiculous to make the Pakistan standard our legal standard. This person in Yale took it upon herself to internalize Pakistani sensitivities. I think it is very dangerous that we are doing this to ourselves.
NRB: What would you suggest to the Universities that have a double standard?
Klausen: We must push back against this in a big way. People should speak out against these threats and prosecute them. I was hoping people would come to their senses but at this point I am disappointed.
NRB: You pointed out in one of your books that Mohammed is depicted on the United States Supreme Court building. Can you comment?
Klausen: It was not considered blasphemes. A fatwa from a learned authority in Mecca made a ruling. The fatwa said that this was a respectful depiction of the prophet as a statesman, as a lawmaker, and that Muslims should be proud that a Christian state in its highest court would recognize the contribution of the prophet to Western law and its own history.
NRB: Do you think the extremists would agree?
Klausen: No. They are against anything that is a public symbol. They go against anything with high symbolic value.
NRB: What books are you currently working on?
Klausen: I am working on a study on the development of Western Jihadists starting in 1999. The other book in the works is on the Christian-Islamic controversy.
NRB: What do you think is happening in American Universities?
Klausen: The primary concern is the mad unraveling of our own standards and our unwillingness to stand up. A right is no good if you don’t use it.
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