The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Issue 63

Issue 63 [@1:07:43]: Video clip of a TV broadcast is shown as prelude to the statement by Bat Ye’or:

CNN Anchor [Jim Clancy] – “Is what we are witnessing today is clash of civilizations? We ask that of a noted Palestinian scholar and professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Dr. Edward Said.”

Edward Said – “No, I don’t think so. I think the whole thesis is a bit of a false one. Because in the first place the civilizations are little packages that are completely detached from each other. They are all connected in one way or another. And, Western civilization has many elements of Islamic, Confucian, Latin American and others…”

Bat Ye’or, Author, Islam and Dhimmitude: “Where Civilizations Collide – The basis of and prophet of this new version of Islam as religion of peace and tolerance was Edward Said, who established in all universities and academia this Islamic version of peace. [Edward Said is shown without voice, continuing his argument above, essentially to imprint in the minds of the audience the face of Edward Said]. On this basis, the whole history of dhimmitude and jihad disappeared.”

Robert Spencer – “Edward Said who in his book Orientalism [Book cover of “Orientalism – Edward Said” is projected on the screen] posited that criticism of the Islamic world on the part of Westerners is racist and imperialist. It is spread in order to spread political points. [Photo of book projected, subtitled: Dr. Edward Said, Ph.D., 1935 – 2003]. To accustom Westerners, to the idea that Muslims are here to stay in the United States and that they must not be questioned in terms of their loyalty to the secular framework of the Western society, to the United States and Europe as well. That they must not be questioned in this despite Islam’s historical, political character because Islam is a religion of peace. And, this fiction has become so much entrenched in American public discourse as to be practically beyond question. Such, that anybody who does question it is immediately branded as racist, hatemonger, a bigot and this is a very effective tool in a country where racism is the cardinal sin above all to silence any effective debate of continuing attachment of Muslim immigrants to Shariah Law and their intentions towards secular systems that they now reside.”

Rebuttal 63: Islam is a religion of peace. Period! Anyone who thinks otherwise is grossly mistaken. A reader who has reached this far in the rebuttal of this documentary must have read enough of quotations from Quran, Sunnah, Hadith and history by now to judge for themselves that Islam literally and figuratively means peace within a person and the society, between individuals and nations, between races and cultures. Islam as a moral code brings peace between one’s soul and God by removing bigotry, rancor and hate. The purpose of Islam is to achieve peace:

89:27. (As for the person who has been blessed with a contented and peaceful mind He will say to him,) `O you soul at peace!

7:56. And do not create disorder in the land after the fair ordering thereof and call on Him with fear (of His displeasure) and with hope (of His mercy). Surely the mercy of Allâh is always close to the doers of good to others.[Nooruddin]

The current segment of the documentary, like rest of it, reeks of bigotry. An undated and non-contextualized interview of Edward Said is shown. Fundamental question is that while late Dr. Edward Said is making an argument, why is his argument cut short?

Audience can judge for themselves when Bat Ye’or states – “The basis of and prophet of this new version of Islam as religion of peace and tolerance was Edward Said, who established in all universities and academia this Islamic version of peace.” This one sentence gives away the whole facade of the documentary. Edward Said was an academic and intellectual, to dismay of Ye’or, a Jerusalem born and American raised. He was born to Protestant Christian parents, confirmed as Anglican and lived as a cosmopolitan secularist. His arguments for finding tolerance and peace in Islam are based upon analysis of a critical and fair mind which does not need label of a religion.

Before and now the documentary is taking a different tack of reverse psychology on its unwitting audience to evoke racial hatred against Muslims in the West in general and United States in particular . It tries to eject racial equality that West has taken centuries to achieve both in letter and spirit of its culture and its law and instead infuse a venomous distrust and doubts about Muslims in the minds. It also deliberately ignores the fact that a significant number of Muslims in America are native born and majority of them are non-Whites for whose rights Dr. Martin Luther King was martyred –

Reverse psychology is a technique involving the advocacy of a belief or behavior that is opposite to the one desired, with the expectation that this approach will encourage the subject of the persuasion to do what actually is desired: the opposite of what is suggested. This technique relies on the psychological phenomenon of reactance, in which a person has a negative emotional response in reaction to being persuaded, and thus chooses the option which is being advocated against.

Examples in Popular Culture – Classic examples of reverse psychology in popular culture include a large, bright red button with a sign next to it saying “do not push”, or a sign saying “jump at your own risk”, such as in the computer game Neverhood, where a large drain is accompanied by signs that say “Do not jump in!” and “You will die!”, although jumping in the pipe is the only way to achieve game over in the whole game without finishing it. [excerpt from Wikipedia]

As is obvious by the statements of its so called experts, the documentary also uses another trick and that is Pavlovian conditioning i.e. couple the terrorist acts in the world with Islam so much that next terrorist act automatically makes one think of Islam as the cause before any other reason could be found or even if the investigation proves otherwise –

Conditioning is usually done by pairing the two stimuli, as in Pavlov’s classic experiments. Pavlov presented dogs with a ringing bell (conditioned stimulus) followed by food (unconditioned stimulus). The food (unconditioned stimulus) elicited salivation (unconditioned response), and after repeated bell-food pairings the bell also caused the dogs to salivate (conditioned response). [Wikipedia]

Both the experts are lamenting, Ye’or for her invented history of dhimmitude and jihad disappearing in face of facts and logic and Spencer for why is it ineffective and not okay to cast Muslims in America through the lens of racial hate and prejudice. Whether it is through the efforts of late Dr. Edward Said or others, the fact is that:

34:48. Say: Surely my Lord casts the Truth, the great Knower of the unseen.
34:49. Say: The Truth has come, and falsehood neither originates, nor reproduces.

Robert Spencer, Bat Ye’or, Serge Trifkovic, Abdullah Al-Araby, Walid Shoebat and the producers of the documentary must be wondering as to why their deceit does not work in the long run. Answer is in Quran:

21:18. Indeed, We hurl the Truth against falsehood, so it knocks out its brains, and lo! it vanishes. And woe to you for what you describe! [Muhammad Ali, ed. Zahid Aziz]

This concludes the section of the documentary focused on “Deceit” (Issues 53 to the present Issue 63). While falsely trying to inject deceit attributed to Islam into the minds of the audience, the documentary itself has factually relied on deceit as its main weapon. Obviously they have taken a page out modus operandi of intelligence agencies – “By Way Of Deception, Thou Shalt Do War.” – Proverb 24:6, a translation by Victor Ostrosky. [Wikipedia]

References:

Edward Said – Wikipedia
Edward Said: Secular Protestant – Books & Culture, a Christian Review
Reverse Psychology – Wikipedia
Classical Conditioning – Wikipedia
‘By Way of Deception’ by Victor Ostrosky – Wikipedia
Holy Quran – Nooruddin
Holy Quran – Muhammad Ali, edited by Zahid Aziz