This article was originally published by San Diego Rostra on June 14, 2010.
From Pajamas Media June 13, 2010 regarding PBS pundit Travis Smiley’s interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
“Recently, Smiley’s guest was none other than Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the internationally renowned social critic and author of Infidel. She was on the show to promote her new book, Nomad. If you are unfamiliar with this woman’s amazing and courageous story, Hirsi Ali fled a traditional Muslim life in Somalia, a life that included being the victim of female genital mutilation as a child, and eventually made her way to the Netherlands where she rejected Islam and literally underwent an intellectual awakening. She now lives in America. Hirsi Ali’s name made international headlines after her colleague, Theo van Gogh, was butchered by a Muslim assassin in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street in Amsterdam. The Muslim immigrant vowed to kill both van Gogh and Hirsi Ali after the release of Submission, a film they made together that spotlighted the treatment of women under Islam. This was the woman who walked onto Tavis Smiley’s PBS show to promote her new book. Nomad calls on key institutions of the West — universities, feminists, and Christian churches — to wage a war of ideas against Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. However, Smiley was in no mood to hear Hirsi Ali’s arguments that placed Islam in a bad light. He wanted to assert the old leftist claim that Islam is always and everywhere “a religion of peace.”
Look at this jaw-dropping exchange between Smiley and Hirsi Ali:
Smiley: But Christians do that every single day in this country. …
Ali: Do they blow people up every single day?
Smiley: Yes, Christians. Every day, people walk into post offices, they walk into schools that are what Columbine — I mean I could do this all day long. There’s so many more examples of Christians — and I happen to be a Christian — that’s back to this notion of you idealizing Christianity to my read. There’s so many more examples, Ayaan, of Christians who do that than you could ever give me examples of Muslims who have done that inside this country where you live and work.”
COMMENTARY: Let me respond first to Smiley’s statement that he too is a Christian. Undoubtedly, the intention was to add credibility to his remarks but such comments don’t exactly knock me out of my chair. I meet people all the time who attend church and haven’t the foggiest notion what Jesus taught. For example, Jesus forbids Peter to take up the sword. Mohammad would have commanded such an action. There is no justification in the Bible for cold-blooded murder but there are actual, literal commands in the Koran to kill those who refuse to convert to Islam (Surah 9). In any event, only Smiley can speak for how much he has studied the Bible, but this Ayaan Hirsi Ali.interview does offer a clue to Smiley’s knowledge of current events inasmuch as he offered a comment that could even make Rosie O’Donnell blush.
Every day, Christians walk into schools and post offices to shoot people? Every day? I’d love to hear some examples. Oh, that’s right. He did provide an example, Columbine. Mr. Smiley, did you buy a pair of glasses from the Bizarro world when you read about Columbine? I ask, only because you are reporting the exact opposite of what happened. The Columbine killers were not Christians. In fact, a girl named Cassie Bernall was shot, only after the psychopath Dylan Klebold asked her if she believed in God. She said, “Yes,” He said, “Why?” and then Cassie was shot dead. Of course, that’s only the testimony of Joshua Lapp, a student who was actually in the room witnessing the event. I guess ol’ Smiley knows something Josh doesn’t.
But maybe Smiley doesn’t need to be accurate about Columbine when it’s only one of many examples. Remember, Christians are walking into post offices and schools to kill people every day. That has to be either the most outrageous statement of three centuries combined, or the greatest misuse of hyperbole in the history of the English language. Smiley seems to be operating out of the assumption that all Americans who are not Jews or Muslims are Christians by default. Therefore, whenever we read about an American who murdered, we can more or less assume the guy was a Christian, especially if his parents dragged him to mass as a kid. Once in a blue moon, (usually with many years in between) some nut case commits violence in the name of Christianity. During such extremely rare occasions, evangelical churches immediately condemn the killing faster than the Indianapolis 500.
As for Muslims, even if we wanted to forget about Europe and the Middle East (since Smiley is talking about America) following 9/11 (a day when Muslims killed 3000 innocent Americans ) a smaller plane was crashed into a Florida building, two snipers shot 13 people on the east coast, two people at the Israeli airline in LXX were killed, a Jewish day care center was shot up, a foiled bomber tried to blow up a football game at Penn State, another foiled plan tried to set off a car bomb in New York City, and 13 soldiers were murdered in Ft. Hood. Oops. I almost forgot the infamous underwear bomber. Oh yes, a cab driver murdered his daughter and a television station owner murdered his wife. Quite a variety of crimes to be sure., but with one universal theme: In every instance, the perpetrators were Muslims acting in the name of their religion. Where are all the “peaceful Muslims” when this snake oil floods our nation? Oh, sure, a few “moderate” pundits go on television, but when you listen carefully between the lines, you hear things like, “A terrible action of course, which we categorically renounce, but still, I do hope America has learned something about always taking Israel’s side. If not for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. terrorists would not be so emboldened.”
Bottom Line: Since Smiley and others feel free to criticize Christianity without fear of their lives, I think the jury is in about whether even Politically Correct Americans truly believe this ridiculously fact starved moral equivalence comparison. While pondering the false hood about who is or is not causing death, let’s at least be clear about something that has truly died; the mainstream media. May the voices of town criers be heard across the land, “The mainstream media is dead. Long live the new media!”
NOTE: I am aware that there are conflicting reports about the Cassie Bernall story, but the student I specifically referenced, Joshua Lapp, insists it happened exactly that way.
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