Light Blogging/Bruce Bawer’s New Book
Given how busy I am with school work (two projects and one paper due in the coming week) and events for my college alumni association (of which I am the LA regional president), I doubt I will be able to blog much this week and when I do only briefly.
I just finished Bruce Bawer’s most excellent While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within which I had planned on reviewing this week. But, given that my school work takes precedence and that I want to write a review worthy of a book this good — and this important, I’ll hold off on writing until I can put in the time it takes to say (and say well) what I want to say about it. For now, suffice it to say that I recommend this book as it offers a striking picture of the Old World’s pusillanimity when it comes to facing Islamofascism, not only in the Middle East, but especially on the European continent itself.
While Bruce does not limit himself to the threats Islamofascism poses to gay people who enjoy many freedoms and privileges in Europe they lack outside the West, his book is of particular importance to gay people. A gay man himself (and author of one of the best books on homosexuality in American society, A Place at the Table (another tome I highly recommend), Bruce notes that when choosing between minorities in their midst, European governments (more often than not) cater to the anti-gay (and misogynist) views of Muslim extremists.
So rather than wait for my review, I highly recommend that you buy and read this book.
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The most important point in Bawer’s book is that the European social-welfare state has placed basic Western values (freedom of speech, women’s rights, religious and racial tolerance) in jeopardy. You’ll come away from it with the impression that America passed welfare reform not a moment too soon — for which, let’s remember, we have Congressional Republicans to thank.
Comment by Tim Hulsey — March 22, 2006 @ 4:36 am - March 22, 2006
Sounds like a very interesting read. And you have been kind enough to provide the link to where we can buy it from Amazon.
And lets pray for heaven on earth!
You may chant the following prayer:
Dearest, greatest, holiest!
Please give us all, the full heaven on earth!
I thank you, and I worship you.
Best
Comment by picture of zoroastrianism — March 22, 2006 @ 6:57 am - March 22, 2006
He is good in general. His “Who Stole Jesus” is more of the same on basically the same issue.
In European non-European minorities trump European minorities in the deserving-of-protection scramble – it makes the elites feel more virtuous; bigger moral victory, since they really despise the darkies more and this reflects so well on their high-mindedness. .
Comment by Jim — March 22, 2006 @ 12:50 pm - March 22, 2006
3: Not really the same issue — in Stealing Jesus Bawer took on the Christian religious right, while in While Europe Slept his primary targets are theocratic Islamists and more important, the multicultural Left.
Comment by Tim Hulsey — March 22, 2006 @ 7:24 pm - March 22, 2006
To Bruce Bawer
Just read your short article in LA Times re While Europe Slept.
My uncles and dad served in WWII and I remember that war. Became a historian of new religious movements. Classify al-Qaida in my last paper, to be published in an edited collection this year or next year.
Studied al-Qaida since 9/11. Opposed Iraq invasion on grounds that proved prescient.
Your views on defense are neo-conservative, as you know. They are far too simplistic to fit history and reflect blindness to the complexities and effectiveness of conflict resolution profession. I know this because my work has concerned conflict resolution with terrorist-type entities and so-called “cults.”
What we defend ourselves with are weapons that are inhumane and constitute state terrorism. Please familiarize yourself with another gay author’s great extended essay, _A Chorus of Stones_, if you haven’t already. Study the effects of nuclear testing on Khazakstani residents. Learn what the nuclear industry has done to contaminate sites in the U.S. Measure this knowledge against your stance that favors ancient theories of war.
The world is too complicated for your reductionist view.
My studies have taught me that terrorists can be best approached by exploiting weaknesses in their ideologies, not by militant response alone or by excising them from the human race by applying some normative label, such as “evil.” They are unfortunately just like us. They are us. And sometimes we are them.
The WWII analogy is not apt, but it is preferred by those who wish to manage perceptions. This is both ignorant and arrogant. It makes us vulnerable to falling behind our enemies’ mindset/ strategies, unable to outhink and strategize them.
I wrote the history of a small set of wars, a sort of naturally-occuring experiment in nation founding wars and my research taught me that military reductionism will intensify war rather than diminish it. Formulating an evil enemy is necessary to overcome our natural inclination not to kill. Conflict resolution theories teach us how to find less catastrophic means to reduce and/or eliminate threat. I participated in advising the resolution of a critical incident and from that I and my colleagues recorded what we learned in published papers.
Sun Tzu did not live in a nuclear age.
Best wishes,
Jean E. Rosenfeld
historian of religion and violence
Comment by jean rosenfeld — September 2, 2007 @ 3:05 pm - September 2, 2007