Listen carefully to what Tarek Fatah says around 1:36. Brian Lilley handles things very tactfully but, in a Canadian context, it’s incomprehensible how a man despised by conservatives and applauded by Radical Leftists can possibly be labeled a “right-wing extremist”. Perhaps someone could publish a Fatah-to-English translation guide?
h/t Matt from Mississauga
Fatah is a man of the left. Anyone he doesn’t like is “right wing.”
Kate and I had a similar experience in Israel 🙂 After exchanging glances and stiffling giggles, we had to break it to the Very Important Guy doing our briefing that, er, WE were “right wing”.
Naturally, he (like Tarek) meant it as synonymous with “weird, backward bad guys.”
“Right Wing” is applied to many political views that those on the left would prefer people forget the true origins of.
Here are some tidbits from an extreme right wing organization.
“The relationship between officers and soldiers was also less formal than in the regular armed forces.”
“The military rank prefix “Sir” was forbidden, and all ranks were addressed simply by their title (for example, a private would address a Major-General as Major General, never as Sir
“Off duty, junior ranks would address their seniors either as “Comrade” or “Party colleague”, depending on if both were members of the party.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology_of_the_SS
Sounds like a bunch of right wing fanatics to me.
The only place you can find liberals and logic close together is in a dictionary.
I think they know they are insulting social conservatives with this nudge nudge wink wink reference to “conservative religious extremists” as though such terms meant very much out of a western context. Anyway, apply the Bush test to them, if they won’t vote for W, they ain’t no conservatives. They’s be some other kind of animule. (hint, starts with g and ends with t).
Someone should mail a copy of Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” to Fatah. Perhaps then he would understand that totalitarianism, or to be closer to Goldberg – statism, has always been and is still the religion of the political left.
Liberal is a term that has been co-opted by the socialist left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Liberalism
I think he’s referring to Islamist right wing, in the same way you call the Islamist hardliners “conservative” (in a muslim only context)
They are traditionalists for islam, as opposed to tradionalists for western enlightment/civilization.
Liberal is a term that is used by certain power elites to hold power over otherwise completely politically ignorant people. The term itself has a certain cache that is appealing to the ignorant. For many of said ignorant liberal = good. Of course anyone who has a different mindset must be evil since the opposite of good is evil and thus anyone who is not liberal must be conservative. Therefore in their clueless little minds Liberal = Good and Conservative = Evil. Even though most of the ‘liberal’ gains came under the leadership of ‘conservatives’ and most of those gains were opposed by liberals for many their political view is summed up with Liberal – Good; Conservative = Evil.
I think Fatah pretty much admitted that fascists are far left wing. He partly left the NDP because of it.
jeff has it right @ 9:39.
If you recall the time of the attempted coup in about 1991 by the communist hardliners in Moscow when Yeltsin climbed on the tank by the Moscow White House and a few shots were fired at the White House, the incident was referred to by the media as a right wing coup. “Right wing” was the term used to describe the group opposed to the communist regime loosing its control.
Fatah was using the tern right wing in that sense.
How does the line go… so far left that they’re sneaking up on the right from the other side.
In my view, Fatah is a socialist first-that is what animates him: socialism. That is what informs his anti-clerical statements, his discourse on antisemitism too. The Jew is Not My Enemy, etc…but Israel is certainly not his friend-nor Zionism. He is not the pro Judeo-Christian that many naive people think he is. He is motivated first and primarily by socialism, not a love of Zion, America or western democracy.
Agree with Jeff and Kulak. “Right” isn’t some absolute place on the political spectrum, it’s a direction relative to where one stands. If I face North, on my right is East; if I face South, West is on my right.
We are so used to thinking of the application of Left and Right in our own little bubble, that we tend to think of it as a label instead of a vector.
Perhaps we need to revive the proper use of the term “radical”, meaning “from the roots”.
PET Cemetery Report.
Shafia’s Mohammedanism: a cannibal.
H/T Big Bertha Wilson.
…-
“Afghan woman strangled to death, apparently for bearing girl”
“An Afghan woman has been strangled to death, apparently by her husband, who was upset that she gave birth to a second daughter rather than the son he wanted, police said Monday.
It was the latest in a series of grisly examples of subjugation of women that have made headlines in Afghanistan in the past few months — including a 15-year-old tortured and forced into prostitution by in-laws and a female rape victim who was imprisoned for adultery.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/afghan-woman-strangled-to-death-apparently-for-bearing-girl/article2319381/
…-
Al-Fatah uses AlMohammed’s takkiya to beguile/deceive. Takkiya = dissembling, lying, dissimulation as AlMohammed taught.
Remember, Fatah also feels that the Canadian Forces are too well equiped and he considers them to be an army of occupation in Afghanistan.
The joys of a DVR, so I can FF through any segment on SN that has this moron on.
Jeff @ 9:39 has it exactly right.
Kathy Shaidle’s remarks: “Fatah is a man of the left. Anyone he doesn’t like is “right wing.”
This is the same Kathy Shaidle who commented on Jan 20 over at the Anchoress regarding the audience’s reaction to Newt Gingrich’s debate performance:
“And yet: that standing o was so “reptilian brain” it curdled my stomach.”
Another commenter’s response to Kathy mirrors my own:
“Kathy is amusing but don’t take her seriously. If half the stuff she says about herself are true then she is a terribly damaged person.”
And Robert: Surely you can’t be that thick.
Tarek Fatah (and Prof. Salim Mansur) know what they are talking about.
He puts his life on the line every time he comes on the media to explain in detail the danger presented to Canadian society by the fundamentalist mainstream ideology of the Iranian Shia Ayatollahs, the Sunni Saudi Wahabis, the Muslim Brotherhood and others.
Don’t get your nose out of joint because, you as a Canadian identify, with a term that we use to magnify our relatively small differences in ideology.
Our centre, centre-left, centre right political jockeying is not comparable to Islamo-fascism in Iran imprisoning or slaughtering anyone who disagrees with them politically or religiously.
Tarek Fatah acknowledges he’s be killed back in Pakistan for the interviews he gives here and even for writing his book “The Jew is not my enemy”.
He receives death threats regularly for doing what he does. He’s putting his life on the line to defend Canadian lives and values, show him due respect.
@Larry
Tarek Fatah and Salim Mansur have completely different opinions, political perspectives and educational backgrounds. How can you conclude that Fatah represents Canadian values? What values precisely? Due respect? For what?
Tarek Fatah I regard not so much as the enemy of mine enemy is my friend but rather like, waking in the morning is better than the alternative.
I actually admire Tarek Fatah for speaking out against Radical Islam. He’s willing to do so much more than say … Justin Trudeau. For that he should be applauded.
But when it comes to conservatives, especially conservative women such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, etc., he consistently expresses utter disdain & dismissal.
I think the earlier comment about him being a socialist first & foremost is pretty much bang on. But I sense that he has much inner conflict which probably won’t get resolved in this lifetime.
“But when it comes to conservatives, especially conservative women such as Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, etc., he consistently expresses utter disdain & dismissal.”
That not leftism, that’s old fashioned misogyny. Like his most frequent host Michae Coren, he’s an inveterate misogynist. There are only two women Coren has any respect for, it is more fear thyan respect – Ann Coulter and Barbara Kay – both I suspect because he knows they can and will kick his butt if he evew thinks of smneering in their direction. Fatah is just a kinder, gentler version of Coren, when it comes to women.
mikhail silo – what does one thing have to do with the other? Shaidle’s not completely gung-ho for a candidate you like, so therefore she isn’t able to understand the difference between right and left? Your comment makes no sense, so why should I take you seriously?
Just added that to my About Me page. Thanks!
PS: Ann Coulter agreed with me re Newt’s response. We both may be damaged but you’re an anonymous commenter and we’re professional writers.
Wow, a couple of years off the dole, and suddenly someone is a Conservative, and a professional writer.
This Fatah character is a trojan horse. As Merrin said to Father Damien, “Dont listen to it”! All these muslims who claim to speak for the moderate majority, are to be vigorously ignored. They have 1500 years practice of preying on the inherent weakness of Christians, that is, the tendency to see good in all people.
Skip-I don’t think Coren hates women, but I think he has issues let’s say, with women, probably sex also. There is definitely something weird under the cool surface.
If T.Fatah were to renounce islam, then I might feel differently about him. Wolf in sheep’s clothing. You either believe what the koran says or you can’t call yourself muslim. J.M.O.
I agree with Jeff, Ken and Gord that Fatah is correct in calling him a “right wing extremist”. The fact that he is embraced by the left is no more stupifying than womens groups defending burka use (while liberating by banning the bra), or Queers Against Israeli Apartheid supporting the very regimes that would see them imprisoned or worse executed.
Say you’re anti-US and anti-Israel and you’ve gained admission to any leftist frat party.
Skip, I’ve watched Michael Coren for years. I think you’re completely off base on your attributions.
gordonkneehill is right in his first sentence. To Terek, who is a former NDPeer and therefore socialist in his thinking, this other fellow is right wing not in the sense of conservative versus liberal politics, but in wanting to maintain and expand 7th century society. Similar to my analogy above @ 10:13; the radical left wing communists were behaving right wing in the sense that they wanted to maintain their radical left power.
Robert’s caption “A Strange Definition of Right-wing Extremist” in my mind alludes to that.
These tags have been lost on most people, just as “red neck”, which originally referred to White field workers with sunburns.
Robert, skip is bang on about Coren WRT women. You only had to watch his opening piece last week about women in the military to see he is only about a half thought away from chastity belts and burkas.
For Kathy, the professional writer:
I don’t self-identify as “right wing”.
I’m realistic, pragmatic.
I’ve learned that it’s now impossible to restore the word liberal to its original meaning, the polar opposite of its current meaning.
I’ve also learned that you can talk til your blue in the face about Hitler being left wing (right on a purely totalitarian spectrum), but it won’t take. It won’t take. Hitler was “right wing” and you’re a fascist/nazi if you’re “right wing”. So, don’t be DUMB and self-identify yourself with rightist socialists.
Learn to fly without WINGS. Self-identify as a “individualist” as distict from “collectivist”. Also tell your interlocutors, who are fond of “choice” in key cultural matters, that collectivism is fine too as long as you have a choice! I mean, if you have a choice about killing a fetus, shouldn’t you have a choice about being enrolled in a collective?
Don’t be STUPID by using the left’s language against yourself.
Atlantic Jim: Interesting it is that when you watch and listen to Coren you think of Chastity Belts and Burkas. Not flaming, just find it interesting.
Maybe you like the idea of women in Front Line Combat? Personally I don’t. I have enough to worry about without caving in to or suppressing the male urge to protect the weaker sex in the middle of a firefight, with people screaming and being badly hurt. Just another complication in a complicated situation.
Laura: I wouldn’t say Coren hates women. Misogyny isn’t about hate necessarily. Patronizing condescension is more his style.
Robert W.: I used to think so too, until I started watching him more closely around women when Sarah Palin came on the scene. Go back and watch his tapes with the various female regulars he’s had – with the possible exception of Mercedes Stephenson, they’ve all been pretty much foils for his attiudes. When he talks about Palin, he gets outright dismissive and its obvious its gender driven. It appears he really doesn’t like women in power roles. I’d like to see him interview Sarah, she would slice and dice him and use him for fish bait, politely, of course.
Patsplace, you find it interesting doing you? Well isn’t that fascinating.
As for women in the front line? I’ve served alongside women for 21 years. Like their male counterparts, there are some complete duds and some that are totally outstanding. The majority fall in between. Male and female. At the end of the day it’s that person you put yourself on the line for, not wether they stand or sit to take a leak. To suggest that an wounded male would not be as much of a concern as an wounded female tells me everything I need to know about your understanding of serving the Colours.
Me No Dhimmi, I agree, and it bugs me that some words have been co-opted by various groups as their own.
Man! Comments ref: Fatah and Cornen.
Didn’t realize there were so many politico-psychoanalysts in the SDA audience.
Here I was – denied all this insight – thinking all along that they were pretty decent fellows.
A closet commie and a patronizing mysoginist! Gosh, who’d a thunk it?
MacMaster, everybody has faults, just like you. Didn’t say Coren OR Fatah weren’t decent folks. I actually like Fatah, although I don’t agree with him at times. Same with Coren, when he’s not being insufferable. You’re up for re-evaluation…
/sarc
“Fatah is a socialist first-that is what animates him: socialism.”
I know that Fatah was once a socialist, in fact I think he was jailed in Pakistan (or India — I forget) for his social activism many years ago. But I don’t know that he’s still a “socialist” at least in the messed-up politically-correct post-modern fascist expression of it.
Fatah was sometimes a visiting lecturer when I was in U. and he struck me more as a libertarian and genuine human rights advocate (not the phony HRC brand). He definitely did not appear to be “a socialist first” when I heard him lecture almost 20 years ago, but I could be wrong.
Maybe somebody should actually ask Tarek Fatah if he’s still socialist or what that word means to him — Marxist, commie, fellow-traveller, or simply a social benevolence — “good Samaritan” type (the non-Jew in the parable of Jesus who was just and good)?
Addenda to the above.
Most of you will remember the words of George Bush Sr. when he said: “He who is not for us, is AGAINST us”. Well, Bush’s philosophy was a complete reversal of the idea from the N.T. The actual words of the man from Nazareth were: “He who is not against us, is FOR us”.
The latter reflects a non-paranoid and healthy view of the world, and a realistic understanding of who your enemies actually are. I think Bush sometimes lacked that realism (and Obama is certainly not an improvement).
Addenda to the addenda.
Don’t forget that others such as Irshad Manji were also “socialists”. Manji especially up until a few years ago was a radical Left feminist — she was absolutely sickening to listen to.
But today she is taking up the cause of women oppressed under Islam instead of unfairly bashing Canadian men, and like Tarek Fatah she is closer to the cause of libertarianism and political realism. Both of these people as libertarian Muslims have received serious death threats in their new roles, something that would never occur with status quo Dipper “socialists”.
Skip:
Michael Coren is absolutely NOT a misogynist. He’s anti-PC in believing that women shouldn’t be on the front lines in combat. Size, strength, temperament. He believes — GASP! — that women and men are different.
Right or wrong, this could possibly be construed as old-fashioned male paternalism but clearly not misogyny, any more than holding a door for a lady is misogyny or allowing women to leave a sinking ship first is misogyny.
I do not adhere or subscribe to the tenents of Islam, BUT…………
It wasn’t Islam which was the guiding force of the progressives who successfully changed the ethos of Canada.
It was the Cultural Marxism and deconstructionalism of the liberal left which destroyed the old Canada.
Antonio Gramsci was a smart fellow. His ‘march through the institutions’ gameplan has proven no match for the old order.
In fact, I rather admire the Islamists: they actually stand up for their beliefs instead of cower, compromise and prevaricate.
Never mind that they are just one more battering ram used by those who want have successfully put up an improbable alliance of feminists, Islamists, multiculuralists, juvenile leftists and gays to destroy the West.
After the above mentioned coalition triumphs, my bet is on the Islamists to emerge as the real new power, here in Canada, and the rest of the world.
Don’t shoot the messenger, please.
“…Don’t shoot the messenger, please.” Posted by: Observer at January 30, 2012 5:11 PM
No shots being fired from this bunker…
History certainly does not exist within a vacuum, and if we do not succeed in stopping it the Islamists will definitely fill the moral vacuum in the West that you identify.
Punishment for foolishly selling our valuable inheritance for “a bowl of [mushy] porridge”?
Observer, don’t bet on it.
…and the word is ‘tenets.’
MacMaster, everybody has faults, just like you. Didn’t say Coren OR Fatah weren’t decent folks. I actually like Fatah, although I don’t agree with him at times. Same with Coren, when he’s not being insufferable. You’re up for re-evaluation…
/sarc
Posted by: Skip at January 30, 2012 3:37 PM
Don’t recall singling you out. But flushing works. I’ll keep your ‘touchiness’ in mind…
Go with the terms statist and individualist. That works better than left/right conservative/liberal/socialist.
To “chutzpahticular”:
Why wouldn’t I ‘bet’ on it?(The triumph of Islam)
There is a direct connection between ascending and declining cultures, and that can be measured in the birth rate.
Muslims have a birthrate that increases their number. Europeans don’t, and actually abort millions of them. Notwithstanding the fact the Muslims probably kill a few hundred post-fetuses year in honour killings.
It’s not just Europeans: there is a piece on the internet today about the economic decline of Japan and the fact their population is going to shrink by 30% in the next few generations.
A strong and virile culture doesn’t shrivel and shrink, and remain ascendant.
A culture and civilization that doesn’t have the will to defend it’s values and who’s values lead to the shrinkage of it’s demographic numbers will soon be in the dustbins of history.
And will be replaced be a culture and civilization who does have the will to stand up for their beliefs and procreate.
Observer, in my view, strong and virile cultures do not seek to keep approximately half of the population DOWN. Virile men like women.
As for population growth, I get your point.
Good point chutzpahticular.
And according to one view I recently encountered the Muslim ummah may soon be faciing its own demographic bomb.
We must be careful about extrapolating a current trend into infinity. Remember the zero-population missed the mark by doing that.
Virile men like women. BINGO.
Me No Dhimmi, yeah, if population growth were the deciding factor, Hutterites and natives would be taking over Saskatchewan. 🙂