"What has anything got to do with the Holocaust?"
You want trenchant analysis? We got trenchant analysis. Did you see that piece in the NY Times, about Syrian-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan's TV interview on al-Jazeera? If the Times' "most emailed" list is anything to go by, the world has been lapping up her criticism of the supposed "Middle Ages" Islamic mentality. Now Adam Becker has struck back with his essay on one of my favourite websites, The Revealer, and has given her arguments the shredding they deserve. Sample quotes:
"Frankly, her statements are nothing new and people have only taken an interest in her because she is an Arab woman, which bestows her with an authenticity as vivid as her image on the computer screen. If a white psychiatrist from California said the same things, would her statements be passed around the internet like a celebrity sex video?"
You know you want more.
3 Comments:
Oh, silly James. You don't have trenchant analysis, you're just providing links to sites that do :)
But more seriously, what's your take on the Netherland's new immigration test?
My favourite quote from that article:
Famile Arslan, 34, an immigration lawyer of Turkish origin, agreed. “I have lived here for 30 years and have never been witness to two men kissing in the park. So why are they confronting people with that?” she said.
The Netherlands is currently shifting, seismically, under the burden of having come closer than any country in the world, over the past few decades, nay, centuries, to creating the perfect middle class society.
I think that's how imperfection becomes such a big problem that they start looking for ways to screen it out. Unfortunately, this has the effect of pinning the "problem" on "outside" people, newcomers. Wouldn't it be nice if Canadians didn't suffer from the same hypocrisy.
The more I read about it, the less I like the sounds of it.
My first reaction was "this is great, and so progressive! Holland is doing something to ensure that everyone who lives there feels safe and accepted! Now I'm not so sure.
It's supposed to be a measure to insure open-mindedness of immigrants to Holland, but by its very nature it is exclusionary. There's an automatic assumption that certain cultures won't be able to adapt and maybe (gasp) become more tolerant of different ways of life.
What really gets me is that several nations are exempt, including the US and Canada. So is anyone who has an education and makes more than $62,400 a year. So you can be a wealthy, right-wing Christian KKK member from Texas, and you'll be welcomed with open arms.
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