I have been an admirer of much of the writing of Canadian Tarek Fatah for quite some time now. As an outspoken critic of radical Islamism Tarek has shown a very rare – and very brave – willingness to speak out about the injustices and the hypocrisy of Islamic institutions that many within the Muslim world have been silent on.
In his recent posts he has taken his criticism even further, once again reflecting critically on adherents of his own left-leaning political views:
“I am going to ask Chomsky why the US left appears to have a soft corner for some of the most brutal murderers of Muslims—the al Qaeda and the Taliban,” says Fatah. “Would he have remained silent if the victims of the Taliban had been Americans? I will suggest to him that part of the Left that seems unable or unwilling to slam the misogyny and homophobia of the jihadi radicals, is practicing a racism of lower expectations that places Muslims as less than human.”
But alas, the intention of this post is not to heap more praise on Tarek – even though his work deserves praise. Rather, I wanted to draw attention to one of Tarek’s recent remarks, quoted in the National Post. The article itself is worth a read, but it was this that caught my attention:
“The racist right will talk about these things to frighten people about immigrants. The liberal-left has abandoned its responsibility to fight medievalism. And nobody wants to talk about what is really happening here.”
Tarek, many of us here on the right are talking about this issue, and I must question why you denigrate the credit for this discourse by claiming the right is motivated only by racism and a desire to curtail immigration. Is it not conceivable that there are some values that we share, and that we might be as passionate about them as you are? Values such as individual freedom, gender equality, and political self-determination? Why are you able to claim noble motivations for your position, while the right is demonized, accused of being motivated by racism?
Not only is the “racist” stereotype you are perpetuating offensive to right-leaning folks like myself, but it damages the cause you have so bravely fought for.
Andrew,
Thank you for your kind words.
I distinguish between the ‘right’ on one hand and the anti-immigrant racist right. I certainly do not mean the conservative aspect of Canadian political hue is racist or anti-immigrant.
Take for instance Mulroney and Trudeau. In Trudeau’s last year as PM, only 94,000 immigrants were allowed to enter Canada, while Mulroney for all his faults opened the doors to 250,000 immigrants into Canada in 1987 (the year I arrived).
Having said that there is no denying that every time the Islamists do what they do best, many right-wing blogs clamour for a tightened immigration policy, not realizing that most of these guys waging jihad are of the born-in-Canada variety.
Despite the fact I am a Liberal, I admire Jason Kenney and support his policies on immigration and ‘Canadian Identity’.
It is very difficult to play the right-left game and in retrospect, I should not have said “racist-right”, but restricted the label to just “racist”, after all there are plenty of them in the NDP.
Thank you Tarek for taking the time to clarify your remark.