Up until now the radical left has framed the “war on terror” as an excuse to perpetuate American aggression, and they have argued the attacks of 9/11 and other terrorist acts around the world were a response to brash historical American Imperialism. There are many documented cases of western leftists actually stating that the Americans deserved what they got, or at least “had it coming” on 9/11.
Now Al-Qaeda has threatened China over it’s treatment of the Uighurs in the past week:
A group called al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQM) is threatening attacks on the 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria, according to a report prepared by international risk consultants Sterling Assynt and revealed in the South China Morning Post Tuesday.
The Chinese government is taking its first threat from Osama bin Laden’s deadly network seriously. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters: “We will keep a close eye on developments and make joint efforts with relevant countries to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of overseas Chinese institutions and people.”
Clearly, these new threats of terrorism from al-Qaeda are unrelated to past acts of American Imperial aggression, so I am very curious to see how the radical left will respond to this new conflict.
We’ve seen in the past that demonstrations of outrage by the left have usually been reserved for conflicts that involve America or Israel, while they turn a blind eye to more universal issues such as freedom of speech, human rights, and gender equality. (Is it just me, or has the left been completely mum on the recent developments in Iran?)
Perhaps this time the left will side with the right – but since there’s no opportunity for America-bashing, I’m not holding my breath.
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It’s interesting that, while I’m highlighting the hypocrisy and the double standard displayed by the left, Tarek Fatah, in the National Post takes aim at the double standard of the Muslim world.
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Related: From an article in The Hamilton Spectator, November 27, 2008, Tahir Aslam Gora writes:
Ironically, writers such as Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Taslima Nasreen and Irshad Manji are the targets of these so-called leftists as well. These are the writers who have claimed their liberation from Islamic suffocation by putting their lives at risk. But they never get recognized by the hard-core left, which doesn’t behave any differently than fanatic Islamic clerics.
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In a related article, Clifford May writes:
Ask those on the left what values they champion, and they will say equality, tolerance, women’s rights, gay rights, workers rights and human rights. Militant Islamists oppose all that, not infrequently through the application of lethal force. So how does one explain the burgeoning left-Islamist alliance?