It makes me upset to see liberal Muslims teaming up with conservative Americans and Europeans in their journey to achieve their goals.

Actually, both sides are exploiting each other in that journey. The Muslims know that conservatives are happy to give them air-time to voice their concerns about Islam and the conservatives know that having those concerns voiced on their programs bolsters their own arguments.

But I think they are often pointing in two directions. While I will allow for the chance that some “critics of Islam” are actually concerned about the faith and wish for Islam to be followed more peacefully and want to bring Muslims back to true faith, I know that most (I would prefer to say all but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt) conservative commentators are NOT aiming for that goal. They want to have every opportunity to shame and ridicule Musims and defame and disprove Islam.

They see that having someone like Irshad Manji come on would be a great help for their audience to connect the dots (since the news corporations won’t allow them to say what they want to say) and realize that Islam is violent and evil. Notice that she hasn’t really been given a chance to muse about the beauty and future of Islam, her visions of true faith or delve into the reinterpretation of Quran. No, it’s mostly her childhood fights with her father, the death threats against her, complaining that Muslims are so backward and most of them don’t agree with her and so on…

She was on Glenn Beck recently for a full hour (ugh! I had to watch…) and while it was extremely irritating to hear Beck presuming expertise about Islam and, well, everything else (as he always does), I sat through it.

Here’s my copy-paste from transcript and comments. (Emphasis mine.)

MANJI: I speak at university campuses right across not just North America, but around the world. And invariably, young Muslims come up to me afterwards to whisper thank you in my ear. And when I ask them, why are you whispering? They say to me, “Irshad, you know, you have the luxury of being able to walk away from this campus two hours from now. I don’t, and I don`t want to be stalked for supporting your views.” And if they’re women, a lot of them say, “I don’t want to be raped for supporting your views.”

This I have a hard time believing. While it’s not outrageous to believe that a college-aged American woman might be raped (damn Shariah law!) at school, it is outrageous to think that, among American-Muslim women, “a lot of them” fear “rape” in retaliation for supporting Manji.

MANJI: … a very thin minority of Muslims ever engages in terror. The problem is that the vast majority of Muslims who call themselves moderates don’t speak up against it.

Just to add my voice to the thousands that actually do speak up against it: “I, Leena Jaffer, denounce all terror and violence against innocents.” Now, is Islamic terrorism solved? No. Speaking up, although an extremely important thing to do, does nothing (Manji admits this herself) to stop terrorism. Because the ones who believe in it, encourage it and practice it don’t care what we say.

But I will not take the other path (which would negate my denouncing of violence against innocents) and say that a physical (modern) war should be fought because of this ideology, unlike Beck. Manji’s reply to his question of “how do you defeat that without killing them” was to say to them “let’s hash this out through dialogue rather than resorting to violence.” Make a note of that one, Beck.

Then, a disappointing turn for the tabloid appeal from Beck, where he overlooks an important chance to give Manji time to expand her points…

MANJI: In other words, if you say that Islam has nothing to do with it, that`s a red flag to the terrorists, who do quote from the Koran. And they know that they now have free reign, because … nobody is coming back to them with competing interpretations.

Yes! Please ask her to explain the reinterpretation, let her clarify where the terrorists go wrong in Islam! Ah… no.

BECK: Let me back up. Let me find out about your life early on. Your mom and your dad, growing up Muslim. What was that like?

BECK: I understand that your father threatened to cut off your ears…

… Try to get him back on topic, Irshad…

MANJI: we are creating the world’s first leadership network of reform-minded Muslims, precisely, Glenn, so that we can fight back nonviolently.

The world’s first network of reform-minded Muslims that she is referring to is the upcoming Secular Islam Summit and its participants. I’m not able to find much information on all of the speakers, but I’m sure that at least 75% of them are atheists or “ex-Muslims”… So…

Jumping back to the treatment of women in Islamic nations, something I’m assuming is very close to the ultra-conservative heart of the man who once said “there ain’t something better than looking at a hot, naked chick. And I’m sorry for being so sexist, but if I can look at them 24 hours a day, I would.” (link). Yes, enlighten us, Glenn…

BECK: Tell me, because another thing that seems prevalent in the Middle East with the way it`s being practiced by extremists, it is so — it is so 12 century when it comes to women and the way women are treated. I mean, I could see being an extremist, you know, if you`re that kind of guy. You’d be like, hey, man, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you, and you have no rights.

… why aren`t you seeing the National Organization of Women stand up here and say this is an abomination?

Now, we all know his (repeated) mention of the “liberal” organization NOW is biased. Whether they stand with Manji and support her is a non-issue. Even a quick search of their site shows their concern and awareness of many various issues facing Muslim women (link). And Manji’s sites show many pictures of her with women activists. Beck loves to hallucinate that he’s the only one who cares… What a hero!

BECK: I’m being told I hate Arabs.

MANJI: But you’ve made your case very clear that you’ve never condemned an entire culture or even an entire religion. What you are doing is denouncing the individuals who commit these particular atrocities.

And you know what? Reasonable Arabs do the same thing. They also condemn individuals from America, such as your president, whom they argue are terrorists, too.

While I don’t really know if Beck “hates” Arabs, I know he is afraid of them. And black people. And especially black Muslims. He’s not really denouncing specific individuals, he suspects all of them. I hope the world will never, ever forget his disgusting display of racism and white man’s fear when he asked Congressman Ellison “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” and that he’s “afraid” to have “African-American friends” …

Moving on… Why don’t more people join Beck and Manji in their (similar but different) fight?

BECK: We live in a PC world. … We’re being told on global warming, you can’t ask any questions. This is a fact. And if you do, you’re a hate monger that hates the environment, and you want everybody to burn to death.

YES. You are a hate-monger for more reasons than your denial of global warming. Beck is one of those who prefers to ignore scientists and the United State’s own EPA and possibly hundreds of other organizations who say global warming is real and caused by human pollution. Like his buddy and hero Bush, he probably believes the LIE that reduction in emissions would be too costly to the American economy. But this is off-topic…

An amusing twist to the conversation…

BECK: I don`t mean to overstate anything, but are you — in the middle of the night, you’ve had to have these thoughts — are you willing to have your story end the way [Martin Luther King, Jr.’s] story did?

MANJI: Yes.

Manji admitting (here and other places) her willingness to become a martyr for her beliefs. Very amusing…

BECK: … you know, when a Christian will say, you know, “That guy`s the devil himself,” generally speaking, not universally, but generally speaking that Christian is not then going shoot you or blow you up. You can’t say the same thing. There’s a bigger percentage of Muslims that will.

MANJI: I don’t know that I would put it that way, that there`s a bigger percentage, but this I will say: There’s a much bigger percentage of Muslims who will stay silent when you are threatened than there are Christians who would stay silent, even in the Catholic Church, when you are threatened.

Keeping in mind the thousands of cases of abuse by Catholic clergy and perhaps hundreds of years of official cover ups, I find the comparison unbalanced. I’m also sure that the average Muslim doesn’t even know anyone who engages in these kinds of activities. If you’re doing something illegal, you don’t usually do it out in the open. With all the death threats Manji has received, how many has she been able to successfully report to authorities? Likely very few since the threatening parties usually do their work through e-mails or in large groups where it’s usually impossible to identify them. Which is the same problem any other good person would face.

BECK: We don’t have a problem with Islam. We know Muslims. Most of us know Muslims. We know that they`re peaceful, but we see these people come on television after there’s a bombing or some atrocity and they say, “Wait, media, you`re spinning this out of control.”

Spinning it out of control? There are dead bodies in the street with somebody who got onto a bus and blew up children, et cetera. How can you be attacking the media or me pointing this out? Why aren’t you saying nutjobs like that need to be stopped?

First, I highly doubt that Beck knows any Muslims. If he’s afraid of having black friends, I can’t imagine his fear of offending a Muslim friend or acquaintance! Maybe he just means that he sees them on TV?

Secondly, his comment “Why aren’t you saying nutjobs like that need to be stopped?” seems like a valid question until you consider that what he is really encouraging support for is an all-out destruction of the Middle East by any means necessary, nuking Mecca and everything. Basically, he wants Muslims to support more terror in the name of “The War on Terror”… as he shows a bit later with:

BECK: Do you believe [in] violence to stop violence or not?

Manji gracefully side-steps his partisan talking-points and responds:

MANJI: I’ve also made the point very clearly in my book that violence and military hardware will never be enough to change the hearts and minds of people. You’ve got to use what the Harvard professor Joseph Nye has called “soft power.”

For example, why haven’t the women of Iraq been given micro-business loans to start their own community ventures, learned to read and write for themselves, you know, build schools? Some of that is happening in Afghanistan, but precious little.

Why haven’t, Glenn, the secularists in Iraq been empowered? This administration, I am heartbroken to say, has empowered the theocrats in Iraq, not the secularists.

BECK: I think, you know, honestly, I think that it was to try to pacify the Middle East by saying, “We’re not trying to create another America.” Why wouldn’t we try to create another America, and democracy, and freedom, and install a right to freedom, freedom of religion and speech? Why wouldn’t we want another America?

Beck is in a funny position of hating American secularists and feminists and absolutely adoring their equals on the Eastern side. Why? How? The “Islamists” have the same reverence and admiration for their own wacky lifestyles and beliefs and likewise, agree that they should be forced on others. What’s the difference here? One is good and one is bad? Which side decides?

BECK: You may have already answered this, but I still can’t — twice this week, I’ve sat with Muslim women or one that used to be a Muslim that is — they’re speaking out, and they both have serious security issues.

MANJI: Why do you keep coming back to that, Glenn?

BECK: Because I cannot — because it’s almost like it proves me wrong. I say it is 10 percent or less that is radicalized, and yet your voice is so alone in the wilderness.

Sadly, Beck can’t get over his own political correctness and admit that he WANTS to be proven wrong! He doesn’t actually believe the things that CNN waters down and forces him to edit, so he’s very delicately trying to let his guests do the dirty work.