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American Liberty, Barack Obama, BBC, Brigitte Gabriel, Christianity and Islam, Counter-Jihad, Counterjihad, Debbie Schlussel, Defend the modern world, Islam, Islamophobia, Jihadwatch, Kevin Carroll, Multiculturalism, No to Turkey in the EU, Pamela Geller, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Robert Spencer, SION, Tommy Robinson, Transatlantic Kerfuffle, United States, Walid Shoebat
Anyone involved with the CounterJihad movement will be familiar with the Website ‘Loonwatch’. As its name would imply, the site is intended to be a satirical antidote to Jihadwatch (and other similar websites).
Normally, the articles posted on Loonwatch are of scant interest (most simply recycle the garbage idea that Islamophobes are somehow guilty of racism), but this past week, a more analytical piece was uploaded that demands greater attention. The piece is titled ‘Crumbling “Counterjihad”? EDL, SION, SIOA and the Transatlantic Kerfuffle’, and its main contention is that the ‘Islamophobic’ movement is falling apart.
The author of the post – ‘Garibaldi’ – writes that “The reasons for the inherent instability in the “counter-Jihad” reflects the fissures in ideological make up between the various personalities, as well as incongruities between their inflated egos.” (Note: ‘Reflects’ in this sentence should be singular)
Garibaldi then cites a history of ‘internecine civil wars amongst the counter-Jihad’ including the following perceived confrontations.. “Debbie Schlussel vs. Brigitte Gabriel, Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Zuhdi Jasser, Walid Shoebat, etc… (Robert) Spencer vs. Andrew Bostom. Roberta Moore of the JDL vs. the EDL and now the latest kerfuffle: Geller and Spencer vs. Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll.”
While many of the schisms mentioned were (and in some cases still are) real, they are nothing more than symptomatic of a vibrant, democratically-spirited movement with a tolerance for dissent. Indeed, this might contrast sharply with the almost cult-like uniformity typical of Leftist movements.
Debbie Schlussel, to take one example, is a proudly independent cultural critic. The same is true of Pamela Geller. The fact that they sometimes disagree seems hardly worthy of comment. Both espouse the same kind of opinion, face down the same bullies and name-throwers, and expose themselves to the same risks.
Ms Geller’s accusations against Tommy Robinson similarly have been taken out of context here. Both Geller and Robinson remain essentially in agreement over the need to tackle radical Islam, and even if they don’t see eye-to-eye on each other’s methodology, both are one and the same from an Islamist point-of-view.
As for the talk of clashing ‘egos’, this is pretty rich coming from a Left-wing source. The Anglo-American Left contains such icons of humility as Michael Moore, Laurie Penny and Barack Obama, and unlike those on the right, Left-leaning parties are dominated by University-educated Toffs (try standing for the Democratic Party without a degree).
Garibaldi goes on to offer this catch-all assessment of the CounterJihad tendency:
“All that binds them is Islamomisia and Islamophobia. On the surface their ideological backgrounds provide a motive: a belief in the need to preserve Christianity in the face of post-Modernity and a rise in Secular Humanism, a belief that it is good for Israel and Zionism, a desire to keep White Europe pure, the nostalgic belief that they are the vanguard “defenders of freedom” who will not only save the “West” from a resurgent Islam but harken in a golden age and if not–Armageddon.”
This is a very bizarre attempt to transform virtue into sin. That the CounterJihad tendency attracts a plurality of people from different backgrounds is presented as a flaw. “All that binds them…” is the very subject under consideration. Why wouldn’t it be?
Regarding the perceived motive of keeping ‘White Europe pure’, this is a pretty hackneyed accusation. If it applies at all, it is only to the wildest Nick Griffin-ite fringe. While such people certainly exist, to tar Pamela Geller with the same brush as the BNP is absurd.
The future of the CounterJihad movement is not something that can be safely predicted in detail, but it would take a very uninformed mind to reason that it doesn’t have one. The Jihadist threat is mounting across Europe, and the cause of resistance will grow alongside it.
D, LDN.
Defend the Modern World 
Thank you for putting this in a relevant perspective. Of course, the enemy will spin any lie or rupture of “faith” as heresy. The facts speak for themselves. The more jihadists push, the greater the pushback will be. As they say, sunlight is a great disinfectant.
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Indeed. It should be obvious to Muslims that there will be a symbiotic relationship between their radical behavior and ‘Islamophobia’. The fact that they don’t change their behavior in light of this speaks volumes.
You’re right about the enemy spinning division and sensible debate. I’m always careful to call it the CounterJihad ‘tendency’ rather than movement. We don’t all think alike. We just agree on something.
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Aslan Media Editor-In-Chief Nathan Lean is “Garibaldi”
http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showthread.php?t=180388
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That’s interesting. Thanks. It makes sense. I’m very wary of Reza Aslan’s work too.
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Another outlier in the counterjihad movement would be the ‘misomahometophile’ of which I am a proud adherent. The love of hating savage cruelty, whether it be for the mastermind or the mindless pseudo-religion, either in its execution or creedal requirment, is yet another subset of counterjihad. Take the old cultural saw that recognized we had each our own favorite hymns but we sang from the same hymnal.
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I also like the words of Winston Churchill – “What unites us is bigger than what divides us”.
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its a good perspective , but while the media and government all will do any thing to get on the right side of Islam and jihads . The counter jihads is not growing fast enough. Which is a pity
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Well the media tried hard last night with the EDL program ‘When Tommy Met Mo’, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. The EDL page has gained hundreds of new likes from it. People don’t like being patronized.
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The Edl if it gains enough support, and then with enough other people with increasing skills to organise and learn, may be able to keep their noses clean and will be a lot harder to be denigrated and be just more effective..
Tommy may have gone off on a different tangent, whether it is one or 2 steps back and then gain traction to really push forward will be really up to him, as he will keep learning about the ins and outs of the political systems.and whether quilliam is just a dead end.
Possibly together the velvet glove and the iron fist will be more effective.
I do enjoy what you write and studiously work out just what and where the problems are for you in England.
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I think that without having even the smallest idea of what was going on – operating entirely, I think, with that mysterious something that some of our poets possess – J K Rowling gave us two near-perfect metaphors or analogies for what is happening. 1/ “Dumbledore’s Army” and 2/ “The Order of the Phoenix”. Which is why I chose the nom de plume that I did.
The de facto Order of the Phoenix is forming..ad hoc, crystallising mysteriously out of Western – and some non-Western – societies in response to the rising menace of Islam; it has no obvious single leader, it is filled with wildly disparate (and often clashing) personalities, and populated with the too young’ and the ‘too old’ (more of the ‘too old’ at the moment, than anything else). Trying to warn people – people who mostly don’t want to listen – that an enemy everyone had forgotten about it is very much alive…that, as Conor Cruise O’Brien put it, in an article in 1995, “The Jihad is back.”
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There is a blog that watches ‘loonwatch, it’s tag line is
Rebuttals to the agenda driven reporting presented as ‘Islamophobia’ by Loon Watch
http://loonwatchexposed.blogspot.co.uk/
LoonWatch Exposed aims to counter the selective reporting marketed as ‘Islamophobia’ by Loon Watch, an online website which trumpets itself as being:
a blogzine run by a motley group of hate-allergic bloggers to monitor and expose the web’s plethora of anti-Muslim loons, wackos, and conspiracy theorists.
While we find the sheer stupidity and outrageousness of the loons to be a source of invaluable comedy, we also recognize the seriousness of the danger they represent as dedicated hatemongers. And so, while our style reflects our bemusement, our content is fact checked and our sources well vetted making sure loonwatch.com is a reliable educational – if entertaining – resource on the rambunctious underworld of Muslim-bashing.
Perhaps. But when selectively cherrypicked snippets of news are deceptively regurgitated and spun to exaggerate and/or manufacture the menace of ‘Islamophobia’ to satiate an Anti-West, Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic readership, the fine lines between ‘reliable education’ and agenda driven propaganda get blurred.
This blog aims to deblur those lines!
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