The Terrorists Have Won

May 17, 2010

By Ken White.

America: where the batshit-crazy get agitated when the moronic collides with the banal.

Today's episode: certain segments of the blogosphere go completely off the rails because a hot (if somewhat confused) woman won the obnoxious, contrived, Trump-infested spectacle that is the Miss USA contest. Well, more accurately, they're wetting themselves because the hot woman in question is an Arab-American Muslim. Doug Mataconis reviews some of the resulting outrage, as does Jonathan Turley.

Case in point: the reliably crazy Debbie Schlussel wets herself, explaining that her unnamed "intelligence sources" (as a doctor with a flashlight to help with that one) tell her that the winner is, of course, a Hezbollah supporter, and that (of course) Obama the great and terrible will "exploit this propaganda for Islam." Debbie's commenters, in typical form, see the bigger picture:

Please get a clue. The Fort Hood shooter is the typical Muslim in the U.S. forces. The others Muslims, like him, are fighting to help Islam, not America, and they know they can do this by infiltrating the American military, just like this Muslim ho and terrorist supporter feels like she can infiltrate a beauty contest through affirmative action: “Look, fellow Muslim barbarians, we are winning the jihad! I’m the new Miss U.S.A.” It is a great propaganda coup for irrational, violent, Mohammed pedophile-worshiping Muslims around the world.

The people in a tizzy over this think that it shows that the terrorists have won, in that Arab American Muslim Miss USA = terrorist propaganda victory.

I fear that I agree with them that the incident shows that the terrorists have won. I just think so for a different reason. I fear that their reaction shows that the terrorists have won by transforming a significant — or, at least, significantly noisy — segment of American society. The terrorists have succeeded, at least to some extent, in marginalizing the culturally superior elements of American society — bravery, fairness, open-mindedness, tolerance, and devotion to liberty and equality. They have also succeeded, in turn, in empowering and mainstreaming all that is willfully ignorant, bigoted, ineffectually fearful, and totalitarian in the dark recesses of the American psyche.

An America that is defined by the Debbie Schlussels of the world — and by her inane mob of conspiracy-minded comments — is doomed to fail, and deserves to.

Update: Instalanche! Many thanks to Radley Balko for the link and the kind words.

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32 Comments

Race, Schlusselwatch

27 Comments

Jerry • May 17, 2010 @10:19 am

How could you possibly put up this post without a picture of our new Miss USA, or at least mentioning her name for us to (go)ogle? If anyone else is inspired to go looking, her name is Rima Fakih. And, yes, she is hot.
silvermine • May 17, 2010 @10:21 am

Indeed. I'm not sure how the math works on this. What part of beauty pageants is a win for Wahabbism? Is it the bathing suit competition? :P
DMG • May 17, 2010 @10:22 am

If her win was affirmative action, then it's the kind of affirmative action I want to see more of. Literally.
Eric T. • May 17, 2010 @10:43 am

Hezbollah supporter? First time that has ever been associated with T & A, that's for sure.

Probably only a matter of days before a fatwah from someone calling for her execution.

The reactionaries really have no idea what the hell they're talking about.
Fred • May 17, 2010 @10:45 am

Well I'm glad she dropped the Burka . . . she must be really messing with the hard core jihadis who think women should be tented at all times or killed.
Reggie1971 • May 17, 2010 @10:52 am

If Miss Fakih were ugly or a modestly attractive woman, I would be inclined to cry foul and think this was essentially affirmative action.

But she's not, she's pretty friggin hot in fact, so all I can say is congratulations to her.
Al • May 17, 2010 @11:07 am

I'm confused. Does she cause earthquakes or not?
DensityDuck • May 17, 2010 @11:09 am

It's not the terrorists; it's the Internet. It used to be that all the crazy freaks spent their lives isolated, surrounded by the mainstream, tamping down their crazy so they could get along with the people around them. Now along comes the Internet, where all the crazies can contact each other and pretend like they're an actual community, where they can tell each other that they don't NEED to get along with the people around them.
Chris • May 17, 2010 @11:21 am

Al's comment made me laugh. Thanks.
Jdog • May 17, 2010 @12:03 pm

I dunno. I've always thought that the visibility of hot Muslim babes was a sign that the terrorists, or at least some of them, have lost. (Whether or not Ms. Fakih is Muslim or not, I guess, depends on one's definition. But she's obviously hot.)

But, sure: anybody who goes looking for political or philosophical inspiraction from Miss USA is missing the point. Everybody knows that you're supposed to go to Miss America.
AST • May 17, 2010 @12:29 pm

But how does she feel about gay marriage?
JonathanStrange • May 17, 2010 @12:33 pm

Exaggerating the hyperbolic reactions of a few with equally hyperbolic morally superior nonsense. Popehat "in the dark recesses of the American psyche"? Could you be any more cliche?
Patrick • May 17, 2010 @12:43 pm

I don't endorse the cliche Mr. Strange, but it's worth noting that Debbie Schlussel has many hundreds of thousands more readers than this humble site. She speaks to, and for, a vast audience.
PatrickKelley • May 17, 2010 @1:16 pm

I'll just add my voice to the chorus of those who noted that this is far from a sign of victory for Islamic terrorists, if anything, its a damn slap in their face. I feel kind of sorry for this woman, on the one hand she's going to have a large number of seventh-century savages out for her head, or wanting to throw acid in her face, while many of the people who should be supporting her are putting her down.

On the other hand, I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the current pc buzzwords, like tolerance, diversity, equality, open-mindedness etc., and I'm fine with those so-called "American qualities" going the way of the Dodo bird.
G. C. Scott • May 17, 2010 @1:45 pm

Not being a Schlussel reader, I don't care what she says. What strikes me is the dishonesty in claiming that the new Miss USA's victory is in any way significant.

She's clearly not an observant Muslim, since Muslim women aren't allowed to pole dance and wear bikinis in public. Her victory is neither a sign of American tolerance nor a sign that Muslims are getting more open minded. If she doesn't practice the tenets of Islam she isn't a Muslim, so getting all happy or angry is just silly. If she had performed and won in a hijab, burqa, or abaya it would've been momentous. As it is she's just a skinny, not-too-bright American woman who used her body to get famous, like millions of other Americans before her. That's all.

We're still at war with radical Islam, and the U.S. is still–and has always been–a welcoming place for different cultures. Nothing has changed.
DMG • May 17, 2010 @1:52 pm

So you'd prefer only intolerance, homogeneity, inequality, closed-mindedness, etc.?

I'm not sure I want to know what etc. would consist of in that world.
PatrickKelley • May 17, 2010 @2:05 pm

DGM-

It's not the place of government to insure equality, other than equality of opportunity, and as for all those other isms, I don't object to them as ideals so much as the way they are used by the left, ie, f you don't support this, that or the other its because you are "intolerant", and so on.
Deborah • May 17, 2010 @3:13 pm

It only proves that airheads exist in all cultures. And this might be the most inane, insignificant spectacle on earth so why all the drama? I agree, a Muslim woman in a bikini? I'd be less surprised to find an Hasidic woman parading around in one. I hate it that some folks are getting so bent out of shape over this. It doesn't signify anything.
Zubon • May 17, 2010 @3:34 pm

Reggie1971's description of her is accurate.

Sadly, I cannot yet find someone saying that this is just how Prayers for the Assassin played out, only at Miss USA instead of the Oscars.
RD • May 17, 2010 @5:18 pm

So wait. . . The radical Ameruka h8n islasmofascist- terrorists, who are known to arrest and imprison woman for the crime of wearing pants, are going to infiltrate Ameruka and kill Freedom™ via a swimsuit competition? Interesting.

Is it me or do the supremacist rants of Debbie Schlussel and her ilk sound a lot like the stuff broadcast on Radio Rwanda or Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines back in the early 90's? Thankfully and obviously, Debbie and her pals in the rubber room ain't gonna launch or incite a genocide anytime soon. But I'm pretty sure Debbie et al don't consider Muslims as equal human beings, deserving of the dignity and humanity they demand for themselves.

Blatantly eliminationist rhetoric should disturb people.
Ted K • May 18, 2010 @1:45 pm

@G. C. Scott (and others claiming that Rima Fakih "isn't a Muslim"):

Is a Jewish person who doesn't keep kosher not actually Jewish? What about Jewish people who use electricity on the Sabbath? Different branches of Christianity have vastly different opinions on what rules a Christian should follow; should I just choose the rules of one branch and claim that anyone not following those rules isn't really a Christian? Religions change and evolve and branch, and the fact that someone doesn't follow rules prescribed by certain "orthodox" members of the religion absolutely does not mean they shouldn't be considered a real member of that religion. I suppose claiming anyone who doesn't follow the most radical form of Islam isn't really a Muslim does make it easier to spew hate about Muslims, which is a feature for some people.
Jdog • May 18, 2010 @2:07 pm

Is a Jewish person who doesn’t keep kosher not actually Jewish? What about Jewish people who use electricity on the Sabbath?

Yes, I am.
Jdog • May 18, 2010 @2:08 pm

Err, as in, "I am actually Jewish." Honest.
Ken • May 18, 2010 @2:09 pm

Are Jews allowed to write about dragons, and dwarves? I'm almost certain dwarves are not kosher.
Jdog • May 18, 2010 @2:19 pm

Sure. I've even written about a dwarf float. "How do you make a dwarf float? You can't; dwarves don't float." My great contribution to fantasy.
Nemat Sadat • May 20, 2010 @2:17 pm

Dear Readers,

Before you make up your mind about Rima Fikah's win and the meaning of Muslim woman winning a beauty pageant, check out my hot ticked item Op-Ed pieace:

"Will Miss Arab USA rebrand America and its Muslims?"

http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2010/05/19/will-miss-arab-usa-rebrand-america-and-its-muslims.aspx

Cheers,

Nemat Sadat
nematsadat.blogspot.com
Matt Raft • May 21, 2010 @3:12 am

@Ted K: thank you for your comment. I automatically recoil when someone questions the sincerity of another person's religious beliefs. Unless a religious person is trying to get government benefits or exceptions (i.e., Native American "medicine" ceremonies, Wiccan protections under Title VII, etc.), it's no one's business to subject anyone to some arbitrary point system of religious fervor.

I particularly dislike comments such as , "She’s clearly not an observant Muslim, since Muslim women aren’t allowed to pole dance and wear bikinis in public." First, someone's clothing does not automatically tell you whether s/he is an observant religious person. I can wear a cross and not be Christian; I can wear a yarmulke and not be Jewish. If anything, adherence to dress codes may be the least weighty evidence of someone's religious fervor, b/c clothing is a cosmetic issue–similar to judging a book by its cover.

Second, most religions encourage modesty, so it isn't a uniquely Islamic concept. See 1 Timothy 2:9, "I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes." (I have yet to see comments from people alleging that women with braided hair are not observant Christians.)

Third, many religions have dress codes–see Deuteronomy 22:5, which reads, "A woman must not wear a man's clothing, nor a man wear a woman's clothing."

People who allege that Ms. Fakih cannot be Muslim b/c she participated in a beauty contest misunderstand Islam. They apparently see a world where Muslims must practice one particular form of Islam in order to be Muslim, which is a ridiculous belief and contrary to Islam itself. For more, see below:

http://willworkforjustice.blogspot.com/2010/05/debate-on-rima-fakih.html

There may be debates about dress codes within Islam, but the Koran only specifically requires women to cover their bosoms and private parts, and as I pointed out, a bikini does cover the aforementioned parts.

If you want to be anti-Islam, by all means, feel free to speak your piece. But it's completely unfair to restrict Muslims by putting them in a small box where the only Muslims who are considered observant must practice a form of strict Islam. If I told you that only people who attend church every Sunday and read the King James bible are observant Christians, you'd think I was nuts. Alleging that Fakih is not Muslim uses the same form of myopic, culturally-segregated thinking.