Where Have All the Muslims Gone?
Once again my original blogging intentions have been diverted because of Something Stupid. You guessed it - a Rightwing Pundit.
In this case, it's Mark Steyn. (Er, again...):
TheIslamicMenaceIsComing!TheIslamicMenaceIsComing!
THIS time, he's writing about the portrayal of Muslims vs Townsfolk in Little Mosque on the Prairie.
He's mad because he watched Little Mosque on the Prairie and instead of portraying Townsfolk as Enlightened and Tolerant and Muslims as Terrorists, it portrays Townsfolk like Herouxvillers and Muslims as... well... Gays.
Yes. That's right. Mark Steyn in an attempt to be Sooey-lite (he fails, Dear Reader, which, I don't mind telling you - saddens me somewhat because I want Mark Steyn to be smarter than he is - I really do) says "supposedly" to an "audience" in "Washington":
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Muslim is the new gay," I said. Which got a laugh. "That's off the record," I added. "I want a sporting chance of getting home alive."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And yes, Dear Reader, I think we can assume that since his audience was likely white and right and rich and powerful, that he got home quite safely. Quite safely indeed.
But he goes on, in his column, to explain why "Muslim is the new gay":
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"And I went on to explain that back in the Nineties sitcoms and movies began introducing gay characters who were the most likeable and got all the best lines, and that Muslims were likely to be the lucky beneficiaries of a similar dispensation. In both cases, the intent is the same: to make Islam, like homosexuality, something only uptight squares are uncool with."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uh... and since when aren't Muslims the uptightest of uptight squares? Again? Mr. Steyn? In real life, I mean.
Because here's something Mark Steyn doesn't seem to get. Little Mosque on the Prairie is a tv show. It's not real life. It's a sitcom. And, Mark Steyn can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure tv sitcoms just follow formulas. Like, instead of, say, a hip, young Catholic priest from the city showing up at a rural village in northern England to replace the old, retiring, traditional priest, a hip, young Muslim imam shows up at a town in Saskatchewan...
I dunno. Maybe Mark Steyn watches more tv than I do. But that tends to be the formula as far as I am aware.
Now, maybe, just maybe, he thinks tv sitcoms are more like Fox News or Global Nooze or somesuch show like that where Muslims are portrayed as Terrorists and Townsfolk are portrayed as Heroes.
No, no, no, Mark Steyn. Little Mosque on the Prairie is a sitcom. Not a news hour.
But I think buried in the quip, "Muslims are the new Gays" he DOES have a point about Gay Men on television. I noticed, for instance, that even on "Six Feet Under" that heterosexual couples in one episode were ALL portrayed as having sex under the covers. There was simulated sexual activity that even I could tell was the old in/out. But the only homosexual couple on the show, were shown - hugging. In bed. Hugging.
Ahem.
I mean, what's that all about? Why bother coming out of the closet and being openly gay and getting married and ALL THAT JAZZ if you aren't even having sex? I mean, if you're just going to hug. Gawd. Stay in the closet and get married to a woman and go buy a house in the suburbs and have two children and start driving them around to soccer lessons and birthday parties.
Oh yes - Mark Steyn. Naturally, the real point of the piece is to remind his White readers that Muslims are a threat to our survival as a White Species in the same way that Same Sex Marriage is a threat to... something... Holy, I guess.
But I thought it would be fun to take his main paragraph point by point:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fair enough. Never mind that, in the real Canada, the talk-radio guy would be off the air and hounded into oblivion by the Saskatchewan Humans Rights Commission;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uh, yeah. Such as Lowell Green right here on CFRA in Ottawa.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
and that, instead of looking like Rick Mercer after 20 minutes on a sunbed and being wry and self-deprecating and Toronto-born, your typical western imam is fiercely bearded, trained in Saudi Arabia and such linguistic dexterity as he has is confined to Arabic;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh well, one man's Imam is another woman's Imam AND Bishop Phelps, I guess.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
and that airline officials who bounce suspicious Muslims from the flight wind up making public apologies and undergoing sensitivity training;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Har-dee-har har. But not as long as they clarify first to the bouncee that, even though he isn't Muslim, he's sure as hell acting like one:
"The attendant actually recognized out loud that he wasn't a Muslim and that she was sorry for the situation but they had to ask him to leave," Faguy said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
and that, in the event they do bust up a terrorist plot, the Mounties inevitably issue statements saying this in no way reflects on any particular community in our glorious Canadian mosaic, particularly any community beginning with "Is-" and ending with "-lam"; and that the most prominent Canadians "volunteering" for good works in Afghanistan were the Khadr family, whose pa was sprung from the slammer in Pakistan by Prime Minister Chretien in order that he could resume his "charity work" and, for his pains, he had to suffer vicious Islamophobic headlines like "Caught In A Muddle: An Arrested Aid Worker Appeals For Chretien's Help" (Maclean's).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess Mark Steyn hasn't been following the news lately: Maher Arar. Oh - and, in his defence, one could say the same of the Old Monster's treatment of lots of Liberal Cabinet Ministers. Lots.
Anyway, so much for that piece. If you're a real Steyn-o-phile, there's this piece up on his website today, too:
Well, look at it this way, Mark Steyn - maybe more Muslim babies and fewer White people babies will make for a new sitcom formula.
