Submitted by Barry Kumar(Canada), Mar 9, 2008 at 22:56
I've always noticed a connection between liberals and radicals. At McGill University, in Montreal, where I was educated, the Islamic fundamentalists used the student newspapers to regularly assault Israel, Jews, India and Hindus. Every week there would be articles in the liberal paper The McGill Daily supporting the terrorists, whether Hezbollah and Hamas, in the case of Israel, or the Pakistani-trained terrorists in Kashmir, in the case of India.
I came across hundreds of such articles (many of them fabricated) during my undergrad there, but not once did I come across an article supporting Israel's or India's position. I subsequently joined the editorial board of one of these papers as a book reviewer and I came to understand that the liberals who ran these papers were strongly anti-Semitic and anti-Hindu. I found that they resented the Jews for their predominance in the faculty and they resented Hindus for their academic achievement. Thus the liberals supported the Islamic fundamentalists and radicals not for any logical or rational reason, but because of jealousy and bigotry.
Of course, the liberals benefit from the fundamentalists as well. The Liberal Party of Canada, the Labour Party of Britain, and (to a lesser extent) the US Democratic Party, rely on the fast growing Muslim votebank. Anti-Israel and anti-India statements by these politicians help garner votes. These votes are so important that these parties are keen to increase Muslim immigration, despite the fact that the Muslim community poses challenges to internal security and the social welfare system.
The liberals and Islamic fundamentalists appear to make strange bedfellows, but it seems their romance keeps growing.
Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.
