Exposed: The Extremist Agenda

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

I’ve been watching the CNN program, The Glenn Beck Show, for several months now and he is very articulate and captivating. He is almost paranoid about the US withdrawing from Iraq , the threat Iran imposes, and Muslim extremism. He’s pulling me to his way of thinking and I definitely need soom ballance via contrary views that I’m sure that the dopers here will provide.

That is why I ask you to watch his special “Exposed: The Extremist Agenda” next Wednesday on CNN Headline News at 7 & 9 PM EST. At the very least, you’ll find him very entertaining.

Hopefully we can get a good discussion going in this thread following the program

[Kimstu]

Beck gives a brief description of the upcoming special in this October 23 transcript:

Well, tonight, if you want to see our future, I want you to take a look at what`s going on in Europe right now. In France, in England, in Russia, other major countries, the forces of radical Islam and political correctness have conspired to slowly gain power and influence. And the continent is on the precipice of civil war. We very well could be next.

Here is the point tonight. The perfect storm that Ive been talking about for a while on this program is gaining strength. In Europe and all around the world, the storm clouds are gathering, and the forecast isnt calling for an awful lot of sunshine, unless we stop the wave of political correctness. If we don`t, we will someday wake to a vastly different and horrifying world.

The danger of radical Islamic extremism is definitely a serious issue, but I think it may be fair to say that Beck’s approach to perceived dangers of all kinds generally doesn’t, um, err on the side of complacency.

[Marley23]

And associating political correctness with radical Islam is moronic. Radical Islam is rather un-PC, and it’s short-sighted to blame Europe’s problems on that. Unlike Europe, our Muslim immigrants have generally adapted to the country. In Europe, they’ve been shut out, and some of them are disaffected and angry.

[Kimstu]

@Marley23

Radical Islam is rather un-PC, and it’s short-sighted to blame Europe’s problems on that. Unlike Europe, our Muslim immigrants have generally adapted to the country. In Europe, they’ve been shut out, and some of them are disaffected and angry.

In the above-linked transcript, Beck and his guest “Jihad Watch” pundit Robert Spencer seem to be arguing that this development is some kind of masterly plot on the part of the Arab League:

SPENCER: Yes, and you know, really, the European authorities are reaping what theyve sewn [sic] for a generation, for 30 years now, a generation, because actually theyve entered into a series of agreements with the Arab League starting in 1973 with the oil crisis to ensure a steady oil supply, and they agreed to encourage Muslim integration into Europe, but with no assimilation. They would allow them to form, effectively, self-governing enclaves that were separate from and did not consider themselves to be subject to the European authorities.

So now theyre seeing that these groups, these enclaves have grown so that theyre threatening the state itself, and really, it`s something that they should have foreseen a long time ago.

BECK: Well, they are – if Im not mistaken, theyre also, it seems, almost strategic the way they have they have – that they`ve surrounded some of the cities in Europe.

SPENCER: Yes.

BECK: I mean, these suburbs are all around the city.

I don’t think I buy this etiology of the problem. At least in the Netherlands, where I just spent two years and where they’ve been having some significant Muslim separatism/assimilation problems, the history of large-scale Muslim immigration was quite different. Muslim immigrants were not the result of some kind of 1970’s deal with the Arab League for a steady oil supply.

Rather, starting in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the Dutch government sought guest workers from Muslim countries in order to keep labor costs low. And they didn’t bother much about assimilation or acculturation for the guest workers because it was expected they’d go home after a few years. But many of them didn’t, and that’s how those ethnic/linguistic enclaves got started. The Dutch nowadays are taking “inburgering” (immigrant assimilation) much more seriously, but it will take decades to counteract the tradition of cultural separatism that originally grew out of the government’s laissez-faire policy towards immigrants.

And btw, the immigrants ended up in the suburbs, not because of some jihadist plot to surround the cities, but because in the Netherlands low-cost housing is more abundant in suburban areas than in the inner-city areas, which tend to be quite high-status and expensive.

[Themenin]

The Spencer quotes posted by Kimstu have a strong “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” flavor, with Jews replaced by Muslims.

@Spencer

Arab League… self-governing enclaves that were separate from and did not consider themselves to be subject to the European authorities…these enclaves have grown so that they`re threatening the state itself

I think Spencer’s confusing Afghanistan and Europe (all foreigners I guess). Last time I looked out the window onto my Paris street, things looked pretty quiet - I guess I’ll fire up my armored vehicle later this afternoon and head out through the checkpoint into The Enclaves so that I can report back to you guys.

He seems to be invoking “political correctness” as a code word for “Only we crazy fringe lunatics dare speak the truth ! The establishment is trying to muzzle us !” - Maybe European governments are secretly controlled by the Arab League ? Could it be that the Papists have entered into an unholy alliance with the Islamic Hordes ?

The facts : Europe has a very large immigrant population. In France (the country I know best) we have about 10% foreign born, and if you include the children of foreign-born (who are citizens) the number is close to 20% of the total population. About half of these are Algerian and Moroccan, some of these are Muslims, a substantial number are Jews. Some Black Africans are also Muslims (Mauritania, Nigeria etc). The Middle-Eastern immigrant population is relatively small, and more commonly Christian than Muslim (Lebanese).

There is some degree of ghetto-ization in all these groups, partly voluntary, partly cultural, partly poverty driven. The violent crime rate in these areas is often higher than the national average, though still lags far behind New Orleans or Kabul.

Periodically we have outbreaks of Islamist terrorist acts - the last big wave were to protest France’s support of the secular dictatorship in the Algerian civil war. The immigrant Algerian population in France were divided over this war, some supported the Islamists, some supported the government, most just wanted the war to end, so that their families could be safe.

Some cynical right-wing extremist politicians would like to conflate Islamist extremism with ordinary social issues facing immigrants - Islamists are (often) brown people with Arabic sounding names, immigrants are (often) brown people with Arabic sounding names, OMG ! We’re under attack !

The Islamist extremists love this, it can push disaffected young immigrant men into their arms. Hey, maybe the Right-Wing lunatics and the Islamist extremists are in on this together !

The riots in Clichy-sous-Bois last year have often been cited as an example of the Islamic Menace. These riots were very similar to the Rodney King riots in LA (albeit on a smaller scale). Some kids who are thought to have been running from Police climbed a wall into a power plant and were electrocuted. Protests boiled over (latent anger etc). The only thing that was Islamic about the riots was the brown skin and Arabic sounding names. Many of the most violent protagonists were gang-bangers and petty drug dealers (unlikely candidates for any religion). None of the people arrested had any kind of Islamic affiliation - much to the embarrasment of the pundits. This year, on the anniversary date of the riots the press went crazy trying to find a repeat, but despite a few incidents (one girl is still hospitalized with severe burns) the “self-fulfilling prophecy” came up a little short.

That’s about where it ends. These immigrants are in no way an organized or coherent group. They come from a number of different countries, speak different languages, have different cultural traditions etc. The younger people are generally not religious (French education is highly secular). Those who are religious are not affiliated to one another. Islam is not monolithic.

The connection between unrest in Europe’s poor areas and Islamic extremism is about as convincing as the connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

Why are these guys getting air-time on CNN ?

[gonzomax]

We have done this before, We always feared the Chinese and Japanese <the yellow menace. attacking us. That required ignorance of the history of Japan and China. Cruelty and war for generations doesn’t make friends.
When the Arabs first started coming into my area., I was surprised to hear how they talked about each other.The Lebanese dissed the Egyptians slammed the Iraq’s ,who hated the Saudis etc. We like to define our potential enemies ,but that’s not reality. Iraq and Iran had a horrible 8 year war recently. That bad blood doesn’t evaporate. There are fundamental problems which the Sunni and ,Shia fighting has exposed.
The common thread of Islam has not made them able to exist in peace with their neighbors. How can we imagine that they are after us in unison.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

I’ve watched Beck maybe twice and he struck me as a raving, paranoid idiot.