A Steyn on humanity
by Tawfiq Chahboune
"To me, the Zionists, who want to go back to the Jewish state of AD70...are
just as offensive as the Nazis. With their nosing after blood, their ancient
'cultural roots', their partly canting, partly obtuse winding back of the
world they are altogether a match for the National Socialists…” Victor
Klemperer writing in June 1934.
"primal force"
Apparently - let us pray - Mark
Steyn, the reactionary Zionist and extreme bigot (as opposed to regular
bigots), will no longer grace the Telegraph group's publications, the only
section of the British print media so enamoured by the Canadian's near-Nazi
ravings. The Telegraph's new proprietors, the Barclay brothers, have no doubt
found Steyn's absurd and hate-drenched columns, almost all of which are
anti-Arab and anti-Islam rants, tiring and far too extreme even for the
Torygraph and Spectator. Now that Lord Conartist Black is no longer
proprietor, there is every chance that the Telegraph group will go back to its
pre-Gush Emunim days. Lord Black's enthusiasm for Gush Emunim-style chauvinism
(Israel Shahak called this depraved mindset "Jewish Nazism") led directly to
the employment of the Steyn on humanity.
To wish Steyn a fond farewell, and hopefully a permanent good riddance, let's
remind ourselves of the kind of "analysis" Steyn (golden?) showered on his
readers for far too long. With barely any effort, I found the following
spewing of bile from a curious and deranged journal called the New Criterion
(the criterion being hatred for Arabs and Islam). Steyn's bigotries and
neo-Nazi rhetoric were on full display in the North American "journal"; it is
as an authentic microcosm of his venomous output as one is likely to want.
Entitled It's The Demography, Stupid, the article informs us that, if we don't
listen to the remedies Steyn has to offer, the "primal force" of Islam will
conquer Europe, perhaps the world. Reading Steyn brings to mind Gilbert
Achcar's joke about the "Protocols of the Elders of Mecca".
"The Muslim faith," writes the Steyn on humanity, "whatever its merits for the
believers, is a problematic business for the rest of us. There are many
trouble spots around the world, but as a general rule, it's easy to make an
educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs. Jews in 'Palestine,'
Muslims vs. Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs. Christians in Africa, Muslims vs.
Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs. Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs.
backpacking tourists in Bali. Like the environmentalists, these guys think
globally but act locally." Note that Steyn believes "the Muslim faith" itself
- forget the jihadis - is the problem. Also note Steyn's use of scare quotes
on Palestine. It is the radioactive nucleus of the Zionist chauvinist: after
destroying everything in its proximity, it'll eventually destroy itself; in
its refusal to accept manifest truths, this Zionist chauvinism mirrors, but by
no means is on a par with, Holocaust denial. I can hear Steyn bellowing, "It
is mein kampf to inform the world of this Islamic cancer!"
Hitler, of course, had the same logical disposition, but, crucially for Steyn,
a different victim. Otherwise, their poisonous rhetoric is not that very
different. Close your eyes and imagine a Hitler beano. I know it's hard, but
try to ignore all the distasteful brown clothing and the absurd moustache the
Fuhrer sports. As "sieg heils" batter your eardrums, the one-balled sociopath
strides to the podium and, with all the feigned outrage he can muster,
thunders: "There have been many trouble spots around the world, but as a
general rule, it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants.
The Jew." To this all too realistic possibility, a torrent of ear-splitting
SIEG HEILS spurts forth from the master race in attendance.
Now for a quick, but by no means exhaustive, Hitlerian History of the World:
Jews vs. ancient Egypt, Jews vs. Romans, Jews vs. Babylonians, Jews vs.
Ferdinand and Isabella's Catholic Spain, Jews vs. Crusaders; Jews expelled
from England in 1290, Jews expelled from France in 1394, Jews expelled from
Spain in 1492, Jews expelled from Sicily in 1493, Jews expelled from Lithuania
in 1495, Jews expelled from Portugal in 1496, Jews expelled from Brandenburg
in Germany in 1510, further expulsions from Naples, Prague, Genoa, Bavaria,
the Papal States, Vienna, Moscow and innumerable other places; pogroms by the
score with Jews always on the receiving end, and lastly the Holocaust that
nearly rid the world of this "problematic" faith, to name but some of the Jews
vs. the rest. Throughout history one side has been Jews; the other, well,
someone - anyone! - else. Therefore Jews must be the problem. For thousands of
years - thousands! - Jews have always been part of the problem.
That's the Hitlerian version of history. Substitute Muslim for Jew, and it's
also the Steynian version of history. Where there's Jews, there's trouble, as
anti-Semites say. Where there's Muslims, there's trouble, as Zionist
chauvinists say. Klemperer, for one, would see Steyn as "offensive as the
Nazis"; Israel Shahak would have called him a "Jewish Nazi". How diseased must
Steyn be to resort to Nazi propaganda? Well, his initials are MS. Regular MS
damages the central nervous system and is marked by speech defects and a lack
of coordination. Mark Steyn, by contrast, suffers from a disease - Zionist
chauvinism - which extinguishes intelligent thought and replaces it with
uncontrollable bloodthirsty ravings.
MS wilfully ignores the fact that in most of the examples he cites national
liberation struggles are the factor, with religion being irrelevant. And the
others are either acts of self-defence or an act of terrorism by a jihadi
group Steyn used to support when their fire was directed at commies, the Left
and liberal Muslims.
Steyn rhetorically ponders why it is the Canadian PM didn't care to visit the
"Sword of the Infidel-Slayer Mosque" after 9/11. That is to say, all Muslims
are for a bit of "infidel-slaying". Ahmadinejad, if he had a brain, could
reply in similar vein about a similarly imagined Christian place of worship:
"Turning Jews Into Soap And Furniture National Cathedral". Why all the hate,
MS? Were you refused entry to art school?
"self-extinction" of the "European races"
The MS gets to work: "In essence, the lavish levels of public health care on
the Continent are subsidized by the American taxpayer." That'll come as a
surprise to European taxpayers. Nonetheless, American "essence"? The Steyn on
humanity is turning into General Jack D. Ripper from Dr Strangelove! "And this
long-term softening of large sections of the west makes them ill-suited to
resisting a primal force like Islam." Although you would never have guessed
it, Muslims are, for example, exploiting Europe's provision of free
chemotherapy treatment to cancer patients to undermine European Christendom!
How diabolical. I have no idea how the Islamic "primal force" is using the NHS
to Islamise the country, but Steyn does. Unfortunately, he does not disclose
this brilliant plan. Forget attacking and invading Muslim countries, according
to the Steyn, the neocon answer to jihadi terror should be private health
insurance.
The MS disease spreads: "The al Qaeda nutters can never find enough suicidal
pilots to fly enough planes into enough skyscrapers to topple America. But,
unlike us, the Islamists think long-term, and, given their demographic
advantage in Europe and the tone of the emerging Muslim lobby groups there,
much of what they're flying planes into buildings for they're likely to wind
up with just by waiting a few more years. The skyscrapers will be theirs; why
knock 'em over?" All Muslims are "al Qaeda nutters" and at their current rate
of breeding are on the brink of European domination. Hitler said the same of
Jews: they too were on the brink of European domination.
The disease is now in full control: "To avoid collapse, European nations will
need to take in immigrants at a rate no stable society has ever attempted…It
seems more likely that within the next couple of European election cycles, the
internal contradictions of the EU will manifest themselves in the usual way,
and that by 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots, and
assassinations on American network news every night." Within four years, as
night follows day, Europe will be gripped by Islamic "riots and
assassinations…every night". Europe's pension system is allowing the
barbarians to enter the gates. I've heard of some pretty peculiar reasons for
pension reform, but the imagined violence of Islamic imperialists wasn't one
of them. For sheer imagination, the Steyn on humanity wins every time. If you
whisper Muslim or Islam within earshot of MS, his neurons will work overtime
to concoct a bizarre fantasy of Islamic plotting.
Without serious treatment, MS will reach the point of no return: "We are
living through a remarkable period: the self-extinction of the races who, for
good or ill, shaped the modern world…Will Japan be an economic powerhouse if
it's populated by Koreans and Filipinos? Very possibly. Will Germany if it's
populated by Algerians? That's a trickier proposition." Translation: Muslims
are lazy, stupid and parasitical. Hitler said the same of Jews - except they
were fiendishly clever, not stupid. It must pain Steyn to say something not
entirely derogatory about Filipinos, but he does it in a round about way by
insulting Muslims.
The point of no return has been passed: "Worst-case scenario: Sharia, circa
2040; semi-Sharia, a lot sooner - and we're already seeing a drift in that
direction…As things stand, Muslims are already the primary source of
population growth in English cities. Can a society become increasingly Islamic
in its demographic character without becoming increasingly Islamic in its
political character?" Presumably the answer is No. The fact that Muslims vote
for England's established political parties is perhaps part of their
diabolical plan? Tricky creatures these Muslims. Will the Steyn on humanity
start denouncing the UK's political parties for asking Muslims to vote for
them?
A do not resuscitate order is necessary: "…men enjoy that right [rape] under
many Islamic legal codes around the world." Really? But evidence came there
none. It's all part of Steyn's imaginary world: Muslims are so inherently evil
that this must be true. Similarly, Jews need Christian blood for…
Scrap that and put him down: "Or will the dying European races understand that
the only legacy that matters is whether the peoples who will live in those
lands after them are reconciled to pluralist, liberal democracy? It's the
demography, stupid. And, if they can't muster the will to change course, then
'what do you leave behind?' is the only question that matters." And there you
have it: the "dying European races" will "leave" the whole show to lazy,
ignorant, fanatical, parasitical, breeding Muslims. And why? Because of
pensions, health care and other un-Western policies which sap Europeans of
their "essence".
As you would, or should, feel with any of Steyn's output, in It's The
Demography, Stupid, you'd be forgiven if a sensation of deja vu enveloped you.
By this, I don't mean that once you've read one Steyn article, you've read
them all. Although that is certainly true, I mean something else entirely.
Look at the stirring and blood-curdling words and phrases the Steyn uses:
"resisting a primal force", "demographic advantage", "avoid collapse", "stable
society", "burning buildings", "riots", "assassinations", "self-extinction",
"races who…shaped the world", "rape", "European races", "those lands", "muster
the will", "change course", "what do you leave behind", "the only question
that matters". What does it remind you of? Victor Klemperer knew.
April 2006
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