SIGN UP - IT'S FREE!
SEARCH FSM
| National Debt Clock |
A million seconds pass in 12 days.
A billion seconds pass in 31 years.
A trillion seconds pass in 31,688 years!
March 3, 2010
Crisis in Turkey
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (5) | Sign Up for FSM Updates!
I am half Danish and half South Asian. My parents met in Denmark in the 60s when my father came over to Denmark as part of a UN program to learn agricultural practices. He met my Mom and moved to the U.S. and they were married until he passed away a decade ago. I have been to Denmark several times and I too have noticed the growing racist sentiment. It's aimed at anyone who is not white, not just Muslims. We can say that the Muslims "ruined it all" for us, but working in the software field, I have worked with several Muslims and have not seen any of this extremism. In fact, one of my best managers was an Indian Muslim from Hyderabad who tolerated gays, Jews, and everyone. In fact, his favorite people on the team were the two gay guys, the Jewish build engineer he brought over from his last company, and our lead software engineer, who is a Jew. He started his own company that made java middleware, and employed people -- even openly gay people, to work for his own company. He is a devout Muslim who prays 5 times a day and goes to the mosque every Friday. He is, by far, the most competent manager I have ever worked with -- he knew the product inside and out.
To contrast that, I have worked with quite a few Caucasian managers who are incompetent, claim credit for other people's work, and blame other people for their mistakes. I would never say this is a trait of Caucasians. I had a Jewish "producer" who blamed me for something he told me to do, and I had to dig up the email and explain that -- you told me to do this, and I didn't want to. He was about to frame me with upper management and ruin my career to save his own. I would never say this was a Jewish trait, though he did live up to the stereotypes one hears of Jews. He was also not qualified for the job, but the hiring managers were Jews. I'd like to just assume this is because he was a family friend of the manager, and not Jews schticking together (pardon the pun). I have yet to meet one Muslim who lives up to the stereotypes. I know several Muslims, and in my condo complex, we have some and their kids are assimilating well. My Islamic neighbor's girls don't wear burkas, head scarves or anything of the sort, even though their mother covers her head (she also drives a car, all by herself, while blasting hip-hop music). Nuns cover their heads too. Should we ban the habit?
One of my friends, who is a Pakistani Muslim, says extremism is not Islam -- it's about uneducated people. Much like you have rednecks in the U.S., who are uneducated and hateful, the lack of education has created extremism in Islam (as well as conservative extremism and intolerance in Denmark and the United States). Since quite a few Islamic nations are developing, you do have more uneducated people than the Western world. What's Denmark's excuse? They're all so educated and literate, right?
Let me relate my racist experiences with Danes. My first experience was when I graduated high school in the early 90s. I went to Denmark for the summer to work for my second cousin, who owned businesses in a medium sized town in Denmark (Horsens). They are my favorite relatives, and very nice people. They are not racists. I became good friends with the people who worked there, and we went out on the town one evening. After a few beers, I felt the need to use the facilities, so I left the group and came back. When I came back, one of the girls was in tears and yelled at me for straying off. She told me one of her friends, a dark skinned Spaniard, strayed off one night and was stabbed to death by anti-immigrant thugs. She thought I wandered off and had suffered the same fate, since I have darker-than-porcelain-white skin. They felt a dire need to protect me from anti-immigrant hate groups, who wouldn't think twice about stabbing me.
The other issue was when my father, who was a very dark skinned South Asian (Hindu) went to visit Denmark in the late 90s. He asked to stay with one of our relatives (not the cool people in Horsens, but others in Ã…lborg) and they refused. They wouldn't say why, but it was assumed because they didn't want to be seen with a dark skinned man. My father had a Ph.D., was a professor, and spoke fluent Danish, yet he was too dark to stay with his own in-law family. He took it very personally, and said that these relatives were white trash losers. Since this incident, I have found more evidence that, indeed, they had a problem with my father's skin color -- and they're FAMILY!
Even my Danish grandfather told me I looked like a Sri Lankan refugee when I was trying to grow my hair out during the grunge years of the early 90s.
The last (and final) time I was in Denmark, I went into Ã…lborg to do some shopping -- put some money into the Danish economy. When I got off the bus, I was ridiculed by two Danish men for my hair style. See -- in Denmark in 2001, every male had the same buzz cut, and I didn't fit in. They threw in a few laughs amongst their ethnic slurs. I made out Bosnian... I guess that's the arithmetic mean of a Dane and South Asian. Maybe there is some science to their bigotry?
The racism is worst when it comes from your own family. I don't think my bedsterfar meant this to be hurtful, but he just was part of this growing nationalism and dislike of foreigners -- and Sri Lankans are not Muslims, but just another group that was coming over in the 90s. So the whole notion that "Muslims ruined it for other groups" is not really true. There was contempt for non-Muslim immigrants as well. It's not about them mistaking non-Muslims for Muslims. Modern Danish racism has contempt for any non-white people, except when they play on their football or handball teams and serve in the military. I once saw the Danish army marching, and I was amazed at how many non-white people were enlisted, much like our own army. And Daniel would like our military, which consists of a disproportionate amount of minorities, to fight a holy war against Islam, before they take over. Gee, I almost miss Cold War paranoia.
In the mid 90s, I saw the same vitriol against Latinos in California. They are the hardest working people, yet they were similarly accused of being parasites and trying to take over California (La Raza). I voted against prop 187, and although it did pass, it was overturned by federal courts due to being unconstitutional. God, I love this country!
During the 80s, Japanese were supposedly taking over America with their cheap cars. In Detroit, they were smashing cars and people who drove Japanese cars were targets of violence. Do you remember this? Do you remember how everyone thought the Japanese were going to take over America? Does it remind you of anything? How about the Latinos taking over America? How about Muslims taking over the world? If anything, one could argue that Goldman-Sachs manufactures economic bubbles, and they are Jews, but I wouldn't digress to such bigotry. If we're looking for conspiracy theories and who has a disproportionate amount of wealth (per capita), it would be the Jews. However, the Jews I know are not wealthy, stingy or conspiratorial.
I live in a city that is 55% Asian, yet I have not been forced to speak Mandarin or Tagalog. People who have lived here for years told me their grandparents would complain about the Chinese and that they were going to take over and displace the white people. Guess what? Their fears were incorrect.
Even my mother sometimes buys into the racism of the Danes, because she has older friends and relatives in Denmark, who seem to believe everything they read in the tabloids. In fact, it was she who forwarded me your little position paper on Muslims in Denmark. She wanted to inform me that Muslims are a huge problem and are inherently evil, but she doesn't know a single Muslim herself. I've heard the same story of the Turk who slashed the face of the Danish woman for 10 years, but what about the Spaniard who was stabbed by a gang of white Danish thugs? What about the Danish day-care worker who killed 19 children? There is a tendency to underscore violent crime when it is done by other ethnic groups, but Danes commit a fair amount of crime too.
Daniel, you could easily be mistaken for a Muslim, but it seems you have police protection wherever you go. Have you ever wondered why that is? I have seen photos of your speaking engagements, and it's more white American people who are upset and protesting you, than Muslims. Your beliefs are against the American spirit, but you are entitled to say them, just as Nazis are allowed to march in Skokie. However, there are just as many white Americans who wish to do you harm. If we were in a state of nature, I would destroy you with my 200 pounds of muscle, but we live in a civilization where we just agree to disagree, even when your vitriol incites violent acts. To a certain extent, I think you are yelling "fire" in a crowded theater and pushing the boundaries of free speech. If they banned Zappa and Dead Kennedies albums, I think it's fair to "pipe down Pipes", as an audience member said on Politically Incorrect. However, I would like the world to hear what an intolerant academic fraud you are. You really do seem to buy into every crypto-fascist theory, as Alec Baldwin suggests... I have to wonder if you were abused or molested by Muslims at some point in your life, and hold a grudge.
Not all of us have police protection (do taxpayers pay to protect you? who pays for the campus police that protect you?), and I see that your "academic" work has been quoted by hateful people who want to destroy anyone who is non-white (that would be you too, if were talking about Scandinavian white, Daniel). One of these days the chickens will come home to roost and you will be a victim of your own vitriol. I am not fond of the fact that, thanks to your writing, I don't feel safe visiting the homeland of my mother. There are also the vast majority of academics who contend that your work is not accurate, and living in the diversity of the SF bay area and knowing plenty of Muslims, I have not yet met one extremist. I have met Jewish extremists, but not many. Most of my Jewish friends find it embarrassing and are ashamed of the extremism. I see you have created a group to fight the politically correct bias in universities, which has attracted a lot of orange country fraternity boys. Looks like you got all the smart ones, eh? Yes, I went to college in LA, and I remember the Orange County frat boy mentality at that time hated Latinos -- the people who mowed their lawns and remodeled their McMansions. In terms of rapists, the only ones I have known are Orange Country frat boys, who can only "convince" unconscious women to have "relations" with them. I personally know women who were raped by white frat boys, and they are the only rape victims I know. In fact, I can even make up statistics about this -- 37% of college women were raped by Caucasian men in the greek system. I found these statistics in the campus security office, really...
posted by: truevoice
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 08:18 PM
I have decided not to go to Denmark. I cannot spend money in an nation that treats people of color so poorly. I'm not even that dark -- Americans think I am a Jew (believe me, I get a fair dose of anti-semitism directed at me). I'm glad to see that your ideas have not caught on in the U.S., so you're off to stir up trouble elsewhere. One could say -- this is what Jews do. They are divisive devils. I do not believe this. I don't think you're doing this because you are Jewish. I think you are doing this to make money and cash in on a waive of anti-Muslim sentiment. 9-11 worked out well for you, and you are an academically fraudulent opportunist. That said, you do provide evidence of intolerance, dishonest and divisiveness to those wishing to make a case against Jews.
Just be aware -- some day these chickens may come home to roost, and you may not get the warmest welcome in Denmark when you are walking on the street some day. You're fear shouldn't be of Muslims, but a rogue gang of Danish thugs who are hyped up on your vitriol, quoting your inaccurate statistics (I've never seen an academic with less footnotes and evidence than you), and beating you up. I hate to sound cruel, but I am hoping this happens to you some day -- it would be a lesson I think you need to learn. It would be karma. You are a divisive academic who has poured gasoline on a flame that has been burning slowly for decades. People like me hoped that the flame would be extinguished, but people like you keep pouring gasoline on it, seemingly to serve a conservative agenda. Daniel, how are we going to fight a war against Islam (1 billion people) with a soon to be $1.6T deficit? Are you going to chip in some of the money you make from propaganda? Are you going to enlist your children?
I do agree that Danish immigration laws were naive, and I applaud many of the changes they have made. The U.S. does not let Somali terrorists on our soil. The Danes did actually get quite a few Somali terrorists -- extremists that were kicked out of Somalia. If anything this shows the falsehood of your premise that all Muslims are trying to take over the world through Jihad. A lot of these Islamic nations do not like extremists either, and it's a sad thing that Danes got some really bad apples under the guise of amnesty.
The worst thing is that the Danes no longer have freedom of religion. It's questionable as to whether they really ever had it, since they have an official state-sanctioned and supported church (Folkekirken) that about 3% of Danes go to on Sundays. I wish more of them would go to Church, since they seem to need to learn about forgiveness, kindness and tolerance.
They do not allow mosques to be built in Copenhagen. Freedom of religion would allow people to build their houses of worship. Danes tell me this is because they don't want Imams doing the call to prayer at 5am. Public disturbance laws cover that. We have mosques in the U.S., and they don't wake up everyone in, say, Oakland, with a call to prayer at 5am. I personally feel the loud clang of church bells to be annoying, but I tolerate it.
Qatar has a Catholic Church. Saudi Arabia would have a Catholic church if the Catholics would agree that Mohammed was a prophet. Islam believes that Christ was a profit. Who's being intolerant?
As a son of a professor, and someone with an intellectual career, I find what you do for a living to be divisive and despicable. One day karma will get you -- not some ethereal cosmic force, but the vitriol you espouse will come back to bite you, perhaps when you visit the "friendly" Danes that you have helped to radicalize. You are very much like a radical Imam, with a thin sheen of academia to legitimize you. I'm not fooled by it. You're a fraud.
I am posting this on several other blogs, because I know you may edit this or may not even post it at all. Much like the Imams you criticize over Danish cartoons, you are probably another enemy of free speech and common sense.
Daniel, if the LA Times posted cartoons that were caricatures of black people eating fried chicken and watermelon with their eyes bugging out, how well would that be received in LA? Freedom of speech is one thing, and I agree that a few extremist Muslims over-reacted, but I was in LA during the riots. I've seen what our own injustice creates. It continues -- Oakland had quite a lot of riots because Oscar Grant was handcuffed and shot. Sure, this is much worse than cartoons, and yes, extremists acted extremely, which is not surprising. I guarantee if you posted caricatures of black people eating watermelon with their eyes bugging out, you would have a riot in LA, Oakland, Chicago, NYC or Detroit.
The fact of the matter is, Jewish extremists cannot burn down the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tel Aviv, because it does not exist. Nor does the Malaysian or Indonesian embassy. Israelis have absolutely no relations with any Muslim nations, whereas Muslim nations have plenty of "infidel" embassies and military bases on their soil. So who are the intolerant ones?
Did you know that Asians in the U.S. also protested racist shirts made by Abercrombie & Fitch? Sure, they didn't kill anyone about it, but they found it offensive. A&F are also well known for only hiring white "frat boy" types. I found the Danish cartoons to be offensive. Many of them were racist caricatures of Arab features. We can't all be blonde hair, blue eyed, beautiful people, like the Danes.
I have also looked at the anti-semitic cartoons in Muslim publications. These are offensive, but I do somewhat agree with their point. All of them depict Jews wearing swastikas and persecuting Muslims. It is not only Muslims who feel that the Israelis are doing similar things that were done to them. I don't think the Israelis are being Nazis, but Israel does have an apartheid system. Most world leaders are critical of this and are pushing for a change. Palestinians are not innocent, but much like David A -- I can understand why they are fighting back. It would be nice if they employed non-violent direct action instead of violence. They would accomplish much more.
Israelis are not innocent -- they also publish anti-Muslim cartoons. I have seen photos of young children painting messages on bombs that will be used against Lebanon. Talk about indoctrination of hate, it doesn't get much worse than that.
You are not a real academic. You have chosen to side with the extremist, Zionist Jews and marshall evidence in their favor, and call it academia. We're not fooled by it.
Daniel -- are you proud of this? You created this hate monger -- he is quoting your statistics. You're just another Goebbels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#playnext=1&playnext_from=TL&videos=_eNlTu4AogU&v=Q3WsY3jeXXM
It would be perfect karma if this young man acted out these violent intentions on you, because in Scandinavia, you will be perceived as a Muslim or some non-white parasite on their system, just like David A and myself. In fact, you look way more Arab than I do (nice beard, Ahmed!), so if you spend enough time in Scandinavia, you will get a taste of your own medicine, and I can tell you -- it's very bitter!
Well, if I am considered a parasite in Denmark, I must say, the last time I was there, I spent about $3,000 on food, clothing etc, in 1 week. Now I will not put any money into their economy. I renounce my Danish heritage -- I find it embarrassing to be associated with a nation that passes laws that restrict freedom of religion, freedom of who one can marry (80% of the Indians I work with are in arranged marriages, I know Jews who are in arranged marriages too), and freedom as to what one can wear.
The Danes were right to restrict immigration. They would be correct in deporting dangerous extremist from their nation and doing background checks. But they have gone too far. I'm embarrassed of my Danish heritage and I have no plans to visit Denmark ever again. I don't think they will change their ways. I think it will get worse, and for my own personal safety, I will not visit there or put a single kroner into their economy. They're so nationalistic, they don't even use the Euro. This is beyond Muslims behaving poorly and ruining it for someone else. Danes have a strong tendency towards nationalism.
Speaking of assimilation, my mom has Danish friends in Southern California who married Danes, eat Danish food, speak Danish, and belong to a Danish society (the Danish Sisterhood and Brotherhood) etc. Danes don't really assimilate when they come to the U.S. Some of them have been here for 60 years, and still don't speak English, yet they will vocally accuse the Muslims of not fitting in. One of our American born Danes was paired with a Danish wife. When Muslims do this -- it is a crime.
It has way more to do with appearance and skin color, and in Denmark, people are not only white, but they have the same hair cuts and wear the same clothes. I can spot a Dane in a crowd of white Americans just as well as I can spot a Chinese person in a crowd of white Americans. (Hint: The Dane will not have his jeans hanging half way down). They are a homogeneous group that has become intolerant of anyone who is not like them.
Daniel -- I have forgotten more about the Danes than you will ever know. You aren't a Danish expert, a Muslim expert, or anything of the sort. You got into Harvard because your father was a professor there, not because you are intelligent or deserving. You weren't smart enough for math, so you got into history, and I don't think you're smart enough for history. You're a propagandist and I know for a fact that what you say about Denmark is not true, and from my experience I suspect most of what you say about Muslims is not true. You're not a post modernist, but you are part of the old tradition of historians that just create sloppy blanket generalizations. Even worse -- you falsify data and don't have footnotes to the sources that back up what you are saying. Anyway you slice it, I think you're a fraud. You were even part of the "Obama is a Muslm" lies. Really? Because his physician told him to cut back on alcohol, which to my knowledge, is not halal. You are a tool -- a hammer to be specific. To quote one of your many critics -- "when they only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail". One day, the hammer of Danish nationalism may crack your own skull... One can only hope! You have inspired me to hate, not a nationality or race, but you -- an academic fraud.
posted by: truevoice
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 08:19 PM
Beyond the bigotry, Daniel Pipes costs us a lot of money. Everywhere he speaks, he needs a police force to protect him. Not only from Muslims, but from a lot of Caucasian people -- please check out the photos of his events -- he needs more security than the president. My guess would be that a Daniel Pipes event costs about $50,000 in security costs, which are paid for by tax and tuition payers.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Daniel Pipes would like us to get into a war with over 1 billion Muslims, at a time when our deficit is almost $1.6T. Being a conservative, I'm sure he would like to cut welfare, but if you do away with the welfare that doesn't benefit senior citizens (who tend to agree with your sabre rattling, so you won't upset those baby boomers... hint -- go for the single moms!), you'd get a few tens of billions of dollars, hardly enough to wage a global war against 1 billion people.
I know Daniel is not a numbers guy. He's not good at math. Are Muslims 4% or 5% of the Danish population? Ah just pick one, you're not going to have a source to back it up anyway. The indecisiveness over statistical facts is suspect to some, but as long as you hate Muslims, you'll get enough "patriots" to support you.
Seeing as how the cost of our two small skirmishes in Iraq and Afghanistan are almost at the $1T mark, how much do you think a war against all of Islam will cost?
Well, Daniel, please keep generating propaganda so you can earn enough money to pay for this war holy war.
So, Daniel -- how many T-bills can we sell to China and, ahem, oil exporting nations to fund a war against, um, some of the oil exporting nations? Would it be possible that if we went to war with Islam, some of these oil exporting nations may cash in their T-bills? I guess we could just default on those debts, since we're going to war with them anyway.
Perhaps as a mad professor, you can come up with a new source of fuel, akin to flubber in that Disney film. Oh, you're not good at math and science.
Well, I'm out of ideas, Daniel. How are we going to make $10T to fight a war against all the world's Muslims?
Just wondering -- maybe with that beard you could pass for a "bear" and make some money in the Castro on your next visit to Stanford? Ah, probably not enough... Just brainstorming here...
Yeah, Daniel... you have expensive tastes for blood. Too bad there's no money to execute your great ideas that would save the world. I guess we're all just doomed to be raped by Muslims... sigh...
posted by: truevoice
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 09:53 PM
It's not islamaphobia when they really are trying to kill you... you liberals should check out the religion of peace website. Also, Islam4UK is quite educational. Inmans and clerics shout their intent every day, and western society continues to ignore them.
posted by: jjr
Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at 09:56 PM
Of course this is a islamaphobia! This article mentions Fethullah Gulen, but doesn't give a legitimate source for his ideas, not even his official website.
posted by: Fetr
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 07:36 PM
