[whiteperil] Sean: Mental gymnastics

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Posted by Sean:
Mental gymnastics
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1194927961.shtml


   Rondi [1]links to [2]this piece by Bruce Bawer on "Norway's answer to
   Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

     Fortuyn's murder should have put an end to the character
     assassinations of the advocates of freedom. Nope. Instead they've
     only grown more sophisticated. Nowadays when someone like Ayaan
     Hirsi Ali assails Islamic fundamentalism, the clever thing to do is
     call her a fundamentalist--because she's so uncompromising in her
     insistence on liberty, get it? In this spirit, a hijab-clad
     Dagbladet [3]staffer compared Storhaug's call for Muslim women to
     "take the hijab off and embrace freedom" to "the rhetoric of the
     bearded fundamentalists" â thus equating an advocate for the
     victims of [4]forced marriage and honor killing with the
     perpetrators of these barbarities.
     ...
     As Dagbladet reader [5]Hans-Christian Holm cogently put it,
     Norway's media are engaged in "a sick tolerance competition, in
     which whoever tolerates the most intolerance wins, and the one who
     suggests that we perhaps should not tolerate so much intolerance is
     automatically branded as the most intolerant of all." Storhaug's
     own concern, as expressed in an email the other day, is that the
     relentless demonizing of persons like herself by those who are
     determined to suppress open liberal debate about these vital issues
     can only strengthen the hands of both right-wing nativists and
     Islamists.

   How difficult should it be to recognize that tolerance has to be
   reciprocal if a free society is to function? You can recognize
   people's right to beliefs you find repugnant without recognizing their
   ability to force other people to bend to them. Or at least you should
   be able to.

References

   1. http://wonkitties.blogspot.com/2007/11/norwegians-in-news-hege-storhaug.html
   2. http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/11/meet_norways_answer_to_ayaan_h.php
   3. http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/10/05/514226.html
   4. javascript:void(0)
   5. http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/10/18/515358.html