The recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage has highlighted once again, as Mark Steyn notes, the precarious alliance between progressives and Muslims: only in the leftist imagination could “a nice chichi gay couple at 27 Elm Street and a fire-breathing imam and his four child brides at 29 Elm Street” be a recipe for social harmony.
Indeed, it once seemed inevitable that the coalition of pro-gay and pro-Islam forces would show visible strain. But the issue was all but decided without any real contest in 2010 when Judith Butler, the intellectual doyenne of the progressive queer community, declared her primary allegiance to lie with Muslims, even Muslim gay bashers. She refused to accept an award from a German gay pride organization because it had expressed concern over Muslim anti-gay violence. While not actually denying Muslim anti-gay violence, Butler made it clear that talking about it is a form of Islamophobia strictly off limits even amongst those gays with reason to fear for their lives.
I was surprised at the suddenness of the queer capitulation to the Islamic agenda. Of course, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid had already decisively signaled its collusion with the Muslim victim narrative, a collusion that by necessity subordinates gay rights to Islamic anti-Semitism. To weaken Israel (as it would be weakened if QAIA policies were implemented) would be to weaken the one country in the Middle East where gays can live openly without fear.
The surrender of gay rights claims is but one in a series of such surrenders whereby groups that were once vocal in the defense of their constituency have bowed to Muslim demands for supremacy.
It happened amongst feminists some time ago. Where Western feminists once included the wrongs done to Muslim women as legitimate targets of their own anger, soon a guilty acquiescence in the myth of Western arrogance led feminists to back off condemning such practices as female genital mutilation, honor killing, and forced marriage — and even to discuss them, as does Sherene Razack, mainly as media distortions in a propaganda war against Muslims.
Other groups followed suit. Ignoring the thousands amongst their co-religionists being slaughtered in Arab lands by Muslims, Christian progressives began strenuous and self-censoring outreach to Muslims in the name of inter-faith harmony.
Progressive Jews have distanced themselves from Israel, ignoring the rising tide of anti-Semitism within the Democrat party, and even in a few cases, such as that of Professor Juan Cole and activist Jacob Bender, allying themselves with radical Muslim organizations.
Is there any group amongst progressives who might still refuse to become Sharia-compliant?
I hold a small shred of hope for progressive dog owners: that they may find within themselves the heart to stand and say “Thus far and no further!”
Many progressives may still not be aware — given media silence on all criticism of Islam — that many Muslims dislike dogs as “unclean” animals according to Islamic religious edict, insisting that they be kept away from parks, beaches, and taxi cabs. The treatment of dogs in Islamic countries is worse than inhumane.
–Image courtesy of Shutterstock
A few years ago, a Jewish man in Canada, Allan Einstoss, was assaulted on the grounds of the Ontario provincial legislature by Muslims celebrating Al-Quds because he had had the temerity to bring his dog Cupcake, a large, gentle Mastiff, to his one-man, pro-Israel counter event. When he would not remove his dog as demanded, he was attacked by pro-Iranian demonstrators. True to politically correct form, the Toronto police arrested him for “inciting” a riot, ignoring those who had harassed him.
The incident drew little media attention outside of SUN News Network (Canada’s conservative news source) and has now been forgotten by all but a few.
The question is: how will liberal dog owners respond in general when interacting with groups of dogophobic Muslims?
What will they do when faced with Muslim insistence that their dogs no longer frequent a favorite park or swimming spot? When told that walking a dog near Muslim women offends Islamic cultural sensibilities? When acts of Muslim cruelty to dogs — or Muslim killings of dogs — become too numerous to ignore?
How will PETA, the SPCA, and the Humane Societies square their primary commitment to animal welfare with their political correctness?
This may be the most emotionally wrenching test yet for progressive Islamophiles. But judging from the recent past, I fear that “man’s best friend” will not fare well in the confrontation.
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