Is Tavis Smiley the New Rosie O’Donnell? Beyond the irritating liberal arrogance is the complete ignorance of the facts.
Ubiquitous
by Joe Hicks
If you’ve ever fallen victim to one of these guilt-tripping PBS fundraising
appeals and actually sent ‘em a check, I’d call and cancel my subscription now!
Call them up and just say two words: “Tavis Smiley.” They’ll instantly know why
you’re mad.
Smiley is the host of a nightly PBS TV broadcast which claims to be a “hybrid
of news, issues, and entertainment.” But let’s be clear: he is, in all-too-many
ways, simply Al Sharpton with an updated hair style and a better sense of
fashion. Like the Reverend Al, he’s a political opportunist and a shameless
self-promoter with a bad case of “hate America” politics.
But up to now, he’s just been another annoying liberal TV host playing the
usual game of racial-victim politics.
Well, that was up to now, because in the blink of an eye Smiley’s just gone
from being an annoyance to a guy who willfully insulted seventy-five percent of
the American population who proudly identify as Christians.
How’d he do this?
Recently, Smiley’s guest was none other than Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the
internationally renowned social critic and author of Infidel. She was on the
show to promote her new book, Nomad.
If you are unfamiliar with this woman’s amazing and courageous story, Hirsi Ali
fled a traditional Muslim life in Somalia, a life that included being the
victim of female genital mutilation as a child, and eventually made her way to
the Netherlands where she rejected Islam and literally underwent an
intellectual awakening. She now lives in America.
Hirsi Ali’s name made international headlines after her colleague, Theo van
Gogh, was butchered by a Muslim assassin in broad daylight in the middle of a
busy street in Amsterdam. The Muslim immigrant vowed to kill both van Gogh and
Hirsi Ali after the release of Submission, a film they made together that
spotlighted the treatment of women under Islam.
It’s also important to know that Hirsi Ali lives under the constant watch of
security guards, since her life continues to be threatened by Islamic
extremists.
This was the woman who walked onto Tavis Smiley’s PBS show to promote her new
book. Nomad calls on key institutions of the West — universities, feminists,
and Christian churches — to wage a war of ideas against Islamic fundamentalism
and terrorism.
However, Smiley was in no mood to hear Hirsi Ali’s arguments that placed Islam
in a bad light. He wanted to assert the old leftist claim that Islam is always
and everywhere “a religion of peace.”
Look at this jaw-dropping exchange between Smiley and Hirsi Ali:
Smiley: But Christians do that every single day in this country. …
Ali: Do they blow people up every single day?
Smiley: Yes, Christians. Every day, people walk into post offices,
they walk into schools, that’s what Columbine — I mean I could do
this all day long. There’s so many more examples of Christians —
and I happen to be a Christian — that’s back to this notion of you
idealizing Christianity to my read. There’s so many more examples,
Ayaan, of Christians who do that than you could ever give me examples
of Muslims who have done that inside this country where you live
and work.
Beyond the irritating liberal arrogance is the complete ignorance of the facts
involved here.
Let’s ignore momentarily the dozens of terror plots — all designed and
organized by Muslim-Americans — that have been uncovered and thwarted by this
nation’s security forces. I will instead direct Smiley’s attention to these
attacks against Americans:
•1993: The World Trade Center bombing in New York killed 6 people.
•1996: The Khobar Towers bombing killed 20 and wounded 372.
•1998: The bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania left 224 dead and
4,000 injured.
•2001: On 9/11, 19 hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center, the
Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 perished.
•2009: U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 at Texas’ Fort
Hood.
•2010: Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square.
Uh, where’s a similar listing of Christian-inspired acts of violence, Mr.
Smiley? The sweeping ignorance, or political blindness, of Smiley’s claim that
“Christians do that (commit acts of terror) every single day in this country”
is nothing short of astounding.
Unlike Islam, Christian scripture does not guarantee paradise to those who kill
in the name of their faith. But the Koran does offer the fruits of paradise to
“those who kill for Allah.” Suicide bombers have been lured to their deaths
with this promise and the offer that they will be free from the fires of hell
if they kill an infidel and, in the process, die.
But facts don’t matter to Smiley or those who bend themselves into contortions
attempting to portray Islam as a victimized religion.
Hirsi Ali, trying hard to maintain her composure, looked incredulous as this
clown of a TV host wandered into Rosie O’Donnell land. “Every day people walk
into post offices, they walk into schools,” Smiley said.
This claim is similar to the one made by O’Donnell, the crazed ultra-leftist,
who also claimed that “radical Christianity is just as dangerous as radical
Islam.” If Rosie didn’t hit for the other team, she and Tavis would make a
great couple.
But Tavis’ passing shot, that the Columbine shooting had something to do with
Christianity, simply has to be addressed. According to the investigation into
the 1999 Colorado massacre, the acts of the two deranged youths who shot and
killed 12 students had nothing to do with religion — any religion. In fact,
the two punks made fun of those who asked for God to save them — before
shooting them.
Smiley’s smear of Christianity was so appalling that Michael Getler, the PBS
ombudsman, issued a statement targeting Smiley’s bizarre on-air exchange with
Ayaan Hirsi Ali. The ombudsman said: “I don’t think he made his case.” Ya
think?
Getler noted that the only example Smiley offered of Christian terrorism was
the Columbine shooting, which he said “had nothing to do with Christianity.”
But Smiley did offer another “example” of so-called Christian violence.
Pulling out the tea party movement for one more bashing, he claimed that tea
party activists “are being arrested for making threats against elected
officials, for calling people ‘nigger’ as they walked into Capital Hill, for
spitting on people.”
I’ve addressed all of these claims before on The Hicks File — claims which have
been shown to be completely false. There was no malicious spitting on anyone,
the N-bomb wasn’t dropped on black elected officials, and if arrests were made
of people threatening elected officials this had nothing to do with tea party
activism — and had no connection whatsoever to Christianity.
The bottom line is this: Tavis Smiley’s a fool who has shown himself incapable
of approaching a serious issue like Islamic extremism with an ounce of
intellectual integrity.
Instead, as a pampered and privileged liberal media figure, he chose to slander
Christianity and lose a battle of wits with a woman whose life bears the scars
of Islam.
--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
Kennewick Man; the first, the BEST!
passively support it by saying nothing. Tavis S. can say what he
likes, but 100,000 terrorists acts in the last 5 years paints Muslims
in a light he'd rather not see.
thedockson
Pull shit out of your ass much?
WQ IV
Every time the U.S. gets involved in a war that's no business of
theirs, i.e. Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, is a Christian nation
committing acts of violence to tune of tens of thousands of deaths.
Every time priests are caught fiddling with little boys is a Christian-
inspired act of violence. Every time a Timothy McVeigh decides to
blow up a building and killing hundreds in the process, including kids
in a daycare, or a Rev. Jim Jones leads his followers into mass
suicide is a Christian-inspired act of violence. There are no saints
among Christians, just as there are no saints among anyone else.
Thanatos
<49382ea6-33c7-4c1c...@z10g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
WQ IV <WQ...@post.com> wrote:
> On Jun 21, 8:04 pm, web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous) wrote:
> > Uh, where s a similar listing of Christian-inspired acts of violence, Mr.
> > Smiley?
>
> Every time the U.S. gets involved in a war that's no business of
> theirs, i.e. Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, is a Christian nation
> committing acts of violence to tune of tens of thousands of deaths.
It's funny how the libs constantly take issue with the idea of the US
being a Christian nation when it comes to things like prayer in schools
and any public mention of god anywhere, but when it comes to war, we're
suddenly a Christian nation waging a global crusade.
WQ IV
> In article
> <49382ea6-33c7-4c1c-851c-45d4fce03...@z10g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
> WQ IV <W...@post.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 21, 8:04 pm, web...@polaris.net (Ubiquitous) wrote:
> > > Uh, where s a similar listing of Christian-inspired acts of violence, Mr.
> > > Smiley?
>
> > Every time the U.S. gets involved in a war that's no business of
> > theirs, i.e. Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, is a Christian nation
> > committing acts of violence to tune of tens of thousands of deaths.
>
> It's funny how the libs constantly take issue with the idea of the US
> being a Christian nation when it comes to things like prayer in schools
> and any public mention of god anywhere, but when it comes to war, we're
> suddenly a Christian nation waging a global crusade.
Yeah, it's hilarious. But prayer has no place in schools [that's for
churches, in case you didn't know], and neither does the U.S. have any
business getting into wars that aren't any of its business. Nothing
complicated about that.