Friday, September 21, 2012

“Manufactured” Outrage

Rushdie on Islamic protests

Salman Rushdie, the author who wrote the controversial (in the Islamic world) “Satanic Verses” published in 1989 and who still lives under a fatwa of death from Islamic religious leaders with a bounty on his head, says the recent demonstrations about the silly video “Innocence of Muslims” are “manufactured” by people who want to increase their political power.

I have a one-word reaction: DUH!

This is not news, but should be repeated over and over and over again until not only the American people (and just about everybody else), but its media, elites and government leaders get the message.

What is happening is not so much about what is wrong with us, or what we did or didn’t do; it is about how religious and political leaders in countries with significant Muslim populations can increase their control over the people they lead and deflect criticism and anger from their own policies.

George Bernard Shaw, you were so prescient when you wrote Animal Farm … or maybe you were just very perceptive about the human condition.

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