On the 'Boy did this one backfire!' thread, discussion has roamed over a few acres of various disputes, all tied to the Menace of Islam. At one point I wondered how Richard Wiig could be so confident about 'Sharia law in Canada.' That led to a schmozzle with Adam Selene, who forked up the first (incorrect) reference he could find . . . but eventually Wiig admitted he was wrong in his claim. But he didn't just say "I was wrong. Bite me." He added more material which led to more shmozzle in two back to back posts.

Ok, I was wrong about Shariah courts being established in Canada. The facts are the facts, and the fact is, supremacist Islam is still a serious threat despite my slipup. The demand for Sharia is still there and it won't be going away. The whole cartoon rage was orchestrated for the purpose of pushing Sharia into the West, and it succeeded wonderfully. That push hasn't let up one little bit.

I wonder if Tony or Richard or both would comment on the formation of Egypt's first Islamist political party -- that's the Hizb al-Wasat al-Jadid (also known as Al-Wasat).

I don't know much about it, and haven't had the time to find out. In a general sense, it's a sign that Islam has an audience in Egypt (but we didn't need the formation of Al-Wasat to know that) which can only, in the general sense again, be dangerous. Two million people in Tahrir square chanting "To Jerusalem we are heading, martyrs in the millions" isn't a good sign either.

So, there we split off the main trunk road of the story, which was the Islamic TV exec who went to jail for beheading his wife. The trunk had already sprouted 'honour killing' and other shoots, but here several buds erupt: Did Qaradawi raise two million voices in a chant to go die in Jerusalem? Will Canada face more credible demains for special religious arbitration? What does the registration of the Al-Wasat party signify? Wiig has stirred these all together into an unappetizing glop.

But before I examine those offshoots, what really captured my eye was the reference to Qaradawi and The Google People -- a report by Michael expanding on Wiig's point about Menacing Signs.

Michael references a Beck program, the awful Qaradawi sermonette in Tahrir Square, and then tells us that The Google People have been used . . .

A couple of days ago, Glenn Beck talked about the al Qaradawi sermon.

He asked Wael Ghonim and other Google folks how they felt about that. (They weren't present on the show. He was just asking out loud.) Wael Ghonim was to speak at that rally and he was barred from doing do. You won't read much about that in the Western press. You can in the Hindustan Times, though:

Egypt protest hero Wael Ghonim barred from stage

February 18, 2011

Hindustan Times

Beck asked how that Egyptian freedom stuff is working out for the good folks from Google.

Both Wael Ghonim and other Google people had made all kinds of waves about how they were now the do-gooders of the world, wrenching democracy for the people from the bloody clutches of evil dictators. But what they got in the end was not that. Once they had served their role of useful idiots for some really bad guys, they were spit out like chewing tobacco.

Welcome to the real world where you don't get to change the channel with a remote control when you don't like the show.

And so much for trying to fight a dictator with do-gooder public manipulation, no matter how touchy-feely it is, while ignoring the toxic ideology waiting in the wings. It doesn't work the way they want it to. You just can't trick people into freedom. They have to want it as a value in itself.

(Since I suspect this will spark more Islam-bashing, I am not talking about Islam, the religion. I am talking about the fundamentalist denomination of theocratic Islam that has incorporated elements of Nazi thought into it.)

Michael

I have asked Michael if this Beck program was the one from February 21st, but have muffed my queries.

I think this is the video, which has been chopped (I will upload a better sound version):

Look for anyone other than Wael Ghonim to be mentioned as 'Google People.' One other Google person might be Amr Khaleed.

And so much for trying to fight a dictator with do-gooder public manipulation, no matter how touchy-feely it is, while ignoring the toxic ideology waiting in the wings

Mr Khaleed is an Islamic Preacher and TV personality. His Facebook page is the most popular in Egypt, according to the Washington Post.

And from an overview of the Muslim Internet in Egypt via Islamonline:

It is not a coincidence that the biggest Islamic Web sites are subscribers to modernist Islam. The neat looking and high-tech Web site of popular numero uno preacher Amr Khaled (amrkhaled.net) comes to the forefront. It is second to IslamOnline (IOL). After Amr Khaled has been the star of many shows on numerous satellite channels, the cable network seems not to be enough. Amr Khaled’s Web site, too, tops all. The Web site, a byproduct of mass education, fragmented knowledge, reverence for the printed word, and an avant garde setting, enjoys incredible and ascending popularity. With its positivist and dynamic message and socially conscious discourse as its essence, it easily won the top position.

Our Web site, IOL, conquered the top of Muslim online positions. The original message of IOL is to offer a portal for modernist and activist Islamic discourse. In theory, this discourse, reformist in nature, tries to find a middle ground between modernity, with all its axioms, and Islam, with both its principles and various understandings of those principles. IOL now offers many streams of thought within modernist Islam, more diverse than that of Amr Khaled’s and other Web sites. In a meeting with Dr. Hofheinz, Hisham Ja`far, the editor-in-chief of the Arabic section of IOL, explained to the researcher that IslamOnline has managed not to be merely a Web site associated with the thoughts of Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the chairman of the board. It has become a “reference for discourse,” a modernist, liberal, and reformist one. With activism being at the heart of the Web site, IslamOnline tries to reach out to the “sociological” backdoor of the Internet, bringing together many voices and efforts.

_______________________

-- a few links and embeds that I will put in the body of the entry.

<object width="480" height="270"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xh142f_wael-ghonim-and-egypt_people"></param><param'>http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xh142f_wael-ghonim-and-egypt_people"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xh142f_wael-ghonim-and-egypt_people" width="480" height="270" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh142f_wael-ghonim-and-egypt_people" target="_blank">Wael Ghonim and Egypt</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/babisflou" target="_blank">babisflou</a>. - <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dailymotion.com/ca-en/channel/people/featured/1">Explore more family videos.</a></i>

Wael Ghonim at Twitter.