In an uncredited hit piece, the Muslim Public Affairs Council has launched a completely unhinged attack on Steven Emerson: Steve Emerson’s Self-Serving Distortions. (Hat tip: Baldy.)

The real difference between Steve Emerson and Salman Rushdie is that Emerson is a bigot who has made a career of rhetorically shooting Muslims first and asking questions later. Exhibit A is his announcement that Muslims were behind the Oklahoma City terror attack. Before any facts were available, the impartial and unbiased Steve Emerson had kangarooed his way to the incorrect conclusion that Muslims were behind the attack. But why let facts get in the way of a good argument? Has Steve ever gone to the American Muslim community and apologized for consistently slandering our community and attempt to make amends? Alas, Steve Emerson does not have that sort of integrity. See this telling analysis of Emerson’s work for more background:

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/03/05/emerson/index.html

In 1995 he bizarrely claimed in the Jewish Monthly that Islam “sanctions genocide, planned genocide, as part of its religious doctrine.” He then declared in the Jerusalem Post that “the US had become occupied fundamentalist territory.” Emerson brings to mind the most paranoid anti-communists of the 1950’s. His pathetic attempt to recast himself as only a righteous seeker of Islamic extremists does not fit the facts. His is more a struggle to keep legitimate American Muslim organizations from participating in the political life of their country, for fear that they would advocate for causes he does not support, such as freedom and a state for the Palestinians. Not very democratic of him.

The way MPAC summarizes the Salman Rushdie case is very revealing:

Salman Rushdie wrote a work of fiction that was seen as critical of the Prophet and his family, for which he garnered the anger of some Muslims outside the United States, and ended up with a death sentence issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. He never falsely accused anyone of anything, he just wrote a novel. Steve Emerson on the other hand is not under any death sentence, he is just being outed for his bigoted and ignorant statements. We at MPAC opposed the attempt by some misguided Muslims to condemn Rushdie, and we took a stand in favor of his free speech rights to be impolite.

Under the ideal Islamic state, of course, neither Emerson nor Rushdie would have written such books. Creatures such as Emerson and Rushdie would never come to exist. And no “pure” Muslim would ever have to risk exposure to their foul, polluting, “impolite” ideas.