re: #196 Charles
You seem to be saying that all rational criticism of militant Islam is based on bigotry, and I strongly disagree. After the 9/11 attacks, it was a perfectly rational response to want to know more about the Islamic rationale for jihad, and that was always my main focus at LGF — getting as much information about the subject as possible.
I’ve made it extremely clear that I want nothing to do with any form of bigotry, and I’ve been smeared and vilified all over the web as a result. I think I paid my dues on this issue, in spades, and I don’t really appreciate the implication that I was a “bigot” for wanting to do what I could to push back against terrorism.
And just to be clear, I’m not calling you a bigot. You’ve made your opposition to Islamophobes abundantly clear. What I’m questioning is whether that “anti-jihad blogosphere” was ever not infused throughout with bigotry. Ultimately, it’s really an academic point. It doesn’t matter nearly as much as maintaining vigilance in distinguishing between valid opposition to militant Islam and bigotry - and you have done a lot of good work in that respect - and have endured a lot of clearly undeserved personal attacks for doing so. But the lunatic Islamophobes have smeared people in a similar vein all along - this is not new behavior for them.