The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia

Last week, Rusty Shackleford wrote about an anti semitic, terror supporter academic that teaches at Dalton State College in Georgia. Dr Shackleford, author of the Jawa Report, notes that Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar.

…runs the website Aljazeerah.info, which is not associated with Arabic satellite television station from Qatar, which is the al Jazeera, or with aljazeera.com, a British Islamists website. No, Dr. El-Najjar’s al Jazeerah is an antisemitic conspiracy website—much worse than the al Jazeera, if that is imaginable. Needless to say, they are pro-terrorism. Oh, they claim they are against “terrorism”, but, like so many Muslims in the world, define “terrorism” in such a way as to exclude, you know, real terrorists.

Dr Shackleford goes on to describe some of Dr. El-Najjar’s more repugnant and malodorous published beliefs. In a subsequent and follow up post, he publishes the predictable and canned response of Dalton State College president, Jim Burran, that states in part

The web site to which you refer is the product of Dr. Elnajjar’s own time and effort, and is in no way supported by Dalton State College. As a public institution, we cannot abridge the constitutional rights of any individual, including freedom of expression, even when we do not agree with it. Dr. Elnajjar’s viewpoints, as expressed in his web site, are his personal opinions alone and in no way reflect the position of Dalton State College. And once again, no college equipment or other resources have been constructing or maintaining Dr. Elnajjar’s web site.

Dalton State College is not being asked to ‘abridge the constitutional rights of any individual, including freedom of expression, even when we do not agree with it,’ but rather, to consider whether having Dr. Elnajjar on their staff and as such, representative of Dalton State College is in the best interest of the Dalston State College students and the University System of Georgia. We would ask Dalton State College president Dr. Jim Burran and others who have used similar nonsensical arguments if they would afford similar courtesies to a professor who called for the genocide of blacks or other minorities, or if they thought that having faculty that openly espoused those very beliefs are in the best interests of students. We question whether or not the parents of students who attend Dalton State College and taxpayers in the great state of Georgia would find Dr. Elnajjar’s appointment to that college and Dr. Burran’s vigorous defense of that appointment an appropriate expenditure of public dollars.

Why Dr. Elnajjar publishes what he does is of no surprise, really. He is from a society and culture led by dysfunctional tyrants that has known nothing but failure for the past one thousand years. It is not surprising that Dr. Elnajjar doesn’t like what he sees in the mirror and it is not surprising that he seeks to place the blame for his failure on others- especially those that have succeeded. For the Arab world, their cousins, the westernized Jews are the perfect foil. They are a minority and thus they can assault western values and successes via a proxy, the Jews.

In many Arab minds, the Jews can be hated, despised and denigrated, because, well, they are Jews- as if that pronouncement alone were a sufficient argument. What goes unanswered is a simple question: If the tiny number of the ‘sons of monkeys and pigs’ are of so little worth, how is it the mighty ummah, in all their glory and magnificence, cannot overcome their influence?

Dr Sanity noted in When Karl Met Sigmund, when speaking of regimes or individuals with a totalitarian mindset, that

…from the left or the right…whether religious or secular…actively promote the most negative, primitive, and immature aspects of human nature. In fact, they give a societal/institutional blessing to such behavior; and thrive on the resulting projection, paranoia, distortion, and denial of reality. [emp-SC&A]

This is the world in which Dr. Elnajjar lives. He believes- needs to believe- in the fantasies and mythologies that place the blame for Arab cultural and societal failures on others. If does not do that, he must look in the mirror of reality and place the blame where it belongs. He would have to admit that everything he was taught, stands for and believes in, is a lie. He would have to concede that his life has been wasted apologizing and defending the dysfunctional societies that taught him the values he so cherishes.

He is no different than the cannibal that cannot give up his way of life.

The child of abuse grows up and learns (subconsciously) to equate abuse with love. When confronted with even the most vile kinds of abuse, that now grown up individual will always perceive the abuse as love. When confronted and victimized by abuse, that individual will frame and preserve every kind of abuse as an expression of love. They will insist they were deserving of the punishment. They will say that the abuse is yet more proof that that the victimizer cares and loves them.

That is the psychological milieu and petri dish in which the Arab world lives. They believe that loyalty to the failed ideologies and dysfunctionality that has repressed them, failed them and abused them and claims to speak on their behalf, is an expression of ‘love’- and they want to identify with their abusers.

Of course, Dr. Elnajjar will not ever achieve that level of psychological insight. That is one reason why he struggles so hard fight to construct a fantasy that dysfunctional, totalitarian and failed Arab world regimes are moral equivalents to western democracies. He desperately wants to believe that western values are compatible with Arab world ideologies that espouse the notion of Itbach al Yahud!- Slaughter the Jew! is an acceptable political, moral and political expression.

(Another motivating factor for the kind of racism and bigotry espoused by Elnajjar is an elevated social standing within his equally dysfunctional community. The more you can demonstrate you hate Jews, the more prominent your position and status. Elnajjar is a kind of an ‘Exalted Grand Wizard’)

In point of fact, Dr. Elnajjar and his ilk cannot be sated with demise of Israel and Jews. In order for they and their beliefs to be validated, they would have to eliminate the western ideologies and moralities of freedom and democracy that allowed Israel and Jews to flourish. In the Arab mind, equality is not an acceptable value. They and they alone, are entitled to be privileged.

One of the accepted hallmarks of civilized society is an accepted code of moral behavior. No matter one’s prejudices, biases or beliefs, we are all expected to behave in a certain way. We are all expected to treat others, regardless of their religion, culture or creed, in the same way we ourselves expect to be treated. If that accepted code of moral behavior is not present in a particular society, that society cannot be counted as civilized. As long as Dr. Elnajjar and his ilk continue to demand a privileged status for themselves and a reduced status for others, they cannot be counted as a credible members of a civilized society any more than can members of the Ku Klux Klan claim moral credibility.

It is not uncommon to see NBA or NFL players- some not having completed college, some with a year or two of college and some just out of high school- dress like corporate CEO’s. They wear tailor made suits and shirts that can cost in the thousands. They wear one thousand dollar shoes and have only the finest of accessories. Why have so many athletes adopted a corporate and professional uniform? Because they believe if we see them dressed like CEO’s or other professionals, we will accord them more respect and even take their utterances more seriously. Wearing those kind of clothes, they believe, will camouflage the reality that their entire worth is valued predicated on how well they handle a ball.

Dr. Elnajjar is deluded by the serenades that equate terror and slaughter to dignity. He believes that if he wear clothes that make him sound ‘reasonable’ or identify him as victim or as representing victims, no one will notice the bigotry, racism or hate and his deliberate disconnect from reality and when confronted.

Those are the ‘clothes that make the man’ in much of the Arab psyche. Like the athletes that desperately need to be valued for something other than what is no more than a pastime for most, the Arab world desperately wants to be valued for something other than how the behavior in which they engage, tolerate or promote. They desperately want to be seen as something other than hate filled, desperate and dismissive of the western world and western values of freedom. As time goes by, the fantasy becomes more grotesque. They become the victims.

The fantasy envisioned by Dr. Elnajjar is a romantic return to Arab greatness. Imagine if the Greeks, or Italians too, wanted the restoration of former glory- and decided to do so by replicating the military conquests of the Greek and Roman Empires. There are few, if any, voices that call for and demand great academies of learning that once categorized the Arab culture. There are even fewer calls and demands for jobs or functioning economies, another feature of once great Arab Empires. The fantasy is ratcheted up with the dream that Israel will be destroyed and her inhabitants slaughtered, and that the west will bow before Arab greatness and will willingly serve their Arab superiors.

Never mind Arab world failures, Arab world dysfunctions and Arab world backwardness. They are so deserving of winning the lottery of life that they won’t even consider working for a living. The Arab world and Arab communities in the west influenced by the dysfunctional Arab societies, have proved themselves incapable of producing good and decent citizens.

Of course, in Dr. Elnajjar’s mind, the Jews that have somehow ‘fixed’ the lottery. That explains their commitment to education, work and successes. That explains their demonstrated charity and commitment to their families and community. Dr. Elnajjar’s vitriol directed at Jews will inevitably invite a comparison between Jews and Arabs.

Earlier immigrants came here understanding that they were to be included in the melting pot we know as America. They understood they were free to practice their religion, maintain their customs and keep their traditions. They wanted to be a part of that melting pot and contribute to it. It was understood that the fruits of their labor and their standing in the community would determine their credibility in the community at large. In other words, they understood that they had to contribute to the well being and ethos of America.

How did they do it? Well, there are community hospitals built by Catholic and Lutheran charities. There are hospitals built by Presbyterian and Jewish charities. There are community food kitchens sponsored by virtually every ethnic group in this country, from Croats and Bulgarians to Swedes and the Hare Krishna. These groups contribute. It didn’t take long for these groups and others to get involved.

The Arab community is different. There are virtually no ongoing charities that service the community at large. There are some exceptions, of course. However, they are all event based and all geared toward media recognition, such as disaster relief drives and so on. There are very few if any, ongoing projects, and those projects nowhere nearly reflect the population and income realities of this group of highly educated and successful group of immigrants. The Saudis fund billions of dollars to schools and mosques that teach their ‘values’ and nothing to the community at large.

Simply walking upright does not make the Arab world moral equivalents to the rest of western society.

Why? Because free and civilized people demand free and civilized societies. They identify with and demand solidarity with similar free and civilized societies. Those in free and civilized society who demand otherwise are themselves living in a fantasy.

Arab apologists and ideologues see confrontation and subjugation, rather than negotiation, as the vehicle for addressing grievances. As the last few years have shown us, violence and the threat of violence can only reinforce those notions.

The Arab world today is recognized for it’s hate and belligerence and not the enlightenment, science, art and literature that contributed to the progress of humankind.

These issues have nothing to do with America, Israel or Jews- and never have.

Arab political and religious leaders say that Arab ‘humiliation’ is predicated on the fact that Israel exists. It is not due to Israeli actions or inactions, but rather, to her very existence.

Israel and the success and contributions of Jews to western civilization as opposed to their own failures are in the mirror the Arab world has to look at daily. Those truths are almost intolerable to most Arabs. To be sure there are many progressive, intellectual Arabs that understand that Israel is a reality and that the successes of Jews in the west are a model that should be emulated, but for most, Israel and the success of the Jewish community integration into the American and western mosaic, remains a cruel violation of Allah’s promise to them. The fact that Allah seems to have abandoned them to live in such squalor and hopelessness is of no concern- it is the non Muslims that remain the obsession. It is the non-Muslims that have upset the ‘natural’ Islamic order.

The Arab world is not humiliated by the lack of decent schools. The Arab world is not humiliated by their scientific backwardness and book burnings. In a smaller, interconnected world, they cannot be unaware of their own medievalism. The Arab world is not humiliated by collapsed economies. There are car manufacturers in China and Africa, yet there are only ‘plans’ for an auto industry in the Arab world.

To put it all in context- how is it possible that the humiliations of centuries of Arab failures are trumped by the political ‘humiliations of today? What powerful agenda can pull a whole society away from reality? How is it that the Arab nations, blessed with wealth that is obscene, are not humiliated that by the fact that as a group, they are among the poorest people on the face of the planet? How is it that there is no humiliation that in the Arab world, female illiteracy tops 50%? How is it that there is no humiliation that of all the thousands of children born in the Arab world today, few, if any, will ever experience freedom and democracy? How is it possible that a vibrant, democratic and free Israel, or the sight of American soldiers rebuilding schools and power plants causes more offense and outrage than Arab failure? How is it possible that the only endeavor in which the Arab world has managed to excel is religious hate?

Many in the Arab world defiantly declare their ‘Arab pride,’ but of course, that really isn’t true. That is a kind of projection. If there really was Arab pride, they would be digging holes for the foundation of schools and factories, and not digging holes to bury IED’s. If the Palestinians wanted to reflect Arab pride, they would build hospitals and not rockets and missiles.

The Arab world is not fighting for freedom and democracy. They are fighting to retain the values of oppression, tyranny and dysfunction. There is so much self hatred of what they have come to stand for, that they are willing to blow themselves up in the process. Subconsciously, they must know what they are fighting to preserve and how they are fighting, is repulsive to any decent, civilized and religious adherent of any faith.

In truth, the Arab world cannot be proud of itself. The Islamic and Arab cultures that contributed mightily to the progress of mankind, have willingly become the poster children for religious intolerance, hate, violence and even genocide. There is very little the Arab world has to be proud of- and pointing to past glory only serves to highlight how far they have fallen. All the phony ‘Arab pride’ in the world has not motivated them to build. All they have done is destroy- and that destruction is a symptom of self hatred. People who hate themselves, destroy everything around them. People that believe in their higher selves, build. The same is true for nations.

Nations, societies and cultures are not remembered for what they destroy or allow to be destroyed. They are remembered for what they have built.

In Shame Culture And The Arab Psyche, Dr Sanity states a universal truth:

When a culture determines that the avoidance of shame is necessary no matter what the cost, the result is a culture of fanaticism, bizarre behavior in the name of “honor”…

The Arab world so revered by Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar have come to hate themselves, because under the leadership of corrupt, dysfunctional and immoral political and religious leaders, they have become corrupt and immoral. We have noted many times that

When nations that are that are led by or are under the influence of tyrants or dictators, attempt to justify those actions, we can rightly assume that justification is false. Tyrants and dictators do not make moral choices, because moral choices can only lead to the demise of the tyranny.

Anyone that comes to the defense of tyrannical regimes and their leaders, have themselves made a conscious choice to defend and stand by what is immoral. They themselves consciously adopt an immoral posture.

The tragedy and cost to the Arab world has been enormous and will continue to grow, until Arabs find within themselves the courage to do what they must.