Ameriphobia

Last week I wrote a commentary about diversity, Understanding Diversity published February 2, 2024, in which I mentioned that I went to high school in Dearborn Michigan. I noted in the commentary that when I was in high school the mayor back then was reelected many times because he kept black people out of the city. But people from the Middle East were allowed and the small Arab-American community in Dearborn when I was in high school grew exponentially such that the city is now the most Muslim city in America. Incredibly, later the same day that I posted my piece an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (Welcome to Dearborn, America’s Jihad Capital) stated that Dearborn was now a center of Islamic jihad and antisemitism.

The Muslim mayor of Dearborn immediately tweeted that the opinion piece was “Reckless. Inflammatory. Islamophobic.” A phobia is an irrational fear of something. Agoraphobia is the irrational fear of being outside. Arachnophobia is the irrational fear of spiders. But the progressive left has changed the meaning of phobia (as they have so many other words) to be opposition to any of the tenets of their ideology. We now have homophobia, transphobia and, of course, Islamophobia. But these so-called phobias have little to do with psychology and much to do with ideology. A study published in Nature by Jan Buts (Phobia: a corpus study of political diagnostics) noted that, “The analysis reveals that online articles situated on the left of the political spectrum contain a large number of formulaic but open-ended lists of socio-political phobias.”

Why do the leftist proponents of Identity politics call any form of criticism of any identity a phobia? Many think that criticisms of these identities are based on hate and bigotry, not fear. Labeling it a phobia is, in actuality, a form of cancel culture. If a phobia is an irrational fear, then you don’t have to pay attention to it because the issues raised by a phobic person are not rational. All criticism of Islam is labeled Islamophobia so they are telling you to ignore the criticism. The mayor of Dearborn labeled the WSJ op-ed as Islamophobic, thus saying it was not worth discussing, but he offered no defense of the allegations in the article.

Fear of radical Islam is not irrational. Concern about Muslims is real. Muslims killed three thousand Americans on 9-11. And the Muslims of Hamas killed twelve hundred Jews on October 7th. And Islam is not just a religion but also an ideology. An ideology that is opposed to everything Western civilization stands for. So they lash out and attack us. But American vengeance for the 9-11 attacks killed around two hundred thousand Afghans. And the Israeli Defense Force attack on Hamas is killing many thousands. More recently, American retaliation for the killing of three Americans at a remote base in Iraq has killed over twenty people including the leader of Kataib Hezbollah (which means Party of God Brigades). The Iran-backed militias should fear US retaliation but they continue to attack us in spite of the knowledge they will suffer even greater loss for their efforts.

They do it because they fear America. Not our military might of which they are well aware. They fear the concept of America. They fear that some among them might secretly admire America. That they might enjoy freedom. They might enjoy equal opportunity. That Western civilization might actually be superior to their ideology.

They sacrifice their citizens by provoking retaliation that causes civilian deaths because the militants hide among the civilians, secretly building military installations beneath hospitals. Collateral damage is inevitable because there is no other way to fight this enemy. To them, civilian casualties are just another tactic in a wider war. Civilians are sacrificed so that their deaths generate sympathy for the militants radical cause. But despite these tactics, millions of Muslims have immigrated to the United States seeking a better future.

This is why they hate us. They fear us. Not our military might, which is great. Not our economic power, which is also great. They fear our idea. They fear who we are. They fear our freedom. Because it is infectious. They fear that that the people that they subjugate will be infected by American freedom. They fear that they themselves might be infected by this idea. That is Ameriphobia.

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If you looked out at the sea of people wearing keffiyehs protesting in favor of the Hamas massacre of innocent Jews and shouting for the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people, you might think that every Muslim in America supported these protests. But anyone can buy a keffiyeh on Amazon for $13.99 and have it delivered tomorrow for free (if you are a Prime member).

Surveys by the Pew Research Center indicate that most Muslims in America support American ideals and principles. They came to America to seek the American Dream, not to protest. The Pew surveys are supported by studies conducted by the conservative Cato Institute. The Cato studies note that over 80% of American Muslims are immigrants or the children of immigrants and that they are rapidly assimilating American culture and mores.

Many of the protestors supporting a ceasefire for the relief of Hamas are more likely American students that have been fully indoctrinated by far left instructors at our elite colleges and universities. These postmodern adherents of Critical Theory view the Palestinians as victims and the Israelis as oppressors (colonialist settlers is the new terminology).

It is clear, however, that some in the Muslim community in America also support these protests. The Wall Street Journal article lists numerous protests led by Muslim clerics in Dearborn and other events in support of terrorists at Islamic centers in Michigan. While most Muslim immigrants living in America are Sunni (there is little hard data but most estimates are around 85%), Dearborn is largely Shia. Many of the imams in Dearborn have been trained in Iran and support Iranian backed foreign policy. They are the ones that are leading the protests against the American policy of supporting Israel. To my mind, because Iran is a theocracy and these Dearborn clerics are trained in Iran, they should be considered agents of a foreign government. They are no different than cadres of the CCP teaching Chinese history at UT.

But why are radical Islamists and radical left progressives joining together in these protests against Israel and America. They hate America and Israel because both countries are exemplars of Western Civilization – strong, prosperous and democratic. Everything they aren’t. But they also fear Israel and America. The Hamas attack came right after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that the Abraham Accords were making progress and that it might soon have diplomatic ties with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said on the same news show that soon the Palestinians would A problem in the Middle East not THE problem in the Middle East.

To Hamas, plus Iran and all its proxies in the region, there will be no peace as long as Israel exists. There will be no two-state solution. There will be no peaceful coexistence. Their allies in the universities and institutions of the West share their antipathy to Western Civilization. The postmodernist progressive left seeks the destruction of America as much as the Iranian clerics. Not by massacres and genocide but by undermining and capturing our democratic institutions and turning them against our American values and principles. They are truly Ameriphobic.