Will Liberal Who Admits 'Liberals Are Soft on Terrorism' Lunch in MSM Again?

Mark Finkelstein
September 18th, 2006 10:03 AM
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You wouldn't think that someone who wrote a book condemning all religions as dangerous hokum and who favors higher taxes, drug decriminalization and gay marriage would be in danger of becoming the right's favorite liberal. But in the wake of his LA Times column of today, Head-in-the-Sand Liberals, Sam Harris might be on the way to being celebrated by conservatives and castigated on the left.

The column's subtitle really tells the story: "Western civilization really is at risk from Muslim extremists," and Harris' essential point in that liberals refuse to recognize that fact.

Excerpts:

  • "My correspondence with liberals has convinced me that liberalism has grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of our world — specifically with what devout Muslims actually believe about the West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith."
  • "This may seem like frank acquiescence to the charge that 'liberals are soft on terrorism.' It is, and they are."
  • "This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims. But we are absolutely at war with those who believe that death in defense of the faith is the highest possible good, that cartoonists should be killed for caricaturing the prophet and that any Muslim who loses his faith should be butchered for apostasy."
  • "At its most extreme, liberal denial has found expression in a growing subculture of conspiracy theorists who believe that the atrocities of 9/11 were orchestrated by our own government."
  • "Liberals hate the current administration with such fury that they regularly fail to acknowledge just how dangerous and depraved our enemies in the Muslim world are."
  • "Unless liberals realize that there are tens of millions of people in the Muslim world who are far scarier than Dick Cheney, they will be unable to protect civilization from its genuine enemies."

Liberals reading this column will no doubt be shocked. His book, an ode to atheism, won that liberal imprimatur, the PEN Award for non-fiction, and he has been favored by the liberal establishment frequent publication and appearances in the MSM. It will be interesting to see whether some of those career opportunities dry up now that Harris has bitten the liberal hand that fed him.

Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net