BLOG: Tim Blair's Saturday morning rant ...

Far-Right blogger Tim Blair has now been given space on the Daily Telegraph website. At 4:59am on Saturday 17 May 2008, Blair expressed his displeasure with an article yours truly wrote for The Age.

I'm not exactly sure why anyone would wake up at 4:59am to express one's support for torture, kangaroo courts and politically motivated prosecutions. No, I'm not talking about Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria or any other tin-pot Middle Eastern regime. I'm talking about Guantanamo Bay.

Blair, of course, supports Guantanamo Bay-style punishments. He probably also supports the US policy of extraordinary rendition. Blair is quite happy to see anyone suspected of criminal offences being beaten senseless, having dogs attack their testicles and other similar forms of punishment. Throw out the Magna Carta. Throw out the Geneva Convention. Throw out the Rule of Law. The only law that counts is Blair's Law.


And on what basis does Blair support Guantanamo internment?

Say what you will about Gitmo, but unlike Khadr’s father the guards there aren’t known for encouraging prisoners to blast themselves to death.

So it really doesn't matter what guards do, as long as they don't teach you to become a suicide bomber. I'm so glad that the NSW Department of Corrective Services doesn't follow Blair's Law.

Blair continues ...

Rather than whining over this, Muslims would do better to end mistreatment of children by their own families.

As if it's just a Muslim thing. As if all those Australians who complained about the treatment of (arguably ex-Muslim) David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay were just a bunch of whining Muslims.

My article mentions The Age newspaper, Dick Smith and an American film maker criticising Guantanamo internment. Clearly, all these people are just whining Muslims. Maybe one of them should change his name to Dick bin Smith.

One of Blair's few sane readers, a chap named Rod Blaine, had this to say ...

Tim, I agree with you that Khadr pere is a piece of work, but Yusuf’s point about Khadr fils still stands. We’re not talking about a David Hicks or a John Walker Lindh who, in his 20s, goes and seeks out a new family amongst the jihadists on the other side of the world. “Obey your father and mother” is a principle that, all else being equal, it’d be good to drill into more teenagers (Exhibit A: Corey Worthingless); unfortunately the downside is that now and then the father is a Khadr or a John Deaves, and parental authority is abused.

I disagree with Irfan Yusuf at times, but for all that he is a moderate, largely sensible, credible Muslim (ie, won’t be written off as an apostate like Manji or Hirsi Ali) who is committed to the Western liberal democratic process. Committment to the process is the vital point of agreement: we can disagree over the policy results later. Zinging him with “gotchas” won’t answer the substance of the point he makes.

Obviously Sheik Rod is just another whining Muslim. Meanwhile, Daniel Lewis injects some logic into the debate with this beauty:

I believe Irfan Yusuf still lives with his parents.

What a devastating refutation. And true to form, Daniel's buddy ElCid is as usual promoting his own Final Solution - turning Muslims into compost.

El Cid replied to RebeccaH
Sat 17 May 08 (11:36am)
We both know it ain’t gonna happen, Lady Rebecca.

If not “mistreated”, it’s “humiliated”, if neither of the above two, it’s “Islamaphobia”.

Actually, Islamaphobia is a damn good word to describe this THING.

Frothing at the mouth and their bite, infects others.

Next article, The Compost Solution.

Yes, you read it correctly. Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, who owns at least a 7% stake in News Corporation, should be turned into compost. I hope Stephen Mayne uses the next News Limited AGM to ask Sheik Rupert bin Murdoch whether he supports such sentiments being expressed in one of his newspapers.

ElCid puts finishing touches on Muslim compost heap.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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