Professor Akbar Ahmed American University

July 24, 2010

Professor Akbar Ahmed
American University
School of International Service / McCabe-215
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016-8071

RE: Mosque, no mosque – A brief introduction to Western Civilization, a continuing journey that seems to have gone on without your brethren, and some facts, obviously unknown to you, about America.

My dear Professor,

“Everywhere there’s a mosque, there’s a tension now.”
Yesterday
You

The Trivium, a capstone of Western Civilization, addresses your concerns on “tension” at the neighborhood mosque.

You say that Governor Palin “implies that mosques are associated with violence and terrorism”.

Logic, a discipline that does not permit parabolic curves, has an answer to that. It is true that not all Moslems are terrorists. It is also true that all terrorists since 9/11 have been Moslems. The above statements are both valid and true. You may wish to consult someone in the Philosophy department about that.

50 years ago, a combat veteran of World War 2, a Roman Catholic by birth, had to present himself to a group of Baptist ministers in Houston, TX to say that he would not consult the Pope on matters and issues either political or moral. Senator Kennedy and his family, whatever else they might have done, never flew a plane into government buildings in Boston shouting “Jesus is Great” just before impact.

Perhaps you could help me understand a few things about your religion and culture.

13 centuries after Christ Dante wrote the Divine Comedy. Its opening line is immortal. “Halfway through my journey I found myself in the dark wood of error.” It is past 13 centuries after the time of Mohammed. Where is the Muslim Dante?

Is there an undiscovered Muslim Shakespeare? How about a closeted Cervantes? Why is there no Muslim Bach? Mozart? Beethoven? For 1000 years Muslim art has consisted of drawing geometric forms well. In many instances they have been done superbly well. After the first two, maybe three, centuries a case could be made that the



Genre has been exhausted. Don’t you think it may be time to move on and try to do some people? The statue of David, the portrait of the Mona Lisa – Why are these things absent from your culture?

A quick study of Nobel Prize winners since they began to give them out shows one Muslim winner and three Muslim co-winners. Where are the scientific achievements directly attributable to Muslim culture? Do you think it may be time for some Affirmative Action there? The Shias and the Sunnis, reasonable fellows all, get to decide who gets the first one.

Why are critical inquiry, reasoned discourse, and the scientific method anathema to Muslim culture? Why did Salman Rushdie live in fear of his life? Why was Theo van Gogh sliced to death on the streets of Amsterdam? Why all the fuss and bother over cartoons of Mohammed? In this country, where you and your co-religionists choose to live, taxpayer money is used to promote, inter alia, Piss Christ. It is a clear cylinder filled with urine in which is hung a crucifix. Many people believe that Jesus is divine. If people in Muslim countries died protesting cartoons that no one saw what would happen if someone drew a picture of Mohammed carnally cavorting with pigs?

If Islam is so peace loving what where your forebears doing halfway across France less than 100 years after you religion was founded? I would rather imagine that the name Charles Martel still causes a hush when Muslim warriors gather. Look at a map and tell me what that huge Muslim fleet was doing at Lepanto? If memory serves the good guys showed up and gave you a Texas sized ass whipping What interest other than murder and mayhem did you have when you tried to occupy Vienna?

The Statue of Liberty tells the world to “Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry masses yearning to breathe free”. Which Muslim country issues the same invitation to the wretched of the earth?

If Muslims can live free in New York and Hamtramck why can’t I live free in Mecca or Medina? If Muslims can practice their religion here why can’t I practice mine there? What would happen if I began to proselytize my religion in either of those two cities? How many 13 story Catholic centers are proposed for Mecca?

I read that the proposed mosque by the World Trade Center will have “13 stories with a swimming pool, a gym, and performance space open to everyone”.

Will the “performance space” be where the cliteroidectomies are performed? I would suggest that, despite Global Warming, New York winters can be cold and wet. For the comfort and welfare of the participants I suggest that the stoning pit for women taken in adultery be inside.



In the interests of fairness, a decidedly unMulsim concept, I quote your statement in its entirety.

“Sarah Palin’s comments again were saying implicitly that mosques are associated with violence and terrorism,” Ahmed says, though he adds that he thinks that the tension over the proposed mosque is unique due to the “raw wounds” of the 9/11 attacks. “At the highest level, even in America, we have a [former] vice presidential candidate, she can openly make a statement like this.”

In re the above, several things are “owed to the ledger”.

#1 – Which Muslim country has ever had woman run for the number 2 job? I am not sure what the title would be. Vice Emir or Vice Mullah sound nice.
#2 – Pakistan had a female Prime Minister who was killed by wing nuts and numskulls in the name of Allah.
#3 – I don’t know what your degrees are in. I am certain that none of them is in English. You write that she was “saying implicitly”. That makes it “explicit”. Look it up.
#4 – It took me a while to get through the tortured syntax of your last sentence. You say that a candidate for public office, particularly a woman, has to watch what they say or risk the wrath of the great Akbar. A long dead White European Male said, 25 centuries ago, that “free men speak with free tongues”. Your co-religionists have had a problem with that for, let’s see, 15 centuries. Why should we, legatees of Western Civilization and defenders, Crusaders if you will, of same, think that a Muslim leopard would change its spots because it lives in America?

A few lines back I mentioned that what passes for Muslim art is stuck in a 1000 year old time warp. That is coincident with the time that you began to eat your own seed corn, that you began to turn inward with a vengeance.

America has always been “the shining city on the hill”. Perhaps a free society can help you overcome the inbreeding of 10 centuries. You shouldn’t begin the hejira by sticking your thumb in the eye of your host. The appearance of the banner that says “Don’t tread on me” says that there will be no turning of the other cheek.

Is it time for a bumper sticker saying “Muhammad delenda est”?

Your call.



Kevin Smith