{"id":16242,"date":"2008-04-09T14:25:11","date_gmt":"2008-04-09T18:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15160.html"},"modified":"2008-04-09T14:25:11","modified_gmt":"2008-04-09T18:25:11","slug":"the-self-parodying-islamo-fascism-awareness-week-kicks-off-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-self-parodying-islamo-fascism-awareness-week-kicks-off-again\/","title":{"rendered":"The self-parodying Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week kicks off — again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Marshall highlighted<\/a> the good news: the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week from last October has spawned a sequel. Let the mockery begin.<\/p>\n

It seems like only a few months ago we were celebrating David Horowitz’s Islamofascism Awareness Week with heavily subsidized and poorly attended events on campuses around the country. But the October’s IAW was such a good fundraising tool he’s decided to make this week Islamofascism Awareness Week too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As was the case in October, it’s tempting to ignore David Horowitz’s “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” because it’s just too absurd to even bother. On the other hand, it’s also tempting to marvel at “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” and offer a reminder of just how far gone today’s conservative movement really is. It’s probably more fun to go with the latter.<\/p>\n

Here’s Horowitz’s pitch<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The purpose of this week and the campaign leading up to it will be: 1) To highlight the genocidal agendas of the Islamo-fascist crusade; and 2) To make the public aware of the “soft jihad” — the domestic networks that fund and provide political support for the agendas of the jihad, including its armies of terror. <\/p>\n

The core of the jihad is its intention to conquer and force into submission all religions and cultures which are not its own. It has absorbed the Nazi-virus of Jew-hatred and seeks as its first goal the obliteration of the Jewish state, but its agendas include the obliteration of Christian communities and all non-Muslim cultures as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I still think Ron Chusid’s take<\/a> from October is spot on: “It’s just getting harder to keep track of all those holidays. I mean, is Sweetest Day, which just occurred, a real holiday, or just an excuse to sell more candies and cards? Now I learn that this is Islamo-Fascism Awarness Week. Is this a real holiday, or just an excuse to sell more right wing paranoia?”<\/p>\n

All evidence points to the latter, though I don’t think Horowitz & Co. are “selling” claptrap, so much as they’re peddling it for free, hoping no one notices how nonsensical their materials really are.
\n
\nAs for the folks behind this week’s “festivities,” Josh offered a helpful primer<\/a> during the first go around:<\/p>\n

In case you’re not familiar with Horowitz, he’s probably most charitably described as a rather entrepreneurial self-promotion artist, though perhaps more accurately as one of the great buffoons of the modern American soapbox. I should probably say, as a matter of disclosure, that I’ve had a couple run-ins with Horowitz, one in person. And he’s probably one of only two people I met in Washington, or really in any of my dealings with people through TPM or any other professional writing I’ve done, who was just as nasty and whacked in person as anything you see on TV. It’s no act.<\/p>\n

Horowitz’s basic MO is finding the silliest opponents he can find, goading them into a shouting match and then working himself into a frenzy about how the “left” is out to get him and then taking the moment of attention to shake the trees for some more right-wing money for his next show. Money, that is, for his Center, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which I only found out today he has recently had renamed in honor of himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At a minimum, we should get some good quotes out of the events. Last fall, in one of my personal favorites, Rick Santorum<\/a> told a Penn State audience, “Islam, unlike Christianity, is an all-encompassing ideology. It is not just something you do on Sunday.”<\/p>\n

If anyone sees similarly illuminating remarks at this week’s events, be sure to let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Marshall highlighted the good news: the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week from last October has spawned a sequel. Let the mockery begin. It seems like only a few months ago we were celebrating David Horowitz’s Islamofascism Awareness Week with heavily subsidized and poorly attended events on campuses around the country. But the October’s IAW was such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}