#gleengreenwald

Following up on the brouhaha from a few days ago, pitting atheists vs. Muslims and their allies on the left, Glenn Greenwald probably gets as close to anyone will to answering my question, which is basically, why does Islam deserve privileged status compared to Christianity and Judaism?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/sam-harris-muslim-animus

First, he spends some time describing how atheist Sam Harris might hate Islam MORE than he hates Christianity. I have no idea if this is true or not of Harris; most atheists I know tend to hate all of the Abrahamic religions equally; and while they focused on Islam after 9/11, this is a perfectly understandable reaction to a truly horrifying event. Most atheists in popular culture such as Bill Maher no longer focus on Islam, not when there are so many easy targets with our good old domestic fundies at hand. If Harris (whom I never read) is indeed focusing on Islam still, then I guess that's not very nice of him.

More interesting, after his long diatribe against Harris for not being nice to Muslims, is how Greenwald feels that Islam does indeed deserve a "protected" status and should not be the focus of much criticism. This is because, according to Greenwald, America is the true monster and any effort writing about the evils of Muslims is time better spent writing about the evils of Americans or Christians. Or as he puts it:

Beyond all that, I find extremely suspect the behavior of westerners like Harris (and Hitchens and Dawkins) who spend the bulk of their time condemning the sins of other, distant peoples rather than the bulk of their time working against the sins of their own country. That's particularly true of Americans, whose government has brought more violence, aggression, suffering, misery, and degradation to the world over the last decade than any other.

That he then follows this with a Chomsky quote should come as a surprise to nobody.

Greenwald combines Christianity and America in his mind, and -- surprise! -- he also has room to denounce Israel in this article, even while taking pains *immediately before and after the anti-Zionist remark* to go after American commentators to task for daring to criticize outside religions:

The reason this is particularly suspect and shoddy behavior from American commentators is that there are enormous amounts of violence and extremism and suffering which their government has unleashed and continues to unleash on the world. Indeed, much of that US violence is grounded in if not expressly justified by religion, including the aggressive attack on Iraq and steadfast support for Israeli aggression (to say nothing of the role Judaism plays in the decades-long oppression by the Israelis of Palestinians and all sorts of attacks on neighboring Arab and Muslim countries). Given the legion human rights violations from their own government, I find that Americans and westerners who spend the bulk of their energy on the crimes of others are usually cynically exploiting human rights concerns in service of a much different agenda.

I don't expect Greenwald to appreciate the irony on display here.

I also don't expect him to try to reconcile his horror at people daring to criticize Islam's monsters with his approval of people criticizing America's monsters. Shouldn't we do both?

Apparently not. Not if, like Greenwald and Chomsky, you view America as evil and the Muslim world as a noble entity standing up against it. Make that assumption, and all the rest falls into place.