Ann Coulter – Genius or Bigot? (Oct. 19, 2007)

So Ann Coulter says Jews would be better off as more refined Christians. So what?

Whether that’s comedic hyperbole, provocative marketing or innate belief is beside the point. A fair proportion of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, yes even secularists, would prefer Jews to be more like they themselves.

“So what?” I say to all of them, too. It’s been like that for 5,768 years and will be so until the end of time.

What is rather more of serious concern is not people’s valid or misguided, justified or bigoted beliefs – it’s their violent, coercive and lethal attempts to enforce these ideas that is ultimately at the heart of today’s clash of ideologies, the Jihadist wars and Islam’s attempt to enforce Sharia and then thereafter their Caliphate worldwide.

Whilst most of the world is peacefully evolving to a tolerant state of diversity, with all its attendant tensions, the Muslim world is, in its overriding manifestations, evolving in the opposite direction, one of fundamentalism and the undiluted imposition of their beliefs on all Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide. Contrary to what most ivory-towered Americans believe, this is not a negotiable conflict. The Wahabi Jihadists, the suicidal Ahmadinejads, are only interested in converting or destroying all heretical mutations of Islam, just as much or more even than all non-Muslim groups. They will either end up dominating their uneven playing field or indeed they will implode with the help of realistic and courageous moderates everywhere.

Whether Ann Coulter is crass or funny, bigoted or a media genius is not relevant. She does not and has never motivated for clitoredectomies, beheadings, stonings, honor killings or genocide. She has her opinions just as we all do. The pleasure of our enlightened America is we can choose to listen or not as the case may be. I feel perfectly safe and content to live amongst the Ann Coulters of the world. She is not the problem. Behavior and not ideas is the problem. We must rather look eastward and do so with a clear and realistic vision.

Tim Rutten’s Los Angeles Times Article 10/13/07 can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-rutten13oct13,0,1859447.column?coll=la-home-center