Yesterday, I posted a short video about people
calling Richard Dawkins a racist for saying
that he prefers the sound of church bells
to the sound of “Allahu Akbar.”
I received a number of comments from viewers
along the lines of:
David, why are you helping Richard Dawkins?
Don’t you know that he hates all religion?
No, I’ve been living on Mars for the past
15 years.
What does Dawkins believe again?
When Dawkins says something stupid or false,
I’m all for pointing it out.
In fact, I’m currently putting together
a video titled “Comfortably Dumb: The Ballad
of the New Atheists,” in response to Dawkins’
absurd methodology.
But it’s never crossed my mind that, just
because I disagree with someone on some issues,
even extremely important, foundational issues,
I should therefore keep quiet when morons
call him a racist for a tweet that had absolutely
nothing to do with race.
In other words, I reject the idea that if
I disagree with someone on one issue, I have
to disagree with him on everything and keep
quiet while a mob buries him in false charges.
Shortly after I posted my video, I noticed
a related discussion unfolding on Twitter,
a discussion that initially seemed like a
breath of fresh air but quickly turned into
a nauseating stench.
Dave Rubin tweeted:
“So Mark Duplass said something remotely
nice about Ben Shapiro and is now trending
because of the outrage machine.
All the people reveling in this should know
the mob will come for them too one day if
they dare have an original thought.”
And the message he’s referring to from Mark
Duplass reads:
“Fellow liberals: If you are interested
at all in ‘crossing the aisle’ you should
consider following Ben Shapiro.
I don’t agree with him on much but he’s
a genuine person who once helped me for no
other reason than to be nice.
He doesn’t bend the truth.
His intentions are good.”
As it turns out, telling a leftist mob that
Ben Shapiro has good intentions is a bit like
telling a swarm of bees that the guy who just
kicked their nest has good intentions.
A swarm of bees, like a swarm of leftists
on Twitter, is too stupid to understand intentions.
You see, the leftist mob doesn’t want to
“cross the aisle.”
Instead, they want to, dare I say it, build
a wall.
Not surprisingly, Mark Duplass was bombarded
with abuse.
Did he stand his ground?
Of course not.
Standing your ground requires a spine, and
Mark Duplass is apparently part jellyfish.
Hence, he responded to the backlash with this
pusillanimous prattle:
“So that tweet was a disaster on so many
levels.
I want to be clear that I in no way endorse
hatred, racism, homophobia, xenophobia or
any such form of intolerance.
My goal has always been to spread unity, understanding
and kindness.
But I am going to make mistakes along the
way.
Sometimes I move too quickly when I get excited,
or fail to do enough research, or I don’t
communicate myself clearly.
I’m really sorry.
I now understand that I need to be more diligent
and careful.
I’m working on that.
But, I do believe deeply in bi-partisan understanding
and I will continue to do my best to promote
peace and decency in this world right now.
That said, I hear you.
And I want to say thank you to those who reached
out with constructive criticism.
I have genuinely learned so much and wish
everyone all the best.
~Mark Duplass”
Notice that I had to take a screenshot of
a word document for my apology, because two
hundred and eighty characters wasn’t enough
for all my blubbering.
Do you forgive me?
Predictably, the apology of Mr. Glass . . . pardon,
the apology of Mr. Duplass, was taken seriously
by no one and ridiculed by vertebrates everywhere:
“At least have the guts to say you were
bullied into this.
We all saw it happen.
Acting like this was just people giving you
constructive criticism makes you look doubly worse.
‘People got so mad that I felt I had to
take it back’ is the only truthful thing
you could have said.”
“You initially mentioned he helped you in
the past for no other reason than to be nice.
And you disown such a person for peer pressure
and career reasons rather than showing backbone
and sticking up for your convictions?
Sad.”
“What’s it like to stand for nothing?”
“Wait.
So Ben Shapiro DOESN’T have good intentions
anymore because your followers said so?
Where’s the bipartisan understanding?”
And Ben Shapiro added:
“So in 24 hours I apparently went from being
a person with good intentions to a racist
sexist bigot.
Twitter toxifies any attempt to cross the
aisle.
There's no conservative Mark could have recommended
who wouldn’t receive the same blowback.”
Interestingly, as Mark Duplass was busy sacrificing
his integrity on the altar of political correctness,
so was Richard Dawkins.
After his tweet about preferring the ringing
of church bells to shouts of “Allahu Akbar”
became international news, Dr. Dawkins walked
back his bell-preference with this:
“The call to prayer can be hauntingly beautiful,
especially if the muezzin has a musical voice.
My point is that ‘Allahu Akhbar’ is anything
but beautiful when it is heard just before
a suicide bomb goes off.
That is when Islam is tragically hijacked
by violence.”
So, he’s just sad that the hauntingly beautiful
“Allahu Akbar” has been hijacked by violence.
Of course, I can’t help but point out that
“Allahu Akbar” was hijacked by the founder
of Islam himself.
Ibn Ishaq, page 511.
“One whom I do not suspect told me from
Anas bin Malik: When the apostle raided a
people he waited until the morning.
If he heard a call to prayer he held back;
if he did not hear it he attacked.
We came to Khaybar by night, and the apostle
passed the night there; and when morning came
he did not hear the call to prayer, so he
rode and we rode with him, and I rode behind
Abu Talha with my foot touching the apostle’s
foot.
We met the workers of Khaybar coming out in
the morning with their spades and baskets.
When they saw the apostle and the army they
cried, ‘Muhammad with his force,’ and
turned tail and fled.
The apostle said, ‘Allah akbar!
Khaybar is destroyed.
When we arrive in a people’s square it is
a bad morning for those who have been warned.’”
So, when Muhammad and his army showed up to
a town, they would wait until morning and
listen for the call to prayer.
If they heard “Allahu Akbar,” they would
know that there were Muslims in the town,
so they would hold back.
But if they didn’t hear “Allahu Akbar,”
they would attack.
Khaybar was a Jewish settlement, and in the
passage we just read, Jewish workers were
heading to the fields when they saw Muhammad
and ran.
Were these Jewish men and women soldiers marching
out to battle?
No.
They were ordinary civilians going about their
daily lives.
Muhammad shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and attacked.
Muhammad and his followers killed anyone who
resisted them; they took the women and girls as sex
slaves; and they forced those who remained
to pay half of their annual produce as jizyah.
Fourteen centuries later, Richard Dawkins
has to say that his only problem with the
hauntingly beautiful “Allahu Akbar” is
that it’s been hijacked by violence.
This is your champion, atheists?
This is the guy who’s going to defend you
and keep you safe from religion?
Disturbingly, every time I post a video commenting
on political issues, viewers ask, “David,
why are you talking about this, instead of
something else?
Why do you care about Richard Dawkins or Mark
Duplass cowering in fear of a mindless mob?”
Well, it’s pretty simple really.
The same ever-expanding horde that just brought
Dawkins and Duplass to their knees is also
endlessly harassing, not just Twitter users,
but Twitter itself; not just Facebook users,
but Facebook itself; not just YouTube users,
but YouTube itself—demanding that these
companies enforce rules against hate speech,
where “hate speech” is any speech that
the leftist mob doesn’t approve of.
If you think that that YouTube and Facebook
and Twitter are going stand their ground as
the mob presses in on all sides, you haven’t
been paying attention.
The only reason these companies tolerate you
at all right now is that it’s more profitable
to tolerate you right now.
Once that changes, once the mob is so massive
that it becomes more profitable to do what
it demands, the Internet giants will drop
you faster than Mark Duplass dropped that
bridge he was building.
