Vi var på nippet til at skrive “agent provocateur”, men LGF s skriverier er jo ikke kriminelle, selvom nogle nok ville mene, at de burde være det. I Weekendavisens artikel i fredags “De er alle blevet kuk-kuk” (pdf, hele artiklen som WA har sendt til Charles Johnson.) lader Wivel og Vind Jensen Charles Johnson sige:
Jeg husker ham [Hedegaard] udmærket. Han er tydeligvis en ekstremist, og at tale om ’et folkeligt oprør’ er vanvittigt. Han associerer sig med fascister og advokerer for vold og burde forbigås af anstændige mennesker.« [“shunned” betyder “skyet”, “undgået”, “ignoreret”, “forbigået” er upræcist.]
Selv skriver Charles Johnson igår d. 10.01 at han aldrig havde hørt om eller skrevet om Lars Hedegaard da Weekendavisen kontaktede ham. WA journalisten hjælper ham på gled:
A few days ago a writer for the Danish weekly Weekendavisen, Jesper Vind Jensen, emailed and asked for my opinion on a Danish critic of Islam named Lars Hedegaard who’s apparently now in the midst of a controversy, over statements he made calling for a sort of paramilitary strategy of civil disobedience against Muslims in Denmark. Jensen wrote that he had seen an image of Lars Hedegaard in a photoshop at some website that was attacking me for something, and thought I must have written something about Hedegaard that prompted it. But the name didn’t mean to much to me; I searched LGF and didn’t find any posts mentioning Hedegaard, and I didn’t recall writing anything about him. Then Jensen emailed this link to a speech in Hedegaard’s own words: The Resilience of the Commoners – Sappho. Jensen also told me that Lars Hedegaard had attended the meeting in Brussels in 2007 partly sponsored by the Belgian extremist party Vlaams Belang.
Her kommer en genfunden hukommelse via Weekendavisen:
OK, now I remember Hedegaard. He’s obviously an extremist, and anyone who consults with the neo-fascists of the Vlaams Belang should not be trusted. And talking about a “public uprising” is insane. He is associating with fascists and advocating violence, and should be shunned by decent people. Feelin’ the Love from Danish Kounterjihad Kultur Warriors.
Charles Johnson var altså ikke bare ikke tilstede ved Bryssel-mødet og blank om dets indhold, han havde indtil for få dage siden aldrig hørt om den Lars Hedegaard, Weekendavisen og 180 Grader lader ham udtale sig kategorisk om. Nu bliver det luftigt. Skal man så stole på, han ved noget om Vlaams Belang, der ene parti skal præstere at stemple en hel forsamling som kvasi-nazister? Det ville nok have bedrøvet de mange tilstedeværende jøder, hvis vi andre virkelig var som Weekendavisen og 180 Grader vil bilde deres sagesløse læsere ind. Skræller man alle udenomsværkerne og benspændene fra, er kernen i diskussionen om man kan omgås Vlaams Belang eller ej. Et parti med en blakket fortid ligesom de fleste partier har en fortid af en art. Vi støder på Sverigedemokrater nu og da. Partiet har en dubiøs fortid, men efter vores skøn en fuldt acceptabel nutid. Er vi så extremister eller landsbytosser for det ? Partiet tager ikke på kammeratligt besøg hos Jobbik i Budapest, som de mere tumpede Nationaldemokrater. Vlaams Belang er ikke fascistisk og har aldrig været det. Partiet har haft nogle ret uheldige tendenser i fortiden og det er så det. Det er de tendenser kritikerne klynger sig til, for så kunne man selvfølgelig finde noget nyere end en Dewinter-tale fra 1991 at kritisere. Det er for billigt bare at sige Vlaams Belangs har ideologiske bånd til en “fascist” som Allain Benoist. Det kan enhver komme og sige. Det nævnes selvfølgelig at folk i Vlaams Belang ikke har taget ordentligt afstand fra holocaustbenægtelse, men hvorfor udelades det at Vlaams Belang faktisk har smidt holocausbenægtere ud af partiet ? Benoist har ændret sig, Vlaams Belang/Blok har ændret sig, Pia Kjærsgaard har ændret sig siden dagene i Fremskridtspartiet. Når man læser kritikken føler man sig hensat til begyndelsen af 90´erne. Kritikerne befinder sig i en tidslomme.
Man bør bruge troværdige kilder. Det turde efterhånden være evident, at Charles Johnson ikke er en kilde, der er en seriøs avis værdig. Det havde været pærelet for WA at finde en kilde, der vidste noget overhovedet. Er en uge ikke lang tid nok til det ? – Jeg blev for nogle måneder siden ringet op af engelske Telegraph, der ville vide noget om en bestemt englænder, jeg ikke vidste noget om og aldrig havde mødt. Telegraph fodrede mig ikke med dokumenter og lod mig figurere som en autoritet på personen, naturligvis ikke. Et tilsendt foto ringede ingen klokke, og så var den potte ude. Jeg havde alligevel aldrig stillet op til sådan et arrangement. LGF, Weekendavisen og Birk Olesen lider ikke af de samme hæmninger.
Vores første postering om dette hed “Anklagerens vidne mod Hedegaard: Photoshopperen* Charles Johnson” og ikke “This is War”, som Johnson skriver. Det var et citat fra franske L Éxpress, vi brugte som rubrik til Christopher Caldwell, men det er bare en biting , nu musikken spiller. Update: Lars Hedegaard tager til genmæle på 180 Grader: Fascisme-ekspressen bruser frem. Update 2: Journalist Jesper Vind Jensen mener på Facebook (som vi ikke har adgang til) at Johnson kender Hedegaard, og at vi ikke har citeret hele citatet. Jo det ligger nedenfor i kommentar, men vi løfter det gerne op. Johnson siger at han ikke kender ham og aldrig har skrevet om ham, men at han også husker ham, hvad det så bidrager med. Tilbage står at Weekendavisen beklikker Lars Hedegaard groft med en mand, der ikke kan blive enig med sig selv om, hvorvidt han kender ham eller ej, og at avisen desuden via uklare, manipulerende formuleringer lader læserne forstå, at denne mand var vidne til et centralt møde, hvor han aldrig viste sig. Det er Vind Jensen og Wivel kogt ned og det er en smædefacon af en kvalitet, man burde lade tale for sig selv.
The tally of decency so far
Nothing about the international attention [and using this term about a floundering US blog may not exactly make us a part of glamour and intrigue] we are getting deviates from previous wars of the blogosphere: the recipe more or less boils down to a) playing the Nazi card even where it is irrelevant, and b) avoid any discussion of Islam as a political force throughout history, or its theology. It may be useful to try and keep track of what, in particular, 180grader and LGF will come up with in the coming days. So far this surely must be worthy of mentioning: on “Deadline” on national Danish television, Ole Birk Olesen within a few minutes manages to mock the mental capabilities of Lars Hedegaard (finger to the forehead), and bluntly declare his own lack of knowledge about Islam (“hadiths, or whatever you are calling them”). Charles Johnson is called in as a voice of “decency” on Birk Olesen’s 180grader – the same Johnson who has made libellous and unsubstantiated claims about Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller harbouring genocidal sympathies. 180grader has furthermore hauled in a member of the extreme left as witness for the prosecution (see below), and Johnson has already played the Nazi card against us, without knowing the slightest bit about what we stand for (also see below). Ah, the joys of blogging. What will they think of next? (LFPC)
Of questions of character, and somewhat bigger issues
I admit getting suckered into the Great Blogosphere Debacle II (Slight Return) is all too easy. Egos will be bruised, valuable time will be spent squabbling; however, keeping the relevant perspective in mind is more important than ever. There are basically four levels of concern here:
i) The internal affairs of the blogosphere.
ii) The influence on public perception of the counterjihad movement resulting from leftwing distortion, by them directly or through the MSM.
iii) Public perception of Islam as a problem: is this perception shaped in part by the blogosphere and the perception of it as per i), or does it relate exclusively to how they encounter this religion in their daily lives (e.g. crime attributed to this particular group, women in mobile prisons in the street, demands for concessions and strict blasphemy laws, and international events and developments).
iv) Reality, i.e., unmediated reality. What happens in the world, and where the world is heading.
I suggest what this is about is entirely within the field of i), IOW we are talking dog fights with no or very little relevance outside our own sandbox. However much I would like to believe our work to be influential, our influence on public opinion is only marginal at best. Does leftwing propaganda or shoddy journalism contribute to a negative perception of us? Perhaps to some extent, but we are talking about the miniscule few who are even aware of something labelled ‘the counterjihad movement’.
As for the spheres of iii) and iv), need I say more? The sheer presence of Islam in our everyday lives is not something we drum up or create. It is there, it has increased massively in the past 10 years or so, it is (funnily enough) never referred to for any positive qualities, which is not due to our influence, either. Its immediate impact in all likelihood far surpasses the impact the interpretation and contextualisation that lesser bloggers such as us, or major ones such as Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson or Daniel Pipes, can provide it with.
What all this boils down to for me personally, and what drives my blogging, is simply the question “what will the future be like?”. The future with respect to Islam will be shaped by internal dynamics: issues such as Saudi financing of subversive activities, the OIC, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the development of ghettos and enclaves in Europe, birth rates, and legal and illegal immigration from south of the Mediterranean to the north. And who is President of the USA. Not bickering bloggers.
Therefore, while I do notice Charles Johnson getting into purge mode again (Feelin’ the Love from Danish Kounterjihad Kultur Warriors – the ‘K’s, folks, are Mr. Johnson The Decent tarring us with the Nazi brush), and Ole Birk Olesen (who, for our international readers, is renowned for priding himself on his ignorance about Islam) getting all riled up but with nothing of substance to offer, really, it doesn’t make much difference. Oh yes, the potential threat of violence from the extreme left associates of Mr. Øyvind Strømmen is a factor that should be taken into account, but really, the future will not be shaped either by the Vlaams Belang, Lars Hedegaard, Charles Johnson, or, er, Ole Birk Olesen (LFPC).
“Se hvilken morgenstund”
Jeg har arbejdet med kunstnere hele mit liv. At tænke sig, at være rørende enig med én, for en gangs skyld. Enighed er ikke det værste vi har, for ellers er Kulturfolk er nogle skvat: Fåk Møhæmmed!
Anklagerens vidne mod Hedegaard: Photoshopperen* Charles Johnson