Scary Muslims are In Demand

In the course of discussions I have with people regarding the causes of Islamic terrorism I find that my opponents are often duped by fakes. Recently I had a discussion with an atheist friend and as proof of the scary nature of Islam and how the religion itself is the primary cause of the violence he appealed to Hassan Butt. Here's an excerpt from the article in the Guardian:

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy. By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

Pretty scary. But it turns out it's a scam. Even the extremist Muslim bashing right wing blog Jihad Watch has had to concede that Butt is a scam artist, going so far as to stab himself in the arm and blame it Muslims so as to portray Islam poorly. Wikipedia has more.

More recently the proof was offered in the form of a guy named Anjem Choudary and his interview on Hard Talk. See!! Islam is a violent religion!!

Well, let's do a little googling first and see if we don't have a case where somebody realized he can get a lot of attention by simply saying outrageous things. So Choundary is an ex-LSD using, pot smoking womanizer. He has no Islamic credentials, never studied under anybody. But he did grow a long beard and put on a hat. Kind of looks religious now. Smells like a rat.

Then there's Ergun Caner. More of the same. Here's a guy that couldn't speak Arabic but pretended he could, so he'd make up what he thought were Arabic sounding phrases to gullible audiences as he talked about the jihadi ways of scary Muslims. It was enough to propel him to President of Liberty Seminary. There's money to be made and attention to be had pretending to be a scary Muslim. Or ex-Muslim.