{"id":7377,"date":"2014-05-14T12:30:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T19:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=7377"},"modified":"2014-05-14T12:32:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T19:32:20","slug":"bringbackourgirls-and-the-lefts-empty-moral-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bringbackourgirls-and-the-lefts-empty-moral-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"#BringBackOurGirls and the Left\u2019s Empty Moral Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0<\/span>Front Page Magazine\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"download\"<\/a>The outrage over the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by the Nigerian jihadist gang Boko Haram reeks of Western hypocrisy and moral idiocy. Boko Haram has for years been slaughtering Christians \u2013 up to 2500 this year alone \u2013 and burning churches in a classic Islamic jihad against infidels. These depredations apparently weren\u2019t enough to get the group designated a terrorist organization by Hillary Clinton\u2019s State Department. But this indifference to what under international law is a genocide has been indulged as well by our celebrities and the mainstream media, who rarely mention that the group is specifically targeting Christians, and before the girls were kidnapped displayed little interest in the suffering of those Christians. So why this sudden attention?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The recent burst of self-indulgent selfies tweeted by millions, including celebrities and the First Lady,\u00a0and the sentimental news coverage all reflect the fashionable and selective obsessions of our political and cultural elite and those who ape their fashions. First there is the need to display what Alan Bloom called \u201cconspicuous compassion\u201d for distant misery and suffering. Especially fashionable are compassion and pity for people in the Third World,\u00a0the display of what Pascal Bruckner called the \u201ctears of the white man\u201d shed for all those victims of Western crimes like colonialism, imperialism, and global capitalism. Like Veblen\u2019s conspicuous consumption, photogenic public displays of compassion, \u201coutrage,\u201d and \u201cconcern\u201d for global suffering function like a designer label, indicating one\u2019s moral superiority and finely calibrated sensitivity to oppression and suffering. Of course, ignored in all this emotional bluster and self-indulgence is any understanding of why this atrocity is happening, or the motives and aims of the perpetrators, information that would be important if we were really\u00a0serious about doing something about it other than morally preen for the cameras.<\/p>\n

Next is the despicable selectivity about which victims deserve our outrage. Why haven\u2019t the thousands of Nigerian Christians already slaughtered by Boko Haram been worthy of this same uproar as the kidnapped schoolgirls? Of course suffering children are always triggers of easy sentiment and emotion \u2013 \u201cI want to reach out and save those kids,\u201d Obama said at Steven Spielberg\u2019s house, at the same time he pretty much implied he wasn\u2019t about to actually do anything. But plenty of children have already been raped and killed by Boko Haram, and many more are dying in Syria, Sudan,\u00a0Egypt, and numerous other venues. Maybe the fact that the Nigerian girls are destined to be slave-wives \u2013 as Robert Spencer\u00a0points out<\/a>, a practice legitimate under Islamic doctrine and law \u2013 fires up leftists, who are always ready to decry a \u201cwar on women\u201d and privilege the travails of females over every other kind of oppression and suffering. People who think that a sorority girl who gets drunk at a party and has sex with an equally\u00a0drunk fraternity brother has been the victim of \u201csexual assault\u201d are not going to miss this opportunity to highlight the sexist \u201cpatriarchy\u201d and the universal rottenness of men.<\/p>\n

But notice that not a word will be said about the misogynistic Islamic doctrines that justify this atrocity, even though a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0has been released that claims all the girls have converted to Islam, and shows them dressed in full shari\u2019a regalia. Sentimental Third Worldism and its domestic offspring, multiculturalism, are\u00a0hypersensitive to the feelings of any and every religious faith except Christianity, which has been tainted by alleged Western crimes and intolerance. That\u2019s why the media and this administration have ignored the slow-motion genocide against Christians in the Middle East. People whose dudgeon reaches the stratosphere over some graffiti on a mosque or the word \u201ccrusade\u201d have nothing to say, no outrage to publicize, no selfies to tweet, over the church-bombing, kidnapping and rape of girls and women, forced conversions, torture, and execution of Christians\u00a0that have continually been taking place long before the Nigerian girls were kidnapped.<\/p>\n

But that suffering doesn\u2019t serve the left-wing multiculturalist narrative. After all, every orthodox multiculturalist knows that Christianity is the religion of Crusades and Inquisitions, violence and intolerance. It is Islam that is the religion of peace and ecumenical tolerance. Don\u2019t think about the extensive documentation of theologized violence in Islamic doctrine and practice. Keep quiet about the genital mutilation, honor killings, sex segregation, and forced marriages inflicted on girls and women in Islamic countries. Don\u2019t let an eloquent victim of such misogyny, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, be your commencement speaker, lest she speak truths hurtful to Muslims. Instead listen to the slick Muslim apologists and Western useful idiots who explain all that as the malign fantasies and slanderous distortions invented by \u201corientalist\u201d shills for neo-colonial oppression and Zionist hegemony.<\/p>\n

Most important, outrage is determined by the political needs of an administration whose foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster. The sentimental orgy over the schoolgirls distracts us from the disorder and violence that Obama and his foreign policy team have left in the wake of their misguided, ignorant, and ideologically corrupted actions and policies abroad. From Ukraine to the South China Sea, Iran to Latin America, our enemies are invigorated, our rivals heartened, our allies dispirited, and our security and interests compromised.<\/p>\n

All this failure is the consequence of Obama\u2019s bad ideas about foreign policy: unilateral military action angers our allies and creates new enemies; diplomacy and apology will restore good will; negotiation with a committed enemy can make him change his mind and ignore his own interests; abstract idealism about democracy and human rights can substitute for grim calculations of zero-sum interests and tragic trade-offs; killing bin Laden and droning an endless parade of al Qaeda \u201cnumber 2\u2019s\u201d will\u00a0neutralize the organization; establishing a Palestinian nation will eliminate the Muslim grievance against the West that fuels jihadist terror. Worst of all, these debacles reflect the overweening narcissism of a foreign policy tyro ignorant of history and political philosophy, but supremely confident in the power of his personality and public relations, when in fact he has acted on the world stage like a pampered child in the company of hard men who despise him.<\/p>\n

Finally, the spectacle of the kidnapped schoolgirls provides a convenient distraction from all those failures, especially one of the worst \u2013 the bungling and political opportunism that resulted in the murder of four Americans, including a diplomat, in Benghazi. This disaster began with Obama\u2019s collusion in the removal of Libya\u2019s Ghaddafi, who was behaving himself as far as our interests were concerned. Into the subsequent vacuum rushed any number of jihadist gangs, now armed with the weapons from Ghaddafi\u2019s looted arsenals, and unrestrained by any government control. To hide this failure, our diplomatic mission was left short of military protection lest anyone wonder why this glorious triumph for human rights and democracy had left a failed state full of violent factions from whom our diplomats needed to be protected. And don\u2019t forget the election-year narrative that al Qaeda was \u201con its heels\u201d and \u201cbin Laden is dead,\u201d a fairy tale challenged by the well-coordinated, sophisticated military attack on September 11, 2012. Hence the spin about an obscure video, a despicable cover-up abetted by Hillary Clinton when she tried to sell it to the grieving parents standing next to their sons\u2019 coffins.<\/p>\n

No, better to put on an emotional show over the kidnapped school girls, a terrible event stripped of context and reduced to sentiment, a perfect occasion for displays of self-righteousness and sensitivity \u2013 especially when the House has inconveniently established a select committee to get to the truth about Benghazi and the administration\u2019s cover-up. Just forget that none of the tweeting and \u201coutrage\u201d will do anything to get those girls back and punish the perpetrators. But they will distract us for a bit from one of the worst records of foreign policy failure in American history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Front Page Magazine\u00a0 The outrage over the kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls by the Nigerian jihadist gang Boko Haram reeks of Western hypocrisy and moral idiocy. Boko Haram has for years been slaughtering Christians \u2013 up to 2500 this year alone \u2013 and burning churches in a classic Islamic jihad against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[377,59,842,22,23,187],"tags":[944,1045,379,943,370,1055,1075],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1UZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7391,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/nigerian-sex-slaves-disrupt-obama-narrative-on-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":7377,"position":0},"title":"Nigerian \u2018Sex-Slaves\u2019 Disrupt Obama Narrative on Islam","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim \/\/ RaymondIbrahim.com Islamic law permits the possession of concubines, or sex slaves.\u00a0 This has been demonstrated countless times, including through\u00a0Islamic\u00a0clerics\u00a0quoting\u00a0Islamic scriptures, and through ordinary Muslims,\u00a0past and present,\u00a0acting on it. That said, Islamic sanctioned sex-slavery does not perturb the Western world simply because the powers-that-be\u2014specifically academia, media, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nigeria"","block_context":{"text":"Nigeria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/nigeria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.raymondibrahim.com\/_admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/boko-haram-leader-nigerian-girls.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1058,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/nigerian-new-year-christian-slaughter\/","url_meta":{"origin":7377,"position":1},"title":"Nigerian New Year, Christian Slaughter","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine The New Year's resolution for \"Sunnis for Da'wa [Islamization] and Jihad\" \u2014 also known as Boko Haram, or \"Western education is forbidden\" \u2014 is to create a Christian-free Nigeria, beginning, naturally, with the north, where Muslims outnumber Christians. Right at the start of 2012, Boko\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/religion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1297,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/nigerias-christmas-present-blown-up-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":7377,"position":2},"title":"Nigeria’s Christmas Present: Blown Up Christians","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Hudson New York Several churches in northern Nigeria were bombed December 25, in what has been\u00a0described\u00a0as \"Nigeria's blackest Christmas ever.\" The attacks, perpetrated by the Muslim militant group Boko Haram, killed at least 39 people, \"the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church [in Madalla\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nigeria"","block_context":{"text":"Nigeria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/nigeria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7384,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/tweets-wont-stop-modern-barbarians\/","url_meta":{"origin":7377,"position":3},"title":"Tweets Won\u2019t Stop Modern Barbarians\u00a0","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Boko Haram and the Sultan of Brunei couldn\u2019t care less about Western outrage. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 Nigeria\u2019s homegrown, al-Qaeda linked militant group, Boko Haram, brags openly that it recently kidnapped about 300 young Nigerian girls. It boasts that it will sell them into sexual slavery. Those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The World"","block_context":{"text":"The World","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo by: inquisitr.com","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/boko-haram-massacre-500x289.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1300,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/diplomatic-supping-with-jihadist-devils\/","url_meta":{"origin":7377,"position":4},"title":"Diplomatic Supping with Jihadist Devils","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine While Western diplomats wring their hands over trivial insults to Islam, a slow-motion genocide of Christians has been unfolding in the Muslim world. 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Lesser known, however, is that whenever foreign governments try\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Nigeria"","block_context":{"text":"Nigeria","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/nigeria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7377"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7381,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions\/7381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}