Comments on: Unquestionable Political Correctness

By: Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:34:06 +0000

Yes. As it happens, EW wrote about that piece in a later post:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2009/08/04/eliot-weinberger/muslim-shark-alert/

By: Idrees

Idrees — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:42:00 +0000

As a matter of fact on July 29, the New York Times Boor Reivew had published a review of Caldwell's book -- by Cheney and the neocon's favourite Arab Fuad Ajami. He calls Caldwell 'a meticulous journalist' and calls his work 'subtle', 'honest and forthright', and the 'most sustained and thoughtful treatment' of the subject to date. As an example of Caldwell's subtlety Ajami offers this statement: '[Islam] is in no sense Europe’s religion and it is in no sense Europe’s culture'. The title of the article -- 'Strangers in the Land' -- is itself suggestive of the status Caldwell perceives the Muslims as occupying in Europe. I am glad Eliot and Pankaj Mishra have taken the lead in drawing attention this very pernicious figure. I would also encourage readers to see this profile for more on Caldwell.

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:55:40 +0000

Christopher Caldwell dissected (their title, not mine) by Matt Carr.

Carr expresses some puzzlement – which on first reading I shared – at the apparent intellectual respectability of what’s basically recycled Powellism, but on reflection I don’t think it’s all that surprising. Powell himself was taken seriously for a surprisingly long time (Terry Coleman interviewed him in the Guardian in 1994) and even Mosley had some quite respectful obituaries. You could say (mangling the rhyme) that racism in a tailored suit doth never prosper – what’s the reason?

By: leonard marks

leonard marks — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:40:46 +0000

Weinberger is right: assigning Stephen Pollard to review Bruce Bawer is like assigning the Pope to review the New Testament, even if Pollard has never shaken Bawer’s hand. But intellectual corruption isn’t the only, or the most important, problem raised by the publication of Pollard’s encomium. What’s much more troubling is the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim diatribes. Alert readers can’t fail to notice the venom of the likes of Pollard and Bawer; they may, however, be taken in by Christopher Caldwell’s Spenglerian book on the dangers of Muslim immigration, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe. Like Bawer and Pollard, Caldwell is hot with worry over everything from the Muslim birthrate to the smells of curry to the sinister preachings of Tariq Ramadan; unlike them, he makes a clever show of fairmindedness and has an appreciation of irony. Writing in – you guessed it – the New York Times, Dwight Garner, a literary critic with no expertise in either European history or Islam, praised Caldwell’s book as ‘well researched, fervently argued and morally serious’.