An offensive comment - with a tiny grain of truth

Viiit comments on my posting on the fundamental problem with Israel's PR:

Actually there is a solution, especially in regard to the third group, the leftists.

Their need is to dress their hate in acceptable, "revolutionary", "progressive" dress.

Their hatred can and must be re-directed towards Arabs and Muslims.

Their psychological need is to hate, and they don't necessarily need to hate Jews.
Speaking openly about how disgusting Arabs and Muslims are, will shift their hatred.
I am speaking from my personal experience. I have converted several leftist by teaching them about Islam:

Muhammad the pedophile, mass-murderer, etc. Is the best point. Additionally Arab and Muslims oppression of women. Beating of wives as commanded by Koran, FGM, "honor" killings etc.

Let's defer to the master of propaganda, Goebbels: Chose just a few points and repeat them endlessly.
1. Arabs and Muslims are liars.
2. Muhammad was as subhuman liar, pedophile and mass-murderer.
3. Muslims sexually abuse their boys and girls in huge numbers and this is the basis of their personality.

Zvi correctly responded:

Creating hatred is NEVER the right answer.

However, there is a tiny grain of truth in viiit's comments, distasteful as they are.

Negative propaganda will always get more press, more publicity, and greater receptivity than positive counter-propaganda. It's just the nature of humanity. Tabloid headlines rarely celebrate good news.

While disparaging Islam as a religion is not a desirable nor effective tactic, we should not be shy about denouncing as loudly as possible the human rights abuses endemic in Arab and Muslim countries. The perception that Israel is uniquely evil, when it is surrounded by countries who are infinitely worse by  every possible metric, can only be changed by educating people about that reality.It wouldn't directly counter anti-Israel rhetoric but it would dilute it greatly - as well as expose the hypocrisy of the haters.

More importantly, we need to speak forthrightly about political Islam - and make a clear distinction between that and the personal choice to practice Islam.

Islam as a religion may be offensive to some, but as long as its adherents are not forced to practice it (i.e., the religious police in Saudi Arabia who arrest retailers whose shops are open during prayer times, Iran kicking women off of planes for not being "properly dressed," Dubai authorities jailing couples who kiss) there is nothing wrong.

But Islam is not merely a personal belief system; it is a political movement as well - one as dangerous as Communism or Nazism. People, especially on the left, are skittish to recognize this fact because they don't want to give the appearance of impinging on religious freedom or of disparaging Islam, but the fact is that global Islam is political and not religious in the Western sense.

And political Islam is truly evil.

Political Islam as a philosophy is expansionist, colonialist, oppressive, racist, intolerant, supremacist - and murderous. It openly advocates violence against those who do not submit to its superiority. It is thoroughly against everything that liberals hold dear.

Moreover, political Islam is a threat not only to Israel but to the entire world. While Western-backed "moderate" Muslim governments carefully and soberly denounced 9/11, the fact is that their people cheered - and they reflect the reality of what political Islam has taught them for generations. Heroes in the Arab and Muslim world are not those who pretend to follow a Western-style liberal program but rather those who stand up to the West. There is no comparison between the popularity of a Mubarak and a Nasser. The World Trade Center terrorists were a product of "moderate" Saudi Arabia.

If people want to call Islam a "religion of peace," let them. But it is also a political philosophy of never-ending war between Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb - between Muslim countries and everyone else. That fact must not be swept under the rug because of fears of being labeled an "Islamophobe."

These are the facts that must be repeated over and over again. Not coincidentally, they mirror almost exactly Muslim lies about Judaism and Israel. In other words, institutionalized Muslim anti-Zionism and anti-semitism is, in no small way, a massive redirection to keep Westerners from noticing the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the accusers to begin with.

It is well past time to remediate this.