Sometimes you come across the absurd. Here: Victoria Jackson’s Politichicks.
I don’t want to link it, but I have to—otherwise, you’d go searching for it, and give it more kinetic effort than it’s worth. When faced with such impish rhetoric, which steals sentences out of context, and assumes the worst instances of a global Islam’s diverse history are quotidian, or even spiritually necessary, what can one do? At times like this I’m mildly keen on giving up. After all, how can we even respond to such misinformation? What could I possibly say to balance its unfairness?
Then I realized that we should never argue on these terms—the deck is stacked against us. One way to push back is to highlight a very different kind of Muslim world, the real, dynamic, flexible Muslim world, which is part of the wider world, not angry but eager, not oppositional but contributory. So I picked two news stories that should bring a smile to an economy desperate for good news.
Boeing, the US’s largest airplane manufacturer, has won two jumbo deals involving the Muslim world. Both will help them compete with European Airbus while sustaining or creating thousands of American jobs—up to an estimated 127,000. That’s Muslim money buying American goods, creating American jobs. That’s us benefiting from growth in the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
That’s the world growing together.
The Muslim world’s democratic convulsions—Indonesia preceded the Arab world by roundabout a decade—are responses to economic lethargy, with booming populations ravenous for rights, dignity, and prosperity. In short, thank the world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia, for a big order signed on the occasion of President Obama’s visit (230 planes at $21.7 billion!). And thank one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines, Emirates from Dubai, for the other (50 jets at $18 billion).
So here’s to cooperation of the civilizations. Here’s to throwing facts in the face of faux analysis. While Victoria Jackson’s off strumming silly songs, at least our president is looking after something of substance.
