Did the US promote the creation of the Taliban as some kind of Frankenstein’s monster when President Carter decided through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to arm the Afghan Mujaheddin movement that fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980ies?

It’s a fair question to ask, though the media may have accepted it as some kind of established non-disputable truth.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the man responsible for this policy in his capacity as National Security Adviser to President Carter (1977-1981) is of another opinion. He denounces the question as ”crazy”. In an interview with the American Interest’s editor Adam Garfinkle Brzezinski insists that he doesn’t regret anything and that he would do exactly the same if he were confronted with the the same challenge once again.

Here are his comments on the historical context of the Cold War and the rise of the Taliban:

“In 1979 and 1980, when the decision was made, we were dealing with a powerful Soviet Union that was on a roll. The Soviet Union maintained terrorist training camps all over their country. If the Soviet Union had prevailed then, I can only imagine what the world would have been like subsequently. I am not at all regretful that the Soviet Union collapsed, and one of the reasons it collapsed was because of what we did in Afghanistan. I would not hesitate to do it again.”

“70 percent of the people in Afghanistan want our troops to stay despite the growing difficulties. That should focus our attention on an important point: namely, that we wouldn’t have that support today in Afghanistan if we hadn’t done what we did beginning in the Carter Administration. The support of the majority of the Afghan people greatly minimizes the threat from Islamist extremists confronting us today. Moreover, the al-Qaeda phenomenon has been much more a Middle Eastern phenomenon than an Afghan one. There are hardly any Afghans among the terrorists responsible for 9/11 and other attacks in Europe and elsewhere.”

“…the Taliban came into the region after ten years of sustained Soviet pulverization of Afghan society, and after at least half a decade of American indifference to Afghanistan after the Soviets left. That’s the backdrop against which to view the Taliban’s rise.”

“The arrival of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan took place, as you say, in the second half of the 1990s, 16 years after we initially decided to prevent the Soviets from prevailing in Afghanistan. So it is a totally ahistorical argument which seems to be premised on the notion, maybe implicitly, that it would be better if the Soviet Union still existed. That way we would not be waging “World War IV”, as some of the crazies among the neocons call it, against Islamofascism.”

Brzezinski is making a caricature of the neocons. As far as I understand they are just saying one should be careful not to ally oneself with the enemy of my enemy, especially if this kind of allies are non-democratic regimes.

Two ex-members of the islamist organization Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz, visitied Copenhagen this past Friday. They were part of a panel at a public debate about Hizb-ut Tahrir that wants the institutions of democracy abolished and a caliphat ruled by sharia law established.

Asked by Jyllands-Posten if it makes sense to engage in a debate with islamists like members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir Ed Husain said:

”It’s important to understand that when you argue with Hizb-ut-Tahrir you are in fact talking to many young Muslims who feel attracted by the clear message of the islamists, but who are not part of the extremist community. That’s why we have to engage in public debates with these people.”

Last year Husain published the Islamist, his own story about joining radical Islam and quitting. In the book he calls for a ban on Hizb-ut-Tahrir, but now he has changed his mind, and I fully agree. Without being naive and appeasing the open society has to believe in its own values and moral foundation.

”If we ban these organizations, we acknowledge that democracy don’t have strong enough arguments to defeat religious fascists. A ban will only enlarge the gulf between them and us, and that debate is over in the UK. Muslims have to step forward and join the debate and it’s important that they are given access to the media.”

Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JUD), an Islamic organization based in Pakistan, is conducting a poll on its website.

They ask:

What should be the response of Muslim Ummah to the blasphemous caricatures published in Denmark?

At the time of this writing 256 people have replied.

A majority - 56 percent - think the cartoonists and the editors behind the publication should be killed.

30 percent call for ignoring the publication and ask Muslims to keep preaching Islam with peace.

A minority calls for boycotting Danish products or expelling Denmark’s ambassadors from Muslim countries.

According to Wikikpedia JUD “is popular in Pakistan for providing free medical care and education for the poor. It has done a lot of relief work in natural disasters of Pakistan such as famine of “Thar”, flood of Sindh; after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake JUD was quick to donate tents, blankets and food and, according to many relief organizations, its camps were more professionally managed even than those run by the UN.”

Do we show too much deference to religious people?

The British stand-up comedian, novelist and sitcom writer Ben Elton says yes in an interview with the Christian magazine Third Way.

”I think it all starts with people nodding whenever anybody says, ”As a person of faith…” And I believe that part of it is due to the genuine fear that the authorities and the community have about provoking the radical elements of Islam. There’s no doubt about it, the BBC will let vicar gags pass but they would not let imam gags pass. They might pretend that it’s, you know, something to do with their moral sensibilities, but it isn’t. It’s because they are scared. I know these people.”

Excactly. Here is what a BBC spokeswoman answered to Elton’s criticism:

”The treatment (i.e. jokes) should not cause harm or offense as defined by the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines or breach other BBC Guidelines.”

This concession of course was preceded by the ritual phrase:

”No subject is off limits for BBC comedy.”

Contrary to BBC Ben Elton insists that no one has a right not to be offended, and he is pretty clear that the lack of jokes about Muslims is discriminating.

”It’s incredible. I’m quite certain that the average Muslim does not want everybody going around thinking, ”We can’t mention you. We’ve just got to pretend that you don’t exist because we’re scared that somebody who claims to represent you will threaten to kill us.”

What do you think: Who is guilty of discrimination?

Those who tell jokes about Muslims or whose who insist on not offending people of faith or religious minorities?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is targeting the Dutch government for its incompetent handling of Geert Wilder’s documentary Fitna.

In an interview with Jyllands-Posten she criticizes the government for having tried to stop a movie that it hadn’t seen, a movie that it denounced without knowing its content and a movie that had the government prepare evacuation plans for its citizens in the Muslim world.

”The Dutch government is behaving as if it thinks Muslims are wild animals out of control. The movie doesn’t expose Muslims, it exposes a government that is patronizing all Muslims. What kind of message does that send to Muslims?” asks Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

”After having heard about the film the government should have said: We do not have an opinion until the movie is released, and then left it at that.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali doesn’t expect strong reactions among Muslims in Europe because it’s difficult to find new blasphemeous images in the film. The majority of Muslims know about Kurt Westergaard’s cartoon of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban that is featured in the film.

”The film will provoke and challenge many Muslims, but provocations are for the good. They move things. Personally, I am relieved that he didn’t burn the Koran or tear it apart. I disagree with Wilders politically. He wants to ban the Koran, but that’s the worst you can do. I want to fight for his right to make this movive, but he himself ought to fight for other people’s right to say and believe in something different.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali thinks that a far more controversial cartoon animation is in the making in the Netherlands. The apostate and former member of the Social Democratic party Ehsan Jami is preparing an animation about the violent and oppressive character of the prophet Muhammed. According to reports from the Netherlands the movie will depict Muhammed with an erection in the company of a six year old girl.

”If the Dutch government wants to concern itself with movies, this should be it. It may cause a tsunami of reactions in Europe and the rest of the world.”

Geert Wilder’s 15 minutes movie about violence committed in the name of Islam is out. It’s like a home video or oped in the newspaper. Due to intimidation Denmark’s Public tv refused to show any pictures from the film.

Fitna is made of documentary shots from 9/11, 7/7, 3/11, threatening, discriminating and racist claims by Muslims and all episodes are linked by quotes from the Koran.

A lot of people have been up in arms because Wilders is making the point that the Koran contains fascist passages. What’s so controversial about that?

In 1939 Karen Blixen, the celebrated Danish author publishing under the pseudonym Isaak Dinesen in English, compared Islam to Nazism. During a visit to Berlin she wrote in Letters from a Country at War:

”Has there ever been anything like The Third Reich? Of the phenomena I have encountered through my life Islam, the Muslim world and the Muslim world view come closest. The word Islam means submission and appearently that’s what the Third Reich is saying by its show of hands: I am Yours in life and death.”

And later:

”Like Nazism the Muslim world view is informed by an immense arrogance and pride: The orthodox believer is above all infidels, one orthodox soul is of more value than all the gold in the world. Islam in its essense destroys all classes as the Third Reich does. Muslims no matter if they are emirs or second-ranking people are equally good. There’s a strong team spirit and readiness to help one another – one has to give up 10 pct. of his fortune to Muslims in need, and it’s not charity, it’s a debt you pay. The rituals of Islam are similar to The Third Reich: Orthodox believers do not have time to turn into strangers to one another. Some things in (Hitler’s) Mein Kampf are similar to chapters in the Koran.”
(Karen Blixen: Collected Essays)

Is that controversial?

What’s really controversial is that Wilders as an elected member of parliament is being threatened because he is critical of a religious ideology.

Rangin Dadfar Spantan , Afghanistan’s minister of foreign affairs, didn’t mince words at a press conference in Copenhagen this week.

”Killder-pictures! Killer-words!” he said on Monday about the republishing of the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammed by 17 Danish papers after Danish police had foiled a plot to kill cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, author of the cartoon depicting Muhammed with a bomb fuse in his turban.

”I condemn in every possible way that the right to free speech is being used to insult one billion Muslims. It’s a result of islamophobia. Instead we need to use our right to free speech to enlighten our people and promote cultural dialogue that is being threathenend by two kinds of extremists: Those fighting on the battle field and those who are sitting behind their desks.”

He was comparing the Taleban to me and other editors in the Danish press and sounded like a commissar from a Soviet puppet regime. What does he know about a billion Muslims’ feelings?

Let me remind you that Mr. Spantan spent 20 years in Germany as a refugee from the Soviet occupation. He was a professor of political science at the university of Achen, and used to be an active member of the Green Party before he returned to his native country three years ago. So this is a man who should know better.

Fortunately, Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs Per Stig Moeller, didn’t let this kind of stupidity pass unnoticed.

”It’s difficult for me to put Danish soldiers’ life in danger in order to support a government where one is at risk to be condemned to death for values that we believe to be an inseparate part of democracy and the modern world.”

Denmark has several hundred soldiers in Afghanistan and a few have lost their life.

Erik Abild Soerensen, one of the 12 cartoonists that back in 2005 contributed to Jyllands-Postens cartoons of the prophet Muhammed has died at the age of 89.

Mr. Soerensen worked for Jyllands-Posten from 1938 until 1985. He was educated at an private art school and became a staff cartoonist at Jyllands-Posten in 1956. The Muhammed cartoon was the last published work in a career that spanned half a century. It was published under the caption: “Prophet! Daft and dumb. Keeping women under thumb.”

As a consequence of the death threats against the cartoonists Danish police showed up at Mr. Soerensen’s apartment in Aarhus offering security instructions. Soerensen replied:

”I have passed the age of 85, I am sick and I have just lost my wife. Can it get worse? I don’t think so.”

Last Friday the authorities in Berlin closed an exhibition showing posters by the Danish art group Surrend after angry Muslims had made their way into Gallery North in Berlin and threatened violence if one of the 21 posters wasn’t removed.

The poster shows the sacred stone of Mecca, the Kaaba, with the inscription Stupid Stone It’s part of an art project titled Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) referring to the wide spread conspiracy theory saying that Zionists are in control of everything in the world from politics to economics. The exhibition carries two posters commenting on the Muslim World.

Let me add on a personal note: It’s widely believed in the Muslim world that I am Jewish and that the publication of the Muhammed cartoons was part of a conspiracy involving myself and Daniel Pipes. The imams driving the protests in Denmark against the cartoons are convinced that Jyllands-Posten is owned by Jewish interest.

None of this is actually true.

Says Jan Egesborg, the male half of the artistic duo Surrend:

”Zog is a theory that is very much alive in the Arab world.”

Commenting on the threat of violence he added to Der Spiegel on line:

”It was an explosive situation. We don’t want to be part of the current Islamophobic tendency in Europe. We weren’t trying to provoke Muslims.”

”We could not make good satirical art about the ZOG theme without making fun of radical Islam.”

Using the term ”Islamophobic” wasn’t smart. The word means fear of Islam, and to express dislike and fear of a set of ideas one don’t like or want to challenge has nothing to do with discrimination.

The exhibition that is scheduled to run until the end of March reopens tomorrow at 2 pm.

”We have just received information about the reopening and we are very happy,” said Jan Egesborg.

Earlier today he was furious. Contrary to promises by the authorities it wasn’t clear at all whether the exhibition would reopen.

”It’s a scandal and a huge defeat for artistic freedom in Germany and Europe. It sends the scary message that a mob of angry people has the power to close down an exhibition,” Surrend said.

In 2006 the Deutsche Oper in Berlin cancelled Mozart’s opera Idomeneo out of fear for protests against a scene showing the chopped off head of Muhammed side by side with heads of Jesus and Buddha.

Surrend has a record of satirical stunts directed at authoritarian leaders like Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.

The Kaaba is the Black Stone, also called al-Hajar-ul-Aswad, which is believed by some Muslims to date back to the time of Adam and Eva. It is about 30 cm (12 inches) in diameter, is located on the Eastern corner of the Kaaba, and is surrounded by a silver frame. When Muslims come to Mecca to perform the Hajj, one of the tasks which they try to accomplish is to kiss the Black Stone, as Muhammad once kissed it. Tradition has it that the Black Stone was white when it came to earth, subsequently turning black under the burden of peoples’ sins. According to the Qur’an, the Kaaba was built by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael). Islamic traditions assert that the Kaaba “reflects” a house in heaven that was first built by the first man, Adam.

When Muhammad conquered Mecca, he destroyed the 360 idols around Kaaba which the Meccan pagans possessed. There was one god for each day of the year. While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited which says “Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.” Muhammad then entered the Kaaba and ordered all the pictures to be destroyed.

Yesterday the Vatican joined the al-Azhar university in Cairo in condemning the republication of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard’s depiction of Muhammed with a bomb in his turban, but the Catholic state and the supreme institution of Islam in the Sunni world didn’t say a word about the foiled plot to kill Westergaard, who has been in hiding since November last year.

”Both sides vehemently denounce the reprinting of the offensive cartoon and the attack on Islam and its prophet,” the two sides said in a joint statement according to IslamOnline.

The cartoon was republished by 17 danish newspapers two weeks ago in an act of solidarity with the 72 year old cartoonist.

”We call for the respect of faiths, religious holy books and religious symbols,” read the statement.

”Freedom of expression should not become a pretext to insult religions and defaming religious sanctities.”

I guess the denunciation was heard in the kindergarten, where Kurt Westergaard’s wife Gitte is working. Today she received a call from the director asking her not to show up at work. A spokesman for the authorities in charge of child care in the county said that the decision to kick out Ms. Westergaard was made after several parents expressed worries for the safety of their kids.

”I am angry, dissappointed and sad. The threats are against my husband. There is no security problem concerning me,” Gitte Westergaard told Jyllands-Posten.

”I understand that some parents may feel insecure, but I would never work at a kindergarten, if I had the slightest suspicion or knowledge that this would represent a risk to the kids or my colleagues.”

Congratulations to the Vatican and Al-Azhar. This kindergarten have really shown them the kind of respect they are craving for. It’s the hells angels’ code of ethics: If you don’t respect me I’ll kill you. Or if you don’t respect me I’ll scare the hell out of anymore who’s in touch with you so that they will cut off any contact with you. And it’s working: due to security concerns the Westergaards were kicked out of the Radisson hotel in Aarhus last week.

And by the way: al-Azhar is a university practicing institutional apartheid. The institution is banned for Jews and Copts, not only the department of theology, but also medicine, economics and agriculture. And speaking about offending religious sensibilities: al-Azhar has shown no willingness to abandon the part of the sharia providing Muslims with the obligation to insult non-Muslims’ religious feelings, while at the same time insisting that non-Muslims offending Muslims’ religious sensibilities should be punished.

How does this correspond with the joint declaration?