THE ARC OF SUPERFICIAL PRAISE

Strange news off the wires today. A blogger known as Max Publius writes of his own amazement in learning that the esteemed "The Color Purple" author Alice Walker has publically endorsed the anti-Islamic book "Infidels" penned by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who in her writings and eloquent interviews and speeches is beseeching the West to tackle this global jihad phenomenon seriously all the while busy ducking death threats made against her from the self-appointed Islamic thugs in the Netherlands (where her colleague, filmmaker Theo van Gogh was assassinated) and elsewhere who are actively pursuing her for daring to speak out against this barbarous regime. Max explains his surprise:

THERE I WAS INNOCENTLY DRIVING in my car listening and cursing left-wing author Alice Walker as she was interviewed on CSPAN. Then she does the unimaginable. She endorses right-winger Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book "Infidel." As any good anti-jihadist knows, Ali is the Somalian immigrant to the Netherlands who is under death threats because of her outspoken antipathy toward Islam, which has left her scarred for life, both literally (female circumscion) and emotionally, from the stress of death threats based in Islamic Sharia "apostate" laws. Ali is also a true intellectual who writes knowledgeably of the giants of Western philosphy, as well as a former politician in the Netherlands before she moved for a time to the United States to work for a conservative think tank.

Walker's endorsement came after her usual left-wing drivel and subtle black supremacist statements. Oddly, considering the endorsement, there were pro forma condemnations of "religious intolerance" and specifically, anti-Muslim intolerance. It makes one wonder: Did Walker get past the cover of Ali's book? Is Walker aware that Ali was throwing down the gauntlet with Islam? The book is many things, including brilliant, but tolerance is not high on the list. I have no doubt that Walker was drawn to Ali's book because Ali is black.

I dare say Walker not only wouldn't endorse the same book if written by a Bosnian ("white") Muslim, she would actively spurn it. It leads one to ask: Do the same facts resonate differently to Walker when a black woman says them than if they were said by a white male speaking about Islam? Experience says yes. This seems to be a defining characteristic of leftists: Facts are judged politically correct or not depending on the person speaking them. With conservatives, a fact is a fact, regardless of who says it.