Ayatollah D'Souza

By Katha Pollitt, The Nation. Posted January 24, 2007.

In his new book, "The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11," far-right provocateur Dinesh D'Souza argues that Al Qaeda really does hate our freedoms -- and so does he. Forget geopolitics -- Israel/Palestine, U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia, our support for assorted corrupt regimes, Arab socioeconomic stagnation. No, 9/11 was provoked by feminism, birth control, abortion, pornography, feminism, Hollywood, divorce, the First Amendment, gay marriage, and did I mention feminism? Muslims fear the West is out to foist its depraved, licentious, secular "decadence" on their pious patriarchal societies. And, D'Souza argues, they're right. Working mothers! Will & Grace! Child pornography! Our vulgar, hedonistic, gender-egalitarian, virally expanding NGO-promoted values so offend "traditional Muslims" that they have thrown in their lot with Osama and other America-haters. At times D'Souza sounds like he can barely keep from enlisting himself: "American conservatives should join Muslims and others in condemning the global moral degeneracy that is produced by liberal values."

Well, it's a theory. Specifically, as D'Souza acknowledges, it's a secular version of Jerry Falwell's contention that 9/11 was a divine rebuke to "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America." Of course, Falwell got hammered; even George W. Bush had to distance himself. Besides the obvious objections, God's aim seemed wide of the mark: Did He think the ACLU had an office in the Pentagon and that Windows on the World was a gay bar? The same objection can be raised to D'Souza's cultural explanation for 9/11: Al Qaeda didn't send planes crashing into Universal Studios or the headquarters of Planned Parenthood. It blew up the emblems of U.S. economic and military might. Subsequent attacks took place in countries that sent troops to Iraq, not condoms to Cairo. As Osama himself has noted, he's not attacking Sweden.

But let that pass. The Enemy at Home isn't really about Osama. It's about us -- the cultural left, aka "the left wing of the Democratic Party" (plus a few Republican friends), "the domestic insurgency" that is "working in tandem with bin Laden to defeat Bush." (With typical slipperiness, D'Souza claims he's not accusing anyone of treason -- just of allying themselves with the evildoers out to destroy us. Note that the book jacket features a torn and burning flag.) D'Souza boasts that he'll go McCarthy one better and name names in high places -- his long list includes Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Howard Dean, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Salman Rushdie, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Wendy Kaminer, Planned Parenthood, Rosie O'Donnell, Alec Baldwin and a whole bunch of Nation writers, including Eric Alterman, Jonathan Schell and me. OK, Eric and me, possibly. And Hillary is a workaholic, so maybe she promotes America-hatred and child pornography in the wee hours, after her day job beefing up the U.S. military. But Rosie O'Donnell working with bin Laden? Salman Rushdie on the same side as the fanatics who tried so hard to kill him? Does D'Souza have any idea how weird that sounds?

See more stories tagged with: 9/11, right wing, culture war

Katha Pollitt is a columnist for the Nation.

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