I found this in CreepingSharia blog through a link at AtlasShrugs blog. Once I was able to calm down and try to analyze the thoughts of Madeline Albright and Vin Weber in a rational manner, I did not need to emphasize the concerns raised by the aforementioned blogs, but noticed a couple other statements deserving comment. I’ll insert my feedback below, with red font my concern and blue font my comment. Let others be the judge:

“Any surprise here from Madeline Albright? Blame America for the Muslim worlds problems. According to Albright, Americans are not only ignorant of the Muslim world, but woefully ignorant. No mention of how ignorant the Muslim world is of America and other issues.” – creepingsharia

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former Represenative Vin Weber (R-Minn) spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations conerning American relations with the Muslim world. Secretary Albright said that Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, but that Afghanistan and Pakistan are closely tied in their turmoil. She continued that most Americans are “woefully ignorant” of the Muslim world, and that America’s approach should not be one of ‘tolerance’, but rather one of ‘respect’.

OK, “tolerance” and an open mind to allow Muslims to speak and educate me about their religion I can agree to. BUT, a religion with a large portion that is radicalized enough to commit suicide attacks, behead infidels, treat women like pets, and blindly follow crazed Mullahs down a path to martyrdumb is not deserving of respect. It is the responsibility of Islam to earn our respect, and peaceful Islam must oust the radicals if they desire respect. 

Concurrent to that line of thought is the notion that the United States should be prepared to deal with Islamist democratic elections where the results are not favorable to American policy. Albright said people all over the world are ready for democracy, but that the United States should take the position of supporting popular democratic movements, not “imposing democracy”. Weber echoed that sentiment, but insisted that the U.S. could help build the “preconditions for democracy”, such as improving women’s rights or encouraging an open media.

Now just a damn minute Mr. Weber! If we, the west, try to build “preconditions for democracy” we are accused of trying to impose our values on others. Improving womens rights is a great notion but I don’t think the strict Islamic societies are open to this effort and I don’t see the womens rights groups in the west demonstrating any concern for such effort, which just shows their hypocrisy. Oh, encouraging open media? Please , Mr. Weber, tell us how to make that happen within any of the Islamic theocracies?

Regarding America’s approach to fighting terrorism, Albright said that the U.S. must not fight terror in a way which creates new terrorists, and that every civilian death makes both the United States and our causes suffer. Regarding the policies of ‘targeted killings’ and assassinations, Weber highlighted that both the Bush and Obama administrations said that they would not ignore ‘actionable intelligence’ on the locations of terrorists. Albright also stated that it is important for America to distinguish those who were civilians and those who were “murders”.

The above comments are noble but the Jihadists use civilians as shields, fire their weapons from among civilians, and expect that our compassion and concern for the innocent will protect them. When they see our desire to protect human life and avoid injuring civilians as a weakness, they will use our humanity against us. 

via The Talk Radio News Service » Blog Archive » Madelaine Albright: Americans “woefully ignorant” of Muslim world.

Update: The audio clip of Albright painting a monolithic swath of knowledge on Americans – woefully ignorant Americans:

The American public is woefully ignorant about, first of all they think that most Muslims live in the Middle East which they don’t uhhhhhh, and they don’t know anything about ehhhhh the difference between ummmmm Sunni and Shia or or any aspect of this, and so I think it is an educational process for the United States which can eh the American people which cannot be done without the help of reporters and ummmm the help of the media.

The mainstream media in the United States has demonstrated a bias against traditional American values. I and many others would be unable to take seriously any kind of education or enlightenment about Islam or any other issue that has displayed an apparent anti-western bias from our traditional media. Government pronouncements that “Islam is a religion of peace” fall on deaf ears as long as strong evidence counters this claim.  

Also the other way, I think that this is what we talked about in uhhh both these reports basically that there had to be ummm also more coverage in the uh Arab media or Muslim community of the United States.