I Hate Christopher Hitchens

I feel compelled to state the above. In the grand scheme of things, I would consider myself a secularist and on the leftist part of the political spectrum. Given my socialist leanings, I should probably praising Christopher Hitchens for taking on the haven for the conservative right - religion.

Paradoxically, though, I am deeply invested in my religion, contrary to many opinions (mainly Ashot), and on the eve of Ramadan, I feel the need to just tear Christopher Hitchens and his stupid vendetta against Islam (and religion as an institution as a whole).

In a recent article for Slate, Hitchens writes about Tariq Ramadan, a liberal Muslim activist, and he ends his ridiculous article with the following statement:
"I think that this pitch is probably too crude and crass to work, but it's exactly the crudeness and crassness of Bin Laden that require the emergence of more "credible" middlemen to allay anxiety and offer reassurance. Only six years on, and already the soft mainstreaming of Islamic imperialism is under way."

Although I claim an ignorance on having an intimate knowledge of Ramadan's agenda, I am deeply struck by how Hitchens dare call him a "middleman" for bin Laden. His sensationalist comments make him the secularist, intellectual version of Ann Coulter, another shrill idiot, who should have her right to the First Amendment taken away.

Secondly, the mere suggestion of this so-called "Islamic imperialism" is not only ludicrous but completely an oxymoron. I would not hasten to call Islam in America a subaltern contingency struggling to avoid stereotype and ignorance in a post 9/11 world, where nearly 50% of people polled look at Muslims and their religion with suspicion. In actuality, in a new book I'm reading entitled Indian Summer, the spread of this "Islamic imperialism" (which should be more accurately called the spread of extremist faction of Islam), is a direct product of the way the British Empire hastily vacated the Subcontinent in 1947, leaving the area in utter shambles. So, Hitchens, a British citizen, should examine this "Islamic imperialism" and its historical context before he goes on an ignorant agenda against religion, particularly Islam, and takes on the Almighty in a desperate attempt to have a prominent showing at Barnes and Noble.

--By Mariam, who is really disappointed in Slate, a publication that she has read for years, for having such an avid love affair with Christopher Hitchens.