What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

About

What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

The Tale of the Ten Cossacks and the Brave Little Waiter

For those of you who think we, or at least I, never have a good word to say about Muslims, herewith a getting-close-to-Christmas story. (HT TROP)

Apparently a bunch of young men were aboard a New York subway and were randomly yelling "Merry Christmas." (This is a conjecture, but as it says it was "late," I think we may infer that they'd imbibed liquid refreshment and were becoming not only boisterous but also belligerent.) Also on the train were a group of young Jewish girls and guys, who began calling back "Happy Hannukah" to them.

What happened next is a bit unclear (to me, anyway), but evidently the Christmas-shouting thugs became angry and began behaving threateningly to at least one of the Jewish girls. Whereupon a bystander, a 5' 7", 140 lb. Muslim Bangladeshi waiter named Hassan Askari, pushed one of the young Cossacks away from the Jewish girl (why didn't her escort do this first?), and got himself a couple of black eyes and a swollen face for his pains.

There's no word here on what happened to the thugs, whether they ended up in custody, whether they will be charged, or exactly how the whole thing ended without more serious injuries. We learn only that one of the young Jewish men pulled the emergency cord and thus alerted the powers that be to trouble on the train, which presumably had something to do with the breakup of the whole thing.

Confoundment to those who take the name of Our Lord and the feast of His birth in vain. And honor where it's due. To Hassan Askari: May he someday come to know Jesus Christ and learn the true meaning of "Merry Christmas."

Comments (37)

But this is exactly what is wrong with everything you have to say about Muslims. This one guy is just that, just a guy. He isn't a stand-in for "Islam."

Giving props to this guy doesn't indicate an ability to be even-handed about Muslims. Refusing to compliment him would simply be ridiculous.

Everything I have to say, huh?
That's a lot. Well, since this isn't about "everything I have to say about Muslims," I won't try too hard to argue with you. Suffice it to say that I agree entirely that he's "just a guy" in this story, a guy doing the right thing and, as so often happens in the world, coming the worse out of it. And if he always acts much more like "just a guy" and even "just a nice guy" than like a devout Muslim, he and everyone else will be the better for it.

I think it's beyond doubt that many believers of Islam have a very respectable moral resolve for justice, as they interpret it anyway.

Granted, the difference between Hassan and the Jihadist suicide bomber is how that moral resolve is focused.

Well, let's see... In this little tale we have all three of the Abrahamic religions represented (assuming the inebriated "Merry Christmas" crew to be a "Christian" mob.)

What lesson are we standing athwart here, then?

Hmmm. I don't think we've got one.


But, wait! I pick up Heretics by the oracular G.K. Chesterton, and in the chapter entitled "Mr. H.G. Wells and the Giants" I read this:

"The modern world, when it praises its little Caesars*, talks of being strong and brave: but it does not seem to see the eternal paradox involved in the conjunction of these ideas. The strong cannot be brave. Only the weak can be brave; and yet again, in practice, only those who can be brave can be trusted, in time of doubt, to be strong. ...Thus that sympathy with the small or the defeated as such, with which we Liberals and Nationalists have been often reproached, is not a useless sentimentalism at all... It is the first law of practical courage. To be in the weakest camp is to be in the strongest school."
__________________
*Note: I think that Mr. Chesterton is not speaking of pizza here, but rather of--for example--the two-headed giant, Bush-Cheney, and all that ilk.

Give it the 48 hour waiting period. If no further details emerge there is something wrong and the press is hiding the real nature of the incident. As of now there are; no arrests, no names or descriptions of the assailants, nor how many total participants were present. Not even an eyewitness account from a non-involved 3rd party.

Reads like a tabloid's attempt to forge a modern day morality tale with the "Christians" playing the heavies. As someone who lives here, I've seen this bogus script many a time. And knowing the neighborhood, my guess is the 10 thugs belonged to a Choir lead by a certain faux Reverend who specializes in racial identity scams.

Hats off to the courageous Muslim lad, but shame on the News for shoddy journalism.

I don't know who the reverend is. Is this somebody we've heard of? I'm interested in your skepticism, Kevin, and am interested in more info. I agree it reads like a script to make the "Christians" out the heavies, but I figured, people who yell "Merry Christmas" (who can be complete unbelievers and just out to pick a fight or be jerks) are as capable as anyone else of getting drunk and misbehaving, so I took it at face value. Perhaps after all I'm still too gullible for the MSM.

Lydia,
His name is Herbert Daughtry, an Al Sharpton without national pretentions.

Details are being intentionally omitted from this story. If this were 10 kids wearing varsity jackets from Xaverian who got into a booze-fueled tribal scrum on the subway, the tabloid would not pass up a chance to do some Catholic-bashing. Unless, their story-line was subverted by inconvenient facts. Like; the names of the "thugs" - Nashier, Julio, Vito and Sean (media can't handle multi-cultural "bigots"), or that 8 of the kids held back the 1 or 2 jerks from really hurting Hassan and disciplined their friends in their own way. Which might explain the lack of police charges or quotes in this article.

Something doesn't fit the desired theme so we're left with a vague anti-Christian slant with a purportedly heart-warming "holiday" message - Muslin rescues Jews from Christian crusaders.

Those of us who live here in NYC are used to it. Let's see how this plays out, but be assured switch some of the roles in this story and it doesn't get printed.

When the story first broke, it was hailed as a Muslim stepping in to prevent an anti-Semitic hate crime.

I don't have a link or can say much more as I usually don't pay attention to local NYC news. I heard the story as I was getting ready for work and didn't think twice about it until seeing the article here.

You can google "Herbert Daughtry" and find plenty of ink on the guy. But, I don't get it. What's in it for a black "civil rights" leader, if a Muslim goes to the rescue of a Jewish girl on the subway? I don't see the angle, or "get" the scam...

Royale; Yep, that's the angle, but is it true? Who were the attackers?

Rodak: There was no description of the age or race of the attackers, nor exact location. All you have is motive - without much evidence.If it were a gang of white ruffians you would have read that in the first paragraph along with their names and other identifiers.

Daughtry has been at the center of racial tensions between blacks & Jews for years, but the media would suppress the facts if this were "members of his community" taunting Jewish college kids.

Please note too the dehumanizing sub-text of the press coverage. People, kept nameless and faceless are reduced to ideas, sentiments and causes. There were no weapons and despite the 10-1 mismatch in participants, no serious injuries.This could be nothing more that a group of obnoxious teenagers provoking those passing through their turf. A practice that is neither noble, nor that unique. Yet, with minimal details you are presented with a narrative that suggests a deeper meaning.

Pretty Orwellian when you think about it. All the more so, when there are many genuinely uplifting examples of groups working to restore their ravaged neighborhoods against an unresponsive or obstructionist managerial class. Example; The Daily News could have visited the Christo Rey School or Rice High School in Harlem, if it really wanted an inspirational story for this time of the year.


Kevin, you may be right that these were blacks guys. Black-Jewish tension in NYC has been going on a long time. And if it were, you're almost certainly right that they would hide it in the story. On the other hand, if that's right, the general outline concerning the Bangladeshi kid's behavior is correct.

Lydia,
The general outline of Hassan's laudable behavior may be correct, but the narrative is false. There was clearly restraint, even decency exhibited by some of the shadowy 10 "thugs", or this would have been a life-altering event for him and other riders. Was this really a hate crime in progress or hormone-ramped males marking their territory?

My disgust is directed at "advocacy journalism" which spikes key details in order to advance agendas at the expense of truth. The Great Deceiver holds sway in our newsrooms and we wonder why our social fabric is stretched to the breaking point. Shameful. Maybe C.S. Lewis was right; the only part of the daily newspaper you can read with any confidence is the Sports section.

Kevin--
The NY Post coverage of the event doesn't give much more information about the "thugs", but it gives enough to lead me to believe that the thugs were white, possibly Eastern European.

I stand corrected. The NY Post does give more information. In fact, it give us pictures of some of those arrested. I'd say that they are, indeed, Eastern European, and quite white, after all. Anecdotally, there were enough Serbians, Montenegrans, Albanians, etc. in the Bronx neighborhood where I lived for over a decade, for me to say confidently that these types don't hang out with blacks. Period.
So, Lydia's initial take on it is vindicated. Kevin is shown to be both somewhat paranoid about the power of the Rev. Daughtry over the MSM, and perhaps just a tad, uh, "racially conscious" in his own right, eh?

Thanks for the additional info., Rodak.

All I can say is, the alleged perps are so charming that I could stand to look at only about the first three or four pictures provided (all from the myspace page of one of the girls) and then had to stop. Couldn't they have gotten us a nice, decent set of mug shots instead? Ick. At least they were arrested. My take on the one chap(did I say something about Cossacks?) is that whether or not he goes around looking for racially-motivated trouble, he certainly goes around looking for trouble. Sounds like he starts throwing his fists around as easy as breathing, and no wonder, if you look at the pictures.

And, if the account of the argument is correct, ignorant as well as icky. Hanukkah is when Jesus died? Say what? What a nice bunch.

Why it isn't safe to ride public transportation in NYC late at night, reason number umpsteen-thousand. (I still can't believe I used to ride around everywhere, including to some highly unsavory neighborhoods, in Chicago by myself when I was just a young kid, and never had a single bad thing happen, nor so much as an unpleasant look from anybody. And alone, too, at least during the day.)

Lydia--
I lived in NYC for over 20 years, rode the subway at night nearly every day (from Manhattan to Brooklyn, then from Manhattan to the Bronx), and had only two close calls on ugly incidents in all that time. I was mugged once in the time I lived in NYC--on the Upper East Side, the high-rent district, while on foot. And all of this was BEFORE Rudy cleaned up the City.
Incidents between blacks and Jews have been news in the City for a long, long time. And, in my experience, the MSM loves to present it that way, where it's germane to the story.

May he someday come to know Jesus Christ and learn the true meaning of "Merry Christmas."

Lydia--
I'm sure that you've read the Koran, so I'm sure that you're awared that Islam takes Jesus into account in a rather large way. This fact makes it unlikely that any given devout Muslim will ever convert to Christianity, I think. They think that they "know" Jesus already. Jesus has a big role in their religion already. But they are not very likely to ever go for the concept of the Triune God. The great respect that Muslims have for Jesus as a very important prophet, should be basis enough for Christians and Muslims to agree-to-disagree peacefully, if only each side were not so bloody exclusionary.

Well, Rodak, I was sort of waiting for you to pick up on that. Yes, indeedy, when I say "come to know Jesus," I mean in the Christian sense. And who knows, this young chap may not be all that devout. And people have indeed converted from Islam to Christianity. I think that's rather important, myself. Not that I'm brave enough (or foolhardy enough) to go trying to be a missionary to a Muslim country. But Trinitarianism isn't one of those "hey, no biggie" kinds of things. As for "peacefully," I have no ambitions to convert anybody by the sword. None whatsoever. Nor does Christianity teach us to do so. But I certainly wish, as I should wish for anybody, that he should "come to Christ" in the Christian sense. And in this case, of course, I find it easier to wish that for him, because I'm human too and find it easier to wish well to people who have done good. Also it's a disgrace that "Merry Christmas" should have been associated with such an event in his mind, so it seems to me particularly appropriate to wish that he should come to know the true meaning of Christmas.

Lydia--
I certainly share your sentiments towards the Muslims. But I think we should direct our hope and our efforts towards the Jews first. They don't know Jesus in any "official" or scriptural sense, and have less to unlearn in order to see the Light.

Now you're starting to talk theology. I disagree. I believe that the Law and the Prophets (what we Christians call the books of the Old Testament) were indeed revealed by God, but the Koran was not. Hence Judaism was a true religion, a revelation of the true God, but Islam never was. It was a false religion from the get-go, based on a false claim of revelation. God revealed himself truly to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He gave the law on Sinai. He chose the Jews as his own people. Jesus came deliberately within a Jewish context, as a Jew, and revealed himself _as_ the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. Hence Judaism was preparatio evangelium (spelling not guaranteed). None of this is true of Islam, which came after both Judaism and Christianity and was based on the claims of a false prophet. And we know what God thinks of those. The "recognition as a prophet" of Jesus in Islam is more of a barrier than a help, as it is set up deliberately as a substitute for the true understanding of him as God incarnate. As to which group is easier to evangelize, that is a practical matter on which I'm not making a claim here, though I think you are more likely to be killed for your efforts if you try to evangelize Muslims than Jews. But it doesn't follow that numerically more devout Jews will be converted than Muslims. Theologically speaking, however, Judaism is an incomplete truth, given by God himself, but Islam is a false religion in the strict sense.

I'm sure you will disagree heartily, but as you introduced the subject of comparing Islam and Judaism, them's my opinions.

Of course, I do indeed pray, as did St. Paul, that more of God's chosen people will be saved. Perhaps I pray with the better will _because_ they are my elder brothers in the knowledge of the one true God (and also because, as far as I know, none of them want to chop my head off--there's that human nature again).

Lydia--
No I don't heartily disagree. But it really doesn't matter, because Muslims believe very strongly that Mohammad's revelation is from God. They are just as sure that you are wrong as you are that they are wrong. So, for practical purposes, it will avail us little to speak to them of their "false" religion.
I only wish that more Christians lived their true religion as completely as many Muslims live their false one. Most of the mainstream Christianity I've encountered is characterized by "cheap grace" (or, in the case of Catholics, by "cheap sacraments").
I don't set myself up as any better; but, objectively, that's what I have seen.

Rodak,
I said; "Give it the 48 hour waiting period. If no further details emerge there is something wrong and the press is hiding the real nature of the incident. As of now there are; no arrests, no names or descriptions of the assailants, nor how many total participants were present."

Now, we have details. Looking at the revolting pictures and the short article it's evident the perps were rootless, deracinated creeps with a penchant for gangsterism. Doubt you'll find their names on the active rolls of any Orthodox parishes.

I am always leery of media reports that omit key details and I resist reducing people to stick-figures in a contrived morality play. The Post is calling it a "Hanukkah Holy War." Do you think that an accurate description? To me this is just another example of the media doing it's part to reduce NYC to a Balkanized battlefield with the roles of oppressor and victim already predetermined.

As far as implying I'm racist for noting the media's double-standard in covering crimes that occur in a metropolitan area of 22 million people from every kind of background, I think that more a reflection of your reading comprehension than your sense of charity. At least I hope so.

I certainly never meant to endorse the idea that the bad guys in this story are or should be called Christians. I was careful not to call them so. I wouldn't be surprised if, as Kevin implies, they believe in nothing. Anybody can yell "Merry Christmas" and use it as an excuse to get into a fight. I used the word "Cossacks" partly to be humorous and merely to refer to marauding gangs who use Christian holidays as an excuse for violence, especially anti-Jewish violence.

And knowing the neighborhood, my guess is the 10 thugs belonged to a Choir lead by a certain faux Reverend who specializes in racial identity scams.

Daughtry has been at the center of racial tensions between blacks & Jews for years, but the media would suppress the facts if this were "members of his community" taunting Jewish college kids.

Kevin--
"Racist" is your word, not mine. I very deliberately did not use the word "racist." But it would seem that, in jumping to the conclusion that the instigators of this incident were most likely black constituents of a specific activist "Rev.", you were disclosing that you reflexively think about things in racial terms. It would seem that you have the City "Balkanized" (ironic term there, considering) in your own mind.
As for the "advocacy press", you will note that it was the NY Post--a shamelessly conservative rag--that went out of its way to disclose the identities of the "perps." According to your theory, the Post should have been doing just the opposite, in an attempt not to offend its white, Christian, conservative readers, or provide ammunition to the enemies of such.
As it turned out, Lydia's instincts, in using the word "Cossacks" came closer to the truth of it.
So--just where has my reading comprehension let me down?

I certainly never meant to endorse the idea that the bad guys in this story are or should be called Christians.

Lydia--
I believe that the NY Post story discloses that one of the males who attacked, or taunted, the Jewish group, flashed a tattoo of Jesus on his arm, at the beginning of the incident. Whether we like it, or not, these thugs at least think that they are Christians. This is a worst case scenario of what I meant by "cheap grace" and "cheap sacraments" in my comment above.

I said; "Give it the 48 hour waiting period. If no further details emerge there is something wrong and the press is hiding the real nature of the incident.

Kevin--
We only waited that 48 hours for one of us to look into the coverage in more depth. Both the story that Lydia linked to, and the NY Post story I linked to are dated December 12th.
If one cherry-picks the coverage in order to suit one's preconceived version of a story, the results may turn out to be less than accurate.

Rodak,
For one who claims to have lived here you seem remarkably ignorant of the city's institutions, racial tensions and the role the media plays in fanning those tensions. You had to Google Daughtry's name which means your roots here are tenuous at best. He has made a living of scapegoating Jewish and Korean shop-keepers and offering rationalizations for the violence that follows. Without a cowed and compliant media he would have been relegated to obscurity and several people would have not been killed or ruined.

Murdoch's paper is neo-conservative in it's editorials, sloppy in it's reporting and vulgar in it's appeal. Much like his Fox Network, it aims for the lowest common-denominator and is designed to draw in folks who unthinkingly quote it's contents; "one of the males who attacked,...flashed a tattoo of Jesus on his arm.", without any context or critical judgment.

This whole syndrome was satirized in Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of The Vanities". It specializes in polarization, but once in a while accidentally performs a service, if only because it seeks contrarian status to the News and Times. The best example was when it published the leaked details behind the tragic shooting of Amadou Diallo. It helped prepare us for the truth; it was the logical conclusion to the dangerous policy of pre-emptive policing and not a racially motivated "state execution". Most of the time though it simply panders to base emotion drawing cartoonish rendering of complcated situtations and nuanced human behavior.

You argue; "Whether we like it, or not, these thugs at least think that they are Christians." Really? You must have missed this equally unsubstantiated claim; "One of those collared straphangers yesterday denied making anti-Semitic taunts and said his mother is Jewish."

You should also know that one can go to Brighton Beach and find Orthodox iconography and Crosses adorning patrons and walls of establishments that are operationally anti-Christian. Similar to the British soccer fans who wave the Cross of St George, it is a gesture of tribal identification and not a proclamation of faith. Instead of buying into the shallow manipulations of a nihilistic media who have little patience for human complexity and even less for a deeper diagnosis of what ails our city, you might want to ponder these words;
"Not by force of arms are civilizations held together, but by subtle threads of moral and intellectual principle."
Russell Kirk

Kevin--
You guessed that they were black. They weren't. You're busted. Let's drop it.

Rodak,
No, I ran several scenarios;
1)that media was hesitant to identify the assailants because they were black. That's unreasonable to you?

2)that they were hormone-ramped up teenagers marking their turf and NOT engaging in a hate crime.

3) Catholic high-school kids with the typically multi-cultural background that would make the editorial slant difficult to maintain.

Again, reading comprehension seems to be the culprit here and a likely consequence of relying on distant tabloids and not the actual experience of interacting with the real, flesh and blood people that make this, despite our many shortfalls, the greatest city on the earth.

Kevin:

Here is what you said:

"If it were a gang of white ruffians you would have read that in the first paragraph along with their names and other identifiers."

You brought up Catholic and/or "multicultural" hypotheticals only to tell us why these possibilities were to be ruled out.
My reading comprehension is just fine. But thanks for your concern.
(Btw, have you had your short-term memory checked out lately?)

"Again, reading comprehension seems to be the culprit here and a likely consequence of relying on distant tabloids and not the actual experience of interacting with the real, flesh and blood people that make this, despite our many shortfalls, the greatest city on the earth."

I lived in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan respectively throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I left the City in 1991. The Brooklyn neighborhood I lived in was Fort Greene. I lived in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, on Bainbridge Avenue at 198th Street. In Manhattan, I lived on the West Side at 89th and Central Park West, and on the East Side at York Avenue and 66th St.
I agree that NYC is the greatest city on earth.
Both newspapers and broadcast news publish that which they think will draw the most viewers. You take it all with a grain of salt, and you read between the lines. 'Twas ever thus.


Rodak,
You're right about my: "If it were a gang of white ruffians...", but the Post has made up for it with a soft-porn gallery of these jokers.
I think my take on the deceit that dominates newsrooms still holds.

The hawk is blowing off both rivers today, cloaking the Spirit who winds by too.

Merry Christmas from your old stomping grounds.

Kevin--
I just had some fun googling up satellite maps of all the buildings I lived in over the years. I fully agree that news outlets tend to frame their product so as to get the most sensationalistic bang for their buck.
A very Merry Christmas to you!

Rodak,
One last thing;
"You brought up Catholic and/or "multicultural" hypotheticals only to tell us why these possibilities were to be ruled out."

I said those scenarios would complicate the Editor's life, not that Catholic high schoolers ot teenagers aren't incapable of mindlessly provoking those outside their circle.

Rodak,
Be thankful that "Progress" has slowed down and those building are still here. I'll hoist one for you at McSorleyst tomorow night!

Thanks, Kevin. Wish I wuz there.

Do we have any special indication that this fellow was practicing Muslim? That the drunkards were actually Christians in any sense save a forgotten baptism?

A confrontation between a few drunk idiots and an ethnic does hardly a morality play make.

Post a comment


Bold Italic Underline Quote

Note: In order to limit duplicate comments, please submit a comment only once. A comment may take a few minutes to appear beneath the article.

Although this site does not actively hold comments for moderation, some comments are automatically held by the blog system. For best results, limit the number of links (including links in your signature line to your own website) to under 3 per comment as all comments with a large number of links will be automatically held. If your comment is held for any reason, please be patient and an author or administrator will approve it. Do not resubmit the same comment as subsequent submissions of the same comment will be held as well.