It has been a while since I got banned as a commentator on All Things Beautiful. Since then I have thought a lot about what my response should be. Should I stay silent? Should I speak up? Should I insult? Should I shrug my shoulders? Getting banned this time is not the same as when one of my pieces of writing was censored at another blog. Then, with Infidel Blogger’s Alliance, the censorship was explicit. There was warning. There was outright disagreement with me. This is also different because with IBA I was a contributor to the site. This time I am a mere commentator. Commentators get banned. I have seen friends get banned by Muslim bloggers. Plus there is the fact that when I started blogging, Alexandra, the host of ATB, actually reached out to me and helped me. Plus there is the fact that while Infidel Blogger’s Alliance was an openly polemical/humor site, ATB is a ‘deeper’ kind of blog. Sig Carl said that it is a “fine” blog. It took me a while to think all of these things through and here I am now reporting how I got banned as a commentator on ATB.

I noticed ATB because I like art. I knew I did not *fully* agree with its agenda but I figured anyone who can appreciate art can appreciate differences of opinion. I also noticed non-right-wing bloggers on ATB’s blogroll i.e. Glen Greenwald, so I figured that ATB was used to dissent and disagreement. I like places like that. It means I can think for myself, and be myself. So I headed over and started commentating. Did it for a couple of weeks and then came the day when a post called “The Sin of Racism.” It is not the post, but the comments section which is of interest.

A commentator named David said that all Muslims are inherently lying when talking to non-Muslims and cited to ‘taqiya.’ I called him out. My response, and his, were both heavily laced with sarcasm. The argument then switched between a commentator namd “Liquid” and I. We insulted each other and decency for a while, but eventually gave up. She pointed me to the incident of Jewish poets killed by the Prophet and I went off to look into that. I later wrote a post about it here. [My second post on Jews and Islam is here]. Anyway, right as I was leaving, when talking to another commentator, “Liquid” stated that she thought that

actually there was a time here that I was worried that eteraz was going to put a fatwa out on poor David!

Given the amount of time I had spent explaining my position, this comment upset me, and I expressed myself:

Liquid,

I’m just really disappointed with that comment.

*Shakes Head*

Which led for Liquid to say:

OK eteraz, THAT does it!!!!!
There is no doubt about it anymore!!!!!!
YOU have Proven that there really is NO comedy in the muslim world!!!!! Albert Brooks was onto something way before his time eh?

YOU MUST LIGHTEN UP!!!!

Needless to say, I didn’t:

You are free to tsk tsk me and throw up all the smoke about Muslims not being able to take a joke (Which is tre amusing, because even your criticism about how *this* Muslim can’t take a joke comes from you having heard a stereotype that *all* Muslims can’t take a joke). Seriously, how many Muslims have you gone to dinner with? If you’re in New York I’d be more than willing to take you for a steak. Assuming you can distinguish me from all the cab drivers who share my religion.

It went on from there and became quite an experience, leading one commentator to finally say:

Eteraz won me over with his literacy, his impassioned self defense, his willingness to ponder unfavorable information concerning Islam. How rare that is! Persians are so very differnt from Arabists. Yes, I’m somewhat racist- who isn’t? Thanks, Eteraz, heading for your blog now.

Kudos to this lush, gorgeous, intelligent site. First time reader to allthingsbeautiful. Thanks much!

Now, you might be wondering what all this background material has to do with me getting banned. Well, it’s very simple. I want to demonstrate the heights of rhetoric that the comments section in ATB was capable of holding. In other words, I want to show: that people get pretty critical of each other (as with any other blog) in the comments section of ATB and in the end everyone moves on. Yet, when I got banned, the comments were by no means so rhetorical or laced with sarcasm.

In a much later post, “Islam’s Perpetual War With the West” Alexandra used a painting of Napolean trampeling over Egyptians as her motif. The post then went onto recount the connection between Iran’s current president and Ayatollah Khomeini’s anti-Western bellicosity (I guess going back till 1979 qualifies as ‘perpetual’). To me (and correct me if I’m wrong), Alexandra’s use of the painting (go look at it), seemed curious. Why would someone, in an anti-Muslim post, depict Napolean trampeling over Muslims? Wouldn’t you want Muslims trampeling over “infidels?” So I said the following:

baroness,

I’m rather confused by the use of this painting, on a post in which islam is being thrust as the aggressor.

the battle of abuqir featured the french under napolean in egypt. the egyptian campaign, if you recall, was part of the napoleonic wars in which napolean was the aggressor. not only that, but in those wars the ottoman empire was allied with the british and the russians and the prussians to defeat napolean.

there are far more appropriate paintings which would make islam seem the aggressor. in the case of napolean and egypt, he was the invader.

Alexandra responded to me and then cited to an earlier post of mine, rather resentfully:

Ali,

there are far more appropriate paintings which would make islam seem the aggressor. in the case of napolean and egypt, he was the invader.

Thank you for the history lesson, but believe it or not my choice of paintings and images are not as linear as your imagination seems to be. Btw thanks for another compliment you gave me recently:

The Baroness, a self-proclaimed hardcore Christian and theist, has no problem advocating self-proclaimed atheists like Wafa Sultan and Ayyan Hirsi Ali. At a cursory glance this makes sense, because these atheists hate Islam and say the right things. But this is a short-sighted understanding of what is occurring. A quick jaunt through the entirety of the theist blogosphere will reveal similar short-sighted advocacy

Of course I responded:

Of course, I stand by those remarks. Theists, which happens to include me, should not be propogating atheists. That’s very simple in my eyes. We don’t share value concerns with atheists. A cursory glance at the ACLU and other a-theist organizations would show you that.

If you would read that post further I quote Dymphna approvingly b/c she recognized that point.

Nor did I call you short-sighted, but simply of your understanding of this particular issue.

I also added:

By the way, as far as the images go: they usually are pretty linear.

Kerry in a turban dressed up like a Berber Muslim in an anti-Kerry post.

George Bush dressed up like Geroge Washington in a post where you praise his stance on security.

A picture of a man with two faces in a post where you accuse Democrats (Murtha) of hypocrisy.

Those seem pretty linear to me. Of course, I am not using linear pejoratively as you did.

In reply, she quickly reminded me that in that second picture I cited, GW was actually dressed up as Napolean:

Yes Ali, Napoleon does look a lot like George Washington. Is that in your “linear” world?

The painting’s message I chose for this post does not relate to a linear thought no matter how much you may wish it to, and neither does every one of the 350 odd images on this blog. Period.

So I replied:

Well, then, for depicting the carnage that Napolean caused (in this painting) (and also for dressing invasive president up as Napolean), I commend you. I am kind of intrigued now that it is revealed that you dressed Bush up as the greatest butcher of the 19th century. Perhaps we should pay as much attention to your paintings as we do your writing.

At this point, even though I was having a conversation with another commentator, the link I included in my comments (which was to one of my posts) was deleted by the host. Then, she concluded:

Ali,

Perhaps we should pay as much attention to your paintings as we do your writing.

Since you think both my images and my writing are not up to your high standards I am sure you will miss neither. Goodbye and good luck.

At this point I was banned. I tried logging on once to bid goodbye, but it was to no avail and I left. I took a screenshot of the error message I got when I tried to post but I doubt anyone cares to see it. There is really very little to be said.

As far as I am concerned, I am not much interested in any explanations for why I got banned. Obviously the reason I am reporting is because I have not thus far banned people from my site and so find it troubling when others do it. The other reason is because I saw Muslim bloggers ban my atheist friend Steve (and then myself got banned in the process), so seeing it done to me from someone who took great pride in representing the free-speech perspective in the Cartoon Wars is a bit of a surprise. But maybe I am mischaracterizing ATB. Maybe the Cartoon War only bothered her because Muslims were going crazy and needed a lesson and not because she cares much about plurality of opinions. Whatever the case, there you have it: I got banned from yet another conservative website. So, the total comes to three: with one site being Muslim, and the other two conservative.

One thing I thought a lot about was: why should I send links to someone who banned me? Well, here is how I walk away with a smile. Since I switched to eteraz.org, my page rank is 0. I have no weight in technorati or truth laid bear, and an incoming link from this site at the moment is like getting a link from a whisper. Weightless. Since we all know Alexandra’s penchant for trackbacking, linking, getting pinged and getting her blog as much exposure as possible (one only has to look at the astonishing number of blogs she tracksback manually in every post), it pleases me on a schadenfreudh level that I have contributed nothing to her, all the while getting an opportunity to show up every time someone runs a search for her (more popular) blog. So, in the end, rather than resentment, I only have the utmost thanks for her; both for the friendship she intially showed me; and the animus that later led to my expulsion.

I also thought it was terribly amusing that her last line said to me as she banned me was a modified version of “good night and good luck” — which was the sign off of one of the great speech-activists of our time.

In the end, I wish her the best. May she be at the forefront of that all-consuming all-pervasive total blog-war that will help rid this world of the threat of Islam.