Not to police the borders of snark, but it really irks me when people are so quick to assume that if SOME Arabs/Muslims/etc behave badly, that all are suspect. Yes, translations of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion have proliferated in the Arab world. I saw one myself in a Beirut bookstore a few years back and it freaked me out. But assuming that all publishers have an edition of Mein Kampf perpetuates the idea that all Arabs/Muslims/etc are irrational killers or empathize with irrational killers. I'm pretty certain that somewhere in Weimar Germany a Jew charged a gentile unfair interest. Quite possibly a jew with a rediculous nose. And who knows, it's entirely possible that somewhere in that country between 1900 and 1930 a jew raped a gentile girl. And then assumptions and accusations are spread throughout a people/ethnic group/nation.

Maybe I'm just not taking a joke. But sorry - that's not what I call snark.

Yes, I know I just Godwin-ed myself.  But it's the relevant analogy.

Dan, rest easy. Like any law, the application and enforcement of Godwin's can be hopelessly complicated, but my understanding is that one of its many corollaries is that Godwin cannot be invoked in the first post on a thread, because this is regarded as "pre-emptive Godwining" and would be subject to abuse. But I guess we'd need an internetz lawyer to be sure.

Dan, snark is definitely in the eye of the beholder. However, I'm a little confused at they way you acknowledge that Mein Kampf and the Protocols have proliferated in the Arab world, and yet accuse me of making a generalization about, well, their proliferation in the Arab world. It isn't a generalization if it's true.

It's a best-seller in: Turkey. The territories. Great Britain (Arabic translation). Jordan.

You can find it pretty much throughout the Arab and Muslim world. You're agreeing with me on that, and yet, you say I am making assumptions.

Uh, no. I don't make assumptions. I make statements based on facts. If you're accusing me of exaggerating, then yes, guilty as charged. There may only be three or four hundred versions of Mein Kampf instead of the full 500. (Yes, that was another generalization. Sue me.)

On the other hand, if you think anti-Semitic portrayals of Jews began and ended with the Third Reich, you have a lot of learning to do. Anti-Semitism was pervasive long before Mein Kampf was formed in the fever swamp of Hitler's mind. Start by looking up pogroms and move on from there.

Personally, I recommend the Jewish Virtual Library over Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a flawed source, but a good place to start and find other links.

We use popular culture to look at our own society and history, right? Like, Americans' embracing of "Birth of a Nation" says something about the nation's view on race?

Check out MEMRI for what is going on in the media throughout the Middle East, as well as television programs filled with "Protocol"-type images and storylines (my personal favorite is the Iranian "sci-fi" movie with the Jewish witch/Darth Vader supervillain).

http://www.memritv.org/