I've followed the Danish cartoons from the day they were printed. I understand why Muslims are offended. Christians face analogous situations almost daily with our mass media. Welcome to our world. Given an elite that smears dung on pictures of Mary and submerges crucifixes in urine, the cartoons of Mohammed were pretty innocuous. But again, I understand why they're upset.
What I can't fathom is the unbelievable stupidity of the Left - particularly in this instance. This is their issue! They are lions when it comes to fighting the Ten Commandments in a courtroom or gagging a kid from praying at the football game.
However, when confronted with true, creeping theocracy, they denounce the victims! I was nearly alone in my Migration and Radicalism class in framing this as a freedom of speech issue. Nearly all of them saw it through a prism of Arab victimization. The cartoon authors were white and European, so inevitably bad. The fact that they were exercising freedoms of press and speech was immaterial.
I say it again -- Liberalism has become a philosophy of Western suicide.
If I could, I would that the cartoons weren't printed. But once Muslims began their campaign of violent intimidation, that became an incredibly secondary concern. This is a test, one of many to come. It's a test of whether or not the West (and especially Europe) has the will to defend its core freedoms in the face of religious totalitarianism.
As one wag has said, this isn't a clash of civilizations. The Islamists will need to develop one before we can clash with it.
Posted by Discoshaman at février 9, 2006 11:55 PM | TrackBack
Make sure you read this as well. A little extra information does seem to make a difference in how people look at this.
http://reader.classicalanglican.net/?p=550
Posted by: Paul Baxter at février 10, 2006 09:10 PM"This is a test, one of many to come. It's a test of whether or not the West (and especially Europe) has the will to defend its core freedoms in the face of religious totalitarianism."
Absolutely. Good post.
The Oracle
It seems the Left leans whichever way the wind blows--no principle, no backbone (they pick up and take "issues" whenever it suits them).
Notice how quickly they are able to protest and have flags at the ready to burn? The imams saw it merely as an opportunity to have an excuse for their constant spewing of hatred and violence.
And Christians are not surprised by the mocking and insults because we were warned by Christ that it would take place.
Posted by: Dan B. at février 12, 2006 04:07 PMDisco, I agree with what you wrote. However, I am wondering why the Administration will not even consider the threat of allowing for Arab ownership of six major, strategic US ports. If the United Arab Emirates is/are (I get confused with the "be" verb when used with this nation) allowed to purchase these ports, then I can imagine the door that will swing wide open for terrorists to ship in a nuke, or any other WMD. In other words, we will allow a Trojan Horse (or six) right into our "city gates." Certainly, some concerned Congressmen are inquiring about this. Here's my point, even some conservatives (including the President) are burying their heads in the sand when it comes to something so important as national security.
Posted by: barry at février 17, 2006 08:24 AM