Now that the embassy burnings and the calls for the extermination of all those who slander Islam have subsided just a wee bit, is there anything of value that can be learned from the great Danish-Muhammad-cartoon kerfuffle of 2006? Or is it, rather, just one more not particularly useful example of what we already knew, which is that it doesn’t take a whole lot to send Islamic fanatics into riotous tumult the world over?
Actually, I may have to amend the very first sentence of this column already since even as I type, new reports of cartoon carnage are coming out with the American embassy in Indonesia being assaulted and at least 15 killed in a Nigerian rampage, the deadliest confrontation yet. Man, they just don’t quit, do they?
So it looks like this goes on for a while. Nonetheless, there is one overridingly important and simple lesson to be learned: If the West cares anything at all about preserving its way of life, including freedom of speech and expression, then it shouldn’t placate or kowtow to the most extreme members of the world’s most intolerant religion and culture. That’s because giving in to the calls for the censorship of all things offensive to Islam could be, in effect, paving the way for eventual Islamic hegemony. And make no mistake, worldwide hegemony is the ultimate goal of Islam.
Right now you might be thinking, okay, so a bunch of backwards fanatics got all hot and bothered about some stupid cartoons. So what? Such people can’t possibly defeat Western civilization and become the dominant force in the world, right? Well, in any kind of conventional or military sense, that’s certainly true. But that’s not to say that the West can’t just give the store away through a combination of negative demographics, an irrational adherence to extreme multiculturalism and a mystifying indifference to defending its own culture and heritage.
So, while we may be scoffing today about the primitiveness of the cartoon rioters and the seeming absurdity that their ilk might one day rule the world, our great-great-grandchildren’s favorite television program might end up being “Shari’ah Law and Order” just by default.
It certainly doesn’t help when people in positions of power in Europe are chomping at the bit to make needless concessions to Islam in this clash of civilizations that is becoming as hard to ignore as the proverbial elephant in the living room. Take, for instance, European Union vice-commissioner Franco Frattini, who wants media to sign up to “a voluntary code of conduct on reporting on Islam and other religions” in order to try and avoid future cartoon-type commotions. He wants this because he believes that the cartoons in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten “humiliated” millions of Muslims.
Article comments
1 - JELIEL³
Fantastic article. I wish I could write so well, so seemingly fluid.
But I viewed a report on TV by the CBC that interviewed progressive imams and theology professors who all said that nowhere in the Q'ran does it say anything about making images of the prophet, nothing that even leaves room for interpretation. So according to them, this whole image thing is a fabrication. These riots might me taking place for fabricated reasons. People might be dying, not because of a cartoon, but because they were mislead from the get-go... just too freaky to think about.
2 - Darth Pestilous
Very well written article. The problem as I see it isn't the 'arab street' but a minority of their leaders, hidden within a culture we do not understand, and are manipulating their own populations for various reasons. They have real power and they know it. Europe is currently opening its eyes to the fact that they can be intimidated, and their culture and values fored to change to that of a more Muslim-friendly society. The European press is basically being used by their leaders to probe the Islamic world and then see what happens. That's why very few have been fired at the different newspapers. No reputations have been damaged in the least, simply a few editors resigning with diginity. This cartoon incident is the leaders of Western societies studying the Muslim world. If we do this, they do that, and so on. Whether you agree or not, in this age of lifestyle rights, political correctness, and multi-culturalism, there is basically no reason for the European press to publish those cartoons. But Europe is feeling the pressure and was for all its faults, curious. However, its no surprise that our leaders are manipulating us as well. Just look at the London bombing fiasco. It was almost Kafkaesque in how quickly it turned into a joke. Unfortunately it was used to change UK security laws.
As of right now, the Islamic world and the West are headed for a collision, however I believe things can change.
3 - Mark Schannon
Excellent analysis, well written & thought out. It may be just a fringe group of Muslims who go beserck, but you don't see any analog to that behavior among non-Muslims. Thousands rioting, hundreds dead over cartoons?
Giving into to this lunacy will only encourage it. The West has to stand firm and tell the Muslim world to join the 21st century. But that takes stronger, smarter leaders than exist today in the West...or may ever exist.
As for me, I maintain and always shall that...
In Jamesons Veritas
4 - Andy Marsh
Darth says it isn't the 'arab street', as he calls it, just some of their leaders...well, it's not the leaders that are rioting. It's the people in the streets doing it at those leaders urging.
"Shari'ah Law and Order"...something tells me this would be a version of L&O that I wouldn't like...
5 - Karen
Islam means submission. Submission is what the Islamic leaders want from the rest of the world, particularly the West. Radical Muslems are a patient group, fervently teaching their agenda to the past and coming generations. The riots 'over cartoons' appears to be orchestrated acts to insight the EU and the West into submission through fear of more raging Moslems' violence. A kind of passionate violence that neither Europeans nor Westerners really understand. If the world submits to voluntary repression of our right to free speech radical Islamic leaders will count their victory and plan the next stage of winning our submission to their allah.