They just don't get it do they?

Why is it that Islam, in all it's glory, can go about denigrating western civilisation, and yet we cannot put out some really innocuous political / caricature cartoons?

This is not an Islam vs. Christianity debate; this is a Civilisation vs. Barbarians debate... and no one who is not a howling fanatic can say that Freedom of Speech is anything but a basic, universal right of mankind.

There are caveats... not yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre being the traditional litmus test for free speech... however, forcing media and entire nations to desist from the free expression of ideas (and this must include political and societal commentary via cartoons) is tantamount to asking the West to abandon the very bedrock upon which it is built.

And in the end, maybe that is what the fundamentalist Islamists are counting on getting away with. However, this time, they picked the one issue that is guaranteed to unite all factions in the West, both on the left and on the right.

For the 'moderates' of the Islamic faith to continue to profess that Islam is a faith of peace, they must set their own house in order, as the West has over the years been forced to moderate our own Christian fanatics. Broader questions include: Can we live with fundamentalist Islamic countries in the context of a modern world? That is now the frame of this debate, and explains the coalescence of world opinion against the nuclear ambitions of Iran.

With the possible exception of Turkey, I cannot recall a single modern Islamic country that does not pander to the fanatics... call it either a survival ploy by the regime in charge, or indeed it's the regime that is pushing the radical agenda. Turkey is left off the list (so far) because at least they DO have a military that brooks no nonsense, and tolerates no deviation, from the secular construct that was the most positive legacy of Ataturk. Jordan walks the line, and does it as carefully as possible... but countries like Iran, Syria and Indonesia are veritable ticking bombs.

When your citizens overrun and burn an embassy of a foreign country on your soil, it is a de-facto declaration of war; view history and current events through that lens. The security forces in Damascus and Beirut are complicit in that they did not stop the events from unfolding the way they did.

Rex Murphy, a well-known Newfoundlander and Saturday-columnist for the Globe and Mail stated it best when he wrote, "Furthermore, they are insisting that their values and their codes apply outside their own religion and their own countries. It is astonishingly insolent. Considering the treatment that some of the press in some of these countries accord Christians and Jews - a recent mini-series on the Protocols of The Elders of Zion in Lebanon and Egypt, the frequent anti-Semitic editorial cartoons - it is levitatingly hypocritical as well."

Well said. Insolence and Hypocrisy pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

Ciao,

/\/\4rK