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February 06, 2006
Belmont Club on the Cartoon Crisis...
You can't get a better handle on the Cartoon Crisis (round-up of the info on the Cartoo war here at the Mudville Gazette)
Read Wretchard's entries here : Re-reading William Manchester's 'Alone' and here: Interesting Times.
- It's possible to regard the cartoon crisis as either a strategic disaster or boon for the War on Terror. The argument for it being a disaster is the assertion that in the war against extremists it is necessary to win over the moderates. And even if winning them over is impossible one may still be capable of keeping them neutral or indifferent; but at all events to avoid raising the Muslim masses in an emotional war against the West. The Danish cartoon crisis has managed to ignite what the Bush administration hoped to avoid from the beginning: turning the War on Terror into a War with Islam. Now an incident arising from a relatively obscure newspaper in Denmark has forced a choice between the most deeply held of all Western values, freedom of speech, with the cherished strategic goal of keeping the Muslim "street" aboard in the War on Terror.
The argument for regarding the Danish cartoons as a boon is premised on the belief that President Bush's attempt to separate the War on Terror from Islam was doomed to fail anyway; that it was better to face that question now than later. According to this point of view, a view reinforced by the election of Hamas in the Palestinian territories, cultural and religious issues were at the root of international conflict. That mere voting -- in Palestine for example -- would never be sufficient to establish a liberal democracy for as long as the underlying culture remained hostile and aggressive to democracy's roots.
One wonders. One wonders how long the forces of the multi-cultural left are going to continue to protect and excuse the forces of intolerance, hatred, and bigotry which everyone can see in the Moslem world.
Freedom of speech? Hah. No freedom if you want to say something which someone else takes offence at. No freedom if your speech might make some other group angry. The Moslems want the freedom to tell everyone else to shut up. "Don't make us mad or we will kill you." "Don't insult Mohammed or we will kill you." "Don't practice your infidel religion openly or we will kill you."
Islamic fascism is incompatable with western ideals. Period. One of them is going to loose this war.
BTW: If anyone wants to know, there have been many depictions of Mohammed in Islamic art in history. Here are some examples. No doubt the Moslem fanatics will be out burning their own libraries to purge them of these unclean images of the prophet.
Posted by rakhier at February 6, 2006 12:58 PM