-Reinhold Niebuhr
-Thomas Sowell
"There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization, however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war." -Reinhold Niebuhr There has been another Islamic terror attack in London; this is the third attack in England in a short space of time. And of course, murderous attacks have been going on with ghastly regularity throughout the middle east. In the wake of the deadly assault, the usual platitudes have been issued about terrorism having nothing to do with Islam, which is of course a religion of peace. Well, I'm no expert, but when murderous savages who are slaughtering people in the streets invoke the name of Allah and use verses from the Koran about killing infidels to justify their actions, I think that we should probably take them at their word. Yes, we all know that it is a very small minority that engages in violence, but to deny their existence as a particularly poisonous branch of Islam is dishonest and frankly, part of the problem. It is extremely difficult to deal with a danger if you deny that it exists. Another inconvenient truth is that a larger percentage of Muslims who don't commit in acts of terror don't exactly disagree with the sentiments which inspire them. There are any number of studies and polls which confirm this, and here's a video taken at a mosque in Toronto which gives a more concrete example of it: When this video was aired, the imam in question released a statement saying that he "misspoke" as though he had some sort of anti-Semitic tourettes syndrome. You can believe that- or not- depending on how gullible you are. Loathsome as this man and his views are, the larger problem is the bunch behind him who apparently are just fine with what he's saying. I attend an independent Baptist church, and I can assure you that if our pastor got up one Sunday morning and called for the deaths of non-Christians he would be hustled off of the platform and then out of the ministry. Why did that not happen with this imam? One might almost think that the mosque attendees don't disagree with his sentiments. Even if 99% of these people just listen to this verbal trash and go home to live peaceful lives, what if 1% take it seriously and decide do something about it? They will no doubt assume the tacit approval of those Muslims who listened to this hateful rhetoric and would not refute it. It's time to treat Islam not differently, but the same as every other religion. It should not be immune to scrutiny, critique and yes, even mockery. Some years ago, the CBC put out- at Christmas time, no less- a TV special mocking the birth of Christ, starring Pamela Anderson as the "virgin" Mary. Needless to say, they have yet to produce a Ramadan special sending up Mohammed. South Park routinely mocks Christianity, but when they produced an episode which satirized Islam, Comedy Central censored and then pulled it. After the Charlie Hebdo massacre, news programs displayed the magazine's covers which mocked Jesus, but pixelated ones which portrayed Mohammed. Either all of the people making these decisions believe that Islam is alone among religions deserving of reverence, or else they think that criticizing the religion of peace might end badly for them. President Obama once said that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Radical Muslims agree with that statement, and spend their time trying to deprive "infidels" of their personal futures. It's time to stop treating Muslims as though they can't- or shouldn't- be expected to react to criticism and mockery in a civilized non-violent manner. It's time to stop pretending that all cultures have equal value and tell the truth: liberty is better than tyranny, democracy is better than theocracy, and the rule of law is better than a dictatorship. We must not be afraid to stand up for our values and defend them by any means necessary. "If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism." -Thomas Sowell Related Posts:
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