Feb 05 2006
Cartoon Dynamite
The Al Qaeda plot to insight moderate muslims seems to have taken hold to a small degree. Like the Paris rampages on trumped up news, the cartoon row is another in what should be a long line of faux insults meant to get the West and moderate Muslims at each other’s throats. The media, as expected I am sure, is not helping to put things in context or perspective. I have posted on how we in the West could lose control of this situation through our own anger. It seems the Muslims have little self control to pin our hopes on – but we still must try to separate the radicals flaming these fires from the moderates.
Michelle has a round up of those radicals doing us a favor and showing themselves in protest of pen and ink (while cutting heads of victims is nothing to them).
What we need to remember is we are not for insults, we are for free speech. And we do not allow violence – that will earn our ire.
More from Ed Morrissey and Hugh Hewitt. Christopher Hitchens comes out swinging at the Bush administration, for some strange reason. He wrongfully claims an administration cannot comment on international issues when they involve religion. Hitchen’s liberalims is showing again.
Powerline points to evidence that this is a staged Al Qaeda campaign – something many of us tried to warn about early on. Are we playing the role Al Qaeda scripted for us?
More from John Leo at RCP
I was talking with someone who speculated that these cartoons were
deliberately put in the paper to provoke Muslims and show how bad they are so that Europeans will vote for laws to restrict emigration and to ban displays of religion.
I think the same result could have been achieved by showing the vicious cartoons Muslims put in their OWN newspapers and it wouldn’t have gotten those embassies burned down in Syria.
To me, it seems to play into the hands of radicals. It also provides an excuse for terrorists to attack Europeans.
I feel the cartoons were irresponsible.
This quote shows your point AJ–
“Fiery sermons were preached in mosques in several European cities during Friday prayers.
A Danish imam, Ahmed Abu Laban, told worshippers in Copenhagen: “In the West freedom of speech is sacred; to us, the Prophet is sacred.”
Mullah Krekar, a radical imam living in Norway, was quoted by the Dagbladet daily as saying: “These drawings are a declaration of war.”
But other Muslim community groups called for moderation and calm. Norway’s Islamic Council said in a statement: “Muslims in Norway feel violated twice in this case – first through the caricatures then by the Norwegian flag being burned.””
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=NYVW2GKJLQQHVQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/02/04/wcart04.xml
The last group are loyal Norwegians who didn’t deserve to have Mohammed denigrated. He has been dead for 100s of years.
European papers should denigrate the terrorists and the hate mongers by showing pictures them cutting off heads, abusing women, and by reprinting the disgusting and bigoted cartoons and articles that appear in the Arab media.
THE KKK claimed to be Christians, but they were terrorists. We didn’t denigrate Jesus because of KKK bigoty, murder and terrorism.
Even in Saudi Arabia there are interesting debates going on about what is Islam and what is “only custom.” These discussions are the beginnings of a modernizing trend.
If we radicalize the moderate people, what is the West going to do? The oil is in these countries. If we contribute to the radicalization in these countries we are eventually just going to have to kill millions of people and evict them from Western countries.
The West will end up being even more cruel and barbaric than these cretans the terrorists are. Those are not my Western and Christian values.