Posted on 02/06/2006 5:48:03 AM PST by pickrell
It is with odd misgivings, and no small amount of fear, that some of us must step back from the wagons circled around the Danish cartoonists, and be saddened at such an opportunity wasted. To even offer an opinion now in such a high-octane environment seems risky beyond words- especially if the thoughts go against the prevailing winds.
Fury extends outwards as each side of the muslim curtain sharpens their swords.
And yet, something has missed consideration.
The American religious base has suffered an onslaught of similar sacreligious assaults in recent years, as the curators of museums, and overseers of like institutions had felt no decisive pressure to edit out of their public offerings the kind of crucifix-in-the-urine, and Virgin-Mary-smeared-with-elephant-feces, "art" that the leftist mentality has flung against reverence itself. The very idea of insult towards piety held a certain liberal cache.
The entire liberal establishment has made a particular point of demeaning and insulting the Evangelicals recently, with not a shred of respect extended to the fact that millions of Americans hold these beliefs as central to their lives. This savage drumbeat of defamation saturates the entertainment industry, the rainbow coalition of special interests of the left, and every other outlet of Leftist thought in the country.
The operant, critical difference in the religious communities' response to these assaults... is that the religions under assault do not grant 'Letters of Marque' to burn buildings, and do not tolerate rampaging mob violence by their followers. They instead counter the vileness of the left with the exposure, approbrium and shame that all such vandalism deserves. They call on the power of contempt for such delinquency to hold the magnifying glass over the insect, and "purify" by light.
The true religions of peace set the hallmark by denouncing such blasphemy, and rejecting the loathsome mindset which produces it. The forums of opinion, worldwide, offer a sufficiently powerful media for making their case that any particular assault on the deeply held beliefs of millions of people is shameful, gratuitous and lacking in any sort of justification. It remains to the scholars of each community to make such a case.
It is no longer quite as fashionable among the Left to openly slander Jews, or libel and trash Hindus. The reason is arguably not any sudden, born-again realization that antisemitism and all of its manifestations are sinful. Sin isn't listed in the leftist ops-plan index. Rather it is the growing intolerance of the non-jewish community for such vileness- an intolerance which makes its weight felt through powerful and effective sanctions of the wallet- which is cleaning the waterways of our culture.
Now, the only remaining free pass among the American media seems to involve gratuitous assaults upon the Christian religion. Only recently have the other organized religions begun to accept that such assaults can no longer be ignored by Jews any more than they can be by Catholics.
The freedom of expression is not, and has never really been, license to fling manure against your neighbor's house, simply because you have not yet outgrown that infantile bowel movement fascination that afflicts most of the Left.
But the reaction to such an outrage lays bare the true nature of your beliefs in a way that calm pronouncements of pacifism cannot mask.
This lost opportunity seems especially costly when so many Americans bristle at the grudging, nearly non-existent lip service of condemnation from our Islamic community against the heinous acts of barbarism perpetrated by those self-proclaimed defenders of Islam in blowing up human beings, including fellow Arab civilians, so as to intimidate them into supporting the "religion of peace".
It bears remarking how effectively the American muslims seem to have controlled the "outrage and condemnation" of their community leaders and followers against the unspeakable murders of 9/11... and how odd that such calm demeanor- such iron suppression of denunciation... then somehow inexplicably seemed to "slip" when the unspeakable then happened to their own beliefs.
What reaction would they expect in their followers at seeing Americans dancing from the rooftops and declaring a holiday, in the same manner that Palestinians and the Michigan Islamic community were reported to have done, following the blows against us? Is there a translation of the word "hypocrisy" into Arabic?
It was a lost opportunity for the American Muslim Community, as well as muslims worldwide, to emphatically demonstrate their rejection of violence, and take that first step towards the table of the responsible religious communities of the world.
It was a lost opportunity to establish the crucial beginnings of a solidarity with other religions similarly marked for assault on their core beliefs, by Leftist assassins of decency.
It was a lost opportunity to step back from worldwide religious warfare, and reconsider their families and their future.
And opportunities don't come often, any more than prophets do.
The crusades aside...
Making the assumption that muslims worldwide want peace. It seems the peace-seeking muslims are a minority.
It will be fun watching the Middle East Apologists find a way to explain away what has been happening in a Muslim Country near you.
Did you see where the families of the lost passengers from an Egyptian ferry stormed the buildings of the company, burning, looting, and destroying it in a rampage?
Let's face it... we are talking about a culture of destruction.
Sure, people are sad and hurt when they lose family members, but this culture (Islam is the base of it) is based upon destruction and that is their response to anything.
Moderate Muslims are the ones making all the speeches demanding that Radical Muslims change their behavior.
I don't see any Moderate Muslims.
I think the game is up. Islam is what Islam has always been. People see it.
And the crusades were actions against muslims who were crushing Christianity and expanding into other regions.
The cartoons were not the cause of the riots. They were the excuse du jour. In France a few months ago it was because some stupid kid got himself kilt running from the gendarmes, next month, it'll be because some muslim saw a pig farm from a bus. The offense is secondary to the desire to riot and attack the Judeo-Christian West.
And now we're paying for not having finished those crusades.
"It will be fun watching the Middle East Apologists find a way to explain away what has been happening in a Muslim Country near you."
Unwittingly or not, most of the major news networks are still enabling this behavior. They continue to refer to this luncay as 'demonstrations' For God's sake, can't they spell RIOT? Let's call a spade a spade here. Ridiculous rioting at the drop of a hat. I'm convinced that Islam is "All Jihad, all the time"
Absolutely true. The Crusades were self-defense against Muslim attacks on Christians. And doesn't it say a lot that the most "evil act" of Christianity occurred 800 years ago. Yet people bring it up all the time, as a sort of moral equivalence. "Yeah, Muslims did blow up dozens of women and children this morning -- but what about the Crusades????"
Yep....because they know for sure that a bunch of lunatic Christians are not about to seek them out and slowly cut off their heads with a long knife...taking videos of it to show others how strong their god is.
Damn cowards...every person in the msm....
COWARDS...COWARDS...C-O-W-A-R-D-S....
In fairness to the media, they are 'demonstrations'... demonstrations of what Islam teaches.
The fact is all Muslims are "peace-seeking". The problem is their idea of peace requires that you are either converted, placed under subjugation or killed.
So when they stand up and say they are peace seeking, what they are really saying is that they want to kill you.
Read later.
>>>Making the assumption that muslims worldwide want peace. It seems the peace-seeking muslims are a minority.>>>
Or lip service.
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