There’s No Clash Here: Only one civilization cares to put up a fight (On the cartoon wars)

National Review ^ | 02/07/2006 | Lee Harris

[SirLinksalot]

There’s No Clash Here Only one civilization cares to put up a fight.

By Lee Harris

Does the so-called "cartoon war" represent the clash of civilizations?

I wish I could answer "yes," but I can't.

In order for there to be a clash of civilizations, it is necessary for there to be two civilizations, both of which are prepared to defend their deepest cultural values. Those in the Islamic world who are violently protesting the Danish cartoons clearly represent a civilization that is keen on maintaining its own deeply held traditions and convictions, as the Muslim rioters are prepared to do, even to the point of bloodshed. The Danish cartoons are an affront to their own religion and culture, and it is pointless for those in the West to wish that Muslims could learn to be less fanatic in their approach to their faith: What we call fanaticism is an essential element of their faith, and it is one of the reasons that Islam is still a living religion in a world where so many others are moribund.

But, again, to have a clash of civilizations, it is not enough simply to have one civilization that is prepared to fight tooth and nail to defend its own ethos; there must, in addition, be another civilization that is also prepared to defend, with the same depth of conviction, its own ethical principles. The evidence, unfortunately, is that the West is not even remotely interested in mounting a defense of its values in the face of Muslim fanaticism. Worse, there are signs that the West is even prepared to sacrifice some of its core values in order to appease those who have always despised these values — values such as the freedom of individual expression and the right of every man to hold views that others find offensive and even downright blasphemous.

Consider the reaction of the Danish government to the cartoon wars. Instead of taking a heroic stand and telling the Muslim world that in Denmark freedom of expression is every bit as sacred to them as Mohammed is to the Muslims, the Danish government has announced "that Danish courts will determine whether the newspaper [that] originally published the cartoons...is guilty of blasphemy."

Not so very long ago, the notion that a liberal Western nation, at the beginning of the 21st century, could threaten a newspaper on the charge of blasphemy would have seemed utterly ridiculous. It would have appeared unthinkable that any Western government would even consider using "the crime of blasphemy" as a method for censoring the freedom of expression that the West has struggled so ferociously to achieve. Indeed, every liberal Western nation would have immediately condemned the restitution of the charge of blasphemy as a throw back to a long superceded stage in the development of human freedom. Yet where in the West do you find any government attacking the Danes for having reintroduced a crime that the West ceased to take seriously since the age of the Enlightenment? If those who are trying to appease radical Muslims are prepared to bring back the Inquisition, all in the name of Islam, then where is the so-called clash between the Islam and the West?

The behavior of the Danish government does not suggest that we are in the midst of a clash of civilizations, but, rather, that we are watching a civilization that has lost its sense of purpose capitulating before a civilization that continues to believe, and to believe fanatically, in its own mission. A civilization that no longer believes in itself, and in its values and traditions, is no longer in a position to defend itself from the onslaught of a civilization that does. It is only in a position to appease.

— Lee Harris is author of Civilization and Its Enemies.

[Gator101]

that Danish courts will determine whether the newspaper [that] originally published the cartoons...is guilty of blasphemy."

Gee, if they find them guilty maybe they can burn the editors at the stake. Actually, scratch that...their Muslim masters would probably prefer a beheading or a good old stoning.

[inquest]

Chilling piece, but it's hard to argue with it.

[Red Badger]

This is NOT a "clash of civilizations". It is a clash of civilization and UN-civilization.........

[Buffalo Bob]

I have to wonder how much anti-Christian stuff you'd see going on today in America if Christians would have robustly protested things such as the Crucifix in a jar of urine, or plays about Jesus being homosexual.

[right right]

A new children's book, "The Three Little Mohammeds" is about three pigs addicted to violence, who shout slurs at everyone else, shoot into the air, look scruffy all the time, burn flags, and who all built their religous faith houses on sinking sand.

[siunevada]

Those in the Islamic world who are violently protesting the Danish cartoons clearly represent a civilization

How representative they are would seem to be debatable. It took months of prep work to get them to vent their "spontaneous" outrage.

They seem more representative of a minority position that seeks to control events by a few dramatic instances of violence that are used to intimidate the remainder of their own society and ours.

[OldGray]

We've protested those things. We just didn't burn down embassies. Of course, our protests were called "intolerant" and "hateful", while the mohammadiens burnng down embassies and rioting in the streets is called "a legitimate expression of outrage."

That's the independant media for you.

[vimto]

I want will all my heart to say he's wrong. But sadly I can't.

In Europe we have learned only one trick - to roll over. Soon we will be taught to beg.

I just don't want to be defeatist. so despite this we will keep our flag flying as long as we can, take every opportunity to turn the tide....I and many others will not be chained to Islam. We will never bow. That is the bottom line.

kind regards

[CaptRon]

Years of PC indoctrination have caused the West to believe that its values are not better than anyone else's, and may in fact be worse, or that if there is a problem, it must have been caused by us.

When you believe all this, there really is no reason to put up a fight.

[300magnum]

Keep that stiff upper lip.

[GingisK]

Those in the Islamic world who are violently protesting the Danish cartoons clearly represent a civilization that is keen on maintaining its own deeply held traditions and convictions, as the Muslim rioters are prepared to do...

There are those of us who maintain that the fanatics are simply not civilized. We note that violent and civil are diametrically apposed concepts.

In conclusion, the author is well "off target".

[Tolik]

Lee Harris:     It takes two sides to clash.

...In order for there to be a clash of civilizations, it is necessary for there to be two civilizations, both of which are prepared to defend their deepest cultural values. Those in the Islamic world who are violently protesting the Danish cartoons clearly represent a civilization that is keen on maintaining its own deeply held traditions and convictions, as the Muslim rioters are prepared to do, even to the point of bloodshed.  ...The evidence, unfortunately, is that the West is not even remotely interested in mounting a defense of its values in the face of Muslim fanaticism. Worse, there are signs that the West is even prepared to sacrifice some of its core values in order to appease those who have always despised these values — values such as the freedom of individual expression and the right of every man to hold views that others find offensive and even downright blasphemous...

...we are watching a civilization that has lost its sense of purpose capitulating before a civilization that continues to believe, and to believe fanatically, in its own mission. A civilization that no longer believes in itself, and in its values and traditions, is no longer in a position to defend itself from the onslaught of a civilization that does. It is only in a position to appease

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

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[layman]

What we call fanaticism is an essential element of their faith

The concept of 'Ethnic Cleansing' makes more and more sense to me every day.

[I still care]

Maybe the "deepest cultural value" of the West is not to have any cultural values?

We have been fighting here the war of secularism vs. traditional morality for a long time. In the OT, when the Israelites lost their way, God sent vicious enemies like the Assyrians against them.

History repeats itself, over and over.

"For it is the doom of men that they forget". - Merlin, from Excalibur

[Just Lori]

Here's what the Queen of Denmark has to say:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1571930/posts

[hophead]

Get ready people. It's coming this way also. Lock and load!

[SJackson]

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[trebb]

Ahhhh, so the Muslims have a better ethos that the rest of us. I guess that's why they call for tolerance while denying it to others. I guess it's also why they insist nobody fights them during their "holy" days/seasons, yet they will gladly fight and kill on our holy days/seasons, and even on their own. I guess it's also why they claim their mosques and the Koran are so holy that only an infidel would harm them, but they go ahead and bomb mosques, that most likely contain a lot of Korans, and kill their own. What an ethos!

Taken to its natural conclusion, the rest of us should slaughter any Muslim we can get at, but he would probably then claim we are attacking a people much more noble than the rest of us.TWADDLE!

[Just another Joe]

Does the so-called "cartoon war" represent the clash of civilizations?

I wish I could answer "yes," but I can't.

I agree with this statement.
You have to be civilized to have a civilization.
Muslim extremists have no civilization.
The Arabic world, as a whole, barely have any civilization anymore.

So is this a clash of civilizations? No.
It is, however, a very telling point on the Muslim religon.
(And no, you don't have to have a civilization to have a religon.)