« Reading the graffiti on Detroit's walls | Main | What if the Internet existed during WW2? »
March 15, 2006
Ignorance and violence prove effective mix
Did you know that the acerbic Mark Steyn is no longer published in England? Every newspaper that carried his often politically incorrect, always witty columns, have given him the sack. Another sign of Blighty's decline.
Steyn's latest, published in Canada's Western Standard, offers this gem:
Anyone who's spent any time in the Muslim world cannot help but be struck by its profound ignorance. The famous United Nations statistic from a 2002 report -- more books are translated into Spanish in a single year than have been translated into Arabic in the last thousand -- suggests at the very minimum an extraordinarily closed society, which in turn explains its stunted political development. For example, the editor of the Yemen Observer, Mohammed al-Asadi, wrote a strong editorial denouncing the Danish cartoons, but, like this magazine's editor, decided to show its readers what they looked like. As a result, he's now in jail. The point about Islam is that it's beyond discussion. No corner of the earth would benefit more from the ability to debate ideas openly.
That U.N. statistic is stunning. It's as if the Muslim world can't accept that the West has anything to offer, which, given the dearth of scientific or artistic contributions from the Muslim world in at least a millenia, is an instance of profoundly undeserving cultural self-esteem.
The Japanese tried to keep the West at bay, finally opening up to the Occident only after the American fleet showed that the future lay without -- not within.
The rapid industrialization and modernization of Japan showed what is possible when a society is willing to borrow from other -- even alien -- cultures. Would that the Muslim world was willing to learn from the Japanese experience.
Unfortunately, the West has some lessons it might learn from the Muslims, lessons that could prove as corrosive to our culture as it has proven to their own.
[T]he Boston Phoenix was admirably straightforward. It declined to publish the cartoons, it said, "out of fear of retaliation from the international brotherhood of radical and bloodthirsty Islamists who seek to impose their will on those who do not believe as they do . . . Simply stated, we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix and its related companies in physical jeopardy."
I was the subject of an attack-piece in the Phoenix a year or two back. As hit pieces go, it was a pretty feeble effort, and I didn't feel it was worth driving all the way down to Boston just to kill a few members of staff and burn the building down. But it makes you think. In our multicultural society, the best way to get "respect" from others is to despise them; the surest way to have your views boundlessly "tolerated" is to be utterly intolerant of anybody else's. Those who think Islam will apply these lessons only to op-ed cartoons or representations of Mohammed are very foolish.
I made the point last month that the success of the Muslims in punking most U.S. papers and news networks into not publishing the Mohammed cartoons was in stark contrast to the treatment of Christians and Jews in the media.
Is it possible that the threats and violence might prove attractive to other faiths and cultures who have heretofore felt powerless to do anything other than accept in silence the mockery and disrespect of secular America? It would be an ironic consequence of our craven willingness to knuckle under to the Muslim demands.
Posted by Mike Lief at March 15, 2006 12:46 AM
| TrackBack
Comments
The term "moderate Muslim" is becoming harder and harder for many of us to swallow. Either the moderates are completely freightened to death of the Islamo-facists or they truly do not adhere to the "Islam is a religion of peace" rhetoric we hear from politically correct politicians and statesman who feebly attempt to mitigate the worldwide bloodshed caused by this extremist religious doctrine.
The West must face reality. The Islamists are instilled with the ideology of an 8th Century charasmatic.
Their ideology is permeated by an "us vs. them" mentality and in cold, direct and unambiguous language they are commanded to coerce, conquer, tax, and if necessary, kill the unbeliever.
Any attempt to moderate or spin black letter text such as this is futile. The West must accept the fact that no matter how hard we try, the situation will always remain static as "us vs. them" unless we are willing to submit and join the party.
If you don't bow to their Prophet, then let the fact sink in that you will have war and endless conflict with the Islamists.
The next logical step is to determine what we must do if endless conflict is a given. That is a freightening thought for many.
Posted by: Ringo at March 15, 2006 08:20 AM