It may be that someday, historians will look back on the “Holy War Against Cartoons” as something of a turning point in the larger conflict between Muslims and the west. This is because at bottom, the controversy has now moved far beyond the original complaints of Muslims against the portrayal of their religious icons in what they consider to be a disrespectful manner and has entered the realm of what shooting wars are usually about – facilitating or preventing change.
The hysteria being whipped up by Muslim religious leaders against the west (and shamelessly exploited by Islamic political leaders) is a glimpse into the soul of Islam itself and how it is a cultural imperative for the guardians of that faith to prevent at all costs this supposed slur from going unanswered. To do so would allow a tiny crack in the wall that separates Islam from the modern world. And like the unbending dogmatic faiths that have ended up in history’s dustbin before, it has always been a tiny crack which proved to be the impetus for cataclysmic change, sweeping away the old order and bring on the new.
Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the wall of a church was much more than the act of a tortured conscience rebelling against the corruptive influence of absolute power by the Roman church over the individual. It was a harbinger of the modern world itself, a clarion call for the needs of an independent mind to triumph over the slavery imposed by history, by dogma, and by a tradition that made some men masters over others thanks to their selection by the Almighty as conduits through which ordinary people might achieve paradise. Luther’s complete rejection of this cultural bête noire started a revolution he neither sought nor, in the end, supported. But his simple act cracked open a door to a brave new world that led directly to a political revolution that created more secular nation-states in Europe that were independent of Rome.
Similarly, near the end of the 20th century, the leaders of Soviet Communism were desperately trying to maintain their total control of a restive populace by trying to limit contact with western values and ideas. Enter Mikail Gorbechev who mistakenly thought he could reform communism by importing a few western concepts about freedom. To Mr. Gorbechev’s amazement, his reform measures rather than tamping down dissent actually let loose a flood of discontents that eventually led to the destruction of the Soviet state as well as his own personal downfall. Gorbechev made the mistake of thinking that he could control the forces of change that, once unshackled, swept the dogmatic Soviet system away.
All it takes is a crack.
This idea has not been lost on the mullahs, the imams, and the holy men who have whipped their flocks into paroxysms of hate at European governments that dare to allow independent newspapers published in their countries to run the offending caricatures. Because for anyone to challenge the authentic word of Allah as it is revealed in the Koran is to invite questions. As history has shown, asking questions is the first step in the destruction of dogmatic faith. And since the enemy of dogma is independent thinking, once the human mind is free to inquire into one aspect of one’s faith, there is nothing to stop it from further enlightenment. For the religious tyrants who seek to control the thinking of their charges, there can be nothing worse.
There has been much debate as to whether or not Islam can co-exist with the idea of a secular society. Our experience in America would seem to answer that question in the affirmative. But America is very different than Europe both in its tolerance for religious differences and its sheer size that tends to allow small minorities to simply disappear into the vastness of its culture. Recent studies show that there may be only 3 million Muslims in America or about 1% of the total population. Compare that to the 7 million Muslims in France that make up more than 10% of its population. I daresay that if there were 30 million Muslims in America instead of 3 million, the influence of Islam on our secular society would be much greater. And our reaction to the current controversy would probably be very different as well.
Despite our protestations that we in the west are not at war with Islam but rather a “perversion” of the religion by radicals, the fact is our enemies have no such illusions. They correctly see the conflict as one between the modern world (as represented by Christianity and Judaism) and the world as it is revealed to them in the Koran. This is why there is so little outrage by the rest of Islam’s 1.3 billion adherents to the barbarities carried out in the name of Allah by the jihadists. While the overwhelming majority of Moslems may in fact fret over the image of Islam as it is presented to the world by the radicals, they nevertheless offer silent assent to their tactics and the war itself. No amount of obfuscation, no apologia can alter that basic fact; worldwide, Moslems are on the side of the jihadists and against the west.
What can be done? Can Islam “reform” in any meaningful way so that it can co-exist with societies whose members don’t buy into the Koran’s view of the world? The answer today has to be a resounding no. Unless and until Islam releases its stranglehold on the minds of its adherents, it will be a threat to the ideas embodied in western civilization that realizes that in order to free the soul, one must first free the mind.
UPDATE
Go immediately to Michelle Malkin’s site and see what the we’re up against. She has a series of outrageous photos of ordinary Muslims in full cry against the concept of free speech as it is practiced in the west
Orientalism (in the sense Said envisioned it), in short, has become a convenient de facto intellectual totalitarianism—one that, when combined with our western history of guilt over colonial adventures, manifest destiny, imperialism, cultural hegemony, and our status as the world’s sole hyperpower, provides a powerful liberal (in the non-partisan sense) impulse for granting autonomy, and for promoting a soft cultural relativism.
Unsurprisingly, this whole philosophical movement—insofar as it was based first on essentialism and then, once the group could be defined down that way, to the excommunication of apostates to the official narrative of the essentialist who won the internal battle over defining the official ethnic and political narrative—was destined to end in a will to power. Which is what happens when universalism—even in its softest and most agreed upon form (for instance, it could simply be a contractual, contingent universalism, to satisfy the sensibilities of post modernists)—is discarded in favor of the notion that individualism (the base point at which human universalism as an ideal is at its strongest, the point that Bush has cleverly made over and over again in his speeches) is to be surrendered to collectivism (the point at which the will of the most powerful within the group is always ascendant, and where apostacy, which we might call disagreement, is a legitimate offense), comes to mimic a kind of individualism by united front: “The Arab Street.†“The Jihadist.†Etc. These are types taken as individuals.
I don’t like to be too gushy, but Goldstein is a treasure, a precious resource of clear, logical, and incisive thinking. Reading his entire critique, one is left with a soaring heart and joyous soul. He is Saint George doing battle with the dragons of deconstructionism and relativism. It is a tragedy that his is such a lonely voice for we need an army of Goldsteins to combat those whose prideful spite at the civilization that has nurtured them and given them so much should now go AWOL in her hour of need.
10:50 am
The West can endure in the mind of Islam only in servitude. We (the West) can either convert or submit as serfs to the will of Islam. There is no middle ground. And the battles may be simplistic – the soiling of a holy book, the cartoons of a holy personage – but they stand out in the eyes of Islam every time the West backs down. For, in backing down, we reinforce our subservience to their will. For, in backing down, we show our lack of fortitude, our lack of will, our lack of faith to counter that of Islam, providing them with victory after victory. And with every small victory Islam tightens its “stranglehold on the minds of it adherents.” I can only hope the West finds its backbone before the battle escalates.
10:53 am
Amen. We are sleepwalking into disaster. The more we give the more they take.
12:30 pm
The leaders of Islam have proven the cartoons correct. They’re doing everything today that is shown in the cartoons. Personally I have no respect for Islam nor anyone that practices Islam. I won’t shop at any business owned by one of the nuts and wouldn’t pi** on them if they were on fire. Funny that no one felt this way 10 years ago but hundreds of millions feel that way today. They are making progress (if their desire if for people to hate and mistrust them) aren’t they.
2:00 pm
There is one obvious solution to this issue.
The image and likeness of all Islamic figures should be banned.
I’d like to the see my friends on the Left wrap their brains around this idea.
2:18 pm
Can anyone seriously envision John Kerry or AlGore getting into a 1955 Chevy Bel Aire coupe and playing “chicken?â€
AlGore would shake his head sagely at the suggestion, and explain that such behavior has a seriously adverse effect on the environment, what with the exhaust fumes, and smoking tires, and then he would lash out like a rhetorical flamethrower at those who would raise their children, especially boys, to be so irresponsible and contentious.
John Kerry would regale us in that halting Boston Brahmin monotone about the time he actually played chicken with James Dean… and of course, won. Dean was driving the “Little Bastard†Porsche in which he was later killed, you know, but he was gracious enough to offer Kerry a gift, a token of the day’s event… a black beret that he, Dean, happened to be wearing that day. And yes, Kerry still has the beret. It’s one of his most cherished possessions and he takes it out and wears it every time he and Teresa settle down in the townhouse to watch a re-run of East of Eden or Rebel Without a Cause. That Dean actually died long before Kerry had reached legal driving age is of no consequence. An attack on his patriotism, perhaps.
Of course it’s easy to poke fun at either of them, largely because the left simply isn’t very testosterone driven these days. On the contrary. If our society is really possessed of both a male and a female nature, it is clear that none of the left’s leaders are going to impress us with their rhetorical biceps… no matter how beautifully they sing the descant solos.
Indeed, it almost seems that at least half the anger so virulently displayed by those on the left is really little more than their fermented resentment over the ideological role they’ve chosen for themselves. What John Le Carre once referred to as “a waiter’s anger.â€
Real leaders like George Bush or Ronald Reagan are portrayed by the left as “reckless,†“unprincipled cowboys†who are lacking in “gravitas†and “nuance.†But it is not the “cowboys†who have led us into this situation. At least not our cowboys. Nor is it the capon we look to for leadership in confronting the danger.
The Islamists understand all this, for theirs is most certainly a male-based society, with little room for the “can’t we all just get along†drivel so prominent among today’s liberals. In a traditional Muslim society, the eunuch understood his proper place.
3:04 pm
The West Must Take a Stand
There’s all sorts of uproar among many Muslims about the cartoons of Mohammed that were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. It’s supposedly against the Koran or a surah or some such to produce visual representations of…
3:34 pm
This act of firing the editor of Soir for publishing the Muhammad cartoons is a total cop out on the part of this French publisher (however I heard a rumor that he actually an Egyptian).
I am frankly outraged – not by the cartoons which are mild by any standard – but by the refusal of these publications to defend free expression. I guarantee you that if scandalous drawings of Christ had been circulating in the media and Soir had managed to get hold of them, they would have been trumpeting them on the front page.
What kind of double standard is this – that it is okay to attack and ridicule the symbols of Christianity, and even its founder, but Muhammad is given a “special exception licence”?
The fact that film maker Theo van Gogh was murdered in the street for attempting to address truths about the treatment of Islamic women, and that Salman Rushdie had a Fatwah placed on him for the crime of writing a novel with references to Muhammad … should surely embolden european editors to take a stand on this issues in order to uphold our rights. The message from this surrender is – “threaten and intimidate us enough and we will aplogize and comply”.
Recently Madame Tussaud’s museum in London staged a Christmas display featuring a wax dummy of the soccer star David Beckham as Jesus and his wife Posh Spice as Mary. See what would happen if they had done the same with Muhammad and one of his wives.
These capitulations on an issue that is legal and a matter of artistic freedom – is basically saying that there is now a two-tiered level of respect for religion in europe. On tier one are the icons and sacred personalities of Islam who are out of bounds to satirists, cartoonists and even stand-up comediens. But second tiered Christianity is fair game – open to shots from any direction and any which way – even though there are millions of Christians around the world who equally incensed and “wounded” by such assaults on their faith.
The editors who pulled these cartoons are cowards and hypocrites. I might understand it if the cartoons were scatalogical, pornographic or gross in some patently obvious way. But they are well drawn, subtle and quite clever in their execution.
Recently in England a Muslim worker in Dudley Council succeeded in getting a ban placed on pigs in the office – I mean pig dolls, pig pictures of coffe mugs etc because he claimed they offended Islam.
It seems the effort to dhimmify the infidels of europe is well under way.
3:48 pm
Isn’t it interesting that the lead story on CNN re the Arab Street’s outrage includes a series of pictures showing angry crowds torching western flags and effigies? Absent – shocking not in the least – are the cartoons themselves? Instead we get a pathetic disclaimer “CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.” Once again the “west” is proving its metal! CNN and its MSM lackeys are cut from the same cloth as Al Jezeera. When is the West going to wake from its slumber of self loathing and confront this evil with the rigor that has allowed western civilization to rout the prehistoric easterners?
3:50 pm
CNN Link -AP Story/ Gallery
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/03/cartoon.wrap.friday.ap/index.html
3:54 pm
And our own State Department has provided this input:
“These cartoons are indeed offensive to the beliefs of Muslims,” State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said when queried about the furore sparked by the cartoons which first appeared in a Danish newspaper. “We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility,” Higgins told AFP. “Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable. We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices.”
So much for supporting Freedoms of Speech or the Press! I can only wonder when the State Department will make similar comments to the New York Times or the Washington Post. Once more, the West bends over and “takes it like a man.”
4:01 pm
The Cartoon War
Never has the adage ‘Information is Power’ felt more critically relevant. And never has the Power of ‘Dis-information’ revealed its evil effectiveness more poignantly. I am grateful for a better understanding of the meaning behind these not so long…
5:44 pm
CARTOONS - AT WAR WITH MODERNITY
HT Right Wing Nut House
I’ve tried to post representative views from reasonable thinkers in the Blogos. I tend to favor this one at the Right Wind Nut House. On the otherhand AJ at
5:57 pm
Does anyone with an IQ over 70 still buy the “religion of peace” Bul- Shi-? At least the Germans with their new brave leader are standing up and fighting back. The French are in full surrender mode – what else is new? – saying that “These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims” and firing the editor(France Soir, Jacques Lefranc) of the paper that dared to republish them. No wonder they are known throughout the world as “Cheese eating surrender monkeys”! They have already forgot hwo their apeasment of the fascistMuslims contributed to 2 months of riots last Fall.
The cowardly, myopic “Peace in Our Time” approach has always led to diaster. Tyrants must be stopped sooner or later. Later usually costs many more lives than sooner. But too many cowards or morons say “This time is different. This time is we kowtow to them they will not harm us any more.” Some people (including most of the MSM/DNC) either never learn are too cowardly to act on what they have learned.
Steve – It seems Bush does indeed like the French. Your quote of the State Dept looks very much like what the French said Thors. I have not yet seen where we lost our brains or our guts. Can you give a URL please?
7:39 pm
It seems that Bush is this time following the lead of Chirac. He is marching off to the War on Terror with his hands on his head after placing
his weapons on the deck. The President is backing down. Another “Read My lips!” Bush.
7:52 pm
It is funny that the revitalized, take a stand, new backbone, tell it like it is, whistler blowing (i.e, post-Katrina) main US media is too wussy to publish the cartoons.
10:05 pm
Rodney:
I first read the State Department reference at Michelle Malkin but it seems that there is some confusion regarding who said what. At Little Green Footballs they describe how:
Agence France Presse says the State Department spokesman was “Justin Higgins:†US blasts cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
Reuters says it was “Kurtis Cooper:†US backs Muslims in cartoon dispute.
And the Associated Press says it was “Janelle Hironimus,†in a story by Qassim Abdel-Zahra: Protests Intensify Over Muhammad Drawings.
Is this story a hoax, or just hopelessly confused?
The article continues with excerpts from a State Department briefing. There seems to be some confusion as to who said what to whom! And, as such, I may have been premature in denouncing our State Department. I only hope there may be some backbone there after all.
11:27 pm
These fanatics are always pissed off on something or other .. who cares
11:57 pm
I’m Not Happy With George Or Condi
Not after the State Department let this statement go out. Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion….
4:31 am
At War With Modernity
(See all of my Muhammad Cartoons posts here.) AT WAR WITH MODERNITYRick Moran It may be that someday, historians will look back on the “Holy War Against Cartoons†as something of a turning point in the larger conflict between
7:27 am
The Cartoon War
Here is an excelent article at Right Wing Nuthouse titled AT WAR WITH MODERNITY This outlines the reason for the reaction of Moslems to the cartoons published in the west and why we can expect more of the same. The…
7:36 am
Steve – Thanks. I was behind on the news yesterday. Bush is letting Chirac tell us what to do in the War on Terror. Our statement yesterday day was almost word for word what the French had said the day before. Bush had decided to imitate JFK. It seems I did vote for a flip flopper in 04. How sad
8:22 am
Back to the time of cavemen…
Don’t get me wrong…it’s good that the seething Arab street has found something other that Semtex vests and spontaneously combusting Peugeot’s to occupy their time, but you’d think they’d eventually get tired of being so frigging angry all the ti…
9:19 am
Once again religion rears it’s ugly head. Their actions and your reactions are all guided by thoughts planted in your heads at a very young age before you were capable of critical thinking (though I seriously doubt many of you are now).
You see the problem is they and you literally can’t see the forest for the trees. The brainwashing starts at a very young age and believe me they have refined their techiniques greatly over the years. After reading the discourse above it’s obvious most of you are incapable of truly independent thinking. Religion is the very first tool used to form your thoughts and perceptions. The fact that religion is still around in this day and age attests to the efficacy of their efforts.
9:49 am
Danish cartoons raise the ire of Islamofascists
We sure do take a lot of our freedoms for granted. In Islam, an artistic representation of the human form is forbidden. That is why you could be on the receiving end of some serious form of punishment if you’re caught with a gum wrapper with a cartoon …
11:27 am
Because Muslims as a whole (billions of them) are bound, deaf, dumb and blind, the future is going to be bloody.
Foremost, they are bound by the cult of Islam, told what to do, what not to do, what to believe, how to treat others and how to live for the remainder of their lives.
They are deaf, they hear only what they want to hear, all is filtered, changed by their belief in Islam, which explains all unbelievers are to be against them and that they must be against all unbelievers.
They are dumb, maybe not uneducated, but dumb to the world outside of what they have, they envy that others have. Dumb to the fact that Islam is their own worse enemy and is what is holding them back.
They are blind to anything not covered by the Qur’an or its tortured Islamic laws, blind to anything that says they are the ones to blame for their poverty, their dispair and their hate.
So they have only two things that hold them to their reality, their shrill voices and their sharp teeth. So all they have leftis to scream and slash and wonder why they and the cult of Islam are so dispised and feared.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
4:02 pm
Danish Embassy Set Ablaze: Can We Co-Exist?
CNN
The demonstrators were protesting offensive caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.
Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses …
4:05 pm
Identity Politics, Free Speech, and the Future of worldwide Liberalism, 2: a follow-up
From Islam Online:Danish Muslim leaders warned on Saturday, February 4, of grave consequences if copies of the Noble Qur’an were burnt in a rally planned by Danish extremists to protest Muslim anger over cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). ...
4:06 pm
Taking a crack
Rick Moran has written the best serious essay about the cartoon issue that I’ve seen so far. Excerpt: The hysteria being whipped up by Muslim religious leaders against the west (and shamelessly exploited by Islamic political leaders) is a glimpse…
10:27 pm
Is Western Liberalism Modifying It’s Core Beliefs
This is the root-cause of our dilemma and why The Cartoon War may very well prove to be the watershed event, likely of equally defining importance for the 21st Century as the 1914 assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo was…
3:05 pm
Islamofascists continue to incite against Denmark
Michelle Malkin finds many pictures of Islamofascists inciting against Denmark and other parts of Europe.
10:29 pm
Cartoon War
Tom Toles and Teddy Rall are the suicide bombers, “Zero” from Beetle Bailey was inspired by John Kerry’s illustrious military career (he served in Vietnam, don’t ya know.)
The guys in black hoods (terrorists, that is—not the racist children from Boondocks) have Dondi at their mercy, and will cut off the poor little infidel’s head unless Western Democracies stop drawing Mohammed.
But seriously, these islamobarbarians get offended if we were to imagine if Mohammed does not exists, and then go all nutty when we do imagine Mohammed exists and wonder what he might look like. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
This could well be an important moment in Western History—do the Europeans capitulate to islamofascism, or do they choose to resist. I say “New Europe” (Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, et al.) will stand fast and that “Old Europe” (the Paris-Berlin Axis) will kowtow to the will of the Fifth Column they have allowed to settle and take root in their countries.
/R
1:19 am
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council li…
4:05 am
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are 2006 Democrat Contract With Al Qae…
2:47 pm
Our president has an achilles heel…. His Faith. He feels compelled to respect other religions probably because some whacko priest told him to. Mr President please denounce faith based terrorism!