Excuse me for not thinking it’s entirely accidental that Beirut is the second city, after Damascus, to have its Danish Embassy torched. As we all know, the murderous Syrian secret police still have a presence in Lebanon and are anxious to do anything to distract from the Hariri investigation that has already led straight to the door of Bashar Assad. Nothing better than stirring up the deluded masses over some rinky-dink cartoons to cover up incinerating your fellow human beings.
Where next? If I were a resident of Solvang, California (our little Danish tourist town in the Santa Ynez Valley), I’d be watching my back. Defenders of the Faith could be burning down their pastry shops next.
But this is no joke. We’re already living in a rerun of the Middle Ages with religious-motivated hordes streaming through the streets, loaded for bear and screaming for the end of democracy. Only back in the Middle Ages people had an excuse. Most back then thought the world was flat. What do we do now? Many still think the way to deal with these lunatics is to apologize for these obscure cartoons, say “nice doggy,” pat them on the head and hope they will go away. Similar techniques were tried in the 1930s when there were nowhere near as many Nazis as there are followers of radical Islam today (no matter how you count them) . Frightening thought that, isn’t it?
UPDATE: This gallery of images of Mohammed throughout the ages of course places this issue in an entirely different context. If the mainstream media does not show this, they are not even beginning to tell the story.
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28 Comments
1. Terrye:Roger,
Even Jack Straw called for Senstivity. Why? Nothing short of global dhimmitude is ever going to please the fanatics so why bother to try?
Syria and Iran will no doubt try to use this incident…. but the only thing they are really accomplishing is to show the rest of us just how nuts these people really are.
Oh yeah, give the mullahs a nuke, you betcha.
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:36 am 2. Jamie Irons:Roger,
The amusing thing about all this hoopla over a few cartoons is that it’s being framed in terms of “sensitivity.”
“Sensitibe doggy…” (Pat pat…smile. Now where’s the nearest big rock?)
Mark Steyn, as usual, has a keen and witty take on all this…
(Via InstaPundit)
Jamie Irons
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:40 am 3. Jamie Irons:“Sensitive doggy…”
PIMF ;-(
Jamie Irons
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:42 am 4. Jamie Irons:Roger,
The thing that people don’t comment enough about in this context is, how solid, really, is your belief system when it is threatened by a few (pretty bad) cartoons?
If you’re ready to take up the sword every time some hapless cartoonist takes up his pen, (or as Terry implies, ready to set loose an ICBM or two), the rest of the world, the sane part, has to seriously wonder whether you seriously believe all this claptrap, you’re so darn sensitive about it all.
The Christians didn’t burn down the “art” museum that housed “Piss Christ” not so much because they weren’t offended (they were), or they were “insensitive” (they were not), but at least in part because their belief was (is) rather solid, not easily shaken.
And their religion does, after all, urge them to forgive. (Yes, yes…I know…Jesus did overturn the tables of the money-changers in the temple. But he did not slit their throats.)
Jamie Irons
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:51 am 5. ahem:It’s official: this is the 1930s all over again.
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:58 am 6. chuck:how solid, really, is your belief system when it is threatened by a few (pretty bad) cartoons?
I don’t buy that argument, Jaime. Plenty of real damage has been done down the ages by mobs motivated by trivia. Accusing the perps of insecurity is an insult that only has meaning in a society overrun by abusive analysts
Anyway, I agree with Roger that there is a good deal of organization and manipulation in these demostrations. One of the striking things to me is how few demonstrators appear in the photos I have seen. I think the media is using the technique of cropping and closeups to tell a story and manipulate the facts. Same old same old, so don’t take everything at face value. We can’t cherry pick what stories we want to believe, the media is corrupt at all times about all things: it is their job. We don’t want to encourage the perps, whoever they are, but we do need to keep a perspective on things.
Feb 5, 2006 - 8:07 am 7. Roger:I’m somewhat in between chuck and Jamie on this one.
Feb 5, 2006 - 8:14 am 8. David Thomson:Islam was always a religious/political movement and as its political power wanes, its religious power wanes to some extent. If Allah is so great, how come the West is so powerful? I think this is part of the confusion for Muslims and part of the reason they “act out” in such extreme ways.
These crazed Muslims are responding in a disproportionate manner. A Judeo-Christian adherent would opt to cancel their subscription to the offending newspaper and possibly organize a letter writing campaign.
Feb 5, 2006 - 8:35 am 9. XWL:There would seem to be a very vocal and violent minority wherever Muslims dominate that wish to return the entire world to the 8th Century (or at least pre-Renaissance) paradise their extremists Mullahs extol at every opportunity.
With enough provocation we may use our might to grant their wish (but only for them, not for us).
If they keep telling us that their way of life is utterly incompatible with ours we may eventually take their word for it and do something about it. (and ceasing to exist, or submitting to their culture aren’t options, at least in the United States, Russia, China or Israel, Europe seems more ‘flexible’, unfortunately).
Europeans (at least the bureaucrats and other officialdom) would almost seem resigned to the return of ‘Al Andalus’, but resistance here remains much firmer.
Feb 5, 2006 - 8:58 am 10. Gahrie:It is becoming increasingly clear that our two civilizations, a modern Western (classical) Liberal one and a medeval Eastern Islamic one cannot co-exist. And as I discuss in two posts on my blog, it is their fault not ours. However we need to realize just how ugly this conflict will be, and the damaging, coarsening effects it could have on our own civilization.
Feb 5, 2006 - 9:32 am 11. chuck:a modern Western (classical) Liberal one and a medeval Eastern Islamic one cannot co-exist.
Sure they can, it is just a question of who is on the bottom. As far as I can tell, Western Liberals opt for the more nuanced position from which they can observe passing clouds. Now, if you leave out the adjective modern and regress Liberal back fifty, or maybe 350, years or so, you might have a point.
Feb 5, 2006 - 9:46 am 12. Gahrie:Chuck:
I disagree. Their civilization must destroy ours in order to survive, and it is becoming increasingly more apparent that we must destroy theirs.
Feb 5, 2006 - 10:52 am 13. miguelj:Thing is, they’ve already said that apologies will not be enough, or even the governments criicizing these newspapers. They want the various governments to PUNISH the owners and staff of the newspapers and to PROHIBIT them from publishing anything that might offend Islam.
Feb 5, 2006 - 11:21 am 14. Barry Dauphin:By saying that they’ll accept nothing less than this, the Islamists have painted themselves into a really sweet corner. They’ll either have to back down or else engage in the Clash of Civilizations without any more pretense.
A win-win for the West, no?
The prickliness about the cartoons is quite amazing, not that devout believers wouldn’t be insulted, but burning down embassies? I agree about the anxiety behind such acts and how threatened these adherents must feel to do something like this. Nonetheless, there are also other forces at work fanning the flames, as it were. Charles Moore asks How come there were so many Danish flags to burn so quickly? Did the imams use FedEx, an unclean beast of the west? This is not a spontaneous outpuring but an orchestrated reaction.
Of course, Denmark is a NATO ally. Burning down an embassy is an act of war. NATO partners are pledged to defend each other. NATO already has troops in the neighborhood of Syria.
Hat tip Instapundit
Feb 5, 2006 - 11:21 am 15. -cliff:Loaded for bear? Oh, no, come to North Carolina and we’ll show you loaded for bear.
And unlike our friends the “insurgents” we shoot straight – and not in the air.
Bring ‘em on.
-C
Feb 5, 2006 - 11:30 am 16. Barbara Skolaut:“If the mainstream media does not show this, they are not even beginning to tell the story.”
Whuddaya mean “if,” Roger?
Feb 5, 2006 - 11:43 am 17. Ed Poinsett:If the mainstream media does not show this, they are not even beginning to tell the story.
Geez, wouldn’t it be a treat if the MSM could report on anything of world import that doesn’t involve Bush bashing. I’m not surprised they won’t cover it, even to stand tall with their European pals. I would truly be surprised if they did find it in their hearts to murmer anything. Rathergate anyone?
Feb 5, 2006 - 12:59 pm 18. RogerA:Several things about this whole sordid business mystify me–These cartoon were first published, if I understand correctly, six months ago–so why NOW has it become a cause celebre? and as one of our colleagues above question just how did so many Danish flags become so available so suddenly? Danish pastry I could understand; when was the last time anyone tried to find a Danish flag and was successful?
While Islam is in theory a very decentralized institution–it seems to me there is certainly a network of people who can assemble mass demonstration along with all the trappings in a very short period of time–Perhaps we really do NOT understand the apparently quite centralized nature of this lunatic fringe of Islam–Looks to me like they have the stuff pretty well together–and, mon amis, is a bit scary.
Feb 5, 2006 - 1:19 pm 19. Lem:The MSM will put the American people at risk by leaking classified information, but they will not risk their own hide for the sake of the craft they pretend to hold so dear.
Feb 5, 2006 - 1:53 pm 20. ganzo azul:Lebanese Minister Quits
“[Lebanese] Security forces arrested 174 protesters — 76 Syrians, 38 Lebanese, 35 Palestinians and 25 stateless Bedouins — a police official told Reuters.”
Feb 5, 2006 - 2:04 pm 21. lmg:I think it is a mistake to dwell on the religious sensitivity angle. This is not about cartoons.
If this was about inflamed Muslims, where are the demonstrations in the U.S.? All quiet here. Why not burn American and Israeli flags? You KNOW they ALWAYS do that.
Where did embassies burn? Damascus (a client of Iran) and Beiruit (a client of Syria).
These events are deliberately orchestrated, and TARGETED at EUROPE. The source is IRAN.
Iran is trying to reverse Europe’s growing cooperation with the U.S. in going after Iran’s nuclear program. They are trying to intimidate them into voting against UN Security Council sanctions or refusing to implement them. At the very least, they want to put the fear of a home-grown “intifada” into Europe lest they give the green light to a U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
I think this is meant as intimidation; Iran’s way of “showing the Fleet”. But it may be intended to distract us from something else they have going on.
But what?
Feb 5, 2006 - 3:33 pm 22. WichitaBoy:Looks like divide-and-conquer is being played knick-knack paddywack on the Europeans.
If Allah is so great, how come the West is so powerful? I think this is part of the confusion for Muslims and part of the reason they “act out” in such extreme ways.
Yes. Clearly. Remember that monkey study Catherine Johnson told us about? The lower-status monkeys act out and become angry.
Feb 5, 2006 - 6:03 pm 23. Orson2:RogerA is mysitifed by “why now?” One is provided by img: that it’s political orchestration desing ed to benefit Iran’s effeort to marginalize Europe in the former’s quest for nukes.
But more instrumentally, it’s because a Danish-based Islamist delegation decided to press their case in the Arab-Muslim world, not only by prading these cartoons around but by inventing even more inciteful ones involving pork.
See here http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2006/02/fabricated_cart.html
So there’s political calculation all around, and neglect in North America by the media. Michelle Malkin had one post devoted to all the weeny headlines in the English prss and news services like Reuters with the term “row” applied to it. She points out that a “row” is merely a quarrel, not a clash of fundamental values, thus rediculously underplaying the reality of these facts.
Feb 5, 2006 - 6:58 pm 24. larry:Looks to me like you’re on to something, lmg. Months-long delay, then boocoo flags, near simultaneous demos by likely suspects, etc. Too coincidental, eh? I’ve had similar, but vaguer thoughts I couldn’t articulate as well as you have.
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:05 pm 25. Orson2:The above story of Imams fabricating offensive cartoons has been updated.
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2006/02/more_lies_from_.html
Included is a pdf translating the pamphlet.
Feb 5, 2006 - 7:11 pm 26. Cynic:“Excuse me for not thinking it’s entirely accidental that Beirut is the second city, after Damascus, …”
It was all beautifully planned over several months.
http://counterterror.typepad.com/the_counterterrorism_blog/2006/02/more_lies_from_.html
“Last Friday the CT Blog revealed how a delegation of Danish Muslims, led by Copenhagen imam Abu Laban, toured the Middle East in December and showed fabricated cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a very offensive fashion, even though the pictures had never appeared on Jyllands Posten. ”
” To see the document, irrefutable proof of the delegation’s intent to create animosity, …”
Why sould the muslims take such offense if every second arab is named Mohammed?
Feb 6, 2006 - 5:44 am 27. markus:Now with their execesses one could hardly be blamed for thinking that all the living Mohammeds are keeping to The Mohammed’s ideals.
Hits the nail on the head:
http://www.filibustercartoons.com/comics/20060204.gif
Feb 6, 2006 - 9:11 am 28. Loren:Solvang, CA. ……
Best strawberry pie I ever had was there. I still remember the trip with my parents and sister to there, I was about 12. We drove from Billings, MT to California. Went to Knott’s and to Disneyland. Saw my aunt and uncles in CA. Thirtyfive+ years later, that is still the best strawberry pie. Might have been the best vacation I had as a kid.
Wish I could remember which restaurant it was from….Maybe it was the referenced pastry shop.
Feb 6, 2006 - 2:27 pm