Even as some Westerners are beginning to wake up to the progress of soft jihad and “sharia creep” (and here), it is worth noting that radical Islam continues to make conspicuous strides in coopting Western institutions and legal instruments to undermine the reality of Western liberty. Consider, to take just one example, the summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference which ended Friday in Dakar, Senegal. An Associated Press report has the details:
The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots.
Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world’s Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital.
The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to the fury of the Muslim world.
Let’s see, “redress” for publishing cartoons about a 7th-century religious figure? For “slighting” a religion? While you ponder that, here’s some more of the AP report:
Though the legal measures being considered have not been spelled out, the idea pits many Muslims against principles of freedom of speech enshrined in the constitutions of numerous Western governments.
“I don’t think freedom of expression should mean freedom from blasphemy,” said Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, the chairman of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. “There can be no freedom without limits.”
My nomination for the Understatement of the Week Award: “the idea pits many Muslims against principles of freedom of speech.” You might say that. But the more sinister thing comes with President Wade’s comment: he is certainly correct that “there can be no freedom without limits.” James Madison or John Locke might have said something similar–but with very different intent. The question (well, one question) is, where does one draw the line? And who is enfranchised to do the drawing? If a Danish paper publishes a caricature of Muhammad, should Denmark, or the paper, or the cartoonist responsible be liable to an offended Muslim in Senegal?
What makes this little pow-wow among “leaders of the world’s Muslim nations” significant is not what might follow from it in the way of positive legislation–though you never know–but rather what it betokens as a sign of the times. It is part of a large if still more or less amorphous mobilization of anti-Western sentiment on the part of people who detest Western mores but crave its wealth and Lebensraum. It is not at all clear that we have formulated any compelling response. Mostly what we find are anodyne bleatings like those of Sada Cumber, U.S. envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who kept trying to burnish “America’s image” in Muslim countries and find what the AP called “common ground” with Muslim nations by championing “universal values the U.S. holds dear like religious tolerance and freedom of speech.” Gee whiz. “America has a deep respect for the religion of Islam,” Cumber said. “The freedom of faith that we exercise, that we enjoy in America, that is also a very important aspect of the American core values. Anyone who wants to practice any faith is never stopped or discouraged.”
Dear, dear, dear, Mr. Cumber. Don’t you see that your interlocutors in Senegal do not regard religious freedom or freedom of speech as “universal values”? They regard them as part of the decadent legacy of the West. Don’t think so? Ponder the fatwa, dated March 14, issued by “Saudi Arabia’s most revered cleric” which maintains that two writers who questioned some tenets of Sunni Islam “should be tried” and, if they fail to repent, “should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam.”
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19 Comments
William:There seems to be a lot of confusion about our enemies. The media has a problem with these truths. The ones participating in the “Endless Campaign” likewise hold these truths not to be self-evident.
Mar 16, 2008 - 8:57 am NahnCee:America is not the problem…. that is what needs to be evident! It’s almost laughable to see these writers like Mr.Cumber or our reps in office trip all over themselves trying to be nice to our enemies.
The thing about these flailing Muslims is that after they’ve threatened to riot in the streets (resulting only in dead Muslims), and to burn down McDonalds (resulting only in unemployed Muslim) how are they going to enforce these edicts?
They’ve also tried guilt trips, asking us how we could be so mean to hurt all their little feelings, and they’ve also tried threats of further 9/11’s. All that’s accomplished is that the West is cracking down on who we let in, and escorting an ever increasing number of them back to where they came from.
They’re also trying our court system with lawsuits, but when the West has sued Muslims for various atrocities and terrorist acts, our court system invariably favors us. One of these days, we will either enact laws forbidding these harassing lawsuits, or people will actually start suing them back and winning major judgements for harassment.
Unless the Saudi oil ticks can manage to buy a bomb or their Persian buddies in Iran can finally get their 20th Century science together to make one, I just don’t see where these whining masses will ever be able to successfully make a case that we should shut up and respect them as peers.
Mar 16, 2008 - 10:47 am aloysiusmiller:I normally aim to be respectful (which means ignoring things that I have no respect for) but this Muslim behavior is a total provocation. I am hoping someone will start printing (or better yet embossing the Koran on sanitary products including kleenex, toilet paper, wet wipes so that I can give it the respect it is due.
Mar 16, 2008 - 11:56 am MacCarroll:aloysiusmiller
At first glance, your suggestion appears to be a good one. However, on second thought, I care far too much about my backside to expose it to something as malignant as the Koran.
Mar 16, 2008 - 12:18 pm amr:Does this mean that we can take the Muslim nations to court for many not allowing the observance of Christian religions and Judaism or even the possession of Bibles. It seems to me that there is a daily tirade against Zionism and Christianity by government news media in even Egypt; a country that was Christian before Islam and now has a minority Christian population that is discriminated against and whose members are attacked regularly by members of Islam.
Two can play this legal game and somehow, although Muslims do not see it nor care, they would lose the legal challenge. Unfortunately there are so many Western apologists for the Muslims that it would be a hollow victory for the West. Why do secularists defend the imposition of Islam religious culture over Western values, but challenge any hint of Christianity receiving benefits from the US national, or any state or local governments? Could it be that Islam kills if it is not satisfied with a result but Christians and Jews don’t? It would seem so.
Mar 16, 2008 - 12:22 pm Sam:Perhaps Congress can come up with some legislation that effectively bars lawsuits of this type against American artists, writers and such. Because allowing even obviously frivolous lawsuits that will be dismissed by all but the most radical left activist judges to enter the courts system can be a drain on the financial resources of the defendant but is nothing to the Muslim states or their accessories working for them who file the lawsuits.
It’s obviously done to harrass.
I’m going to be writing some letters to my Senators and Congressman and also to Lieberman (not my Senator). If you are concerned you should too. This really is a just another kind of warfare and it’s abusing our own system as the vehicle.
Mar 16, 2008 - 12:23 pm Brian Macker:>sarcasm/sarcasm/sarcasm<
oops. screwed up my html tags there. Didn’t want you to see that.
Mar 16, 2008 - 12:29 pm Harry:It should be repeatedly publicized that every slight infringement on freedom of speech is an intellectual disaster. Why? Freedom of speech allows for the best ideas to rise to the top. Freedom of speech does not exist so that everybody can get their say in, although that is a consequence of that freedom. It exists so that a free exchange of ideas can occur. When that happens, a free people can determine the best course of action. Limiting the free exchange of ideas limits a people’s options, resulting in crippled societies similar to what you see, in say, the Middle East.
From a religious perspective, freedom of speech is necesary if one wants to review all options. it is necessary if one wants to understand the strengths and weaknesses of any religion. More importantly, if one wants to be saved and live eternally with God, then he must be free to examine all religions critically as he searches for the truth. Without criticism, there is no search for truth.
If there were ever a religion in need of strong, even fierce, criticism, it is Islam.
Mar 16, 2008 - 12:37 pm Maggie's Farm:Sunday Evening Links
Death penalty for 9-11 planners? Bainbridge. Why is there any question? If I did something like that, I would lose all respect for anybody who would not kill me.It’s not nice to point.Conversations with conservatives at NPR. "Diversity" is o…
Mar 16, 2008 - 3:40 pm indga:They are purchasing our politicians and educational institutions one by one. When they have completed that, our people will be educated into disregarding our Constitution and honoring the Islamic ideology. Our rights and freedoms will then bow completely to the intolerant dogmas of Islam.
Mar 16, 2008 - 4:51 pm William:YES indga and harry as Thomas Paine once wrote:
Mar 16, 2008 - 5:28 pm Harry:“There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful.It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.”
Americans (even if they are not religious) are going to have to learn the language of religion if they hope to defeat Islam. We are entering a battlefield of ideas. Islam in its current manifestation is political, but it gets its strength from religion. As a religion goes, it is evil. I would bet that many people, while instinctively realizing that it is an evil religion because of the practices of its adherents, could not explain why the religion as a conceptual framework is evil.
Allow me to give an example. In every religion that has any central figure as a God, adherents tend to take on the characteristics of that God. This is a natural progression of the religion, since if you are worshipping another entity, whatever it might be, you must admire that being. In Islam, Allah (Islam’s God) is merciless. This is based on his description in the Koran. This also is in spite of the constant insistence by Muslims that Allah is merciful, as he goes around ordering everybody to be killed. As Muslims take on the characteristic of Allah, they too are unmerciful. While this deserves a lot more attention, the result is that Islam fails on two levels. The God of Islam is not a Supreme Being, but a miserable creature more reminiscent of someone like Satan. Also, being a Muslim does not make you a better person.
By the way, Allah is definitely not the Christian God.
Mar 16, 2008 - 6:24 pm Michael Lonie:Well, Harry, that is exactly why these Muslim leaders want to shut down any disrespctful comments about Islam. As for expecting Muslim countries to reciprocate and end the vicious propaganda they put out against Judaism and Christianity, fuggeddaboutit. The Muslims have the idea that Islam is privileged, and no scummy dhimmis should be allowed to diss Muhammed, Islam, the Qur’an, or any of the backward customs maintained by so many Muslims, like female circumcision, chador, polygamy, or murderous raids on non-Muslims or Muslims of the wrong flavor of Islam (e.g. Darfur).
Mar 16, 2008 - 6:37 pm Cherokee Jack:It’s very telling that Muslims are so hot under the collar about people mocking their religion when they’re certainly not one of the biggest victims. Look at how Christians are treated by hipsters in America; degrading Jesus and the Bible is a national pastime now (even for some ‘progressive’ Christians), and I think we take it pretty well. In contrast, they see a few cartoons and blow up (sometimes literally). Their immune systems have broken down, so to speak, because of their isolation from religious criticism.
Mar 17, 2008 - 11:25 am Doug:If it is Free Speech to denigrate Mohammed and the Muslim religion, why shouldn’t it be Free Speech to question details of the Jewish Holocaust?
David Irving was imprisoned for a year for stating that the gas chamber shown to tourists at Auschwitz was built after the war. He made this statement about a year before the Polish government itself admitted that the gas chamber at Auschwitz is a fake and that they built it themselves.
Others are jailed for doing simple math. When WWII ended the claim was that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis. Of that 6 million, 4 million were killed at Auschwitz. Now Auschwitz claims less than 1.5 million people killed, but the official figure of 6 million is still considered sacrosanct. Anyone who hasn’t failed basic math knows that if 4 - X = 1.5, then 6 - X = 3.5, not 6.
If the religion of the Israelis cannot be questioned or denigrated, why cannot Muslims expect the same consideration for their religion? If the West truly believes in Freedom of Speech, why are people being put in jail for questioning details of the Holocaust?
Mar 17, 2008 - 3:59 pm john:could Doug please document the statement “the Polish government itself admitted that the gas chamber at Auschwitz is a fake and that they built it themselves.”?
Mar 18, 2008 - 5:39 am Keith:Perhaps we should sue for the Islamic stance of Democrophobia. I do not consider Islam to be a religion but a Political Ideology and therefore not protected by any religious privilege law. What defines a religion? Surely an essential is true belief but if there is any form of coercion or threat involved, such as death for apostasy or enforced dress, then there can never have been true belief because every member of that ethos will always have known of that threat, Ergo this is not a religion by definition. There is an attempt to undermine us by using their enforced doctrine against our free society which loosely defines religion.We need to ensure that one of the legal definitions of a religion is that it totally ABJURES force or coercion of any kind in recruitment and retention of members or in any of its practises.Our benign society has made us lambs to the wolf and we need to tighten up our legal protection or become prey.
Mar 18, 2008 - 11:02 am Soccer Dad:Humoring the extremes
A month ago JoshuaPundit questioned the wisdom of President Bush naming an envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference. After noting some previous antics of the OIC, JoshuaPundit writes: This is the racist, anti-American group our president legitim…
Mar 19, 2008 - 5:52 am Don L:Denial fo the holocaust? One doesn’t have to have an old army uncle that walked into Aushcwitz(sp?) All an honest man has to do is look at this irrational hatred of the Jews that is growing across this entire planet today to understand that the death camps existed because of hatred and we are probably back on the same track today with the acceptable hatred of Jews, Catholics and religion in particular - not withstanding, the acceptable rejection of (radical) Islam
Mar 21, 2008 - 1:59 am