Residual Forces

I’ve been pretty quiet about the the unrest and violence that the Muslim world is wrought with over a couple of silly cartoons. My honest opinion is that this is a case in point where you get the chance to see that there is no way to negotiate with a mob-mentality ruled society. A few powerful people at the top of the religous food chain are playing the on false fears of the crowd, and turning a people (regular Muslims) into a frenzied violent fundamentalist mob. I do not think all Muslims are vioolent, but most (almost all) of them I see depicted in the protests are displaying acts of violence, or at least anger/rage.

(I acknowledge the peaceful protest in MN this weekend, but again, they saw it fit that they march in protest of another’s free speech. So their refraining from violence, as welcome as it is, does little to show the tollerance of the Muslim people to freedom of speech of other non-Muslims.)

I just got an editorial/story emailed to me from a friend living in Sweden. It is written by the man who started it all, by running a couple of cartoons. Why I Published Those Cartoons

I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn’t mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.

But the cartoon story is different.

Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously — and we certainly didn’t intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.

Read the whole thing

“Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.”

And let’s point out why he did run the cartoons.

1. At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not do the same thing with the Koran.
2. Last September, a Danish children’s writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences. The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity, which in my book is a form of self-censorship. European translators of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding.
3. Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an
   installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings.
4. (A few months earlier, to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif and a quotation from the Koran.)
5. Finally, at the end of September, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh
   Rasmussen met with a group of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam.

That was what led up to the cartoons being run. Tired of his fellow Europeans caving to the bully tactics and political correctness, he sought to point out the hypocrisy from Muslims demanding tolerance and acceptance, but not sharing them in return.

This whole thing just goes to prove what some of us have been saying for quite some time. How do you negotiate peacefully with people who use violence and terror as a political tool? These protests are not so much in revenge over the cartoons, but rather a sign of things to come if anyone ever dares to draw a picture of Mohammed again.

People everywhere are afraid to put restrictions on Muslims in societies. Like Europe and other nations, the Muslims are moving in at alarming rates. I use the word alarming, because they are not assimilating into their new societies. In fact, the societies are assimilating into the Muslim society. Some countries, rather than deal directly with the threat of a fundamentalist Islamic majority, pass laws banning all immigration into the country for spouses. This did nothing, since the Muslims didn’t abide by the rules, and just claim to be sisters and brothers. They don’t follow the rules when the rules get in the way of their religion.

Their goal is not like what most of us seek in life. Most of us are intent on being happy and having family/loved ones. Muslims are instructed in their holy book to convert (or in some depictions of it, kill) all non-believers. Just how we gonna deal with that? Will the laws of Islam be demanded for all of society? (Already been tried in some places) Remember the Taliban? No music, women were to be forcibly raped if outside alone with out male escort. Do you really want to have a society that is millennia behind our own, sitting at the negotiating table?

I’m sick of the world catering to the Imans and clerics around the world for fear of retribution. When will there be a good faith effort by Islam and Muslims as a whole to be a peaceful member of society? Will they ever be willing to resolve conflict with out violence and mayhem? More importantly, are we going to continue to give them more tolerance to behave however they want. I don’t want to convert to Islam. I don’t want to have to study the Koran. Why should I/we have to live by their rules?

Call me intolerant if you want, but I only want to be tolerant with people who will be tolerant in return. If cartoons can spark this rash of violence and destruction, what will happen when the intolerant Muslim leaders realize that the world does not intend to convert? Will they start the next world war and clash of civilizations?