Curse of the Moderates

The term "moderate Muslim" to depict those Muslims that seem to eschew violence is worn out and tiresome. The oft repeated appellation is used, I fear, as an attempt not alienate the more than one billion members of the Ummah, the world fellowship of Muslims, which, according to some, would be suicide. They may be right. Nevertheless, the so called "moderates," according to Washington Post and FoxNews contributor, Charles Krauthammer, have the following characteristics:

What passes for moderation in the Islamic community -- "I share your rage but don't torch that embassy" -- is nothing of the sort. It is simply a cynical way to endorse the goals of the mob without endorsing its means. It is fraudulent because, while pretending to uphold the principle of religious sensitivity, it is interested only in this instance of religious insensitivity.

This what they don't do to demonstrate moderation:

Have any of these "moderates" ever protested the grotesque caricatures of Christians and, most especially, Jews that are broadcast throughout the Middle East on a daily basis? The sermons on Palestinian TV that refer to Jews as the sons of pigs and monkeys? The Syrian prime-time TV series that shows rabbis slaughtering a gentile boy to ritually consume his blood? The 41-part (!) series on Egyptian TV based on that anti-Semitic czarist forgery (and inspiration of the Nazis), "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," showing the Jews to be engaged in a century-old conspiracy to control the world?

And these "moderates" are aided and abetted by Western "moderates" who publish pictures of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung and celebrate the "Piss Christ" (a crucifix sitting in a jar of urine) as art deserving public subsidy, but who are seized with a sudden religious sensitivity when the subject is Muhammad.

What would a true moderate look like?
"A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths."

Instead:

Those who don't (protest all desecrations) are not moderates, but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.

This is the point that I have been making all along. What's more I agree with Krauthammer's further observation: "Had they not been so hypocritical, one might defend their refusal to republish these cartoons on the grounds that news value can sometimes be trumped by good taste and sensitivity."

Millions of non-Muslims are daily enraged by the insult and injury heaped upon them by Muslims who believe it is their right to do so. History is replete with examples and, perhaps, the incomprehensibility that such behaviors can exist in the 21st century may be the reason why many look away and refuse to believe that they can be touched.
Nevertheless, a mob is trying to dictate to us all with the underlying threat that non-compliance will bring down the ire of a billion nuclear-armed Muslims on us all.

The mob has turned this into a test case for freedom of speech in the West. The German, French and Italian newspapers that republished these cartoons did so not to inform but to defy -- to declare that they will not be intimidated by the mob.

What is at issue is fear. The unspoken reason many newspapers do not want to republish is not sensitivity but simple fear. They know what happened to Theo van Gogh, who made a film about the Islamic treatment of women and got a knife through the chest with an Islamist manifesto attached.

"The worldwide riots and burnings are instruments of intimidation, reminders of van Gogh's fate. The Islamic "moderates" are the mob's agents and interpreters, warning us not to do this again. And the Western 'moderates' are their terrified collaborators who say: Don't worry, we won't." Krauthammer and I agree: they have made the Danes the West's sacrificial lamb a test case to see what would happen.

I am ashamed of my fellow Westerners and particularly ashamed of media and governments: you blinked and we are step closer to Islamization which is cultural suicide and enslavement.

Update: The Danish editor of the Jyllands-Post, the newspaper at the center of the prophet caricature furor, has been sent on indefinite leave after a "disagreement with management about whether their news paper should also print cartoons of the Holocaust." Note and interesting tidbit mentioned at the end of the piece:

The EU has tried to draw the sting of the protesters by calling for a voluntary code of conduct for the media that would avoid further inflaming religious sensibilities. The US has accused Iran and Syria of deliberately stoking up reactions.

We all know what happens when "voluntary regulations" don't bear the desired fruit! It seems that the fear factor is working as editors, governments, and institutional leaders are closing down websites, pulling copies of campus newspapers, and firing employees, all because they are afraid. It appears our future is dhimmitude.