SIXTH COLUMN: Into the Crucible

hattip: Jawa Report via. LGF

"Frankly, We're Afraid of You" is the message some news outlets and governments are giving to the Ummah, (roughly the community of virtuous and faithful Muslims as opposed to the community of faithless and degenerate non-Muslims). By apologizing or creating hate-speech laws, or even labeling those that rightfully or, sometimes, wrongfully debate, describe, critique, or criticize Islam and Muslims,
some Westerners have given the Muslim rioters the idea that rioting in the streets, the destruction of property, and the taking of lives will work. Well, that method has worked in some cases.

Bombings caused the Spanish to change their government and remove troops from Iraq. Fear of violence motivated an Australian state to create hate-speech laws under which Christian pastors are being prosecuted for reading from the Koran as they critiqued Islam. Christian pastors in the U.K. are warned about making similar remarks as hate-speech laws are about to be up and running. Foreign authors that have shown in a negative light are being sued in the U.K. even though the books are not published nor distributed there, and the United Nations has been drawn into the debate. The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, held a seminar on confronting Islamophobia, 'Unlearning Intolerance' that obviously was in favor of Islam:

The seminar was held at United Nations Headquarters in Conference Room 1. After the opening statement by the Secretary-General, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University, delivered a keynote address. There were then panel discussions offering different perspectives on Islamophobia today, on the role of education in fostering tolerance and understanding, and on ideas for confronting Islamophobia more effectively. Panellists included eminent writers, scholars, theologians and experts on Islamophobia and other issues relating to tolerance and education. The discussions were chaired by Shashi Tharoor, Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, and allowed the audience and the panellists to make comments and pose questions. In the afternoon, the panellists joined in an overview of the day’s discussions and further interacted with the audience and each other.

Editors of news outlets in Muslim countries that printed some of the cartoons to show their readers what was published in the West were fired and then arrested. The Jordanian King Abdullah condemned the cartoons as "an unnecessary abuse of freedom of speech." The paper's owner and editor asked the following:

"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"

Where are the riots to condemn the suicide bombers that killed the wedding guests, or the murderers of the various journalists and hostages in Iraq, the murder of Theo VanGogh, the suicide bombers in Israel, Bali, the genocide being perpetrated in Darfur, Sudan, against Negro Muslims by Arab Muslims, and so on. The Muslim world is silent on all these issues, but ironically, demands respect on all issues of Islam, even those that have brought about these outrages against contemporary human beings.

Respect is given where respect is due. Respect that coerced is not respect, but fear, a fear generated, in this case, by the intolerance and lack of respect of those offended millions that sneer at and hate non-Muslims. Western news outlets that attempt to publish the news about affairs around the world and in their own countries are being intimidated into silence about Islam and Muslims and their countries are being attacked.

And the world is being threatened by a religious madman that is anxious to get on with Islamizing the world. He is not alone.

Postscript: Here is an example of why disdain for non-Muslims by Muslims will always be with us: