Why Are We So Scared of Offending Muslims? -Christopher HitchensAs one who has occasionally challenged Islamic propaganda in public and been told that I have thereby "insulted 1.5 billion Muslims," I can say what I suspect - which is that there is an unmistakable note of menace behind that claim. No, I do not think for a moment that Mohammed took a "night journey" to Jerusalem on a winged horse. And I do not care if 10 billion people intone the contrary. Nor should I have to. But the plain fact is that the believable threat of violence undergirds the Muslim demand for "respect."
Islamists are the current leaders in the global book-burning competition. After the rumor of a Koran down the toilet in Guantanamo was irresponsibly spread, a mob in Afghanistan burned down an ancient library that (as President Hamid Karzai pointed out dryly) contained several ancient copies of the same book.
The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant, or neutral, without inviting their own suicide. And the advocates and apologists of bigotry and censorship and suicide-assassination cannot be permitted to take shelter any longer under the umbrella of a pluralism that they openly seek to destroy.
(Slate)
3 comments:
There does need to be a united and forceful front. The problem is terrorists are so good at sowing seeds of fear, that the very people who could best end this, moderate Muslims who do not believe in terrorism and Jihad, are afraid to speak up.
I'm not sure terrorists are sowing seeds of fear, as much as seeds of hatred.
I think they try to do both, but they are very effective, from Salman Rushdie, to the European Cartoons, of making it seem very unsafe to critisize them or their beliefs. Would anyone think twice about a drawing or publishing cartoon about Jesus or Moses causing them to have to go into hiding?
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