By Andrew L. Jaffee

On Tuesday, February 21, Christopher Hitchens appealed to people of good conscience to take a stand against the Muslim rampaging, killing, and burning against a series of caricatures of Mohammed published by a Danish newspaper. Some enlightened citizens heeded his call, and attended a peaceful rally in support of Denmark — more on that later. But Hitchens’ essay, “Stand up for Denmark!” (in Slate), is worth mentioning first:

The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary — that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let’s be sure we haven’t hurt the vandals’ feelings.

You wish to say that it was instead a small newspaper in Copenhagen that lit the trail? What abject masochism and nonsense. It was the arrogant Danish mullahs who patiently hawked those cartoons around the world (yes, don’t worry, they are allowed to exhibit them as much as they like) until they finally provoked a vicious response against the economy and society of their host country.

So it was on February 24, that some responded to Hitchens’ call for sanity. From the Washington Times:

About 150 conservatives, liberals and libertarians gathered peacefully yesterday in front of the Danish Embassy — at the behest of author Christopher Hitchens — to support free speech and protest Islamic radicalism.

Human Events Online added:

Last Friday the normally rather apathetic denizens of Washington, D.C., left the comforts of their offices and homes to rally in support of free speech. The quickly assembled demonstration, organized by writer Christopher Hitchens, took place in front of the Embassy of Denmark from 12 noon to 1 p.m. Supporters brought Danish flags, signs, and Danishes to show their support for the small country that has been placed at the center of a growing firestorm regarding the publishing by a Danish newspaper some months ago of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad.

Creativity abounded, with demonstrators creating signs out of legos and with references to both Hamlet and Havarti, echoing the rallying call Christopher Hitchens had sounded earlier that week with his article on slate.com, “Stand up for Denmark!”

One sign in particular, stating “We Are All Danes Now,” struck at the heart of the rally.

Hitchens spoke eloquently to the rally’s attendees:

“Brother and sisters, this is the point. Brothers and sisters, I just thought I would thank everyone for coming and say how touching it is that people will take a minute from a working day to do something that our government won’t do for us, which is quite simply to say that we know who our friends and our allies are, and they should know that we know it. And that we take a stand of democracy against dictatorship and when the embassies and democracies are burned in the capital cities of dictatorships, we think the State Department should denounce that and not denounce the cartoons. I am fed up with the invertebrate nature of our State Department.

“If we had had time, brothers and sisters, we I think should have gone from here to the embassy of Iraq to express our support for another country that is facing a campaign of lies and hatred and violence. And we would if we did that we would say that we knew blasphemy when we saw it, we knew sacrilege when we saw it.

“It is sacrilegious to blow up beautiful houses of worship in Samarra. That would be worth filling the streets of the world to protest about.

“We are not for profanity nor for disrespect but we are and without any conditions or any ifs or any buts for free expression at all times and in all places. I told the Danish embassy that we would disperse at 1 o’clock, I hope we’ve believe made our point and hope that we agree that Danish TV will have some more agreeable features — such as your own — to show, instead of the faces of violence and hatred and fascism. I think I can close by saying solidarity with Denmark, death to fascism!”

But Hitchens’ words will fall on deaf ears when it comes to the rabidly left-wing crowd. They have been absolutely silent regarding atrocities that don’t fit into their miniscule world-view.

Islamists massacred 344 civilians — half of them children — in Beslan, North Ossetia. They killed 62 in Delhi, India; murdered 50+ in Turkey; and have killed tens of thousands in Indonesia, Algeria, and Nigeria. Al-Qaeda slaughtered 88 innocent Egyptians last July 23.

1,095 innocent Israelis have been killed by Palestinian terrorists since September 2000. Thirty-thousand Iraqis, mostly Muslim, have been slaughtered by Islamist terrorists since the country’s liberation.

9/11 (3000 dead). Madrid (200 dead). London (50 dead). Bali (200 dead). Amman (57 dead). Three-hundred trampled to death in this year’s Hajj; 1,426 killed in the 1990 Hajj; 251 in 2004; etc. Sudanese Muslims have slaughtered 180,000 black Africans. Kuwaitis ethnically cleansed 400,000 Palestinians in 1991.

No protests, just silence from the Left in response to these horrors. Just hand-wringing about whether Korans are being handled correctly at Gitmo. As Orwell said, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” Can this left-wing ideology be considered “liberal?”

Special Report: Danish Cartoons

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Related: United States, Islam, War Against Islamo-fascism, Europe, Political Correctness

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