By Andrew L. Jaffee

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s prime minister, “says a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy,” according to the BBC, in a story about the Mohammed caricatures. The Beeb claims that Abdullah is “promoting a moderate form of Islam,” but his anti-democratic actions prove otherwise. Au contraire, Mr. Abdullah, it is your seething, Muslim masses that are the cause of this “chasm.” Again, the BBC:

As he spoke at a conference in Kuala Lumpur, thousands protested outside at Western cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. …

“Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America,” protesters shouted as they marched to the Danish embassy in the rain from a nearby mosque.

Abdullah has “shut down indefinitely a Borneo-based paper, the Sarawak Tribune, for reprinting the cartoons” and “declared possession of the cartoons illegal.” Are these the actions of a moderate? Malaysians chanting “Destroy Denmark” — moderate voices?

In today’s Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer reminds us of careless use of the M-word (for “moderate”):

God save us from the voices of reason.

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.

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?

A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths.

In case you were wondering, and since seeing is believing, here are some examples of the “grotesque caricatures” to which Krauthammer refers (from the ADL and CNN.com):

Original links:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london1.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london2.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london4.ap.jpg
Images cached for posterity.

Daniel Pipes aptly points out:

…will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more offensive than the Danish ones. Are they entitled to dish it out while being insulated from similar indignities?

What is not frightening is a “Western foreign policy” that is working. What is frightening is to realize that many Muslims do not even know what the letter of the term, “freedom of expression,” means, let alone the spirit. All this violence because a Danish newspaper published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Islamists murder 30,000 Iraqi civilians, and the Muslim world is silent.

The Muslim silence over true atrocities speaks volumes to the current state of their culture. It is the better person/society that can sit at ease as symbols are burned or defamed. It is the primitive person/society that lashes out with anger in such situations.

Those who are burning embassies or killing civilians in terrorist acts have no true convictions. Their thinking is dominated by hatred, fear, and anger, the basest of emotions. If they held firm beliefs, they wouldn’t give a hoot about what some newspaper published. If they truly believed in Mohammed’s teachings, with true faith, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11.

People who worry solely about “cultural sensitivities” are missing the point. German fascists, and Russian and Chinese communists, killed 100 million people in the last century. Do we bury this history for fear of offending the current generation of Germans, Russians, and Chinese? Will this history cause irreparable damage to their “self-esteem?”

In the current century, it is radical Muslims (”Islamists”) who are carrying out the atrocities to end all atrocities, and who are justifying the means towards an end — that end being the destruction of Western civilization and forceful imposition of a worldwide Islamic caliphate.

What is frightening is that some in the West are helping the Islamo-fascists to succeed:

• The editor of Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper which first published the cartoons, is sent on leave for an indefinite period, as the editor of a Norwegian magazine that reprinted them apologises
• A Swedish internet service provider shuts down the website of a right-wing anti-immigrant party which invited readers to send in cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad

The questions Westerners should be asking themselves are: How do I want to live — under tyranny or freedom? Or do I and my children sacrifice our freedoms all in the interest of “cultural sensitivities?”

Source: http://www.iris.org.il/blog/

Special Report: Danish Cartoons

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, born in Somalia, and now a member of the Dutch parliament, has come out in public support of a Danish newspaper’s publication of caricatures of Mohammed. Hirsi Ali knows first-hand how Muslim thugs have tried to silence free expression. She penned the script for Submission, a movie directed by Theo Van Gogh, who’s throat was slit by an Islamist because he dared make a film about the mistreatment of women in Muslim societies. According to the BBC:

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Contact:
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi: 202-857-6644, jenniferm@theisraelproject.org
Jennifer Packer: 202-857-6657, jenniferp@theisraelproject.org
www.theisraelproject.org

Palestine Solidarity Movement claims to be against violence, but the facts show otherwise

A group that has refused to condemn terrorism and advocates boycotting Israel plans to hold its annual conference in Washington this month because it is the city where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. led his 1963 march to champion equality for all human beings. But, in stark contrast to Dr. King’s own beliefs, one of the speakers at the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) event has condoned violence as a means of resistance and has a history of trying to stifle academic freedom while another has voiced anti-Semitic sentiments.

The conference is to be held at Georgetown University Feb. 17-19 under the guise of freedom of speech, but the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s agenda violates Georgetown’s own policy guidelines for campus events. Those guidelines require “politically sensitive activities” to be sponsored by the University and not to “conflict with Georgetown University standards as a Roman Catholic institution [1] .” Instead, the conference is sponsored by a student group.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Israel’s Shin Bet chief, Yuval Diskin, was secretly recorded making silly comments about the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He expressed qualms about Iraq’s liberation. While some may construe his commentary as pragmatic, it is in reality amoral. Here’s Diskin, from the BBC:

When asked about the growing destabilisation of Iraq, Mr Diskin said Israel might come to rue its decision to support the US-led invasion in 2003.

“When you dismantle a system in which there is a despot who controls his people by force, you have chaos,” he said.

“I’m not sure we won’t miss Saddam.”

Note that this post could also be titled, “BBC Makes Silly, Amoral Comments About Iraq.” The BBC says there’s “growing destabilisation” in Iraq at precisely a time when things are quieting down. That’s a loaded statement for a news story, and would have been more appropriate in an editorial.

I would remind Diskin and the BBC that the supposedly desperate, disenfranchised, hopeless Sunnis, the fuel of Iraq’s “growing destabilisation,” participated in huge numbers in December’s parliamentary elections. According to Lebanon’s Daily Star:

In Saddam Hussein’s home province more than 80 percent of voters turned out, an electoral official said.

The largely peaceful vote was in sharp contrast to January’s election for an interim assembly, when 40 people died.

Sunni Arabs mostly boycotted that poll but took part with determination and enthusiasm on Thursday, backed by nationalist rebels who vowed to protect voters.

In Fallujah turnout touched 70 percent, local officials said…

Iraq’s Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis are now busily negotiating to form a coalition government. Violence has dropped off sharply.

How nice it is for Diskin to decry Iraqi attempts at democracy while he himself enjoyed the benefits of growing up in one. And the argument that Arabs/Muslims cannot handle democracy is balderdash, despite the Mohammed cartoon frenzy.

The Afghans, Lebanese and Iraqis are working towards open democracy. Three other examples immediately come to mind: Indonesia, Djibouti, and Turkey; all Muslim and democratic nations.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, free parliamentary elections were held in 1999 and Megawati Sukarnoputri, a woman, became president in 2001. Parliamentary elections were held again in 2004, with 24 political parties participating. Indonesia has 147,219,531 registered voters out of a total population of 216,948,359.

Djibouti, a 94% Muslim and 6% Christian nation, chose President Ismael Omar Gelleh in multi-party elections in 1999. The country suffered a civil war starting in 1992. The warring parties signed peace accords in 1994 and 2000, and the country has been stable since. The French — whom some Djiboutis may have seen as an external, “occupying” power — helped bring the various factions together.

Need I also mention Turkey, the longest lasting Muslim democracy in history?

Of course, these are not perfect examples, but when is democracy perfect? Diskin cannot see past the tip of his pragmatic, security-minded nose. The BBC is stuck in the worn-out dogma of the Left, seeing U.S. attempts at spreading democracy as some type of imperialism.

At least Diskin (and the BBC) could show some respect for all the Americans who have lost their lives fighting for Iraq’s liberation.

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SMCCDI (Information Service)
February 8, 2006

The brutal manners of militiamen resulted, yesterday night, in some sporadic but violent clashes in the North Tehran Madar (former Mohseni) square.

Zealous militiamen who were angered, by the lack of attention of tens of young Iranians for the Shia ritual of Moharam, started to harass them, but their brutality sparked several hours of street fights.

Stones and home made incendiary devices responded, soon, the security agents’ use of clubs.

The street fights in the area continued till early morning of today with many elder residents shouting slogans, from their roofs, in support of the maverick youth who was defying the regime forces.

Several were injured or arrested following the intervention of elite forces of the Moosabn-e-Jafar division of the Islamist Militia.

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By Donnel Jones

The fact is, the Danish cartoons do reflect the truth about Islam. It is their intent to be offensive in response to the beyond offensive reality of a religion that is off-its-rails deranged and headed for oblivion if it doesn’t rein in its fanaticism and seething hatred of the “other.”

Satire may be unfair precisely because “the truth hurts.” No one wants to face their own ugliness. A well placed observation or caricature can make the difference between ignoring what one wants to ignore about oneself and a shocking bolt of self-recognition that you are not, at last, all that you believe you are.

The cartoons were meant to offend or, at least, to impart to its Danish, non-Muslim, viewers the truth of the condition of Islam today. Sometimes the joke really is on “them” if “they” do not get it, so the next recourse is a collective recognition among the audience that the present condition—in this case, Islam—is a mess.

Satire has a salubrious if painful effect only upon those who are conditioned to face the truth when all options at evasion are exhausted and one is handed, in their place, the pitiful reality that is pitilessly offered through instructive ridicule. But if you are not so conditioned, since satire as it is explained here is a Western cultural construct, then you are left with loathing only, without any compensating dividend in self-awareness.

That is why satire is properly moral and that the best satirists from Aristophanes to Swift to Twain were so hell-bent on making their audiences aware of the awful truth, even if it means to laugh at ourselves. It is a moot point to speak of the Danish cartoons as anything but amateurish (Cox and Forkum could have done so much better), but the larger point is the edifying nature of satire in the right hands and with the right intent.

Such an understanding of satire is lost on fanatics who, above all, lack a sense of humor the most important ingredient for which is a deep, if denied, sense of one’s true self, however ugly, however flawed.

Special Report: Danish Cartoons

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By William P. Narvey

Most of the news of the Muslim world’s reaction to the Mohammed cartoons, first published by Jyllands-Posten and later by a number of newspapers in other European nations is going from bad to worse, but something positive has come of it for Westerners.

It has not been since 9/11 that an event occurred that so sharpened the West’s understanding of the stark differences between Western and Islamic cultures. While serving to raise Western anger towards radical Muslims, it has also raised fears of the Muslim world.

The print and TV media have provided extensive coverage of the angry violent protests in Middle Eastern Muslim capitals that have led to destroying Danish embassies, the burning of Danish, American and Israeli flags, calls worldwide for a Muslim boycott of Danish goods and more menacingly, calls for the death of Danes, Americans, Jews and anyone who insults Islam.

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by Daniel Pipes
National Review Online*
February 7, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3361
* Cross-posted with permission

Editors’ Introduction: In belated response to a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish paper and subsequently reprinted across Europe, scenes of outrage filed out of London, Beruit, and Damascus, among other cities this weekend. Flags and embassies burned. Placards (in London!) read: “Behead those who insult Islam.”

In light of the anger unleashed, National Review Online asked some experts on Islam and/or the Mideast for their read on what’s going on and what can/should be done. We asked each: “Is this a clash of civilizations we’re watching? What can be done? By Muslims? By everyone else?”

Daniel Pipes’s Introduction: Click here for responses by Mustafa Akyol, Zeyno Baran, Rachel Ehrenfeld, Mohamed Eljahmi, Basma Fakri, Farid Ghadry, Mansoor Ijaz, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Clifford May, Ramin Parham, Nina Shea, and Bat Ye’or.

It certainly feels like a clash of civilizations. But it is not.

By way of demonstration, allow me to recall the similar Muslim-Western confrontation that took place in 1989 over the publication of Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses and the resulting death edict from Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini. It first appeared, as now, that the West aligned solidly against the edict and the Muslim world stood equally with it. As the dust settled, however, a far more nuanced situation became apparent.

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SMCCDI (Information Service)
February 7, 2006

An angry crowd, composed by 300 Bassij Para-military force’s members and fanatic Islamists, threw Molotov cocktails and pieces of rocks at the Danish embassy in Tehran for the second consecutive day.

Earlier, the Norwegian embassy was attacked with pieces of stones.

These new fanatical actions took place following the yesterday attacks, made by the same small and organized crowd, against the Danish and Austrian embassies in the Iranian capital.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

France’s publication, Charlie-Hebdo, will be allowed to print the infamous caricatures of Mohammed, but the country’s Islamists just don’t understand free speech. From the BBC:

In France, a court threw out on technical grounds an application for an injunction against a satirical publication that planned to print the 12 caricatures in its Wednesday edition.

The editor of Charlie-Hebdo welcomed the ruling.

“Criticising religion is legitimate in a state of law and must remain so,” Philippe Val said.

But the Union of Islamic Organisations of France, one of the groups that applied for the injunction, said “one cannot insult a religion”.

“To defend the dignity of one’s religion does not mean one is radical,” Fouad Alaoui said.

Sorry, Mr. Alaoui, but free speech allows insults. Don’t read it if you don’t like it.

Special Report: Danish Cartoons

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Some of my leftist friends have one thing in common with the Muslims now sacking foreign embassies: a fundamental lack of understanding as to how democracy works, and how precious it is. The leftists have grown up knowing nothing but freedom and opulence, and take things like the Bill of Rights, Federalist Papers, and Constitution for granted (if they have even read these hallowed documents). The Muslim radicals (Islamists) are throwing lit jugs full of gasoline at Danish embassies because they have known nothing except Big Brother (One Newspaper, One Nation, One Religion, One World), and do not even know what the letter of the term, “freedom of expression,” means, let alone the spirit. All this violence because a Danish newspaper published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Islamists murder 30,000 Iraqi civilians, and the Muslim world is silent.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

In an excellent editorial today at the Washington Post, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff provides an eloquent summary of how the whole Danish cartoon frenzy started, and how, perhaps, it may not end soon, thanks to our own State Department:

It’s worth remembering that the controversy started out as a well-meaning attempt to write a children’s book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. The book was designed to promote religious tolerance. But the author encountered the consequences of religious hatred when he looked for an illustrator. He could not find one. Denmark’s artists seemed to fear for their lives. In turning down the job they mentioned the fate of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist for harshly criticizing fundamentalism. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

While the Arab/Muslim world rampages over a few Danish cartoons, it has no qualms about producing volumes of racist hatred against non-Muslims (see below; from the ADL). These images offend me, but I re-publicize them here. So it is with free speech: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you don’t like it, then don’t listen to it or look at it. But there it remains in full view, so anyone can evaluate it and make their own judgments. To many, but certainly not all, in the Arab/Muslim world, this paragraph probably sounds like “blah, blah, blah.” Islamists murder 30,000 Iraqi civilians, mostly Muslim, and the Islamic world is silent. Click here for full cartoon coverage.

Original links:
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london1.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london2.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/europe/02/06/london.cartoon.protests/vert.london4.ap.jpg
Images cached for posterity.

Special Report: Danish Cartoons

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by Daniel Pipes
New York Sun*
February 7, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3360
* Cross-posted with permission

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.

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SMCCDI (information Service)
February 6, 2006

An Islamist crowd, composed mainly by Bassij Para-military force’s members, smashed windows and threw several petrol bombs and pieces of rocks at the Austrian and Danish embassies in Tehran.

The organized rallies were intending to show, what was supposed to be, the massive indignation of Iranians over the publication of cartoons depicting the Islamic Prophet Mohammad. But despite all supports from governmental circles and advertisements made by Mosques related to the theocratic regime, which had called for a massive participation, the demonstrators stayed under 400 individuals while the Iranian Capital has over 12 millions of inhabitants.

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