Surrendering to Islam

It seems clear that many Western institutions are terrified of offending Muslims in any way. After the infamous Danish cartoon controversy, exactly two American newspapers, the Weekly Standard and the Free Inquiry, dared to publish the cartoons.

Several of the cartoonists were threatened with death. Only reasonable, some Muslims argued, as some the cartoons implied that Islam was a violent religion. Some people just can’t appreciate irony.

In Canada, author Mark Steyn was sued by a Muslim advocacy group for “flagrant Islamophobia.” A Canadian Human Right Commission has actually agreed to hear the case. Apparently, “human rights” in Canada include the right not to be offended, and that right seems to extend only to Muslims.

This capitulation to Islamic threats should be seen as a disturbing sign. Often, multiculturalism and political correctness are fairly harmless. It is usually unnecessary, and quite often unfair to non-minorities, but most examples of political correctness have few long-reaching effects.

Multiculturalism is usually a method of extending a stupid and counter-productive courtesy to minorities. (Case in point of political correctness’s counter-productivity: fifty years ago, nonwhites were referred to as “colored people.” Now, “progressives” call nonwhites “people of color.” Thank God for progress). But quite often, especially when dealing with radical Muslims, it seems that many Western leaders do not seem to extend special treatment to Muslims as a mere courtesy, or an expression of guilt (as with affirmative action). Rather, their treatment of radical Muslims seems to be borne out of the idea that, really, both cultures are equal. The West may have disagreements with radical Islam, but, really neither culture is better than the other.
This concept is nonsense. Radical Muslims do not believe in most of what the West considers human rights. They do not believe in the concept of freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, or of democracy. (It is no coincidence that the more Westernized countries, such as Kuwait, are relatively nice places to live, while the fundamentalist countries, such as Iran, are places no one wants to go). The ideas held by radical Muslims and those held by those influenced by Western thought are incompatible.

Radical Muslims are entitled to hold their beliefs. (That is, of course, a fundamental idea of Western thought). But there is a wide and unbridgeable gap between it and our beliefs—and it is foolish to pretend otherwise.

Also, one of the most disgraceful aspects of the Danish cartoon controversy was the craven refusal of virtually all American newspapers to publish these cartoons. With that in mind, here they are. Enjoy (or not).