Consider the Muslim view in this clash over cartoons-West's absolutes have limits in Islamic world

Houston Chronicle ^ | Feb. 7, 2006, 9:58PM | By EHSAN AHRARI

[SauronOfMordor]

It's an extortion racket. "Give up your freedom of speech, become dhimmis (serfs to Muslim masters), and we won't hurt you"

Wretchard, in his blog. notes

I think this time the terror puppet masters have miscalculated. They should have remembered that the key to every successful protection racket is keeping your own muscle from making independent demands and maintaining the rate of extortion low enough to make it less trouble to pay than to fight. Unfortunately the air of intimidation by what passes for "Islam" creates an atmosphere in which ambitious Imams and thugs -- seeing how the game is played -- aspire to become playahs. The Danish radical Imams took a look and maybe decided to stir up trouble independently to create their own shakedown rackets. This incentive is why terrorist organizations, whether in Iraq, Kashmir or Mindanao proliferate: everyone wants a slice of the pie, from welfare payoffs, token political offices or brute collections from kidnapping.

But the cartoon crisis made protection too expensive. It may have been OK to pay Arafat a few billions but it had got so that any two-bit preacher could work up locals in his own "mosque" to become the Big Man in his ville, like Cap'n Hook Hamza. When extortion goes out of control the citizens start to push back and business goes bad for the established playahs. Damascus' attempt to b...h-slap the Scandinavian countries could backfire. Be nice if it does.

[untenured]

As the recent violence underscores, the global village is like a packed theater...

Full of people taken hostage by Chechen terrorists, IIRC.

[jordan8]

People do not necessarily buy into his murderous philosophy of transnational terrorism, but they agree with his criticism of what is wrong with the world of Islam and why it remains backward.

Not necessarily, eh? The problem is that Muslims, including the one that wrote this article, are being allowed to "settle" in the West, and that is not a program of Islam but of political correctness. They can keep their culture and taboos in their own part of the world, just let us keep ours.

[goldstategop]

I don't buy this moral equivalence. When the Muslim World allows Christians and Jews to live there and have equal rights, including the freedom to proselytize, then we will know they have genuinely changed. I'm not interested in muzzling our criticism of Islamic totalitarianism just to preserve a phony peace.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This Muslim backlash is political correctness carried to its logical conclusion, and for the same purpose. It is intended to intimidate opponents into impotent responses.

[RightWhale]

They are trying to use our own culture industry strengths against us. That plays right into our hands. It is far too late for them to try to get outside. This is so over.

[weegee]

Equality means more that just the permission to practice a faith other than Islam (or even other than faiths "of the book" meaning Judaism and Christianity).

It means EQUAL treatment in the courts. Not greater penalties for crimes committed by non-muslims against muslims and lesser penalties for crimes committed by muslims against non-muslims (with muslim on muslim crimes being in the middle).

Where are the West's "abolition of Church and State" crowd calling for the end to Islamic theocracy? That is where it can really be found in practice. All their fears fulfilled and now they ask for censorship and tolerance of a different culture.

[weegee]

They were also idolized by Bill Maher. Remember, he said that slitting the throat of an unarmed stewardess and crashing a plane into a building filled with tens of thousands of civilians was not a cowardly act. A suicide mission is easier than having to stick around and defend your actions before the world.

[Galveston Grl]

He acts as if this is a problem between Christians and Muzzies. Christians would agree to not draw Mohammad's mug if the Muzzies would agree to stop arresting, torturing and beheading Christians. However, we still have those atheists/secularists and others who the Muzzies have to contend with.

[Question_Assumptions]

Muslims make a point of not insulting Christians about their faith.

Really? So I can go to Saudi Arabia and preach the Gospel? Start a Bible importing business and open a Christian bookstore? I'm just imagining the persecution of Copts in Egypt, then, too?

[WarEagle]

As a quid pro quo, a similar courtesy is warranted toward their religion. As the recent violence underscores, the global village is like a packed theater. Good judgment is a requirement before yelling "fire," even in the name freedom of expression.

WRONG!

Good judgment is sticking by our principles of freedom of expression and freedom of thought. Radical Islam is another totalitarian belief system, like fascism or communism, to be fought and defeated.

[infowarrior]

This munchkin doesn't figure on the corollary, to wit: Muslim absolutes aren't absolute in our society, either...

the infowarrior