California Conservative

The reaction of the Islamic community in the wake of publication of a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad should be a clarion call of warning to the West. Bear in mind that the cartoons were printed in a Danish publication aimed at a Danish audience, not at the Middle East.

Still, the Islamic world erupted in protest. It would be easy to blame the subsequent violence on Islamic radicals bent on purging the Ummah of corrupting Western influence.

There is evidence to back up such a contention. After all, the riots occurred five months after publication in the Danish media. In fact, they were even published in an Egyptian newspaper four months ago without consequence. It was not until Danish Muslim activists chose to make it an issue. They traveled to the Middle East with a file alleging a pattern of anti-Islamic sentiment in the West. They not only included the cartoons in question, but also fabricated three truly offensive works Following exposure in Arab and Muslim media, the riots ensued.

Still, it would not be accurate to blame the radicals alone. The riots were worldwide in scope and involved hundreds of thousands if not millions of Muslims. Add to this “moderate” Muslims who condemned the violence, but still insist that the Western media had no right to publish cartoons that they deemed offensive.

Those who believe that the protests are not representative of the Islamic world as a whole do so at their own peril.

Theirs is a deeply xenophobic society firmly convinced of its own superiority. It is a society that sees nothing wrong with putting a bounty on an author life as they did with Salman Rushdie; it is a society that denies the Holocaust even though there are living witnesses to it; it is a society that genitally mutilates women and even condones murder under the guise of “honor;” it is a society that claims religious oppression in the West even though non Muslims are routinely persecuted in Islamic countries; it is a society that says inoffensive cartoons are blasphemous, but sees nothing wrong with destroying 1,700-year-old Buddhist relics.

The West’s reaction, with the exception of the blogosphere, is nothing short of craven. After an initial show of support for the beleaguered Danes, most European media have backed off, while governmental leaders apologize to Muslim mobs, saying that freedom of the press should be limited where religious sensitivities are concerned — at least the sensitivities of those likely to riot and burn embassies.

The reaction in the United States is no better. Only Fox and ABC have dared broadcast the images, while CBS, NBC, CNN and other broadcast and cable outlets declined. Most major newspapers have also refused. They hypocritically claim the self-censorship is because of respect for religious sensitivities. In CNN’s case, this is especially absurd in view of CNN Founder Ted Turner’s open contempt for Christianity and mocking of Catholic employees. Then, there is the New York Times, “America’s Newspaper.” In what must be one of the most cynically dishonest actions in modern journalism, a Times Feb. 8 editorial defended its decision not to reprint the Danish cartoons because, “That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words.” Yet the very next day, the Times printed a photograph of Chis Ofiili’s “Holy Virgin Mary,” which depicts the Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung.

On can only conclude that the real reason is fear. That publishers and editors so easily cave in to threats shows the shallowness of their commitment to freedom of the press.

To many Muslims, Western concepts of freedom are not merely alien, they are anathema. Simply stated, it is a fascist ideology. As in the 1930s, Europe appeases, America rationalizes and Russia plays its own game.

The fascists are once again on the march as were Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in the 1930s. History shows the cost of that march; what will be the cost of the Islamic march?

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Kip Allen is an award-winning broadcast and newspaper journalist currently residing in Southern California. He is a contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org, and you may read more of his work here.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 13th, 2006 at 8:06 am and is filed under Author: Kip Allen, Culture, Europe, Media, Middle East, Op-Ed, Religion, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.