I am very impressed by the two gentlemen who attended a Mohammed cartoon protest in France who demonstrated extreme bravery in the face of a swelling and very angry crowd. By merely supporting free speech and the country of denmark in silent counter protest, they are called terrible names by the ‘spiritual’ and ‘peaceful’ protesters in the crowd who are showing the telltale signs of eminent violence – even chasing after the men while they were whisked away by police for their own protection. These men did not speak against anyone, they only silently stood for free speech and the country of Denmark (though I do see that they also had a severed hand with them, which is one of the things many Imams have called for) – this is enough of a ‘provocation’ to seemingly warrant their death in the eyes of many in the crowd.
The full story, and a link to the video can be found here.
This is seriously getting out of hand. Unless you can sit down and talk with someone, it is nearly impossible for there to be peace. Perhaps this is why so many of their leaders won’t have an open and honest dialogue that addresses the real issues with an eye towards compromise and getting along better – perhaps they simply don’t want peace and would prefer all out war, but don’t have the chutzpah to actually start one directly. They are certainly preparing their young children for such a world as evidenced by these photographs of a Hamas lead protest involving kindergarten aged children where the children are carrying a coffin draped with the flag of Denmark.
While few, if any, muslims (even fewer of their leaders) speak out and stand up for dialogue, understanding and loving other human beings, our leaders grapple with an untennable problem that seemingly gets worse no matter what their approach. Regardless of which party is in office, I feel the problem would still be very much the same (though perhaps Al Gore might be more in bed with the Saudis than the Bush’s are). As I have said before, it is hard to believe that World War III may be started by cartoon… but with the violent, unemployed fringe elements of the Muslim world in the drivers seat and most of the peaceful (and silent) centrist majority scared for their own lives lest they be found out to be in disagreement, I am deeply concerned that this is a genuine possibility.
I found an interesting background piece on the whole story from the Weekly Standard (which contains a reprint of the original Danish publication) courtesy of Michelle Malkin (my first visit to her blog BTW).
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