The Danish cartoons, which depict the prophet Muhammad as endorsing terrorism, are a commentary on a supposed Muslim predilection for violence. I do not think there is any case arguing that these cartoons are a commentary on Muhammad or theological aspects of Islam; rather, the authors are making a cultural commentary about the most powerful element of Islamic culture.
What is the most powerful element of Islamic culture today? It’s the liberty-hating barbarians who burn embassies, kidnap Westerners and protest freedom of speech – and freedom in general – by holding signs saying: “Behead those who insult Islam!” “Butcher those who mock Islam!” “Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way!” “Down with freedom!” and finally, “Europe, get ready for the real Holocaust.” No, these are not lines from the state-sponsored speeches of Iran or any other savage nation – though they certainly say the same things. These are the slogans and signs from the Islamist protests in Europe. This means millions of Muslims, not only in the Middle East but living in the West themselves, hate the West.
“But they don’t speak for all Muslims! What about the peaceful ones?!” you may shriek. Sure, they may not speak for the pro-Western peaceful Muslims out there, but those peaceful Muslims have shown themselves completely unable to reign in their fanatical counterparts. Those who do speak up are either butchered or thrown in jail, as with the cases of the two journalists in Jordan – supposedly one of the most “pro-Western” Islamic nations – who merely said that Muslims lost their chance to show the world what a peaceful religion their prophet brought and were thrown in jail promptly for their “insult to Islam.”
And the last month has shown that millions of Muslims around the world advocate doing far worse to the authors of those cartoons. The authors were correct in their cultural assessment of Islam; it is a Western-hating, liberty-hating, individual-hating culture bent on violence and creating a worldwide Islamic theocracy. Islam, for the time being, is not a “religion of peace.”
The West has no choice. Either submit to the very real cloud of darkness that fanatical Islam is spreading over the world or fight it and destroy it. Fighting it is fairly easy; all it requires is moral courage, the only thing that the West and America lack. All rational individuals should advocate loudly and without apology for the glory of the West and the things it stands for: liberty, secularism, affluence and individualism, to name a few. Then we should seek to globalize those values through “cultural imperialism.”
On top of doing that, we must call on Western governments, especially America’s, to militarily demoralize Islam, starting with completely smashing the Iranian theocracy which is the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism and militant Islam, and a very serious threat to the safety of America. Other Islamo-fascist states should then receive the ultimatum either to stop sponsoring the West-hating or be destroyed.
All newspapers should reprint the Danish cartoons as a show of solidarity with the Danes, and more importantly, as a message to the Islamist: “We will not be intimidated.” Then Western intellectuals and militaries should fight Islamo-fascism on every point and without mercy.
Point-Counterpoint: Danish political cartoons
