Soccer Dad

Blogging so i don't have to

Mere Rhetoric cites the Redeker case (mentioned in this month's Commentary) and observes wryly

Were it not for the fact that Iran is going to take the honor first, France would be well on its way to becoming the first Muslim theocracy with the bomb

I did a quick search of both the NY Times and Washington Post databases going back a year (it occurred in September, 2006). There was precisely one mention of Redeker, in the NY Times, on September 30th.

Teacher in Hiding After Attack on Islam Stirs Threats
A French high school philosophy teacher and author who carried out a scathing attack against the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in a newspaper commentary says he has gone into hiding under police protection after receiving a series of death threats, including one disseminated on an online radical Islamist forum.

The teacher, Robert Redeker, 52, wrote in the center-right daily Le Figaro 10 days ago that Muhammad was "a merciless warlord, a looter, a mass-murderer of Jews and a polygamist," and called the Koran "a book of incredible violence."

The Redeker case is the latest manifestation in Europe of a mounting ideological battle that pits those who believe Islam and the Prophet Muhammad can be criticized in the name of free speech against those in the Muslim community who believe no criticism can be tolerated.

Apparently the careless words of a Senate candidate were more worthy of mention than the continued trend of critics of Islam having to hide, even in the West.

Shortly after the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie Daniel Pipes wrote.

Similarly, never before has there been a human rights case that crossed boundaries in this fashion. "Other despots have banned books and outlawed thoughts," observed Hendrik Hertzberg. "What is unique and unprecedented about Khomeini is the global ambition, and the threatened global reach, of his censorship-by-threat. He has created the first planetary civil liberties case. This is his distinctive contribution to the history of tyranny." And the West's reaction, when confronted by the first planetary civil liberties case, was to back down as far as it legally could.

A decade and a half later "censorship by threat" followed by retreat continues to mark the struggle of Islam against the West.

I had some thoughts of responding to Brent Scowcroft's Getting the Middle East Back on Our Side, however Daled Amos did the work quoting Dean Barnett and James Taranto. He leaves us with this priceless quote from Taranto:

What do you call someone who describes this as "50 years of peace"? A "realist."

Colossus of Rhodey called my attention to an oddly offensive quote by former General Wesley Clark. I had initially not thought to write about it because Clark's (birth) father was Jewish and he seemed proud of having a Jewish heritage. But the more I read, the harder it is to excuse his remarks. Forunately Maryland Conservatarian didn't let it pass and gives the ex-general a good strong fisking for an op-ed he wrote for the Washington Post. And wouldn't you know it? He quotes James Taranto too! (Taranto has another go-round with Clark today.)

So thanks guys. I didn't have to blog about those subject, you did all the work.

Blogdigger tags: Robert Redeker, Brent Scowcroft, Wesley Clark.