perfidy

Krauthammer on the cartoon rioting:

What passes for moderation in the Islamic community -- "I share your rage but don't torch that embassy" -- is nothing of the sort. It is simply a cynical way to endorse the goals of the mob without endorsing its means. It is fraudulent because, while pretending to uphold the principle of religious sensitivity, it is interested only in this instance of religious insensitivity.

Have any of these "moderates" ever protested the grotesque caricatures of Christians and, most especially, Jews that are broadcast throughout the Middle East on a daily basis?

... A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths. Those who don't are not moderates but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.

I would have to agree, here. It is not the place of Muslims, anywhere, to determine through prior censorship (whether official or based on fears of violent retribution) what newspapers (or TV, or blogs, or magazines) publish. I remain amazed at the violence that convulses the Muslim "community" whenever something pisses it off. Which is frequent. Thirty five or more people dead, embassies burned, innocent Danish businesses harmed - all because, essentially, 1.6 billion people collectively can't take a joke.

This will go on, protests and riots, attacks on the west, people like Theo van Gogh stabbed to death, because the Islamic world has a hair trigger temper and is not merely easily offended but actively looking for things to be offended by. What will change these attitudes? It is not reassuring to consider that ending pervasive religious intolerance took several of the vilest and bloodiest wars in western history.