| Saturday, February 4, 2006 |
13:16 - TImothy who?
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In trying to answer what is undeniably one of the key questions facing us in the modern age, namely whether Islam is fundamentally at the heart of all the unrest and terrorism in recent years (or whether it's just individual people calling themselves Muslims who are going nuts)—there's an argument that keeps coming up that I just don't understand. It's the Timothy McVeigh argument. Namely: "Well, McVeigh was a Christian. Are you going to blame Christianity for what he did?"
This argument makes no sense to me. I would hope it's obvious why. But just in case:
Did McVeigh leave some manifesto claiming that Almighty God had commanded him to strike at the heart of the evil federal government?
If so, then there would be one nutball case of terrorism that could ostensibly be blamed on the guy's religion. But then: find me any other Christians who would have applauded what he did. (And Democrat and Al Gore crony Fred Phelps doesn't count.)
What would (or did) the Pope have to say about the Murrah bombing? Did he cheer it? Or did he condemn it?
Contrast that with the weekly calls for genocide emanating from the imams of the largest mosques in Riyadh, Damascus, Cairo, and Mecca, which have become so commonplace (and so tame compared to other stuff that's going on lately) that they haven't even made it onto LGF's radar in a while.
Instead of widespread horror at 9/11 being committed in Islam's name, we have this.
And now they're burning embassies. Over cartoons.
And while it might be only "a tiny minority of extremists" who agree with such sentiments and actions, they're numerous enough to form sign-and-pitchfork-waving mobs from Gaza to London. We're talking about millions and millions of people who, if they don't directly support terrorism, at least sympathize with it. Leaving one to wonder whether people like this represent a silent majority of Muslims (intimidated into silence by the sign-wavers)... or if there are really fewer of them than one would hope. Meanwhile, simple headcounts of the participants in the mobs (who are now apparently burning Danish cheese) speak for themselves.
If you can pin Christianity on Timothy McVeigh, then you can certainly pin Islam on these guys. But if you agree that McVeigh and his religion are separable elements—that Christianity didn't direct him to do what he did any more than Asatru told Hitler to do what he did—you still have to confront that pesky fact that these great crowds of people with all the curiously similarly-lettered signs think they're acting as directed by Islam. Who's going to tell them different?
To me, as someone without any religion and who cherishes our modern secular society and the right to blaspheme, it's rather an academic question whether these people burning embassies and decrying freedom of speech and our cherished right to blasphemy are "true" Muslims or only fake ones following a false vision. It's their actions that count, and it's those actions that need to change. Whatever needs to be done to change these actions needs to happen before Islam can be seen as free from these dangerous, belligerent impulses that are rapidly leading toward a civil war in Europe; and I'm caring less and less what those necessary steps are, especially because I'm not equipped to tell what makes a "true" Muslim and what makes a "fake" one.
But there are people out there who really ought to care about the distinction, and who need to purge their own religion of the terrorist element, rather than demanding that the rest of us "understand" it better, or washing their hands of those whom they deem apostates.
Our culture likes to make fun of religious figures. It's what we do. Either our culture will be the way of the future, or the culture where blasphemy is punishable by death. I am in favor of the latter culture becoming more tolerant of the former, not the other way around.
So: maybe Islam itself really does have nothing to do with these protests, or with 9/11, or with pandemic anti-Semitism, and so on. But these guys in the sign-waving mobs are all behaving as though Islam dictates them all. Just ask them and they'll tell you. So do we take them at their word or what?
I hope we can figure out the answer before the war starts. Islam's future depends on it, and all true Muslims ought to realize how high the stakes are and act accordingly.
I'm not talking about these guys. I hope.
UPDATE: Forget all this stuttering crap above. This is what I was trying to say.
UPDATE: Awesome. Now let's see if we can't do something about all those highly-placed religious leaders who disagree with this.
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Brian Tiemann
