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| Europe |
| The Rage -- David Warren |
| 2006-02-05 |
| I shall be writing tomorrow specifically on the blasphemy business: the very different way in which some cartoons about the Prophet Mohammad, which first appeared in an obscure Danish newspaper, have been received, East and West. As the result of a bold but isolated publishing decision by the editors of Jyllands-Posten, no Danish national, and perhaps no European, is now safe in a Muslim country; and Danish and other products have ceased to be sold. As I write, the temperature is still rising. I notice Muslim demonstrations are still mostly in the planning stage, across Europe. In light of the recent French rioting, and the timid French response, I fear this may get out of hand. In the Arab world, protests are still confined to “the usual suspects” -- the several thousand who will always come out to provide a fresh “Muslim anger” segment for the international media. The violence in Gaza is also within the usual range, though the explicit targeting of the European Union offices portends something new. But we have yet to see how all this builds. My gut feeling -- albeit at a distance -- is that the “fire this time” is greater than previous apoplectic responses to e.g. the Satanic Verses, the Abu Ghraib prison photos, or the Newsweek reports from Guantanamo. Not that the provocation is greater. What we have instead is a wave that is building from lesser waves. Each new provocation, each new breakthrough event, such as the 9/11 hit, or the Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections, adds to the height of what is actually becoming a single wave. What should be apparent to every Western observer by now, is the ability of this wave, served by modern technology, including world television and Internet, to wash over national and regional boundaries in the Muslim world. Those boundaries were drawn by European Imperialists in the last two centuries, and have served as bulkheads or firewalls against just this sort of catastrophe. They were partly meant for that purpose, by a Europe that was once more vividly aware of the power an aroused Islam could exert -- on a once-Christian continent entirely surrounded by Islamic empires or sea, that several times came close to being completely overrun. It has become a cliché, or if it has not it should have, that Europe forgets, but Islam remembers. The popularity, and resonance, in the Arab world, of declarations from various “Islamists”, about recovering Andalusia and fighting the Crusaders, is not something we can dismiss as quaint. And those who have lost their religious convictions, are poorly placed to judge the power of religion over the power of nation or place. The European invention of nationalism was, to a large extent, a project to create bulwarks or firewalls within Europe itself, against the spread of what we had seen in the Thirty Years’ War. One might almost say it succeeded too well in taming religious fervour -- so that now Europe is defenceless against any fervour from outside. So much more to say on this, but let me cut to the chase. While I think President Bush’s doctrine of spreading democracy in the Middle East was worthy and intelligent, and while I think we must not give up on it, the doctrine remains inchoate. We have not yet answered the, “And then what?” Our enemy -- fanatical Islam -- has shown itself adaptable to Western military tactics. For instance, the development of a new species of booby-traps, or “IED”s in Iraq, as a low-cost way of randomly killing Iraqis and Americans alike, and thus sabotaging Iraq’s recovery, is a clever development from the too-costly methods of car bombs and “suicide-martyrs”. As the Pentagon keeps explaining, it is a mistake to think the other side is incapable of adjusting its tactics, as we adjust ours. That enemy is now adapting to the tactic of democracy. Even in Iraq, he takes up the challenge, to win elections instead of merely sabotaging them. And he sees a huge possibility in this: to link together disparate national Islamist movements into a pan-Islamic popular front -- that may itself eventually overwhelm the bulwarks and firewalls of European Imperialism. Like multiple hijacked airliners, a modern Western device can be put at the service of an ancient Islamic cause. The wave of which I spoke above may prove indistinguishable from this wave. What I fear may hit us in due course might be awkwardly called, “the new democratic pan-Islamism". |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #12 and I'm betting today is a day of attempt. TV's on. focus - Detroit. |
| Posted by: Hupomoger Clans9827 2006-02-05 13:14 |
| #11 Anon1, Think your final point is right on the money. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-02-05 12:49 |
| #10 This is a manufactured furfy from the radical Islamists. Clearly they are in need of more funding and more members. These cartoons were printed last October. Why did it take so long for the outrage? Why did all the outrage break out in one week? Who gave them all Danish flags to burn? Who gave them money for protest signs? Who organised them? This was planned. They could have seized on anything, there are other cartoons of mohammed about. Like the Jesus and Mo' strip, or Mohammed in the Super Best Friends episode of South Park. Poor old Denmark was just the patsy this time. Some radical Islamists want a whole lot of Muslims to seethe and get a whole lot more angry. Coupled with the Bin Laden tapes coming out in the last month it points I think to a major terror attack looming. Qaida could be trying to head off any sympathy for Western victims in the Muslim world to maximise culture war points after their next hit. It's gonna be a big one. |
| Posted by: anon1 2006-02-05 11:39 |
| #9 OK, Dan NY is from NY. Sorry I couldn't stay up late enough for your reply last night. Let's hope you're right. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-02-05 09:13 |
| #8 This is all about clarity. The muslims who are, in the words of Jimmy Cliff "hootin and a shootin and rootin and a lootin, lord your too bad", are giving the west a gift. I just visited a blog in the SF Chronicle and most of the posts there, except for a couple posted by muslims, were adamantly against muslim actions. This is in San Francisco! If the moon bats (aka folk marxists) come around to see that the muli-culti approach is crap with these people, then the muslims are really in for it. Hopefully, the sane among them will rise up and shut this idiotic shit down. I am not holding my breath as that segment of the population has neither the guns nor the money to make a difference. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2006-02-05 08:33 |
| #7 http://neo-neocon.blogspot.com/2005/04/hirsi-ali-intolerant-of-intolerance.html (sorry) |
| Posted by: SR-71 2006-02-05 08:27 |
| #6 Neoneocon discusses tolerating the intolerant. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2006-02-05 08:26 |
| #5 I hope this does continue to build and build. The issue is ridiculous and most people will see it as such. Politicians who pander to this nonsense like Jack Straw will get thrown out of office and the absurdity of multiculturalism as a feel good veneer over a self-enforced apartheid will become obvious. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-05 02:16 |
| #4 Aye, Frank, and they don't seem to care so fry 'em. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2006-02-05 02:09 |
| #3 DW downplays the capacity of the western world to smite Islam on the street and in the mosque. You wanna have Grandpa out yelling with his green turban and dull sword? Prepare for a willy-pete cremation. Bring the fireplace-tools shovel. Islam has no clue what they are asking for |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-05 01:30 |
| #2 Talk about "breakthrough events". Take the psychopathic "tip of the spear" - Iran - and give then nuclear weapons. Your "wave" will be a "mother of all tsunamis". I can connect the dots - from Munich '72, to Tehran '79 - and through all the outrages and atrocities since - and you better believe that I see a growing wave of destruction rising up over the civilized world as I think of it. It is time to put political correctness aside, to stop trying to be fair and tolerant, and respectful, and to simply start stomping on all the visible and vocal cockroaches - deport them, imprison them - make then assimilate, or leave non-Islamic lands. World governments in 2006 act so absurdly naiive - I can only imagine what the surviving western governments of 2030 will be saying, looking back on this decade. "What were they THINKING back then, to have allowed what was then a weak background pestilence to have grown into this murderous plague that we face today?" Who will be the first to "wake up"? |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2006-02-05 01:01 |
| #1 ... no Danish national, and perhaps no European, is now safe in a Muslim country As distinct from being safe at home? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-05 00:27 |