Cartoons and death threats: Respecting the disreputable

Aren't those Islamofascists a bunch of intolerant pains in the neck (almost literally in the example on the left)? Offend, and your head's on the block. Sheesh.

In the interests of free speech and equality, Xavier at Kete Were is trying to leave no religionist unoffended, of whatever stripe -- he's found a Baby Jesus Butt Plug. If that doesn't do the job for X-ians -- Ouch! -- then perhaps nothing will. As Xavier says in a piece far more thoughtful than you would think from my introduction of it:

The whole situation [...] has illustrated two disturbing trends. Firstly, the absolutely vile, violent and visceral reaction of Islamists to any commentary that questions, satirises, mocks and...shock horror...offends their religion. Even more worrying is the handwringing of supposed liberals and the spineless concessions to a paradigm that is alien to all things liberalism holds dear: pluralism, tolerance and freedom.

Dammit, he's right you know. That's precisely the point of the Cox and Forkum cartoon below. Limp liberals, handwringing in the face of barbarism. A few frankly inoffensive cartoons on one side, and a bloody fatwah on the other. Wishy washy liberals like Chris Carter, MP, calling local publication of the Danish cartoons "undermining the nation's reputation of tolerance." For freedom's sake, has he seen the placards of those bloodthirsty bastards in London (above)? As Robert Bidinotto says of the Islamofascists:

Observe that these thugs claim for themselves complete freedom of expression with regard to their adversaries -- including threatening their enemies with death -- but simultaneously deny anyone else the freedom to express an opinion contrary to Islam (or Islam as they conceive it to be). They issue their death threats freely in a Western city, London...while in that same city, the newspapers are too frightened to reprint the cartoons that fomented the protests. Could the irony -- and the hypocrisy -- be more transparent?

It is one thing to oppose those adolescent mentalities who try deliberately to give offense to others: those who would simply provoke hostility by mocking what others revere deserve our contempt. [Ed: whoops, there goes the buttplug then.]

But it is quite another thing to allow fanatical thugs to dictate the "proper" boundaries of political discussion and intellectual expression here, in the West -- and to unilaterally arrogate to themselves the sole right to enforce their dogmatic edicts by murdering anyone who disagrees.

As Glenn Reynolds puts it, "This really is a case of civilization against the barbarians." To allow radical Islamists to declare their religion and its founder off-limits from criticism -- even depiction -- is to surrender our entire way of life to a backward, barbaric, and brutal cult. Volumes have been written about this threat.

And will probably continue to be for some time yet. "We must respect the other fellow's religion," said HL Mencken, "but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." Respect works both ways, something the Islamofascists need to learn. Urgently. And here's something too that the liberal handwringers in the West need to learn urgently: when the bloody barbarians make threats, they mean it.

Links: Cartoons, Butt Plugs & Tolerance - Kete Were
Islam and Those "Offensive Cartoons - Robert Bidinotto
A Right to Blasphemy - Cox and Forkum

More from the Archives: Religion, Multiculturalism