I wonder how it is that those who are not afraid to burn a Koran are considered Islamophobic by those who are afraid of what Muslims will do if a Koran is burned. How is it that the latter -- who do live in abject fear -- are considered tolerant, inclusive, and courageous, while the former, who are not enslaved to fear, are described as exclusive, and exclusively phobic?
What a sad world we live in; what a sad country in which we dwell, when the President of the United States, succumbing to religious anxiety, asks a man not to burn a book for fear that such an act will harm "our troops." Since when have the American people, particularly just one of them, been called on to protect soldiers -- soldiers trained to the teeth to defend themselves -- by not doing something within the allegedly safe borders of a free America? Aren't our soldiers fighting abroad to protect Americans' right to speak freely -- and even burn a book?
The President of the United States, and many folks like him, take umbrage at the rumor -- the mere rumor -- that a man might burn a book. And then, as Muslims riot overseas and kill people in protest of that rumor -- a mere rumor -- the President of the United States, and many folks like him, say nothing.
Who are the Islamophobes?
Sadly, no one seems to care. So be it.
4 comments:
I'm continually amazed at the concern for the sensibilities of those who are offended by our concept of free speech, to the point where the freedom to speak, even if exercised in spite, is sacrificed to such sensibilities.
Yet, of course, when an "artist" combines a Christian icon with bodily wastes, s/he is guaranteed an invitation to the finest salons of New York or Los Angeles, and those who express chagrin at the work of art and refuse to embrace it or celebrate it are deemed to intolerant cretins.
It takes a very strange sort of psychosis to be able to do that.
Cheers.
RS.
Indeed, the urine-soaked crucifix is apropos. But do you think we'll ever hear that artists, or even certain Muslims, are Christophobic?
No, we shan't, and this despite the undeniable fact that billions of people are Christophobic.
You're right on target here, BG.
I don't know which is more shocking: how easy it is to shoot the fish in the little "Islamaphobia" barrel, or how big the proponents of the Islamophobia meme think the sea is inside that little container.
Public burning of a Koran is, morally, no more than an adolescent stunt. The president's actions, on the other hand, are disturbing. Self-censoring to protect ourselves from our enemies is not prudence; it's abject cowering. That our commander-in-chief and a few of his high-level subordinates would suggest such a course of action would be inconceivable if it had not actually happened. The American people are waking up to what a disaster our current C-i-C is. I pray that by 2012 we don't allow the pendulum to swing so far in the other direction that we elect a belligerent strongman. Oh, how badly our dear country needs a true adult in the Oval Office.
Peace.
It is very telling that the burning of the Koran is met with such outrage while the proposed architectural rendering for the Ground Zero Mosque is celebrated.
If the mosque is constructed, as rendered, the cold and calculated symbolism embodied in that design, will be nothing short of a flag of victory piercing the heart of a once great nation.
It seems that the Obama administration, counter to what is commonly understood, has no problem violating the establishment clause of the 1st amendment as long as the religion being established isn't Christian.
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