Nancy

All you had to do was ask, abaya.

Did you know that a children’s book started this mess? Of course it’s not an ordinary children’s book. The book is entitled “The Koran and the life of the Phophet Muhammed”.

The author of this book, Kåre Bluitgen, caused havoc all the way to the Middleeast when he mentioned last summer that he was nearly done with the book but had had unforeseen difficulties finding someone who dared create what Bluitgen needed; namely a drawing of Muhammed - among others. A fair request considering that it’s for a book directed at children.

But no. The author learned to his cost that it was not possible to get an illustrator in Denmark to make a drawing of Muhammed to a children’s book. The reason is, of course, that it’s forbidden to depict the prophet and that some Imams/Muslims who, with authority and threats compel to speak on behalf of every single Muslim, take this ban extremely serious.

In my opinion this is nothing but a medieval-like dogmatic which has kept millions of Muslims in a spiritual iron grip for too long. How they deal with that matter in the Muslim countries is one thing, but a whole other matter is how the Muslim Koran preachers tries to put their Koran bans over on us in Denmark.

Christianity has formally forbidden any depiction of God. But only a few hundred years after the introduction of Christianity there were huge discussions about the ban with conflicts between the Pope in Rome and others. Today one can enjoy Rafael’s 500-year-old painting in the Vatican where both Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God himself is depicted.

The collision that takes place in Denmark these days between us who are broad-minded, tolerant and democratic and the Muslim fundamentalist who refuse to put their holy book in a modern coherence and refuses to aknowlege our way of life and values is serious indeed.

But how on earth has this matter gone beyond a writer’s difficulties finding an illustrator to a children’s book to a massive attack on the Danish civic rights?! The way this matter has escalated is utterly ridiculous.

So yes, The Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, did ask 40 cartoonists to draw images of the prophet with the purpose of “examining whether people would succumb to self-censorship”. And the reason for this is due to Bluitgen’s difficulties finding an illustrator who dared depict Muhammed. The illustrators didn’t succumb to self-censorship but they did ask to remain anonymous - and after the murder of Dutch artist Van Gogh can you blame them? And that really annoys me; that modern, westerner people are dictated by fear of Islam/Muslims. If someone wants to draw Muhammed or critizise Islam then he’s free to do so. And that’s what the Muslims need to understand and accept. Freedom of speech comes first. And yes, some people will always feel stepped on because of that but we shouldn’t let that restrain us because the alternative is worse.

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I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy.
I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

stevie667

Well put Nancy.

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Nancy

Forgot to reply to that, sorry.
I think you're absolutely right, abaya. I'm glad that's not the case in Denmark though and that whenever the moderate Muslims do make a statement it is done in a civilized manner. We've only had two demonstrations here so far actually. One of them took place because the Muslims had heard rumous about Danes burning the Koran - a lie which Imams have made up in order to incite hostility towards Denmark.

The other one was a peace demonstration including both Danes and Danish Muslims.

__________________
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy.
I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

Charlatan

My eyes are open... what was I thinking? Let's just bomb them all... let's not even consider for a moment that we don't have a complete picture.

God forbid we should have any questions before we take decisive actions. All hail the might wisdom of Ustwo!

The bombing will commence in two minutes.

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Charlatan

Interestingly the Christian church not only went to war but also split into the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church over idolitry...

Perhaps what we are seeing is a similar struggle in Islam.

Does anyone think that one day we might talk of Islam the way we speak of Jews (i.e. reformist vs. orthodox) or the myriad ways in which Christianity is practiced?

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dlish

although i find you a voice a reason Nancy..couldnt help but pick up on your last line..

are not muslims in the Netherlands considered Danes also? and if so, then why the differentiation between the two?

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jwoody

A very wise man once said....

Can't remember his name though...

a tall fellow.. with glasses.

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n0nsensical

No, they're not Danes, but I think they might be Dutch. Tricky!!

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NCB

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NCB

And yet, you become simplisitc when you ignore the fact that the West also goes to bat in order to save Muslims (Somalia, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Indonesia).

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Charlatan

Wow. You really got me there...

__________________
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- Old Man Luedecke

roachboy

the creating of a division between members of the (white, christian--presumably) national community and muslims (including those who are citizens of the same nation-state, who are in every real way as much a part of the "national community" as anyone else) is a central effect of neofascist discourse.

that folk adopt it does not mean that they are themselves of that political position--it is simply a recapitulation of an ideology that has been knit into "common sense"---this is one way in which discourse operates, and shows why controlling a discourse is the strongest type of cultural power--folk think through rather than about it, more often than not.

footage of protests gets knit into other image-based assumptions about islam. the basis for this knitting is dispositional. those dispositions are socially structured. therefore most discourse about islam in the states and western europe is not about empirical islam, but about its image double. and why critiques of it need to be directed at the image-double.

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spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Hanxter

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Protests broke out all through the Middle East and Europe today as it was discovered that Mohammed was portrayed in a movie several years ago. This new revelation has led to bloodshed, buildings being burned to the ground, severe stone throwing, dumpster toppling, and the blowing up of many cars in the regions.

Several Western countries have advised their people to stay away from theater districts in particular...

Nancy

People from the Netherlands are called Dutch

People from Denmark are called Danes

A lot of foreigners mix up those two, heh

__________________
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy.
I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

clavus

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Nancy

Funny stuff, Clavus.. I especially like the surprising look on the Dane's face

__________________
I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. My nightly bloodlust has overflown into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy.
I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.

mrklixx

Maybe I should've replaced post #127 with a crudely drawn representation. Or maybe this illustrates perfectly that the messenger can effect people's view of the message.

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Aladdin Sane

This just in:
USTARZAI, Pakistan - A suicide bombing ripped through a Shiite procession Thursday in northwestern Pakistan, sparking riots during the Muslim sect's most important holiday. At least 22 people were killed and dozens injured, officials said.

The bomb targeted hundreds of people in a bazaar soon after they emerged from the main Shiite mosque in the town of Hangu, district police chief Ayub Khan said.

The Shiites responded by burning shops and cars while clashing with police in the town, located about 125 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad, Khan said. Army troops moved in to restore order and a curfew was imposed, he said.

Now you can return to your regularly scheduled discussion of the Religion of Peace.

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Charlatan

You seem very certain in your judgment... So maybe you'd care to share with us who did the bombing? Was it another Muslim faction? Was it some Hindu faction? Was it a Seikh faction? Was it... that's right. We don't know yet.

Are you so eager to fan the flames that you can't wait for more information?


(by the way, I really hope you used this same sort of rhetoric for Christianity when the Protestants and the Catholics were going at it for centuries... Isn't Christianity a religion of peace? If so, how could Christians blow up each other, let alone innocent by standers?)

__________________
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Charlatan

By the way, I heard him interviewed on CBC Radio last night and here is a quote from him as well.

Naser Khader is a member of the Danish Parliment, he is also a moderate Muslim:
Those who say they wonder where the moderate muslims are, just aren't looking in the right places.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Aladdin Sane

If the Mohammedans were not responsible for 99% of terrorism in today's world, then my assumption that they are responsible for today's bombing in Pakistan would be misplaced. When the perpetrators are discovered to be Danish Lutherans I will be the first to apologize for my "rush to judgment."

As this incident in Pakistan so clearly reveals, it is not a cartoon that has caused a growing disrespect for Islam and a growing distrust of Muslims. When innocent people are slaughtered in the name of Allah, where were the thousands of Muslim moderates and why didn't they pour into the streets of London and Beirut shouting with righteous anger at those who butchered in the name of their god? It is Muslims who have publicly beheaded other Muslims while screaming "God is great!" and then broadcasting the horrific images around the world. Does such brutality not rise to the level of offence as, say, a badly drawn cartoon? It is Muslims who have declared global jihad and made statements like "We do not fight you because we want you to give us something; we are fighting to eliminate you." I did not see Muslim rioters burning effigies of Sheikh Nasralla and Khalid Mishaal when commuters were incinerated in Madrid. Where were the moderates when van Gogh was executed on a street in Amsterdam?
I can remember one exception: when Al-Zawahri blew up the wedding party in the Jordanian hotel, thousands took to the streets of 'Amman.

As for the tired and twisted red herring defense of the Islamofascists by pointing to the misdeeds of others (Look! Egads, there go some Christians!), children use the same sort of excuse when they are caught being naughty. "But Jesus also kicked the dog! Why are you picking on me?" Grown-ups know that learning individual responsibility is for children a fundamental step toward adulthood; some adults even recognize a societal corollary and understand that individual responsibility is a sign of civilization. This point is lost on the apologists for the Muslim rioters who burn, murder, insult, and threaten when the day doesn't go the way they had expected.

The "root causes" argument has been floated in this thread as well: "They become terrorists because they are poor." This is armchair Marxism at its finest. As others have pointed out, many of the terrorists come from the middle and upper classes. The "Daddy was a thief, Momma was a whore" excuse didn't work for the accused at Nuremberg and it surely won't work for the Islamofascists today.

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roachboy

i have to edit this because it posted without my seeing that it had and then i lost the rest of it.

sorry,

but maybe it is for the best in terms of community relations.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

abaya

I am not sure why I am bothering to reply, since the discussion in this thread is going nowhere... oh well.

Let's review my posts. I did not say that "people become terrorists because of poverty." I said, "It is precisely because of the material conditions of both groups that any ideology of violence or looting becomes justifiable." The last two words are key. I am not implying that poverty determine violence 100%. In fact, I actually said this in a later post, but maybe you didn't see it: "Poverty does not determine behavior 100%, I certainly agree. But being black or brown or living in a ghetto does not a violent person make. Material conditions have a very strong impact on culture and social organization in particular" I am not an environmental determinist. Cultural materialism is not the same as determinism. There is not a 100% causal relationship here, but the correlation is pretty goddamn strong, I can tell you that. roachboy did an excellent job earlier of showing the incredibly complex reasons for why people MIGHT behave the way they do, including poverty, class, politics, etc. What it boils down to is that ideology, religious or otherwise, is at the BOTTOM of the list for causal explanations.

And you are right about the Marxism part; anyone who knows anything about materialist theory would recognize that. However, armchair I am not. I am a cultural anthropologist, and it's my actual, paid job to get out of my armchair/computer desk/whatever and go to other countries and cultures and conduct on-the-ground ethnography, trying to figure out both the etic and emic views to increase understanding. You can accuse me of drawing my theoretical underpinnings from Marx and I'll proudly stand up for that (most social scientists do), but please do not call me an armchair anything. Unless you've ever gone to the Middle East and asked people why they do what they do? Or even just asked some Middle Eastern friends here in the US? (Do you have any Middle Eastern friends?)

EDIT: roachboy beat me to it...

__________________
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for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Charlatan

Alladin, please show me one person here that has defended the rioters. Not a poster here is apologizing for them or defending them (their right to protest yes, the right to enact violent protest, no).

I know looking for "root causes" is difficult. Blind hatred is much easier. Carry on.


As for the alleged suicide bombing that killed (at present count) 31 and injured 50, it is believed to be part of an ongoing conflict between Shi'ite Muslims and Sunni Muslims. Of course, these sorts of conflicts should be condemned. Not only do I find any form of intolerance idiotic but resorting to violence to solve these sorts of conflict doubly so.

I do not point to Protestant vs. Catholic (hell, Catholic vs. Orthodox) to say, "well if they did it it must be OK" (I believe in that particular paragraph you both called me a child and an islamofacsist... a first!). I am simply pointing out, that in this case, Muslims do not corner the market on religious intolerance and interncine conflict.


What I am reacing to here is the immediate leap to condmenation and hatred that so many of our more "right leaning" members share. The ability to hate and condemn tens of millions of people over the actions of thousands is mind bogglingly short sighted.

__________________
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- Old Man Luedecke

smooth

damn, it's such a shame you would pull that from my posts (ustwo didn't leave any substance underpinning his assertion of that factoid, so you would just be banking on pure assertion if using his words to supports yours).

It's such a brutal mishandling of that factoid.

The point is, and why I was engaging roachboy in that regard, was to try and wrap his (and abaya's) statements around this factoid. That the middle class is and has been rapidly disolving and that at the forces of western capital blipping around the globe; that people who have things and then lose things--be it power or property--are the ones who feel the loss so acutely. This is just a taste of why it makes no sense, no sense whatsoever, to use the factoid that terrorist actors come predominantly from what we might understand as the middle class as a defense to the claim that they act in response to their material conditions.

To be clear: stating that middle class terrorists exist does not undermine the claim that terrorism and violent ideology has a breeding ground among the impoverished and marginalized

no, rather it is part of the evidence

making that claim and sitting back smugly resting on it without any knowledge of the context such a fact would emerge within is also evidence of someone who doesn't seem to know what the hell he or she is talking about...and then having to insult no less than three (3) people who derive their theoretical underpinnings from a scholar you have no idea how to understand...so you resort to calling us something we are not. 'armchair' scholars. When in fact all three of us, abaya (anthropologist), roachboy (sociologist), and myself (socio-legal ethnographer) actually go out and about in the world and engage with it in an attempt to understand the why's and how's. It's a sad shame, to me, that you wouldn't come to the table with such a agroup and let our experiences and knowledge inform your prattling.

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abaya

Well said, Smooth. Any other social scientists on the board? Hypothesis testing goes a looooong way towards getting the facts. We're not journalists, folks.

__________________
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for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran

Ustwo

Are we still blaming this on poverty and wealth?

Shit, then I'm no longer scared of the Islamists, but fucking terrified of the south and ceteral americans, they must be ready to kill us all in violent suicide attacks!

Oh wait...............

Blaming any of this on poverty is a simplistic at best. Saying poor people are easy to control would be true, but it requires a culture and mindset beyond poverty to embrace violence and intolerance at the level exhibited by todays Islamic nations.

In fact its quite assinine, but its the only explanation that works to the leftist mind.

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ObieX

Otter pope commands you to kill!

He would also like a fresh eel with clam sauce on the side.

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MexicanOnABike

I'll never understand how religion helps anyone in this world. i just saw all the protests in every country( on tv. ). it's sad how ppl waste their time.

Ustwo

I think I saw that on Iron Chef

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ubertuber

I think this is a faulty analogy Ustwo. There is a big difference in political climate between the Middle East and South America. You don't see many Saudi-style governments in Central America, do you?

I also think that you are mischaracterizing people's arguments when you write "saying poor people are easy to control"... That may be true, but terrorism would indicate that poor people are hard to control after a certain point is reached.

It sort of seems like you believe terrorists are just born assholes. I think there is more to it and poverty and repression (or some similar lack of opportunity) are exacerbating factors. I'd think conservatives would like this point of view since it would suggest that economic and political reform would provide a release to this pressure that currently vents through violence.

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Ustwo

No they are taught to be assholes. Taught by their clerics, taught by their schools, taught by their asshohle parents, taught by their asshole governments, and printed in their asshole press. Its the CULTURE that creates these violent assholes. Thats why this is so dangerous. This isn't the hungry fighting for bread and a fair deal in life, this is a culture who's ultimate world goal is a golbal islamic state. There is NO room for tolerance in their world view, and you accept your enemies only as long as you have to. It is a religion that has been spread by the sword in multiple invasions for the last 1500 years, and their mindset has not changed from that of 1500 years ago, if anything it has gotten far more hardlined.

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nezmot

Total asinine rubbish.

What I really find intolerable is that you simultaneously condemn and emulate their non-tolerant world view. That just doesn't make sense. Your logic doesn't stand up. Not to mention your history being factually incorrect. Not that it matters, since the points you make are rendered moot by their being mirrored in our own history and culture. If you're going to make a case against these folks, try making one that they couldn't turn around and use against us.

We're winning in the us vs them stakes. Totally hands down. They don't have a chance. But spouting this kind of crap gives them strength, and gives them a cause to fight for. That's dangerous.

Ace_O_Spades

I'm wading in very, very late... but I wanted to formulate my thoughts first.

Personally I find this whole thing very disturbing. I've been trying to follow this issue as much as I can, especially over the last few days. I've really been enjoying what Andrew Sullivan (www.andrewsullivan.com) has been writing, but at the same time I have been trying to stay open to opposing arguments.

This link provides a great perspective on the topic from that of a Muslim living in Canada. http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/616

I'm torn on this issue in a lot of ways. On one hand I can understand how some people MAY be offended by some of the cartoons, based on the arguments communicated in the above article. As individuals with our own independant values and morals, we all face images and expressions which we find offensive, so we must put ourselves in a position to empathise with prejudice directed toward the muslim religion.

I also agree with those who created these cartoons in the first place on some levels. As an artist, writer, or performer a person should have the freedom to produce anything as long as it has an honorable and just intention. Not that I necessarily agree with each cartoon, but I do agree with what they represent in regards to free speech.

I also believe anyone of rational thought cannot agree with the violent reactions to these offenses. Not that I am condemning or slandering muslims, as I am simply trying to illustrate the profound absurdity and hypocracy of the acts of violence.

The Islamic religion does not justify the criminal retaliations any more than it does terrorists acting in the name of "Allah" or infavorable depictions of the prophet Mohammed.

This is a specific concern to myself as these events are leading to increased prejudice toward muslims when these acts violate the credence of Islam and do not reflect muslim fundamentals, rather reflect that these people who are "acting in the name of Islam" are in fact just as offensive to muslims as the cartoons.

An interesting and applicable parallel to this situation is the depiction of Kanye West as Jesus Christ on the cover of Rolling Stone. Many christians find this illustration deeply offensive and condemn it as blasphemy. However, you do not seem the same violent revolt in the western world. I am not personally offended by the image, but I can sympathise with those who are.

As an extension of this, it bothers me that people attempt to exploit this peaceful reaction to the magazine cover as a jusitification for the superiority of Christianity and western societies. Most people neglect the fact that Christianity and Islam have many similarities, some particular to the same idea of a God or creator.

These people also neglect the cultural tension that exists in the area as contributing factors to the conflict.

This brings me right into my next issue. Danish papers publish cartoons that offend muslims; Muslims burn everything that even smells Danish. Ok. Danes don't back down on principles. Ok. Iranian government plans Holocaust cartoons and release further anti-semitic ideas to support their anti-Israeli platform... What the Fuck????

Where the hell do the jewish fit into this?!?!?!?!?

This is the greatest hypocracy of all. A government which supports Islam as the official religion of Iran openly preaches and encourages such violent displays of hatred and anti-semitism, further claiming the Holocaust as a myth or severe exaggeration.

It truly bothers me when these types of events are strongly influenced by ignorance and intolerance. All of which stemming from a lack of education on these competing cultures and religions as a result of preliminary judgementation.

It frustrates me so much that not only has this cartoon created a conflict, but it seems to be a spark similar to the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 as the consequences of the action far outweigh the typical reaction. Hopefully our current actions do not escalate to another world war...

This all seems to be a recipe for disaster.

-mix 2 competing cultures in one pot
-boil over high temperatures for 1-3 thousand years
-add 1 anti-semitic dictator
-stir in one tablespoon of an offensive depiction of Mohammed
-add 2 burnt Danish flags
-toss in 3 innocent victims
-simmer over high tension for 1-2 years or until it explodes.

Finally, serve over a bed of oil and wait for the United States to show.

Carpe Diem.

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Feh.

ckb1978

The Muslim community should be outraged by the response to this cartoon. An editorial cartoon in a newspaper is no reason to kill people. People have to understand that everyone is not going to agree with you. Just because someone has been born into or chosen a different belief structure does not mark them for death. Those who may believe that it does should be removed from socitey.

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ckb1978

Thought I would re-post this from a Blog that I read daily,


A little background. Muslims are outraged over editorial cartoons depicting Mohammed, particularly in countries like Denmark with significant Muslim populations.

Boortz had this to say:


Muslim outrage huh. OK ... let's do a little historical review. Just some lowlights:


Muslims fly commercial airliners into buildings in New York City. No Muslim outrage.

Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt. No Muslim outrage.

A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back. No Muslim outrage.

Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali. No Muslim outrage.

Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world. No Muslim outrage.

Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge. No Muslim outrage.

Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Muslims are outraged.

Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.

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He Who Laughs Last Thinks the Slowest!!!

Ace_O_Spades

You're a rookie, so I'll forgive you for not reading the massive thread. That exact post was made on page 1 I think by Clavus?

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Feh.

clavus

Ace has it right.

Bad enough I posted somebody else's thoughts. Now it's been repeated. I feel dirty.

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Aladdin Sane

Whereas I have only a few lowly graduate hours beyond a BA in Political Science from an unremarkable and relatively unknown southern state university; whereas I stand happily among the unwashed masses who sometimes forget our places and dare engage in a spoken exchange of thoughts, converse if you will, with the Most High Priests and Priest-ettes of the Academy, I will now yield to the more erudite (and non-armchair anything) among us. It is in this esprit de corps that I present to you the most Honored Professor Victor Davis Hanson, with whom I am often of the same mind concerning questions historical, social, and political. Following Dr. Hanson's vita you will find his most recent musings on the cartoon kerfuffle.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a Professor Emeritus at California University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.
Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992-93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991-92), a recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for opinion journalism (2002), and an Alexander Onassis Fellow (2001) and was named alumnus of the year of the University of California, Santa Cruz (2002). He was also the visiting Shifrin Chair of Military History at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (2002-3).

Hanson is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, scholarly papers, and newspaper editorials on matters ranging from Greek, agrarian and military history to foreign affairs, domestic politics, and contemporary culture. He has written or edited 16 books, including Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece (1983; paperback ed. University of California Press, 1998); The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf, 1989; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Hoplites: The Ancient Greek Battle Experience (Routledge, 1991; paperback ed. 1992); The Other Greeks: The Family Farm and the Agrarian Roots of Western Civilization (Free Press, 1995; 2d paperback ed. University of California Press, 2000); Fields without Dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea (Free Press, 1996; paperback ed. Touchstone, 1997); The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer (Free Press, 2000); The Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Cassell, 1999; paperback ed., 2001); The Soul of Battle (Free Press, 1999, paperback ed. Anchor/ Vintage, 2000); Carnage and Culture (Doubleday, 2001; Anchor/Vintage, 2002); An Autumn of War (Anchor/Vintage, 2002); Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (Encounter, 2003), Ripples of Battle (Doubleday 2003), and Between War and Peace (Random House 2004).

And now, the article:

February 10, 2006, 9:20 a.m.
Losing Civilization
Are we going to tolerate the downfall of Western ideals?

The great wealth and leisure created by modern technology have confused some in the modern age into thinking that history is linear. We expect that each generation will inevitably improve upon the last, as if we, the blessed of the 21st century, would never chase out Anaxagoras or execute Socrates — or allow others to do so — in our modern polis.

Often such material and moral advancement proves true — look at the status of brain surgery now and 100 years ago, or the notion of equality under the law in 1860 and in 2006.

But just as often civilization can regress. Indeed, it can be nearly lost in a generation, especially so now, with technology acting as an afterburner of sorts which warps the rate of change, both good and bad.

Who would have thought, after the Enlightenment and the advance of humanism, that a 20th-century Holocaust would redefine the 500-year-old Inquisition as minor in comparison?

Did we envision that, little more than 60 years after Dachau, a head-of-state would boast openly about wiping out the remaining Jews? Or did we ever believe in the time of the United Nations and religious tolerance that radical Muslims would still be seriously promising to undo the Reconquista of the 15th century?

Did any sane observer dream, in the era of UNESCO and sophisticated global cultural heritage preservation, that the primitive Taliban would blow up and destroy, with impunity, the iconic Buddhist statues chiseled into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan that had survived 1,700 years of war, earthquakes, conquests, and weather?
Surely those who damned the inadvertent laxity of the Americans in not stopping others from looting the Baghdad museum should have expressed far greater outrage at the far greater, and intentional, destruction inflicted by the Taliban. Unless, that is, the issue of artistic freedom and preservation was never really the principle after all, but only the realistic calculation that, while George Bush's immensely powerful military would not touch a finger of its loudest critic, a motley bunch of radical Islamic fascists might well blow someone up or lop off his head for a tasteless caricature in far off Denmark.

The latest Islamic outrage over the Danish cartoons represents an erosion in the very notion of Western tolerance. Years ago, the death sentence handed down to Salman Rushdie was the dead canary in the mine. It should have warned us that the Western idea of free and unbridled expression, so difficultly won, can be so easily lost.

While listening to the obfuscations of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw about the Danish cartoons, I thought that next he was going to call for a bowdlerization of Dante's Inferno, where Dante and Virgil in the eighth rung of Hell gaze on the mutilated specters of Mahomet and his son Ali, along with the other Sowers of Discord. I grew up reading the text with the gruesome illustrations of Gustave Doré. Can Straw now damn that artist's judgment as well, when the next imam threatens global jihad, more terrorism, an oil cut-off, or to make things worse for Anglo-American troops who are trying to bring democracy to Iraq?

Surely he can apologize that the cross of the Union Jack offends British Muslims? Or perhaps the memory of what Lord Kitchener did in 1898 to the tomb of the Great Mahdi needs contemporary atonement — once one starts down the road of self-censorship, there is never an end to it.

Since Bill Clinton mentioned nothing about free speech and expression or the rights of a newspaper to be offensive and tasteless, but lectured only about cultural insensitivity and the responsibility of the media not to be mean to Muslims, why did he stop with the Danish cartoonists? Surely someone who has apologized for everyone from General Sherman to the Shah could have lamented the work of every Western artist, from Rodin to Dali, who has rendered the Prophet in a bad light.

Like the appeasement of the 1930s, we are in the great age now of ethical retrenchment. So much has been lost even since 1960; then the very idea that a Dutch cartoonist whose work had offended radical Muslims would be in hiding for fear of his life would have been dismissed as fanciful.

Insidiously, the censorship only accelerates. It is dressed up in multicultural gobbledygook about hurtfulness and insensitivity, when the real issue is whether we in the West are going to be blown up or beheaded if we dare come out and support the right of an artist or newspaper to be occasionally crass.

In the post-Osama bin Laden and suicide-belt world of our own, we shudder at these fanatical riots, convincing ourselves that perhaps the Salman Rushdies, Theo Van Goghs, and Danish cartoonists of the world had it coming. All the while, we think to ourselves about the fact that we do not threaten to kill Muslims when they promulgate daily streams of hate and racism in sermons and papers, and much less would we go about promising death to the creator of "Piss Christ" or the Da Vinci Code. How ironic that we now find politically-correct Westerners — those who formerly claimed they would defend to the last the right of an Andres Serrano or Dan Brown to offend Christians — turning on the far milder artists who rile Muslims.

The radical Islamists are our generation's book burners who search for secular Galileos and Newtons. They are the new Nazi censors who sniff out anything favorable to the Jews. These fundamentalists are akin to the Soviet commissars who once decreed all art must serve political struggle — or else.

If we give in to these 8th-century clerics, shortly we will be living in an 8th century ourselves, where we may say, hear, and do nothing that might offend a fundamentalist Muslim — and, to assuage our treachery to freedom and liberalism, we'll always be equipped with the new rationale of multiculturalism and cultural equivalence which so poorly cloaks our abject fear.

There are three final considerations. First, millions of brave reformers in the Muslim world are trying each day to create a tolerant culture and a consensual society. What those in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Egypt want from us is not appeasement that emboldens the radicals in their midst, but patient, careful, and firm explanations that freedom is precious and worth the struggle — even though its use can sometimes bother us. Surely the lesson from Eastern Europe applies: the oppressed there did not appreciate the realpolitik and appeasement of many in the West, but most often preferred a stalwart Reagan to an equivocating Carter.

Second, we, not the Islamists, are secure; our dependency on oil has masked a greater reality: that the Muslim Middle East, as in the days of the Ottomans, is parasitic on the West for advancements of all sorts, from heart surgery to computers. Most of the hatred expressed over the cartoons was beamed on television, through the Internet, or communicated over cell phones that would not exist in Pakistan, Syria, or Iran without imported technology.

The Islamists are also sad bullies, who hunt out causes for offense in the most obscure places, but would recoil at the first sign of Western defiance. Turkey may say little to the Islamists now, but they would say lots if the European Union decided to pass on its inclusion into the union. Local imams sound fiery, but if the West is too debauched a place for any pure Muslim to endure, why then do they not lead, Moses-like, an exodus of the devout away from the rising flood of decadence, and back to the paradise of a purer Syria or Algeria?

Third, the bogus notion of multiculturalism has blinded us to a simple truth: we in the West can live according to our own values and should not allow those radicals who embrace or condone polygamy, gender apartheid, religious intolerance, political autocracy, homosexual persecution, honor killings, female circumcision, and a host of other unmentionables to threaten our citizens within our own countries.

The deluded here might believe that the divide is a moral one, between a supposedly decadent secular West and a pious Middle East, rather than an existential one that is fueled by envy, jealousy, self-pity, and victimization. But to believe the cartoons represent the genuine anguish of an aggrieved puritanical society tainted by Western decadence, one would have to ignore that Turkey is the global nexus for the sex-slave market, that Afghanistan is the world's opium farm, that the Saudi Royals have redefined casino junketeering, and that the repository of Hitlerian imagery is in the West Bank and Iran.

The entire controversy over the cartoons is ludicrous, but often in history the trivial and ludicrous can wake a people up before the significant and tragic follow.

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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

raeanna74

I wish I could comprehend the reasons that they believed that an attack on the WTC, on the USA was warrented. What did they hope to accomplish in the end, besides raising our ire?

Did they think that the rest of the western world would not be somewhat offended and mock them? Honestly cartoons are somewhat a childish way of 'attacking' them but it is relatively harmless compared to the attack that sparked this situation in the first place.

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"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.