Freedom

"...in Europe this phenomenon is now called the Copenhagen Syndrome and that some of its arguments really are amazing.

For instance: "Freedom of speech is not absolute. It has to be in the service of something, like peace or social justice," a young British Muslim woman named Fareena Alam wrote in The (U.K.) Observer in mid-February.

While it's true that freedom of speech is not absolute - laws against libel and making violent threats are stronger in Britain than here - Alam has it exactly wrong. Free speech doesn't have to be in the service of anything but its own point of view. If it did, it wouldn't be free speech.

The attitude isn't only evident in women's defending the faith of their fathers. A couple of weeks ago, I spoke about media bias at USC a few days after the first cartoon riots had broken out. At the end, one woman in the audience stood - as so often happens at these events - to use the question-and-answer time to get up on a soapbox. She began by announcing that her father had been in five concentration camps, so she knows about the Holocaust. Then she segued into a long, rambling position statement about how little we understand the Muslim world."
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The problem is not how little we know of the moslem world, but how much we know of the moslem world.

Yes, there are peaceful moslems. Wonderful folks. Live and let live, types. I've worked with them, lived with them, admired their culture and their work ethic. Was invited to more than one wedding, went to more than one funeral. Drove a man and his wife to a brokendown, ramshackle hospital in the middle of nowhere during a monsoon you wouldn't believe. She was expecting, the baby decided to come early, and I'd have given my own life to assure that she and her child had the best medical care we could find. That's what friends do, that's what civilization is all about. Then one day this man was ordered to kill an infidel and he helped murder a Brit I was working with.

Just like that. He didn't want to. Cried like a baby afterward. But he was moslem and at the end of the day he did what he thought was the right thing.

Certain cultures simply have no idea what freedom is. It has been this way for centuries. The absolute fact of the matter is, learning more about militant Islam is not something any sane person would ever want to do. Compared to these guys, the Spanish Inquisition was a tea party.

We all know what they say about wild animals, right? How you can never tame, really tame a wild animal, and no matter how much we love them or trust them, someday they'll respond true to form and turn on you.

People can be wild animals just as easily as a pet leopard can. Anyone who doesn't know this is not someone you want to take advice from. People, and especially those being prodded by a fanatic religion, can and will kill you without the slightest bit of provocation. You are who you are, and they need to destroy what you stand for so you're dead.

Just like that. No preamble. No negotiation. Bye-bye. THAT is what the loons of the world really need to understand, or they're doomed. Well, not necessarily, because we'll probably come save their stupid asses, wherever they might be, if and when the shit hits the fan.

Turn your back on the lion, and if the lion suddenly feels like being a lion, see-ya. You can "understand" all there is to know about wild beasts, but it ain't gonna help you if you get too close because you falsely believed that some magical bonding went down and the lion had suddenly joined the lambs union.

Freedom. Europe, the homes to kings and queens, the land of castles and moats, hasn't clue-one about freedom. And free-speech, to a European, means it's free as long as it doesn't offend someone. It's no wonder they're having a hard time with all of this militant Islam business. Chances are, they'll bow so deeply...they love bowing and scraping, don't ya know...that one day it'll be all over for them. Their freedom will be long gone, but hey, they didn't offend anyone so it was worth it. Then more American young men will go and die to get them out of the latest corner thay painted themselves into, and for a while everything will be peaches and cream.

History. What a concept.