WEBCommentary(tm) - The Death Knell Of Freedom

When Denmark was facing massive protests over those cartoons, not one American official stood up for freedom of expression, a bedrock principle of our government. Piss Christ good. Mohammed caricatures bad... Political correctness run amok. Americans have a responsibility to uphold freedom of expression around the world, even when offensive. If the United States no longer defends the principles of our own Constitution, how can we expect anyone else to believe that democracy is worth fighting for?

“To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...”.*

They say that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes; that time itself is compressed. The first to go is your ability to communicate. As the march of death continues onward, your body's organs and systems begin to shut down. The last thing to go is your hearing.

Recent events have shown that indeed the bells are tolling - announcing the slow death of freedom itself. Our ability to communicate has ceased, the first step of the long march toward death.

It began with the fatwa against Salman Rushdie for the Satanic Verses. Next came the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo VanGogh by an adherent of Islam. More recently were the Muslim riots over innocuous Danish cartoons that lasted for weeks.

The campaign of victimization continued with the Pope's September 2006 comments. He cited an obscure dialogue between a Byzantine Emperor and a Persian in 1391 from a lecture by Theologian Adel Theodore Khoury, in an attempt to promote a peaceful discussion about Islam and Christianity.

Many Muslims took the speech out of context. Hundreds rampaged, burned cars and buildings, protested, and threatened Christians. Still angry because Pope failed to offer up a sincere enough apology, an adherent of Islam shot a nun in the back. Rioters engaged in all manner of threats and property destruction at the mere suggestion that elements of the Islamic faith could be violent. How ironic.

As the Pope visits Turkey, he is facing threats and massive protests. Ponder this for a moment: Just paraphrasing a conversation over 600 years old that is even vaguely negative about Islam can now get you killed, or at the very least, threatened with death.

Absurd is the notion that the leaders of Islam --the world's largest religion-- claim their beliefs are being prostituted by a small group of “radicals”.

When the “radicals” cite the Koran as their justification in beheading people for acts of “blasphemy”, not a single Muslim “leader” anywhere on the planet will step forward to disavow the violence.

Religions persecuted people in the name of God as a matter of course in the Middle Ages. We also thought that bloodletting exorcised demons, the Earth was flat, and that it was the center of the Universe. When people like Galileo challenged these beliefs, they were threatened with death.

But Christianity came out of the darkness long ago, underwent much soul-searching, and eventually did away with coercion and violence in spreading it's message. Islam must now unequivocally denounce the beliefs of Bin Laden and militant Islam worldwide --without exception-- in order to fully emerge from that darkness.

The war we have been dragged into is not a Holy War. It is not World War III. It is not Jihad against the Great Satan. It is certainly not a war for oil or civilization. It is a schism within Islam. It is a battle between peaceful Muslims, and those who lust for blood and conquest.

Victory over global terror rests not in what America does in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even Palestine, but whether or not Muslims will ever engage in even a minimal degree of introspection about their own faith.

They are constantly accusing the West of insulting and blaspheming their religion, yet just today Bin Laden portrayed the Pope's visit to Turkey as a “Christian Crusader" campaign. There was not one peep from a Muslim anywhere on the planet, much less from Turkey, who invited the Pontiff. The entire Muslim world cannot even collectively agree that Israel has a right to exist. When will Muslims respect the religion of others?

We can poke them and prod them. We can use the carrot, we can use the stick. We can threaten them with invasion, sanctions, blockades, and military strikes; but unless the issue of Islamic reform is debated openly - in an academic, religious, contemporary context without people's throats being slit, the jihad will rage on.

When Denmark was facing protests over those cartoons, not one American official stood up for freedom of expression, a bedrock principle of our government. Piss Christ good... Mohammed caricatures bad... Political correctness run amok.

Americans have a responsibility to uphold freedom of expression around the world, even when offensive. If the United States no longer defends the principles of our own Constitution, how can we expect anyone else to believe that democracy is worth fighting for?

* Controversy VII, 3 b–c: Khoury, pp. 144-145; Förstel vol. I, VII. Dialog 1.6, pp. 240-243.

Jayme Evans is a veteran of the United States Navy, a military analyst, conservative opinion columnist, and an advocate for disabled and other veterans. He has served for many years as a Subject Matter Expert specializing in the testing of systems software for numerous major US organizations. He has extensively studied amateur astronomy and metallurgy, as well as military and US history. His brutally honest, in-your-face political commentary has been published in many west coast newspapers, and he is a regular contributing columnist to a multitude of internet sites, including WebCommentary.com, The Conservative Voice, and Conservative Crusader. Mr. Evans has also written guest editorials for Military Magazine, and he has been a frequent guest columnist on WorldNetDaily, writing about legislative and veteran's issues.