Autocensorship at Gunpoint
Foshan, Guagndong Province, China, September 21, 2012
Salaroche

The Arab-Muslim world is in a seriously challenging situation of late. Their religious pride these days resides not in the compelling strength of the premises of their faith (did it ever?) but on their willingness to destroy and kill anything or anyone who dares to poke fun at their misguided religious sensitivities.

Hardcore Tea Party fanatics of the extreme kind should take a hard look at the events of the past few days in Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, etc., for some in their rank may well be merely a short step away from embracing such kind of pseudo-religious lunacy. Extremism of any kind only brings misery to the world, but don't expect anyone inebriated in religious self-righteousness to spend the shortest amount of time reflecting on that.

The question is, why does extreme religious fanaticism manifest itself mostly on the destructive side of the equation these days? How come we don't  see too many Muslim people taking to the streets to protest against senseless faith-motivated violence?

How come we only see influential Muslims like Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah calling for destruction and murder, but we don't see any other Muslim leaders loudly condemning any pointless acts committed in the name of Islam?

The answer to those questions can only be dual: Either the majority of Muslims is of the same mind as the extreme fanatics in their midst, or they're afraid to death of what might happen to them and their families if they confront the extremists.

In the meantime, the West is increasingly held hostage to its own principles of tolerance and human rights and appears to keep relinquishing the hard-earned principles of its civilization to some small bands of extremist religious thugs who seem hell-bent on getting the West to surrender to their intolerant lunacy.

Are we increasingly led to believe that the West is already at war with Islam? Maybe. But how long and how much will the West have to stand before demanding in a forceful, irresistible manner that the Muslim world tame the ultra-irrational members of their communities... or else?

A nutty, low-quality, maliciously-rigged film made by shady characters is released in the US media and the Muslim masses blame the US government for it. Then they retaliate against the US Diplomatic Corps abroad. A US Ambassador is killed in Libya at the hands of some local religious thugs and the Libyan government is let go scot free by the US People and Government.

There's an obvious contrast between both cases. Muslims react to any perceived attack on their values with lack of reflection and judgment, that is, with sheer fanaticism. The Western World reacts to any attack on its values with knowledge of the variety of elements that populate Muslim Society, namely the extremists in their midst.

There's a clear asymmetry of rationality between the two sides. There can be no clear understanding between two parties when one of the parties involved doesn't know how to think logically. The extreme elements in the Muslim World, which are the elements presently holding the upper hand among them, only seem to know the language of violence as means to present their arguments.

Nobody in their right mind would want to have a full, head-on confrontation between the two civilizations. The question is, how much will both sides be willing to give in, in order to avoid such confrontation? In the view of many westerners, the west has already given enough carrots to the Muslim world in the name of cultural and religious diversity; just look at the size of the Muslim populations residing in Europe and in America.

But, what signs of appreciation has the Muslim world shown thus far to the West? Mainly demands, demands, and more demands. They ask the West to tolerate their basic ways, their oppression of women for example, but they aren't willing to tolerate basic Western ways, free speech for example.

In the meantime, protests continue as I write in Pakistan, where the government has declared a "day of love for the Prophet". I really don't think a prophet of Muhammad's relevance would be happy knowing that his teachings have come to constitute part of the most intolerant and murderous religious doctrine of the twenty first century.

How weak can a great number of Muslims be, intellectually and emotionally, to believe that the only way to keep their faith alive is by intimidating the rest of the world through the threat of collective murder? And for how long will the West accept such intimidation before retaliating with some of the overwhelmingly destructive military superiority it holds over the Muslim world?

Remember August 6th and August 9th, 1945? Will the West have to resort to equal or similar means to quell the lunacy that keeps growing at a massive level in the Muslim world? Or will the West continue to watch the erosion of its hard-earned principles of civilization until it becomes just another Islamized area of the globe?

Nobody in this world has a crystal ball. Nobody can predict the future. Nobody knows what tomorrow may bring. But judging by the way things are going, the Muslim world keeps eroding the patience of the Western World, particularly that of the United States, and, sooner or later, there may come a day when just one single extra act of terrorism will break the camel's back and... well... may such day never come to pass.

To read a previous posting on the same subject, please click on the following link: http://www.salaroche.com/Commentaries/ToleranceAtGunpoint.html

Salaroche