The American Spectator

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Mockers of Religion

2.9.06 @ 12:01AM

CNN RIPPLES
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Woolsey-Eyed Democrats:

I write this on the birthday of my daughter who died while only 15 years of age. She would be 26 years old today.

Having just read your recent editorial in CNN.com "Peace zanies," I was most impressed by your comments on Cindy Sheehan. Apparently this woman strikes a nerve in you that demands substantial space in your writing. I am curious as to why this may be.

Perhaps you feel she threatens the war effort with the fact she lost a child and is asking questions that are too difficult (or too embarrassing) to answer. Perhaps you too have suffered the loss of one of your children and feel she is not handling her grief in a dignified manner. Maybe she is not showing enough pride in the fact her son gave the ultimate sacrifice for the Iraqi people's freedom.

This is all speculation, so to avoid any further guessing on my part, I wonder if you could take a few moments to answer a question or two.

Keeping in mind how grateful the Iraqi people seem to be with their new found freedom from Saddam Hussein and the American occupation of their country, how many of your children's lives would you sacrifice for democracy in the Middle East?

I have no idea how long you have spent in the service of your country, nor do I know how many men and women you know personally who have lost their lives, limbs or children in this gallant effort of our dear President. I just can not help but ask an educated and successful person like you to perhaps show a little sympathy for this women who dares to make us feel so uncomfortable by going public with her loss.

As the husband of a mother who has had her young child reach heaven first, I beg if you cannot find it in your heart to say something kind about this woman, perhaps it is you who needs to button up and quiet down.
-- Ben Phillips

SHRINKING FROM CRITICISM
Re: Patrick Hynes's The Politics of Religious Mockery:

Patrick Hynes's article, "The Politics of Religious Mockery," is a typical example of the "Christians peaceful -- Muslims violent" genre that has exploded since the start of the Cartoon Jihad. The thesis is a favorite one of conservative writers: Christians (and to a lesser extent Jews) suffer terrible mockery at the hands of secular liberals, but they respond with peaceful protests (letter writing campaigns, corporate boycotts, etc.), not with death threats, riots, and murder. See what better people we are?

The point of these articles is well-taken, of course. I would be the first person to agree that we are better people than the terrorists, the Taliban, and their supporters. But I think these articles entirely miss the bigger point, which is that while Westerners are busy congratulating themselves on what civilized, peaceful people we are, radical Islamists across the globe are spreading their propaganda, intimidating local populations, engaging in terrorist acts, and aggressively pursuing an agenda of political and cultural domination.

In the face of this barbarian onslaught, the Western nations, including the United States, seem largely unprepared to defend -- as opposed to extol -- our superior way of life. Instead, we describe Islam as a "religion of peace," we criticize those who "offend" Muslims, we allow massive immigration into our countries of hostile populations, we change our own customs to accommodate Islamic beliefs, and we extend all of our freedoms and toleration to people who march in our very cities threatening "another 9/11" or declaring that anyone who criticizes Islam should be "massacred."

I note that even Mr. Hynes felt it necessary in his article to object to the Muhammad cartoons as "in poor taste and needlessly provocative." I strongly disagree. If there is any group in the world that "needs" to be subjected to harsh criticism, it is the radical Islamists. But Mr. Hynes's words are quite telling. What we should not do, he says, is "provoke" them. And why not? He does not say, but the answer is clear: Because we are afraid of them, and we lack the courage to fight back. So if we do not provoke them, we might be able to avoid a confrontation. This strategy, while so obviously wrong and suicidal, is what happens when a person or a society becomes soft and cowardly. This has already happened to Europe, and I fear it is happening here.

I believe this is the real story behind the Cartoon Jihad. It has exposed the West as ultimately unwilling to defend its way of life against a frontal attack by the most barbaric elements in the world today. Perhaps this will change as the attacks grow even bolder and more deadly. All decent, freedom-loving people can only hope.
-- Steven M. Warshawsky
New York, New York

I believe that Patrick Hynes makes a fundamental error in today's TAS offering, "The Politics of Religious Mockery." The underlying assumption in Mr. Hynes's piece that Western religions and Islam are in any way comparable is dangerously incomplete. To contrast the reactions to mockery of "believers" on either side of the spectrum is to grant the fundamentalist version Islam a spiritual status that it has not earned and does not deserve in the current millennium.

Letter to the Editor

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