It is a strange and bitter
coincidence that the latest eruption of violent Islamic indignation
takes place just as Salman Rushdie publishes his new book, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, about his life under the fatwa.
In 23 years not much has changed.
Islam’s rage reared its ugly head again last week. The American ambassador to the United States and three of his staff members were murdered by a raging mob in Benghazi, Libya, possibly under the cover of protests against a film mocking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/16/ayaan-hirsi-ali-on-the-islamists-final-stand.html
Islam’s rage reared its ugly head again last week. The American ambassador to the United States and three of his staff members were murdered by a raging mob in Benghazi, Libya, possibly under the cover of protests against a film mocking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
They were killed on the watch of
the democratic government they helped to install. This government was
either negligent or complicit in their murders. And that forces the U.S.
to confront a stark, unwelcome reality.
Until
recently, it was completely justifiable to feel sorry for the masses in
Libya because they suffered under the thumb of a cruel dictator. But
now they are no longer subjects; they are citizens. They have the
opportunity to elect a government and build a society of their choice.
Will they follow the lead of the Egyptian people and elect a government
that stands for ideals diametrically opposed to those upheld by the
United States? They might. But if they do, we should not consider them
stupid or infantile. We should recognize that they have made a free
choice—a choice to reject freedom as the West understands it.
How
should American leaders respond? What should they say and do, for
example, when a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s newly
elected ruling party, demands a formal apology from the United States
government and urges that the “madmen” behind the Muhammad video be
prosecuted, in violation of the First Amendment? If the U.S. follows the
example of Europe over the last two decades, it will bend over backward
to avoid further offense. And that would be a grave mistake—for the
West no less than for those Muslims struggling to build a brighter
future.
Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/16/ayaan-hirsi-ali-on-the-islamists-final-stand.html
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