Libertarian Librarian

This post (hat tip, Mojo-- thanks man!) is a must read, and the video link is well worth viewing. Above and beyond having to admire the size of the kahohnies on those two gentlemen, it is instructive how quickly those who protest in the name of non-violent Islam have picked up the lingo to justify their own intolerance and violent outbursts. Key passage:

"I will show you my ID 10 meters from here" says the plainclothes cop. "They are going to lynch you!" she adds, as she leads us into another street (in the movie taken by our valiant camera team, you can briefly see her wearing a brown coat, right after a bearded guy in white cap and tan jacket says "They are provoking us" and the camera turns).

Ding, ding, ding! Ring the bell, win a prize! The Muslim protesters have picked up on "the Danish cartoons are provocation-- they must be punished" meme. Provocation is a one-way street for these folks-- they can protest, they can loot, they can blow things up, they can even kill. Because they've been provoked, donchaknow-- strictly justified, old bean, those bad old Danish cartoonist started this, after all. But should anyone else protest in favor of free speech, or claim to have been provoked by the Muslim interpretations of events, they will certainly be decried as intolerant, and may well wind up being physically accosted-- maybe dead.

They want the best of both worlds-- freedom for them to say and do whatever they want, but should we in the West take exception to, oh, the occassional kidnapping, beheading, burned body strung up from a bridge or embassy fire bombed... well, we're being intolerant and judging an entire religion by a few extremists. It shouldn't work that way-- but as long as the media, moderate Muslims and many world cultures allow, even encourage, the double standard to exist, it will continue to happen.

On the plus side, some Muslim intellectuals and some media outlets ARE decrying that double-standard, and more and more European governments seem to be waking up to the potentially deadly serpent they have nurtured for years.

Labels: Politics