.... These are toxic fumes wafting across a frightened continent. The killers chose their targets well, and clearly with some planning. The rights to speak, read and watch freely, the right to mock — all are embedded in the European psyche. Indeed, the struggles to secure these rights were largely carried on the continent. And as a by-product, they have killed police officers, the protectors of citizens.
The test is a civilizational one. How far can the response be a measured one? How far can the majority of Muslims be brought into the fight against extremism as allies, not as suspects? How far will elections — this year, 2015, will see many of them at various democratic levels — reflect the desire of the citizenry to be protected by leaders like Le Pen and Farage? That’s what’s at stake — the depth of civilized society itself.
[A COMMENT] I’m afraid these events were inevitable as too many Muslim immigrants fail to integrate into western society.
I think the governments (French and British) as well as most of our media are partly to blame through being overly cautious about challenging Islamist fundamentalism. One only has to look at how the BBC, Sky and the British newspapers have reported this matter over the last two days.
Not one of them has sought to publish the original Danish cartoons – which would have been the strongest way to rebuff this attack on the freedom of speech.
Islamists have sought, very successfully, to place Islam beyond reproach. Accordingly, our politicians and media treat Islam with kid gloves. Christianity and Judaism receive scrutiny and satire on a routine basis, but nobody dares to challenge Islamic philosophy and ideas. Few journalists get this.
Appeasement didn’t work with Nazi Germany and it won’t work with Muslim fundamentalism either. It needs to be tackled head on.
[ANOTHER] Very nice words. But it still doesn’t address the question: Why are Muslims at the epicenter of much of the world’s violence, be it internecine terrorism or terrorism against others? Although the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists, it seems that the vast majority of terrorists are Muslim. The Muslim community needs to do some serious introspection as this problem cannot be solved by outsiders. [Reuters] Read more
