A Little Perspective

Amid all the Newsweek bashing going on in conservative circles these days (which is, of course, entirely warranted), we should be careful not to lose sight of a far deeper problem than media bias and low journalistism standards: A significant portion of the Muslim world is willing to riot and kill over one rumor printed in one magazine half a world away. The religion of peace seems awfully touchy, as Mark Steyn notes:

It's hardly Newsweek's fault that some goofy foreigners are so bananas they'll riot and kill over one rumor of one disrespectful act to one copy of one book. Christians don't riot over ''Piss Christ'' and other provocations by incontinent ''artists.'' Jews take it in their stride when they're described as ''a virus resembling AIDS,'' which is what Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris said a week ago in his sermon on Palestinian state TV, funded by the European Union. Muslims can dish it out big-time, so why can't they take it, even the teensy-weensiest bit?

Good question. But what is even more disturbing is the lengths that some American secularists will go to try to equate Islamic fundamentalists (the kind who execute homosexuals and, when Jerry Falwell calls Islam a violent religion, respond by going on murderous rampages; maybe Falwell was on to something) with conservative Christians, who support such nefarious ideas as traditional marriage and boob-free Super Bowl halftime shows. Many on the Left refer to conservative Christians as the "American Taliban," and that America is threatened by religious fundamentalism of all kinds, not just Islam.

This argument, such as it is, would be easier to take seriously if those who deride Christians as home-grown Osamas were not constantly bending over backwards trying to make excuses for the real Osamas in the Muslim world. When Salman Rushdie published his novel The Satanic Verses, which posited that it might not have been God who was instilling such fervor in Muhammed, the Islamic world erupted in rage. The Iranian government called for Rushdie's assassination, and the author was forced to go into hiding. Contrast this reaction with the Christian reaction to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Both novels have been regarded as blasphemous, but while Rushdie was forced into hiding, Brown is on talk shows every other week. Christians hold educational seminars on how to best refute Brown's book, while those peaceful Muslims talk of beheadings.

And yet many leftists still insist that there is little substantive difference between the two religions. If we are to take their arguments at face value, we are left with only two possibilities, both of which are quite revealing: Either they regard Muslim terrorists as mere annoyances, roughly on par with Christians who call the FEC with indecency complaints; or they view pro-life Christians as great a threat to America as are the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans in one day, and who are constantly plotting to kill thousands more. I'm not sure which is more disturbing.

P.S.--By the way, my previous post on the Newsweek debacle provoked a liberal friend of mine to post a few comments, which was the start of the first-ever debate on this blog. You can find the mini-debate here.