Related news: A Coptic Christian has shot a movie revealing that Mohammed was a homosexual child molester, womanizer, and a naive fool. This group of Christians in Egypt is pretty influential. The New York Times and The Boston Globe just wrote about a Coptic papyrus studied at Harvard (apparently authentic one) that talks about Jesus' wife. ;-)As far as the U.S. politics goes, I am close to the G.O.P. in many respects although it may be more accurate to classify me as a libertarian in the U.S. context (except that I am flabbergasted by the fact that this key political direction almost represents an irrelevant fringe group in the U.S.).
But I could see that the typical G.O.P. members don't really respect the same value during the Summers wars at Harvard. Most Harvard people who were nominally right-wing Americans didn't do anything whatsoever to stop the insane witch hunts started by the feminists and similar highly obnoxious groups of activists.
In fact, some people who considered themselves Christian have always been radical guardians of the political correctness who were really scaring me – and bullying me personally. I won't name the guys here.
These days, in the context of the "Innocence of Muslims" movie, I am observing something similar. It's really the left-wing Greens and SPD in Germany who are trying to defend the freedom of expression against obscure attempts by Merkel et al. to introduce ad hoc censorship – and worse. It's a left-wing Polish member of the European Parliament, Prof Joanna Senyszyn, who has chastised the Vatican for his support of his de facto cousins, the religious terrorists. Joe Alois Ratzinger has criticized "all provocations against Muslims".
What's going on? I am sure that most people in Czechia who care agree with me about the basic question: the movie is morally and legally OK while the violent reactions in the Islamic world are not and these two totally different sides of the story must be carefully distinguished. They can't be mixed up!
Let me offer you an analysis by Mr Petr Podaný writing for tyden.cz (Week, a weekly journal), the translation is mine, the text is Mr Podaný's (but I agree with it):
The West is almost apologizing to hordes of bloodthirsty Islamists
Where are we actually living? Are we really in the Western civilization of the 21st century? In approximately two dozens of Muslim countries, people organized rallies against a certain lousy movie shot in the U.S. that has been claimed to offend the sensibilities of the Islamic faith. One can understand that. However, what one can't understand is that a nonzero fraction of the Western politicians and media not only fails to defend the freedom of the creator of the Innocence of Muslims, but they even partly blame him for the fresh explosions of violence.
In fact, some Western politicians and editorial offices have understanding for the anger of the mobs that are ready to murder, put Western embassies on fire, and loot them. The reason is – let's randomly quote the prestigious South German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung: "It is useless to distinguish the culprits and the victims. This time, the provocation came from the American extremists, it was grabbed by the Islamic fanatics, and they revenged in an equally radical way." Bitte???
This is just one among uncountable examples of politicians and journalists who are almost making a bow towards the Islamic countries and apologizing for a pulp movie that most of the protesting folks probably haven't even seen.
It's a similar situation as the situation of a rape victim who would later be convicted for having provoked the rapist by her short skirts.
The "Innocence of Muslims" movie is provoking deliberately, indeed. And what? Does it justify murders? If it doesn't, there's no need to analyze the movie more closely. In this case, there exists no co-guilt. On one side, there is a filmmaker, on the other side, there are killers. These two poles aren't complementing each other in any way.
The chief of the U.S. diplomacy Hillary Clinton expressed her disappointment in front of cameras: "How could it have happened in a country [she meant Libya and the murder of four Americans including the ambassador, Christopher Stevens] that we helped to liberate? In a city that we were helping to defend?"
What can one reply to this whining? Perhaps: You shouldn't be surprised if you feed the devils.
But there is one thing that is more worrisome than the official complaints of the Secretary of State in Washington D.C.: the insight that our politicians, intellectuals, and commentators aren't expressing themselves in one voice and they aren't demanding to protect the freedom of speeech and expression of the filmmaker behind the Innocence of Muslims.
And they don't assertively demand that this movie may be freely aired in Europe.
Don't forget that the main achievement of enlightened countries governed by the rule of law is not only the protection against various forms of discrimination but also the right to say what I think and the right to offend someone if necessary. In the Western civilization, this right sometimes clashes e.g. with the respect towards various religious sensibilities but in such a moment, when the other side considers itself harmed, a court may resolve the tension.
LM kindly asks 2 billion Muslims to shut the fuck up and return to their caves.
Instead of these proper events, e.g. the German media are now full of reports that the government in Berlin is trying to prevent the movie from being aired in the Federal Republic by various means. At least the heavily anti-Islamic movement called Pro Deutschland declared its intent to screen it.
And many Europeans at the beginning of the 21st century are disturbed when they watch their representatives, and not only representatives, who are increasingly eager to sacrifice freedoms that were won in hard struggles to the altar of political correctness.
While the offense of a prophet somewhere in the U.S. resulted in hateful tirades by millions of Muslims across the world against everything linked to the West, the West itself barely raises its voice against the demonstrable torture of tens of millions of Christians in countries where Islam is in charge of the baton.
The Open Doors Foundation mentions that in the whole world, about 100 million Christians are facing the threat of prosecution, torture, or death. Their numbers suggest that 100 thousand die because of their religion every year! In many Muslim countries, Christians are fruitlessly begging their local governments. To kill them may be counted as a chivalrous offense in countries such as Nigeria or Somalia.
And the West? It seems to be more or less indifferent to the misery of Christians who live somewhere far beyond the European horizon.
The Arab Spring is gradually changing to an Arab Winter. To idealize it turns out to be naive. To speak about democracy, at least in the sense in which it evolved in the Western world, is perhaps amusing when it comes to countries such as Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt. In the most optimistic case, they have done the first tiny steps in a long-term democratization process.
In Egypt, three quarters of the electorate supported the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical Islamists. Why not. The people wanted it this way. But the champions of the Sharia Law will hardly ever evolve to a democratic party.
The West may respect them and it may even smoothly cooperate with them. However, one shouldn't forget that as far as our and their values go, these are two worlds that are light years apart.
Various top-tier EU politicians recently suggested that Islam has already become a part of their respective homelands. Many citizens responded in a wave of disagreement. At least various surveys indicated it was the case. Fresh, partially bloody riots in the Muslim countries unequivocally strengthen skepticism in this issue.
Islam has become a part of the EU, indeed, but despite all the efforts to achieve respect (which is mostly unilateral so far), the co-existence will be tense and very, very problematic. And one can't rule out a dramatic divorce.
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