Liberal Muslims
INDC Journal points out this New York Times article on the cartoon controvery within the Muslim world, rather than simply from an Islam vs. the West perspective. Worth reading the whole thing. This one bit though jumped out at me, because it is something that I have been thinking a lot on lately.
“I keep hearing, ‘Why are liberals silent?’ ” said Said al-Ashmawy, an Egyptian judge and author of books on political Islam. “How can we write? Who is going to protect me? Who is going to publish for me in the first place? With the Islamization of the society, the list of taboos has been increasing daily. You should not write about religion. You should not write about politics or women. Then what is left?”
From one perspective, this is good news. Far better (for us at least) for liberal Muslims to be silenced then for them not to exist at all, and it gives hope that if security can be provided for an open debate, there will be people within the Muslim world who will promote freedom and liberty.
On the other hand, it is bad news. Islamists have succeeded in censoring 1.2 billion Muslims. They seem to be making progress toward censoring 500 million Europeans. Given the timidity on engaging the cartoon debate by most of the major media outlet in the U.S. it is worth wondering how able the United States will be to resist this trend.
Good for all the liberal Mulsims out there! I just hope they’re not exterminated by their ever-peace-loving leaders (Kind Hussein, the last of the Hashemite kings thanks in part to the Hamas and Hosni Mubarrak included).
On your other most excellent point, I feel it will prove suicidal for the U.S. to not react to the cartoon controversy and other issues in the world of fanatical Islam.
We will either fight back or be smitten by the likes of Min Aher!