Contributed by: filbert Friday, January 26 2007 @ 09:29 PM CST
Captain Ed at Captain’s Quarters has the sorry tale:
Der Spiegel excerpts passages from Henryk Broder’s new book on the Western response to radical Islamism[*1] , pungently titled, Hurray, We’re Capitulating!The book has not yet been published in English, but DS gives us atranslation on their English-language site. It cogently and somewhatangrily notes the low points in Western dhimmitude:
Objectively speaking, the cartoon controversy was a tempestin a teacup. But subjectively it was a show of strength and, in thecontext of the “clash of civilizations,” a dress rehearsal for the realthing. The Muslims demonstrated how quickly and effectively they canmobilize the masses, and the free West showed that it has nothing tocounter the offensive — nothing but fear, cowardice and an overridingconcern about the balance of trade. Now the Islamists know that theyare dealing with a paper tiger whose roar is nothing but a taperecording.
As different as the West’s reactions to the Muslim protests were,what they had in common were origins in feelings of powerlessness andhelplessness. Critical souls who only yesterday agreed with Marx thatreligion is the opium of the masses suddenly insisted that religioussensibilities must be taken into account, especially when accompaniedby violence. The representatives of open societies reacted like theinhabitants of an island about to be hit by a hurricane. Powerlessagainst the forces of nature, they stocked up on supplies, nailed doorsand windows shut and hoped that the storm would soon pass. Of course,whereas such a reaction may be an appropriate response to naturaldisasters, such a lack of resistance merely encourages fundamentalists.It completely justifies their view of the West as weak, decadent andcompletely unwilling to defend itself.
Those who react to kidnappings and beheadings, to massacres ofpeople of other faiths, and to eruptions of collective hysteria with acall for “cultural dialogue” don’t deserve any better.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey. Do you? Even if you’re a Democrat?