Infantilizing Muslim Rage
Tigerhawk has a very, very harsh assessment of the Muslim "rage" that has greeted the speech by Pope Benedict XVI. It is quite brutal on both the choices made and on those cultural relativists that are essentially reducing the "Muslim Street" into animals unable to control their base instincts.
Predictably, the greatest beneficiaries of the Western enlightenment blamed reason, the true victim of Muslim rage through the ages. The editors of The New York Times said this morning, to the eternal discredit of that once great paper, that
[t]he world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly. He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.
This is obscene. Apart from its factual inaccuracy — there is no evidence that any of the enraged Muslims "listened carefully" to the words of the pope — this is like blaming a beaten wife for provoking the bastard who throttles her. It is the leaders of prayers in the mosques of the Muslim world who call on their faithful to riot in the streets. It is they who sow pain and incite violence, and anybody unburdened by a loathing of Western civilization knows it. Pope Benedict has nothing to apologize for. The leading clerics of the Muslim world have a great deal to apologize for.
Neither the pope nor the Muslim clerics are the only actors here. Tens of thousands of Muslims chose to act in violence or condone violence yesterday. Millions more supported them in this, the evidence being that Muslim politicians jumped on the bandwagon. These millions of Muslims are hardly candles in the wind, helplessly manipulated by the imams. They chose their religion. They chose their mosque. They chose not to "listen carefully" to the words of the pope. They chose to take to the streets in rage, and they chose to burn and attack and kill perfectly innocent people, all on the say-so of one or another demagogue in a turban. They are not children, however much the cultural relativists who absolve the rioters and their sympathizers infantalize them. I condemn these people for making bad choices; liberals, such as the editors of the New York Times, refuse to condemn them because they believe that Muslims are incapable of choices. I may deplore the choices of these rioting Muslims, but the New York Times holds them in contempt, regarding them as nothing more than wild animals. Just as we all blame humans who antagonize an animal into a violent response, the New York Times blames Westerners who "sow pain," as if Muslims have the free will of a cornered wolf.
He's exactly right here. By treating the Muslim street as being unable to control itself, to say that they are compelled to act by the actions of a single man in the West, even if he is the Pope, is to treat them as if they were children. It is also a sickening display of cultural chauvinism masquerading as multiculturalism.
UPDATE: Related: McCain at Rightlinx. See A Blog For All for a good roundup.
Civilization, Religion | Gaius Saturday, 16 September , 2006
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rightlinx.com » Blog Archive » Pope Does the Rope-a-Dope — Saturday, 16 September , 2006 @ 5:22 pm
By McCain, Saturday, 16 September , 2006 @ 10:54 am
Great post. See also:
Muslims Offended by an Inconvenient Truth
http://www.rightlinx.com/?p=208
By Jeff, Saturday, 16 September , 2006 @ 12:18 pm
Pope Benedict XVI was very courageous in staying what needs to be said in regards to Islamo-Fascism. And he hasn’t apologized for what he said. He just said he is sorry that the Muslims were offended.
But, I guess the Muslims can’t handle the truth.
By the way, leftists have come out and renounced the Pope’s comments.
Here is what one liberal blogger posted.
http://melt212.livejournal.com/171321.html
“I feel empathy for the muslims who just got bitch slapped by the pope because I had a boyfriend like that once. â€
Spoken like a true member of the Democratic Party base. Treats foreign affairs like it was the Jerry Springer show.