The Cartoon War

I’ve posted earlier about my belief that the “spontaneous” demonstrations occurring all over the Muslim world right now are a bit too conveniently timed to be believable. I think the seemingly endless supply of burnable Danish flags – in places where basic human necessities can be hard to obtain – proves the point. That the worst violence is occurring in Syria and Lebanon – one an ally of Iran and the other arguably under the control of Iranian backed terrorists also points to the originator of this particular uproar. This is a manufactured uproar meant to distract from Iran’s nuclear weapon program.

That said, many of the people leaving comments in the blogospere seem to be missing one of the main problems with all this. The Islamists are demanding submission of the West. They are not demanding equal rights, they are demanding the official suppression of any speech they deem offensive. They are demanding the West completely respect all of their teachings – or what at least some of them interpret their teachings to be.

Are their “moderate” Muslims? Yes, there likely are quite a few. Does it matter to this discussion? Not in the least. This is not about moderate anything, this is about extremes. The extremist, radical view of some Muslims has taken over the discussion completely. We see marchers holding signs calling for death and destruction in London. We see rioters burning diplomatic buildings. We see innocents who had nothing whatsoever to do with the publication of these cartoons being killed. There is no moderation there.

It is a credit to Western beliefs that some people are grappling so hard with trying to understand why this is happening and how to deal with it. It is a discredit to others that they decline to renounce the extremists out of “respect” for their Muslim religion. That their “respect” really is fear of retaliation is pretty widely recognized. When we of the West react to intolerable violence with appeasement, we give the extremists a positive feedback that such tactics work. Engineers know pretty well that positive feedback loops are inherently unstable. Unless positive feedback is controlled, it inevitably leads to system failure. Have you ever seen the famous movies of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge failure? That is an example of unchecked positive feedback.

Should the publication of a few not so very good cartoons have led to this level of violence? We of the Western world must recognize this thuggish behavior for what it is; unacceptable among civilized nations or people. Should we give in to this blackmail? No, we must not. Even if the cartoons were offensive, they should be discussed openly. I personally didn’t see what was so bad about them, but I am also not a Muslim. I do know I see things published routinely that offend me. At most I respond by writing a letter. I do not storm the offices of the local paper. Or attack someone that had nothing to do with the publication.

Update: Well, signs that some at least are trying to break out of the feedback loop. H/T Instapundit for the link.