Swamppundit

Dear Salam,

I find the current cartoon dustup to be a cause for optimism. Because the West is prosperous, content, and in denial, its first instinct is to appease Radical Islamism. Appeasement (as ever) only makes matters worse. The West, properly, has no interest in rising from its slumber to defend Christianity against Islam. The cartoons episode encourages me to believe the West will wake up to defend freedom of speech. If the West draws a line the sand over freedom of speech, and means it, then appeasement will end, and a better future will draw closer. Radical Islam, of course, cannot co-exist with freedom of speech. Any modern society with freedom of speech will, in the long run, reject autocratic rulers. Such a society need not reject Islam, but it must reject autocrats clothed as Clerics of Islam.

The Imams, Mullahs, and Ayatollahs know this. That is why they find the cartoons such a threat. Freedom to draw a caricature of Mohammed is also freedom to question other so-called “unquestionable” teachings of the Koran. Freedom to draw a cartoon of Mohammad is freedom to ask why women can’t drive; freedom to ask why a petty thief must lose a hand, and freedom to ask why it is wrong to let the majority rule.

Ending appeasement always runs the risk of things getting worse in the short run. But, the quicker appeasement ends, the quicker we get to the better future, and the less bloodshed we will have to endure to get there.

All in all, I am drinking a toast tonight to a handful of Danish cartoonists who reminded us that this upcoming clash is not You vs. Me, Salam, or even Christianity vs. Islam, it is Freedom vs. Tyranny.

In friendship,
Clarence