I have never been a big fan of the impromptu memorials and poignant tributes which inevitably seem to follow terrorist attacks. Bravely showing support for the people who were targeted – after the attack has been completed and the terrorists are long gone – does not make me feel better about things. Doing something meaningful to prevent the next attack makes me feel better.
That is why I am so receptive to Andrew Bolt\’s article in the Melbourne (Australia) Herald-Sun. Here is how it begins:
PROTESTERSaround the West, horrified by the massacre in Paris, have held uppens and chanted “Je suis Charlie” – I am Charlie.
Theylie. The Islamist terrorists are winning, and the coordinated attackson the Charlie Hebdo magazine and kosher shop will be just onemore success. One more step to our gutless surrender.
Al-Qaedain Yemen didn\’t attack Charlie Hebdo because we are allCharlie Hebdo.
Theopposite. It sent in the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi becauseCharlie Hebdo was almost alone.
Unlikemost politicians, journalists, lawyers and other members of ourruling classes, this fearless magazine dared to mock Islam in the waythe Left routinely mocks Christianity. Unlike much of our rulingclass, it refused to sell out our freedom to speak.
Itsgreatest sin – to the Islamists – was to republish the infamouscartoons of Denmark\’s Jyllands-Posten which mocked Mohammed,and then to publish even more of its own, including one showingthe Muslim prophet naked.
Arewe really all Charlie? No, no and shamefully no.
NoAustralian newspaper dared published those pictures, too, bar onewhich did so in error.
TheObama administration three years ago even attacked Charlie Hebdo forpublishing the naked Mohammed cartoon, saying it was”deeply offensive”.
PresidentBarack Obama even told the United Nations “the future must notbelong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam” and damned aYouTube clip “Innocence of Muslims” which did just that. Thefilmmaker was thrown in jail.
Weare all Charlie?
No, Mr. Bolt. You are spot-on correct. We are not all Charlie.
How I wish I were seeing similar material in more of the U.S. media….instead of idiotic pronouncements, from benighted fools and appeasers, that Islamic terrorism is unrelated to Islam.
Did these same geniuses have similar predilections about Christianity when abortion clinics were being bombed?
No. Of course not. They “fearlessly” attacked the religion itself – secure in the knowledge that they were safe in their own beds that night.
Islam, in and of itself, is not a threat to the world. Radical Islam which seeks to take over the world and convert or kill all non-believers is. And, sadly, a large – and growing – segment of Islam is radical.
We either do something about it or we don\’t. That is our choice.
But be assured that every time we don\’t, it is, to quote Mr. Bolt, “one more step to our gutless surrender”.
