"The West needs fewer apologies and more unity."

Another excellent editorial by the folks at Slate.com. It's same story as with the Mohammed cartoon deal: somebody in the West/non-Muslim world says/writes something that Middle-Eastern/Asian Muslims find offensive. Muslims in the non-Western world demand an apology that they'll never accept anyway, and begin demonstrating, then rioting, then burning churches, then killing infidels. So Westerners of all kinds begin apologizing profusely, trying to smooth the feathers of Muslims worldwide. The Pope may have said some stuff that could have been taken out of context. Maybe what he said was just plain dumb, hypocritical and not well thought out. He didn't call for the discrimination against, subjugation or murder of Muslims.

Wake up. It's called freedom of speech, and it's a pillar of our way of life in the "West." I hear a lot of things that I find offensive in any given week... sometimes in any given day. I can demonstrate, of course, and protest. But I can't threaten anyone with death or war, or burn churches or buildings, or shoot old Italian nuns. We need to stop kow-towing to these lunatics! We cannot allow radical nutbags in the most backwards part of the world, where they can't even agree on which century they want to live in, to decide what the parameters of our free speech is. That's not their choice. And if they want to fight us over what we get to say in our own country, then I say we fight them. They may have suicide bombs, but we have nuclear bombs, so in the end I think we'd win that one.

It's time for "the West" to find a way to unite on these fundamental issues and defend the tenets of our society, and not let these backwards, radical groups or societies make decisions for us through violence. We're talking about a clash of civilizations or cultures... two ways of seeing the world which are diametrically opposed and won't currently find a middle ground. We need to be prepared to stand together on what common ground we in the modern, developed world share, and to defend ourselves. Those who oppose us are raving nutbags, and have explicitly stated that they're at war with us, and their aim is to fight until Islam reigns the entire globe; the conquered will either convert or be beheaded. Doesn't sound like they're too willing to compromise, does it?

And now for the less rant-oriented article:

The West needs fewer apologies and more unity. By Anne Applebaum - Slate Magazine