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Shaking chin as a symbol of modern Western characterReader comment on item: Salman Rushdie and British Backbone Submitted by Leonid Kaplun-Leonov (United States), Jun 28, 2007 at 16:21 First, please excuse my broken English. Several weeks ago I watched (on TV) a Muslim demonstration in London. Several hundreds of British-grown Muslims (big and fat, in contrast to their "brothers" in Middle East) screamed "Democracy – hypocrisy!" and challenged by-standers. Suddenly one of them came very closely to a by-stander, a mid-aged Britisher, and started yelling in his face: -"Pope lied that Muslim religion was spread by force! Pope was wrong! Pope needs to apologize! Repeat with me – POPE – NEEDS – TO APOLOGIZE!" It was a pretty dramatic moment, TV cameraman immediately understood that and both men faces took up the screen. My Russian mentality immediately led me to expect several things. First and the most logical – bloody nose of the Muslim guy the very next moment. Or at least a good spit in the face of the savage. Or – the very minimum – the phrase something like –"Get back to your Trashcanistan, impudent swine, and establish your way of life over there!" Nothing like this happened. British just looked at the Muslim with glassy eyes, like frozen, and his chin was shaking with bigger and bigger amplitude… So, I agree with Dr. Pipes' analysis. Unfortunately nothing so far shows that "backbone" begins to appear in the majority of British or American public. Just look in some of comments here. –"Rushdie is wrong!" - "Queen is wrong, because their actions give Muslims even more energy!" Guys, can you imagine a notice to people sixty years ago: -" Do not offend Nazis, because it gives them even more energy! Do not fight them too much!" Many of us would not be alive now if the US and Britain listened to such people at that time. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (714) on this item |
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