In response to Stuart's comments

Submitted by slowtrain (United States), Feb 19, 2006 at 01:44

Dear Stuart:

You can rationalize all you want. The fact is that the tremors of what I spoke about are already being felt across Europe. If you are looking for cruise missiles and Abrams, you are mistaken and that is precisely the danger you face.

Even in the apparent state of denial evident in your comments, you cannot deny that Netherlands and some other European countries, where freedom of expression and tolerance have been the hallmarks of the society, and on account of which, Muslims from all over the globe, in spite of their intolerance and propensity for violence, have been welcomed into these societies.

Now, these values that are the essence of these societies are increasingly receding. A situation where Europeans would lose their ability to speak freely in their own country, for fear of being assassinated by Muslims, is not a twisted imagination, it is now a stark reality and you cannot deny that.

Consider the fact that many citizens, even leaders in these societies, can no longer freely express themselves for fear of being killed for either "insulting Islam" or "insulting Prophet Mohammed". In the Netherlands, Members of parliament who have been marked for death for saying things Muslims (a minority populace) don't like, fearing for their lives and the lives of members of their families, in light of the murder of Theo Van Gogh and Islamist terrorist attacks, are now practically living in exile in their own country for fear of their guests, as did Salman Rushdie in London a few years ago.

As Muslims recently showed in London and all over Europe (not to mention their actions elsewhere), in the manner in which they are protesting the publication of cartoons about Prophet Mohammed, their value for freedom is only exploitative, only when it serves their purposes. Their expression of free speech is in incendiary statements: "Behead the one who insults the prophet," "Butcher those who mock Islam," "Be Prepared for the Real Holocaust," yet they are unwilling to respect the right of others whose expressions are totally innocuous. As you know these are not empty threats, they are things some Muslims are doing elsewhere for the same reason.

Some even dressed up in suicide bomber regalia to showcase what they perceive to be the worst nightmare of the Western world - suicide bombing, obviously riding on the impacts of the events of July 7, 2005 that practically paralyzed London. May I remind you that those Muslims who blew up your trains on 7/7 did not need cruise missiles and Abrams, as did those who destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and elsewhere in America on 9/11.

It may not have been "Islamic extremists" voicing these terrorist threats in the name of free speech, on the streets of London and all over Europe, yet whose language and sentiments did they express in their protests? I am sure you know the answer to that, but you can deny that too, in what is clearly a perilous feel good notion.

I may have gone too far in my assessment of Europeans, for that I apologize. But you cannot deny the Aristippulian consciousness that has gripped Europe.

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