Free Speech is a Two-Way Street

Can Islam co-exist with Western freedom of religion? Can Islam co-exist with Western freedom of speech? In both cases, yes, but radical, intolerant forms of Islam can't be allowed to crowd out those that are tolerant. Ruth Marcus, WaPo takes, I believe, a reasonable view of Harvard's allowances for Muslim religious practices.

In the Netherlands the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh for making a film critical of Islam has spurred the making of another one by a Dutch legislator, with predictable murderous threats from jihadist groups in response. As Rep. Peter Hoekstra points out in the WSJ--liberal Harvard take note-- there is a broader agenda at work--either through pushing for a parallel Sharia legal system, as we are seeing in the UK, or through thuggish intimidation or worse:

The violence Dutch officials are anticipating now is part of a broad and determined effort by the radical jihadist movement to reject the basic values of modern civilization and replace them with an extreme form of Shariah. Shariah, the legal code of Islam, governed the Muslim world in medieval times and is used to varying degrees in many nations today, especially in Saudi Arabia.

Radical jihadists are prepared to use violence against individuals to stop them from exercising their free speech rights. In some countries, converting a Muslim to another faith is a crime punishable by death. While Muslim clerics are free to preach and proselytize in the West, some Muslim nations severely restrict or forbid other faiths to do so. In addition, moderate Muslims around the world have been deemed apostates and enemies by radical jihadists.

This is the truth liberals need to confront--that appeasement of radicals leads to the silencing or death of moderate Muslims. The pope himself is under threat for baptizing a Muslim convert. And Hoekstra further ties the actions of jihadists to undermine the advent of democracy in the Middle East with their medieval and barbaric treatment of women. This should be beyond dispute. But liberals, most notably Sen. Barack Obama, choose to ignore the consequences of rewarding thugs with talks.

Free speech needs to be a two-way street, you see. The radical Muslim street that hates America needs no naive (useful idiot) allies for their murderous message.

Related posts: Obama's Double Talk, My Sharia Amour, This Barbarism, There is more than one way for a country to die, Tyranny, Petty and Large, Iran Fallout, Strangled Over a Headscarf, Harsh Sharia, Hate that Hate, Support Human Rights in Iran