Can’t We All Get Along?!!!!!!!!!

There are two simultaneous international uproars over the satiric cartoons that appeared in September in a small Danish newspaper, and they reflect the Wall between Western and Islamic values.

In most of the West, there is reaction to the strong-arm tactics mounted by the Arab states against Denmark, and Muslim demands that the Western press be censored in line with Arab sensitivities. In Muslim countries, there is state inciting of outrage that Mohammed is dissed by cartoons.

The Washington Post’s Jefferson Morley describes the two differing views:

"Islam forbids any representation of the Prophet," the paper's [France Soir, before its Egyptian owner fired its editor] front page editorial says today. "The question is, are all those who are not Muslims obliged to honour that prohibition? Can you imagine a society that added up all the prohibitions of the different religions? What would remain of the freedom to think, to speak, or even to come and go freely?"

Versus

A government official in the United Arab Emirates offered a very different definition of freedom of expression to the Khaleej Times. "Freedom of expression means freedom to express one's views in ways that will not affect social harmony," he said.

That “social harmony” is epitomized by despots persecuting their peoples, supporting each others’ armed threats to the West and by terrorists, by anti-Semitic cartoons resonant of the Nazis, by oppression and murder of Christians, by fatwahs for the murder of dissidents and Westerners.

This is about more than freedom of the press. This is about two entirely differing world views.

This is about more than two entirely differing world views. This is about the very survival of the West.

This episode is the most important event in Europe since the fall of the Wall. It forces European journalists to recognize the Wall between Western and Muslim values, and the threat the latter poses.

Can’t we all just get along? Sure we can. But, it must be firmly stated that it won’t be on terms friendly to oppression in the Middle East, nor importing it to the West.

It must, also, be firmly stated and enacted that the United States and Europe will together mount the combined effort to cease enriching these hostile views by replacing oil with alternative energy sources. Then, we can all get along.