Appeasers
Reading the news and the comments by people in my own country, I think what annoys me the most are all the appeasers. A lot of the angry muslim crowds can be somewhat excused. They have little access to a balanced news coverage. Instead they get fed propaganda by their religious leaders. Most of them have not even ever seen the drawings.
What I do find disturbing is all the people who are overly understanding of the rage of the angry mob. People saying "The publishers had it coming because they should have known what would happen." etc. Even my own Norwegian government has been rather spineless in this matter I think. It is good that they have not apologized for free speech in Norway, or that they have put any sanction against the magazine which did the publications. However criticizing the editor (and almost blaming him for all the trouble) as well as calling the drawings distasteful borders on appeasement. Government should not be telling the press what to print and not print. Having a government minister on the side with the editor when he was apologizing to the muslim community for the harm he had caused, I think also was wrong. It makes it look like the government and the magazine is doing this together.
I am convinced that the government would not have said it was wrong to publish these drawing if there had been no outrage.
Which bring me to the core of the matter on what I think is wrong with the stance of the appeasers. They seem to think that insulting someone is not accepted when the insulted get angry and violent. Which is sort of implying that insulting the weak who can not respond violently or vocally is okay.
Unfortunately there are countless examples of this attitude in the world today. The palestinians (Of course not all palestinians support this, but none the less it is palestinians who have done this) have fought violently for their cause. I am not going to get into whether their cause is right or wrong, but I do believe their methods are wrong. Hijacking planes full of innocent people who have nothing do with Israel for instance. Not to mention all the suicide bombers in Israel. The appeasers are falling over each other running to their support and be understanding of the violence. But where are these people when it comes to Tibet and Chechnya for instance? We do not need to understand them because they keep the conflict at home instead of dragging in a third party? Because Tibetans are peaceful we do not need to listen to them?
Or Chechnya is nothing to complain about because it is not big bad USA who is behind it? Despite the fact that the Americans are treating Iraqis with silk gloves compared to how the Russians are treating Chechnyans.
Of course I can understand that there is more point in demonstrating against the US, because we can expect more from them than Russia. However some people seemed to have been so engulfed in their hatred of America that they forget this point entirely. They are not demonstrating anymore just because they think it is possible to appeal to the American government (unlike the Russian) but simply because they hate America and everything it stands for.
What I do find disturbing is all the people who are overly understanding of the rage of the angry mob. People saying "The publishers had it coming because they should have known what would happen." etc. Even my own Norwegian government has been rather spineless in this matter I think. It is good that they have not apologized for free speech in Norway, or that they have put any sanction against the magazine which did the publications. However criticizing the editor (and almost blaming him for all the trouble) as well as calling the drawings distasteful borders on appeasement. Government should not be telling the press what to print and not print. Having a government minister on the side with the editor when he was apologizing to the muslim community for the harm he had caused, I think also was wrong. It makes it look like the government and the magazine is doing this together.
I am convinced that the government would not have said it was wrong to publish these drawing if there had been no outrage.
Which bring me to the core of the matter on what I think is wrong with the stance of the appeasers. They seem to think that insulting someone is not accepted when the insulted get angry and violent. Which is sort of implying that insulting the weak who can not respond violently or vocally is okay.
Unfortunately there are countless examples of this attitude in the world today. The palestinians (Of course not all palestinians support this, but none the less it is palestinians who have done this) have fought violently for their cause. I am not going to get into whether their cause is right or wrong, but I do believe their methods are wrong. Hijacking planes full of innocent people who have nothing do with Israel for instance. Not to mention all the suicide bombers in Israel. The appeasers are falling over each other running to their support and be understanding of the violence. But where are these people when it comes to Tibet and Chechnya for instance? We do not need to understand them because they keep the conflict at home instead of dragging in a third party? Because Tibetans are peaceful we do not need to listen to them?
Or Chechnya is nothing to complain about because it is not big bad USA who is behind it? Despite the fact that the Americans are treating Iraqis with silk gloves compared to how the Russians are treating Chechnyans.
Of course I can understand that there is more point in demonstrating against the US, because we can expect more from them than Russia. However some people seemed to have been so engulfed in their hatred of America that they forget this point entirely. They are not demonstrating anymore just because they think it is possible to appeal to the American government (unlike the Russian) but simply because they hate America and everything it stands for.
posted by Adam Smith at 15:11
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