Islamic mobs continue riots

World wide protests by Muslims protesting the Danish cartoon incident continue.

Thousands of demonstrators attacked Western-owned businesses in the eastern city of Lahore, set dozens of vehicles on fire and staged a sit-in at the provincial legislature. Guards at a bank that was attacked shot two men dead, said Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao.

Police used tear gas, fired into the air and swung batons to try to control the crowd. In Islamabad, about 400 students stormed into the city's diplomatic enclave and were repelled by tear gas. Outside the enclave, water cannons were turned on the crowd.

The demonstrations were among the most violent in Pakistan over the publication of cartoons in a Danish newspaper in September. The caricatures have been reprinted by several European publications and recently by a few Canadian publications.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Canadian Minister of National Defence, Brigadier General (Ret'd) Gordon O?Connor has stated that the publication of the Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammed is placing Canadian Forces troops deployed in Afghanistan at greater risk. According to today's National Post (hat tip to Neale News), he said:

"It doesn't help. Radicals in Syria and Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq, they get people roused up because their religion's being offended," Mr. O'Connor said in an interview. "We don't need any more risk in the area than we have."

General O'Connor is no doubt only trying to minimize the real danger facing our soldiers in Operation Enduring Freedom and he has a point. But realistically, Islamists are currently doing their level best to kill our troops, however and whenever they can. If there is an increased operational risk to our soldiers arising from the publication of these cartoons it is surely minimal in comparison to the political risks being run by Western governments kow-towing to the manipulations and bullying arising from the Danish cartoon incident.

It is in this context that Gordon O'Connor has got it all wrong.

Mr. O'Connor said there's little that can be done to prevent the Western Standard from reproducing the cartoons.

"I have a bit of concern but it's freedom of the press. Just like Denmark, we can't control what's in the press. If people do it, we have to live with the consequences," he said.

"I'm hoping that religious groups around the country, around the world will understand that our government does not countenance ridiculing anybody's
religion."

Is that what is happening here? Ezra Levant and the National Post is ridiculing another religion by printing the cartoons? I think not. It would take better writers than those employed by the National Post (and they are fine scribes) to ridicule Islam in this affair. Frankly, a great segment of Islam is doing that job quite well all on its own. The Canadian Islamic Conference, led by Mohamed Elmasry (who asserts that Israeli civilians are legitimate targets) continues his efforts at invoking Canada's hate laws against the Western Standard for publishing political cartoons.

"I think there is a fine line between freedom of the press and freedom to incite hate. These cartoons cross that line," said Mohamed Elmasry, the CIC's national president. "Canada has a hate literature law and we will be able to test it to see indeed if the law protects the well-being of minorities."

What gross hypocrisy! Why doesn't the news media remind its readers/listeners just who this guy is and what he preaches?

Let us accept that Muslims do not like having the man they assert to be the greatest and final prophet being the object of political cartoons emanating from a non-Muslim source. Fine. None of us likes having our faith criticised or attacked.

I am deeply offended when my Catholicism is viciously attacked under the guise of art by a man who dunks a crucifix in a jar of urine. I am further offended when the main stream media publishes photos of this desecration. Yet the main stream media does not censor itself when it faces editorial decision respecting this, and like matters. It is only when we come to matters concerning Islam where the media withholds the offending images. Why? Because the media flaks fears for their lives in such situations (as well they should).

I am very deeply offended as a Catholic when a young Muslim man in Turkey shoots a priest in the back as the priest kneels in prayer after mass and runs from the scene screaming Allah Akbar. I am very aggrieved when I see Christian churches frequently burned or ransacked in Muslim countries by Islamic mobs. I am further aggrieved when the main stream media glosses over such attacks. I could go on. In fact, I shall.

How about the beheadings of innocent young girls on their way to school; girls whose only discernable crimes is that they happened to offend Muslims by being Christian girls who attend school. Or is it that just that they were Christian? .... or girls? .... or were being schooled? It's hard to know for sure. All the aforementioned appears to offend much of Islam.

You get my drift. What I do not do is demand an apology from democratic Arab governments for the actions of private citizens. Of course, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I don't go about threatening death to Muslims and burning Arab consulates to the ground in order to enforce the provisions of canon (Church) law on non-Catholics. Nor do I invent and circulate cartoons much more offensive than the bland Danish originals for the express purpose of inciting riots, as is the case in this affair.

Let us get some important matters straight. We non-Muslim Canadians may choose not offend Muslims in this affair as an act of simple courtesy. I have not published any of the cartoons on my blog for this reason alone, although as the protests continue and develop I may change my mind. I have no duty in law to withhold offensive commentary. None at all. I am a free man living in a free country. And if you don't like it, well .... tough titty.

Have a go at my faith, if you choose. It is resilient and I'm more than capable of defending it. I won't threaten you with death. I won't burn your home or your car. I won't march in the streets, which are too slushy for good protesting, anyway.

But whatever you do, don't ever ask me to be a willing Dhimmi. Won't happen. Not now. Not ever.

Now where is that Tuborg? This Havarti cheese is really quite delightful ......