Religious Correctness

If you've been reading Liberty's Torch, or its predecessor Eternity Road, for any length of time, you know I'm a Catholic and serious about it. I don't (and won't) tolerate anti-Christian slander at any site I administer, and I react against it vigorously in public fora in which I participate. The former is my prerogative as the proprietor of those websites; the latter is merely an exercise of my freedom of expression at sites that honor that principle.

Yet now and then some religious fanatic -- Muslim; Militant Atheist; Democrat; you name it -- will claim that, if I had the power, I'd impose my religion on the whole world by force. That would, of course, include censoring anti-Christian statements made by anyone anywhere, using the powers of the State.

It's nonsense, of course: a form of the tu quoque argumentation gambit with absolutely no substantiation behind it. What I find particularly galling about it is that the very same persons who level the charge at me have nothing to say about the efforts of Islamic states and groups to do the very thing they claim to fear:

The UN agency that promotes education wants a say in how future textbooks are written, and Saudi Arabia -- a nation whose own school books have been criticized for promoting hatred of Christians and Jews -- is helping to bankroll the effort.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is currently working with member states to revise its strategy for the publication of textbooks and learning materials. According to UNESCO's website, experts from 21 countries met in Paris last month at a meeting financed by a $29,000 Saudi donation and focused in part on "ways to ensure that content aimed at students systematically reflects cultural and religious diversity, and avoids gender stereotypes."

Then, last week, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah cut a $20 million check to UNESCO's emergency fund....

"Each country has the ultimate responsibility for the content of its national textbooks," said Qian Tang, UNESCO's assistant director general for education. "UNESCO's aim is to encourage and support those responsible (in ministries of education) for the writing and production of textbooks to reflect on how textbook content should promote respect and tolerance for diversity and eliminate all forms of negative stereotypes. "

Tang said "member states' engagement in this important area of work is welcomed by UNESCO, as is their financial contribution."

"Opening up dialogue and producing resources that support countries to reflect on the role of textbooks in the learning environment, not only in relation to subject 'facts' but also in relation to tolerance, non-discrimination and social cohesion, is an important means of promoting peace and tolerance," Tang added.

Anyone who takes Qian Tang's drivel seriously should see his brain-care specialist at once.

No Islamic state will ever promote "tolerance" or "diversity." The rulers of such states fall into two categories:

• Dissolute voluptuaries who bankroll world Islam as a payment for being allowed to continue on in their pursuit of ever wider and deeper perversions;
• Muslim fanatics eager to "fly the black flag of Islam" over all the capitals of the world.

Their guiding principle is always:

We get to say and do whatever we like,
no matter whom it offends.
But if you dare to say a word:
-- against Islam,
-- its Prophet,
-- or anything else about it,
we'll cut your head off with a dull knife and put the video of it on YouTube.

That's neither "tolerance" nor "diversity" as I understand those terms. If you disagree, keep your hands where I can see them; I tend to shoot first and worry about the paperwork later.

American left-liberals, ever ready to deride and vilify Christians and Christianity, are notably silent about Muslims and Islam. The arrant cowardice of these "apostles of reason," as disgraceful as it is, is all too easy to understand. Those whose consciences are soothed by lavage with Saudi money -- a fair amount of that goes to Hollywood and various American universities, particularly those wit "Middle Easstern Studies" departments -- are beneath even the simple cowards. Those are outright traitors of conscience, if not of an overt act.

Yet there remain persons, including some very intellgent men of indisputable good will, who claim that we must distinguish between "moderate" Muslims and their hairy-eyed brethren in Allah. Stipulate that among the 2.5 million Muslims known to reside in the United States, there might be one or two who:

• Are not jihadis;
• Have never committed an act of violence;
• Have never provided aid or comfort, actively or passively, to the jihad;
• Would not do so even if threatened with the loss of their lives and the destruction of everything they claim to love;
• Do not seek to make shari'a the law of our nation and would join with other Americans in resisting any attempt to do so.

I am indisposed to make exceptions for so tiny a minority.

Islam and its adherents must be forbidden further access to the United States.
Muslims already within our borders must be made to feel too uncomfortable to remain here.
Under no circumstances should American aid, private or public, go to any Islam-dominated region, regardless of the occasion.

It's long past time we grew firm about the defense of freedom, while we still retain a scrap of it.