Finish the Thought Updated

The renowned French shower-of-chest-hair and intellectual, Bernard-Henri Levy, in today's Opinion Journal:

{...}And, faced with this triangulation in progress, faced with this formidable hate-and-death machine, faced with this "moral atomic bomb," we have no other solution than to counter with another triangle--a triangle of life and reason, which more than ever must unite the United States, Europe and Israel in a rejection of any clash of civilizations of the kind desired by the extremists of the Arab-Muslim world and by them alone.

The heart of this second triangle? First, the affirmation of principles. The affirmation of the press's right to the expression of idiocies of its choosing--rather than the acts of repentance that too many leaders have resorted to, and which merely encourages in the Arab street the false and counterproductive illusion that a democratic state may exert power over its press.

And second, in the same breath, the reaffirmation of our support for those enlightened moderate Muslims who know that the honor of Islam is far more insulted, and trampled under foot, when Iraqi terrorists bomb a mosque in Baghdad, when Pakistani jihadists decapitate Daniel Pearl in the name of God and film their crime, or when an Algerian fundamentalist emir disembowels, while reciting the Quran, an Algerian woman whose only crime was to have dared show her beautiful face. Moderate Muslims are alone these days, and in their solitude they more than ever need to be acknowledged and hailed.

If you subscribe to Christopher Hitchens' notion, as I do, that there is a civil war occuring in Islam between the moderates and the fascists, and that the jihad against Western interests, aka The United States of America, is only an offshoot of that battle, then it really becomes very important to know precisely where the moderate Muslims are, because they're not showing up to the battle. In fact, I have yet to see that they even realize they're at war with those in their religion who would have them brought over to their particular brand of orthodoxy by threat of dismemberment or death---whichever is easier. However, we do hear an awful lot from moderate Muslims when they're afraid they're going to be attacked by westerners. Then they're all about showing that they come in peace.

I am more than willing to support moderate Muslims, but here's the question that really needs answering: where are they right now? This is more their battle than it is mine, yet they are nowhere to be found---except on the internet, posting anonymous apologies.

We talk a good game about getting the Europeans to ante up and realize their civilization is about to collapse under the weight of Islamofascism, but we never hold the moderate Muslims to the same standard, do we?

{Hat Tip on the "We Are Sorry" thing to Pious Rob}

UPDATE: Dorkafork over at INDC sez "the silence is deafening." Make sure you read the comments section.

I'm not sure this does it for me, though.

Posted by Kathy at February 9, 2006 11:18 AM | TrackBack