Broken Records...

Apparently, the London bombings were just the beginning. A Muslim extremist close to London's radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri told a Kuwaiti newspaper in remarks published Sunday that the July transit bombings in the British capital were just the beginning, and he expected more in coming years.

"This is part of a series of events that will go on for years."

Mark Steyn takes the extremist Muslim threats seriously. Needing To Wake Up, The West Just Closes Its Eyes, is an unvarnished look at what passes for imperious multiculturalism in France. In speaking of the Halimi murder in Paris, Steyn sums up an obvious, tough often obfuscated, truth:

Even in the most civilized societies, there are depraved monsters who do terrible things. When they do, they rip apart entire families, like the Halimis and Selams. But what inflicts the real lasting damage on society as a whole is the silence and evasions of the state and the media and the broader culture.

Read that quote again.

The problem, through the eyes of many in the Muslim world is clear.

''Anti-Islam began to replace Anti-Semitism in Western world and preventive legal precautions on this are not sufficient''

As barbarism becomes a as regular an event as the Paris metro schedules, the problem is anti Islam sentiment. Perhaps the butcher of a few more Jews will boost the radical Islamists self esteem.

Whereas the civilized world ought to be up in arms about this, instead there is wild, frenzied drive to blame free nations for the barbarism of of tyrannies- as if somehow, we were to blame for the choices made by regimes and the individuals that are at the head of those regimes, to behave in ways most heinous. Blaming America for beading Christians, stoning women, executing teenagers and murdering gays can hardly be considered a rational thought. Perhaps that it why the left can't be bothered dealing with those realities. A few thousand dead Christians, women, teenagers and gays, with numbers mounting everyday, cannot be allowed to impede the 'Get Bush' agenda.

That leads us to another question- Is Islam Beyond Criticism? That is the premise of a letter published in the Scotsman.

If it is permissible in a free society for anyone to attempt to undermine the deepest convictions of the Jewish diaspora, or, for that matter, those of fundamentalist evangelical Christians, then I cannot understand why the Islamic faith, alone of all world religions, should be treated as being beyond criticism even of a satirical nature.

This is especially true in the context of the current "war on (Islamic) terrorism", which has seen young Muslims driving planes into tall buildings packed with civilians and blowing themselves and others up on the London Underground, while citing the Koran and the "will of Allah" in posthumous justification for their appalling actions.

Hyperbole? Exaggeration? The acts and ideas of a few? Consider this:

A plan for the "Return of the Khalifate" was published secretly in 2002 by a group called "The Guiding Helper Foundation." The group explained that it wished to "give direction to the educated Muslim populace in its increasing interest in the establishment of Islam as a practical system of rule."

This past Friday, Feb. 24... Sheikh Nawahda called publicly for the renewal of the Islamic Khalifate, which would "unite all the Moslems in the world against the infidels."

Nawahda called upon the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to rise above their personal and party interests, and said that Moslems must return to Islam and join forces in the struggle against the West. He praised the worldwide protests against the anti-Muhammed cartoons, and encouraged the Moslem public to continue such activities. He implied that those who insulted Muhammed are liable for death. The Sheikh designated the Moslem masses as a strong point that can be utilized in the fight against the West.

And so it goes. For some inexplicable reason, the New York Times decided to deal head on with the reality of the cartoon issue.

It is not the West that is most threatened in this crisis. The voices of moderation in the Muslim world are the ones that are being intimidated and silenced. Those few journalists and leaders who have spoken out against the rioting have been vilified and assailed, and even jailed. According to a report in The New York Times, 11 journalists in five Islamic countries face prosecution for printing some of the Danish cartoons, even when their purpose was to condemn them.“

It is time for moderate Muslims to abandon the illusion that they can placate the Islamists by straddling the fence. It is they who must explain to their people that the cartoons were an isolated incident, and not the face of hostile crusaders. It is they who must make it clear to their people that blowing up mosques, beheading hostages and strapping on belts of explosives are far, far greater evils than a few drawings in a distant paper. They must do so because their future is at stake - not Denmark's.

The fact remains that if moderate Muslims are to isolated and marginalized, it ought to be by the radicals- and not ourselves.