The practice of Muslims executing those, like Dutch film maker Theo van Gough, whom they believe blaspheme their religion, is not likely to go away, at least in Europe. Spengler, the acerbic columnist for the Asia Times, puts it thusly:

Many mainstream Muslim leaders, though, cannot bring themselves to denounce the murderer of van Gogh, whose film Submission showed Koranic verses superimposed on the naked skin of Muslim women.

Smugness oozes from European politicians who demand that Muslims repudiate violence as a precondition for residence in the West. To repudiate the death sentence for blasphemy would be the same as abandoning the Islamic order in traditional society in favor of a Western—style religion of personal conscience. The West spent centuries of time and rivers of blood to make such a transition, and carried it off badly. Whether Islam can do so at all remains doubtful.

Spengler does not spare the West, either. He notes how long it took religious tolerance to take hold in Europe. America's religious tradition, especially the vigor and tolerance found in contemporary evangelical Christians, comes in for praise from the normally curmudgeonly critic.

Hat tip: Roger L. Simon

Thomas Lifson   11 24 04