David Schwammenthal, a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, writes today on the paper's subscriber—only website that Denmark has in effect capitulated in the cartoon crisis, and that this bodes ill for the future of Europe.

It is clear that Schwammenthal and I see the same big picture in terms of the advance of Sharia as de facto world law. He writes:

The issue, though, is much larger than the question of how to balance press freedom with religious sensibilities; it goes to the heart of the conflict with radical Islam. The Islamists demand no less than absolute supremacy for their religion —— and not only in the Muslim world but wherever Muslims may happen to reside. That's why they see no hypocrisy in their demand for "respect" for Islam while the simple display of a cross or a Star of David in Saudi Arabia is illegal. Infidels simply don't have the same rights.

I have similarly argued that the conflict is about establishing Sharia law as (first) the norm, and later the law in all places on earth. The long term goal is and always has been a Global Caliphate.

Using their combined economic muscle, death threats and street protests, a combination of state and nonstate actors are slowly exporting to Europe the Middle East's repressive system. What Jyllands—Posten's editors are enduring is not unlike what dissidents under communism had to go through. The Islamists can't send the journalists to a gulag but they can silence them by threatening to kill them. Bomb threats twice forced the journalists to flee their offices this week.

While there were moments when solidarity with Denmark appeared to be spreading to other European papers, after the editor of France Soir was fired, momentum shifted.

what really sealed the Danes' fate —— and possibly Europe's —— was the lack of solidarity from other governments. The European Union likes to call "emergency meetings" for the most trivial topics, from farm subsidies to VAT rates. But when one of their smallest members came under attack for nothing else than being a European country, for defending the values and norms the EU is based on, there was nothing but silence from Europe's capitals. That silence has been heard and understood in the Muslim world.

I am not equally convinced that all is lost. There are now more people — especially in Denmark, but also over Europe and even here — who understand the stakes, and are conscious that we are indeed locked in a long term clash of civilization, even if most of us don't realize it yet.

Thomas Lifson   2 04 06