"The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam," Barack Obama explained to the Turkish Parliament on his recent tour of Europe, emphasizing the need for "mutual respect" between our cultures.
"War" and "respect" are two distinct ideas. Both ought to be meted out judiciously. But let's reserve the former as a last resort and the latter to those who actually deserve it.
When Obama bowed to Saudi Arabian "King" Abdullah last week (sadly reminiscent of W.'s insufferable hand-holding with a Saudi prince), he probably thought it an appropriate level of deference. The problem is the wrong person was prostrate.
Why should we "respect" the Saudis? Is it the corporal punishment and amputations? Is it the lack of free speech? Is it a judicial system in which women often are forbidden from testifying, as they are incapable of "understanding what they observe"? Or is it that victims of sexual assault are prosecuted for the crime of being in the presence of unknown males? The honor killings? The forced circumcisions? The terrorist funding?
Though we need not drop Marines into Mecca to remedy that nation's historical and moral sickness, we never should be expected to "respect" gangsters, either.
Why so many on the left are willing to extend tolerance toward those who are militantly illiberal has always been a mystery. Many of these countries wage internal wars to exterminate Christianity and Judaism (religions that existed in some of those places long before Islam), and the concepts of secularism and atheism live only in fantasy.
It's not only fanatics holed up in the caves of Pakistan but also the majority of Islamic nations that, on some level, disregard basic human rights.
And instead of "respecting" Turkey, Obama might have taken the time to live up to his campaign promise to acknowledge last century's Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Christian Armenians.
He hasn't.
In Iraq — a country propped up by American lives and generosity — The New York Times reported that in 2005, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a religious decree declaring that gay men and women should be "punished, in fact, killed." But that wasn't enough. Gays, he decreed, "should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing." The Iraqi government looks the other way
Even Egypt — our "moderate" ally that subsists on $6 billion in U.S. bribe money not to wage war on its neighbor — regularly imprisons political dissidents, executes sexual "deviants," and runs state-funded television shows that would give Nazis pause.
Hey, I guess Egypt is "moderate," compared with Sudan.
Our nation should not be in the business of imposing our values on other cultures. We can't. Our values not only diverge but also are, most often, antithetical. And let's never pretend there is anything "mutual" about a call for respect. The deep and fanatical hatred of America flourished decades before the Iraq war or George W. Bush. Islamic leaders have long blamed their own societal corrosion on the West.
Obama promised to transform American foreign policy. He was elected to do so. So he used his first chance to make an impression as president by apologizing for imaginary crimes against Islam and employing a tone of subservience rather than defending our principles.
Not surprisingly, the more "thoughtful" among us immediately embraced the president's self-flagellation in front of some of the world's worst offenders of human rights as a constructive approach. As a geopolitics ploy … well, we'll see what happens.
But there is undoubtedly nothing thoughtful about offering a false choice. To wage war or to offer respect? We can avoid both. We should.
David Harsanyi is a columnist at The Denver Post and the author of "Nanny State." Visit his Web site at www.DavidHarsanyi.com. To find out more about David Harsanyi and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 THE DENVER POST
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Sir; War is the last resort, and should remain last...But you are wrong about respect... Respect all until the prove unworthy of respect...It cost nothing, counts for everything, and goes a long way with most folks...Now; I do not want to call you or any other person down right ignorant, so I will call you something equally true, but perhaps less offensive: Parochial... It sort of means: back water, hayseed, or hillbilly, in a sort of classy expression... And I say this because you are boob about Muslim morality...I dare you to go there, and run them down... You have not got the guts...You sit behind your pretty protection of rights and bad mouth other cultures from a safe distance...Here is the best argument against you, and for them: IT WORKS...What works about our morality??? We have five percent of the world's population, and twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners behind our own bars...Every city of any size knows it has become a destination on the map when it has a strip club, a porn shop, and prostitution... Are we going to condemn them for taking their religion seriously because we do not take our own seriously???To me; their methods seem barbaric... All that means is that I am not a part of that culture, and from the outside looking in, there is no way I can appreciate what they do, and how they get by... Let me offer you a fact...Morality is community...If we have no common morality, we have no community... Let me teach you some history... Those people invented modern commerce... Check; is one of their words...If we look at their society, we can see that they do not charge each other interest...In fact; their unofficial sort of banking is one things we have attacked since 911...If they do not have interest, they do not have exploitation, nor capital accumulation, nor advancement of technology...But then; they do not have a whole society bled white to pay interest on every conceivable transaction, or huge credit caused meltdowns in their economy...Some members of our society feel they are justified in exploiting the rest, and since it is not specifically forbidden it is encouraged...People denied just wages must resort to credit... Government without the courage to tax the rich finds it must resort to credit...To pay the interest, the people who cannot resist their government are taxed all the more cruelly, or denied their entitlements, or the protection of their rights, or even the services which are the reasonable obligation of any government... So don't point at those people and tell me how bad they got it... Their society works, and the proof is the population...If across Europe and America the white population is dwindling it is a sign of a deep unhappiness that has gripped us...I might change some things about their society, but I would not dare to stick my nose into their business, and judge them wholesale... That is the mark of an ignoramous... That is the kind of thing the black robes did to the Native Americans...Those with some brains about them did not judge, but observed... As cruel as Muslim society seems, it works, people know the rules and accept the rules, and compared to our own land, we are not less cruel, but often, more so... Look at how often we will slap a child on the paw so long as they are juveniles, but after teaching them there is nothing serious about law, we then throw the book at them... Can we say our law or moraity works...If so, at what price, because clearly it is not stopping theft on a national scale, and Law is the largest part of many municipal and county budgets -without really touching the problem....We value peace...The Muslims values Justice...WE put peace before justice, and often justice is never served... Nothing comes before justice to Muslims, and so only idiots mess around... Honor is everything to a Muslim, and for that reason they spank their women when they are lewd... To us; honor is cheap and money is dear... We make a pretense of honor in our business and in our government, but money is our God, and every one knows an oath is only an impediment to wealth...So consider an education before you judge... We are not so far removed from those people that we cannot understand their ways... And it is fully nonsense to believe we are in some sense better than them... We are only more stupid to accept our being worse...Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Thu Apr 9, 2009 8:06 PM
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