Thomas Friedman’s No Way, No How, Not Here praises Indian Muslims for refusing to bury the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks.
To be sure, Mumbai’s Muslims are a vulnerable minority in a predominantly Hindu country. Nevertheless, their in-your-face defiance of the Islamist terrorists stands out. It stands out against a dismal landscape of predominantly Sunni Muslim suicide murderers who have attacked civilians in mosques and markets — from Iraq to Pakistan to Afghanistan — but who have been treated by mainstream Arab media, like Al Jazeera, or by extremist Islamist spiritual leaders and Web sites, as “martyrs†whose actions deserve praise.
Amd surely Friedman is correct when he writes this:
Extolling or excusing suicide militants as “martyrs†has only led to this awful phenomenon — where young Muslim men and women are recruited to kill themselves and others — spreading wider and wider. What began in a targeted way in Lebanon and Israel has now proliferated to become an almost weekly occurrence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This is similar to the late Michael Kelly’s observation in the aftermath of 9/11:
If it is morally acceptable to murder, in the name of a necessary blow for freedom, a woman on a Tel Aviv street, or to blow up a disco full of teenagers, or to bomb a family restaurant — then it must be morally acceptable to drive two jetliners into a place where 50,000 people work. In moral logic, what is the difference? If the murder of innocent people is for whatever reason excusable, it is excusable; if it is legitimate, it is legitimate. If acceptable on a small scale, so too on a grand.
And yet, Friedman has been one of those who has excused suicide terror when it has been directed against Israel. As he wrote five and a half years ago:
Suicide bombing is becoming so routine here that it risks becoming embedded in contemporary culture. America must stop it. A credible peace deal here is no longer a U.S. luxury — it is essential to our own homeland security. Otherwise, this suicide madness will spread, and it will be Americans who will have to learn how to live with it.
Friedman, while he often called on the Palestinians to stop suicide bombings, also held the view that the Palestinian grievances were such, that such terror was understandable. This paragraph shows that he felt once Israel helped create a Palestinian state, suicide bombings would end. Implicit in that belief is a level of tolerance of terror.
The “occupation” has served as a justification for terror against Israel. Actually it’s been a pretext to justify anti-Israel violence and antisemitism. It is why broadcasts by Hamas and Hezbollah have been too long tolerated in Europe.
Europe can act against Hamas TV under its own legal authority governing television broadcasting. France should enforce the warning its own audiovisual authority issued on Dec. 2, 2008, warning Eutelsat that al-Aqsa programming violates French communications law. Eutelsat’s recent decision to stop distributing al-Aqsa on only one of its satellites is not sufficient compliance, and Eutelsat should be held accountable for its continued broadcasting of al-Aqsa.
And Turkey is allowing this malevolence to metastasize. According to the BBC (via memeorandum)
Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas leader based in Damascus, challenged Arab governments to “open their borders and allow the fighters to come.”
Delegates from all over the Middle East, and from Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia applauded as he stabbed the air with a raised finger and declared: “There will be no agreement with Israel… only weapons will bring respect.”
Mr Nazzal told his audience: “Don’t worry about casualties.”
LGF wonders:
Didn’t Obama just reach out to the Muslim world? Weren’t they listening to his message of hope, change, and unclenched fists?
For too long suicide bombing and terror in general has been tolerated. And it’s not just the Muslim world that needs to take a stand against it. Looking for moderation where there is none won’t change those who hate the West. While the West doesn’t just need to fight terror, it must make it known that terror is unacceptable and that those who perpetrate it will be held accountable. Showing “understanding” doesn’t help.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
