Here's my free speech summit statement: "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke." David Burge
- I have some mixed feeling about the marches that have taken place in France and Europe in response to the most recent Islamist attacks. I'm trying to reconcile several dilemmas and some outright hypocrisy.
- In one sense, I think it's good watching millions of ordinary citizens standing strong against the Islamist terrorist attacks. Quite frankly, it's about time. On the other hand, these attacks should not have come as a surprise considering the warped political correctness and appeasement prevalent in most Western societies today---including our own.
- For example, if Europe was really serious about taking on Islamist, why do "no-go zones" still exist? What does it say about a society, a country, that directs its security forces and police not to enter Muslim "no-go zones?" The answer, in my opinion, is obvious. It comes down to cowardly appeasement and political correctness. And when a society does that, when it behavior lacks courage and when its leadership is gutless, the consequences are what we witnessed last week in Paris.
- In other words, free societies cannot allow liberty and freedom to be held hostage by Islamist homicidal manics. All too long, all too often, in the name of tolerance and multiculturalism, we've allowed this very thing to take hold in many democratic societies.
- I have a lot of respect for the French (one can argue, the U.S. would not exist today if it weren't for the French being our allies during the Revolutionary War. In 1778, the French recognized the U.S. as a sovereign nation). But their hard-Left, Socialist policies throughout the past decades invited terrorism and its warped ideology to take hold in their society. That same mind-set also invited disturbing and disconcerting antisemitism. For example, just last week, the editor of Britain's Jewish Chronicle reported every single Jew he knows has already left Paris. The most recent terrorist attacks will undoubtedly force more Jews to flee France in the coming months and years.
- Marches and protests against Islamic Fascism is good. It's welcoming. But those same millions of people---including their leadership---have to make a vow now. They have to vow to fight against the people they've finally recognized as being evil.
- Perhaps Jonah Goldberg wrote it best last week: "...we are in a moment where moderation, tolerance and respect are too easily confused with appeasement. And that is why the jihadists are winning..."
- Make no mistake, when four Islamist can cause havoc across the European continent for several days or when only a dozen of them can take out our financial headquarters and almost our government on 9/11, we must recognize we're in a war against an evil ideology. It appears millions of citizens are finally waking up to this threat. The question still remains: Will our leadership?
PS: President Obama and his administration is taking some heat for not participating in the Paris marches this past weekend. It should surprise no one since there were no fundraisers scheduled in France that weekend.
