The Brussels Journal has a good piece on the remarkable double standards of the French police:
“We think there is anti-Semitism in this affair,” Rafi, Ilan’s brother-in-law, told the European Jewish Press. “First because the killers tried to kidnap at least two other Jews, and secondly because of what they said on the phone. When we said we didn’t have Euro 500,000 to give them, they answered we should go to the synagogue and get it,” Rafi stressed. “They also recited verses from the Koran. We didn’t know what they were saying but the police told us,” he said.
No hate crimes here, says the French police.
Over at Dailypundit, there has been a flurry of abolutely marvellous readers’ comments over the last few days. Here is a taste:
They used our foolish nature, our tolerance, our multiculturalism, our determination to believe the best about people and fashioned it into a spear–and rammed it into our heart.
They didn’t merely destroy buildings this time. They took aim–and hit, our very souls.
I would say rise up. I would say, arm yourself, fight for your country
But it’s too late. Our government, our press–our allies are already accepting the scimitar at their necks. They’re already sold us all down the river–just to buy a few more moments to allow themselves to milk the status quo.
As the West collapses I hope we have the sense, in our dying moment, to reduce all the centers of Islam to glass so that the roaches aren’t forced to bow to Mecca.
I wish I’d said that. Per Nyholm says something about being pissed on here.
When we fought a terrible political system, we demanded that the Berlin wall come down. (Well, Ronald Reagan demanded it - I thought he was an idiot, and I learned a big lesson when it turned out he was right.) Now we are menaced by a religious system, we again have to demand that the wall that keeps people in be demolished.
No more penalties for apostates from Islam! Let fatima be a Wiccan or a member of the World Wide Church of God if she wants to be, and let nobody make her afraid!
We should treat apostates as refugees with a well-founded fear of persecution, just as we welcomed refugees from states behind the Iron Curtain.
And again, we should go out of our way to imposes costs - including disrespect - on enemies who threaten those taking shelter at the feet of the Statue of Liberty.
Especially as those taking shelter will often be women.
Will "moderate" Muslims really take great offence at this? I think they will, because it threatens the basis of their religious and social system, including their hold over their women.
We might as well accept that. I do not care if a Muslim supremacist is "moderate" to the extent of issuing a statement in English disapproving of violence. That is no longer the issue. We’ve gone beyond that. The issue is which system will survive and which go under. I want our system, based on freedom, to win. Whoever that offends, let him be offended by it.
If we fight for religious freedom, militantly defend the brave, and shelter those who want to be free from religious oppression (which in Islam is also severe sex-based oppression) we’ll be fine.
And I wish I’d said that even more. Just to recap on Reagan:
In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty–that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.
[…]
In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind–too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.
[…]
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
[…]
And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I’ve been here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they’re doing again.
