Expert laments ‘toxic attitude’ that ‘anyone offending Islam must be punished’
CWN – September 13, 2012
Addressing a symposium on international religious freedom [at Catholic University of America], a Georgetown University scholar and former US diplomat decried the “toxic attitude that anyone offending Islam must be punished.”
“Violent actions against blasphemy in the Muslim world are symptoms of a dangerous pathology with strategic implications,” said Thomas Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University. “At its root is the view, widely accepted among Muslims abroad, that anyone who offends Islam must be punished, either by the state or private actors.”
Farr, who addressed the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ June meeting, continued:
Across the world we are seeing increasing levels of violence against anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, accused of blasphemy, defamation of Islam, or apostasy … Yesterday US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens and three other Americans were murdered by people offended by a film insulting the Prophet Mohammed. The walls of the US Embassy in Cairo were stormed by mobs because of that film.
Let me be clear. No one should insult the sacred beliefs of another. It is an assault on human dignity and respect for others. But the malevolent idea that the proper response to defamation of religion is criminal prosecution, let alone violence or murder, is a dangerous problem in the Muslim-majority world. My religion is insulted regularly by the New York Times and the Washington Post. I frequently am outraged. But I try to respond with my voice or my pen. That is the only way people with deep differences can live together in a civilized society.
It is frankly a source of great concern to me that the US Embassy in Cairo issued a press release yesterday, on the anniversary of 9/11, that did not condemn this violence against innocent people, but condemned those who “hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” and other religious believers. The issue here is not hurt feelings. It is violent religious extremism that is destroying lives and endangering American security`. I would have thought that American diplomats learned decades ago that appeasement of tyrants does not work. It simply makes things worse.
This toxic attitude — that anyone offending Islam must be punished — is responsible for many of the growing numbers of attacks on religious minorities worldwide, attacks that are causing an estimated 150,000 Christian deaths per year. This tragedy, I would submit, warrants far more attention that it has received from Western policy makers and the media.
“It is in the vital interests of the United States that nations like Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt overcome violent religious extremism and achieve stable democracies and economic development,” Farr continued. “This will not happen so long as Muslims believe that those who offend Islam must be met with violence, either through criminal prosecution, mob action, or murder. In short, the United States must become more effective at supporting in these countries those Muslims who know that Islam can be defended without violence, and that embracing religious freedom is in their vital interests.”
Additional sources for this story: International Religious Freedom: An Imperative for Peace and the Common Good (Catholic University of America) iprcua.com/2012/09/12/international-religious-liberty/
Vatican spokesman calls for end to offenses against Islam, does not condemn jihad murders; bishop in Libya calls for blasphemy laws in the West
Posted by Deacon Robert on September 13, 2012
www.jihadwatch.org/2012/09/vatican-spokesman-calls-for-end-to-offenses-against-islam-does-not-condemn-jihad-murders-bishop-in-l.html
Sometimes it seems as if the world has lost its collective moral compass. Lombardi’s statement keeps going on about “respect” — that is, the respect that we all must have for Islam. But about the lack of respect that the Muslim murderers showed to Ambassador Stevens and the others he says nothing.
These prelates are playing a dangerous game. Perhaps they are unaware of the history of dhimmitude, and the reality that the dhimmi laws are still part of Sharia. Perhaps they think life for Christians in the Middle East will go better if they toe the Islamic supremacist line. But they will eventually discover that the Qur’anic mandate to make war against and subjugate unbelievers extends even to those who readily give Islamic supremacists whatever they want.
It is also doubtful that they realize that the imposition of blasphemy laws upon the West would allow the Islamic jihad an unfettered hand to expand its activities in Western countries, and no one would be allowed to speak out in opposition or resistance.
Nor do they realize that calling for censorship in the wake of violence and murder will only get them more violence and murder — because the murderers see that their tactics work.
“Vatican spokesman, responding to Libyan violence, decries provocations against Islam,” from CWN, September 12:
From Libya, Bishop Giovanni Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, told Vatican Insider that Western countries should have the “courage” to ban “all blasphemous projects” and establish “a policy that is respectful of religion.”
Muslims are of the Devil. Psalm 95: “The gods of nations are devils.”