Muslim religious leaders and intellecutals say worse things aobut infidels (you and me) every day, than the Pope has ever said about Islam. We shouldn't call for them all to be killed but we should be able to condemn such speech and agree that it is harmful.
When a Muslim spews hate and vitriol in the name of Islam nobody should hesitate to stand up and say "knock it off". But no we live in the PC world where we have to tiptoe through the tulips so that we don't exhibit any anti-arab racism. And the Pope appologizes for quoting history because it offended so incredibly.
Check this out in the WaPo today.
Anne Applebaum - Enough Apologies - washingtonpost.com: "All of which is simply beside the point, since nothing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it's time that it should: When Saudi Arabia publishes textbooks commanding good Wahhabi Muslims to 'hate' Christians, Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, for example, why shouldn't the Vatican, the Southern Baptists, Britain's chief rabbi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations all condemn them -- simultaneously?Will it take something worse than 9/11 for this to happen? The sooner we stop thinking of these guys as the victims the better.
Maybe it's a pipe dream: The day when the White House and Greenpeace can issue a joint statement is surely distant indeed. But if stray comments by Western leaders -- not to mention Western films, books, cartoons, traditions and values -- are going to inspire regular violence, I don't feel that it's asking too much for the West to quit saying sorry and unite, occasionally, in its own defense. The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don't see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech, too."
