The Religion of Peace Strikes Again

I found this editorial in The Washington Examiner very sad. A few months ago, Molly Norris, cartoonist for The Seattle Weekly, tried to spotlight attempts by radical Muslims to suppress free speech by devising "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." Now, adherents of the Religion of Peace are threatening Norris's life, and since the FBI has told her it cannot protect her, she has been forced to go into hiding.

As terrible as this seems, it doesn't surprise me in the least. The pattern is repeated over and over again. People who have the guts to prominently speak out about Islam and the Muslim world are either killed or are forced to live their life in hiding or with around-the-clock protection. What is a bit surprising to me is the fact that most journalists are not speaking out about this and standing by their own. As The Examiner points out, the American Society of News Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists have both failed to even issue a statement on the issue, despite the fact that they are both supposedly dedicated to promoting free speech and a free press. The press has obsessed about some rogue preacher in Florida with a few dozen followers trying to burn Korans as a publicity stunt, but they have barely covered the Molly Norris story at all.

In fact, The New York Times has been busy blaming America for its persecution of Muslims. Their editorial writer Nicholas Kristof recently wrote, "I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you." Of course, there has been no such "wave of bigotry," either in response to 9/11 or in response to the Ground Zero mosque. Short of one recent isolated incident of violence against a taxi driver (perpetrated by someone associated with a group supporting the Ground Zero mosque, by the way), there has simply been no violence committed against Muslims. Muslims live and work without fear in this country despite being surrounded by non-Muslims. On the other hand, even though Muslims make up a tiny percentage of people in this country, they can force a harmless American cartoonist into hiding for her life. Of course, Kristof is too busy smearing Americans as racist bigots to find time to even pen one sentence of support for Molly Norris.

Here's the problem. The vast majority of journalists in this country are cowards. They are too afraid of radical Islam to speak out against its crimes, or to defend others who have spoken out and become targets. We saw this same cowardice at work earlier when newspapers and publishing houses refused to publish the Danish cartoons making fun of Mohammed that had provoked such outrage in the Muslim world. Or when episodes of South Park were edited by TV networks to avoid Muslim "offense." The First Amendment is considered sacrosanct on every issue from flag-burning to pornography -- except when it comes to criticizing Islam. Then, it's hard to find any journalists willing to speak up for the First Amendment at all. It's because they're cowards, pure and simple. And they don't seem to have much of a moral compass either.

As The Examiner notes, there was a time in our country when our journalists and law enforcement agencies were willing to stand up against violent attempts to curb free speech. Many journalists and newspaper editors risked their lives to speak out against racism and segregation during the civil rights movement. And they received support from the FBI, which sought to protect them and to fight back against the Ku Klux Klan. Nowadays, all brave, patriotic Americans like Molly Norris get from the journalistic and law enforcement communities is the back of the hand. Or worse, they are assumed to have brought it on themselves for being "insensitive" to the notoriously sensitive Muslim community.

Where are the brave Americans in journalism, law enforcement, and politics willing to stand up to the evil of radical Islam? If they don't exist anymore, then I don't think our country is going to stay free for very long.