Cartoon conservative
I have to admit that each time I posted about the cartoon jihad I'd get an uneasy sensation about the fact that I was more or less agreeing with Michelle Malkin about something for the first time since, well, ever. Well now I've found a way to draw a bright clear line. You see, while Michelle loves her some "Islam is a religion peace — not!" posts, I tend to think Islamofascism is mostly about fascism, not Islam. And as I've tried to point out, the fanatics who rioted over the cartoons were driven as much by politics as faith.
Last week, Michelle posted about 15 Nigerian Christians who were killed — in her har-har emphasis — "in the name of the prophet Mohammed." Then she went on to list other instances in which Nigerian Muslims killed Christians, because, you know, that's what those people do.
Yet strangely, Michelle, who has posted about every news story related to the Muhammad cartoons so far, has not yet had anything to say about today's news out of Nigeria's ongoing riots, "in which Christian mobs wielding machetes, clubs and knives set upon their Muslim neighbors." At the burned central mosque, "someone wrote in chalk on a charred wall, 'Jesus is Lord.' The message went on to warn that 'from today' there would be no more Muhammad." If that graffiti had been the same thing from a Muslim perspective, it would have made for the perfect darkly ironic Malkin headline. Well, maybe she'll get around to using it later. She won't just ignore this story, will she?
My point, of course, is nothing so simplistic as, "See, Christianists can be just as bad as Islamists," but to note, as the Times story makes clear, that places like Nigeria and the Middle East come loaded with complex backstories of ethnic and politicial tensions, and that pretexts for violence are often just that — pretexts.
Update: I still agree with Marlette. Except about the overall value of editorial cartoons in general.
Update: While we're talking about things Michelle won't post, Sullivan has a photo from the pro-Denmark rally of a woman holding a sign with a quote from Mencken: "The most curious social convention is that religious opinions should be respected." Maybe she can photoshop it so that instead of "religious" it just says "Muslim." That would work, right?
Comments
And even as they become more like us, we become more like them. The different cultures seek equilibrium.
An American (or Christian) Taliban; Jihad; Sharia...
Who would have thunk...
Posted by: R.C. | February 24, 2006 2:18 PM
Expert quote:
"In Darling's view, territory is psychological, not physiological. ... In the end however, there are two ways to live: to defy or to defer." [dialectic]
--Robert Ardrey, The Territorial Imperative, p. 169
Posted by: R.C. | February 24, 2006 2:21 PM
I don't think that Christianists being as bad as Islamists, is such a simplistic point. I think people can't be reminded enough that they need to look in the mirror.
Posted by: Sam | February 24, 2006 2:57 PM
then again, you probably haven't seen or heard of a "christianist" walking into a crowded public space and blowing himself up.
Posted by: fred | March 2, 2006 10:03 AM