The ultimate effect of living in a moral vacuum

In a generally excellent column about the weird Arab wake-up call to the evils of terrorism, as a result of the bombing in Jordan, Dennis Prager has this sterling paragraph:

Now there is widespread condemnation of Zarqawi's terror in Jordan. There is even a fear that the name of Islam will suffer. Unfortunately, however, it is only because Zarqawi was foolish enough to massacre Jordanian civilians, and not confine his massacres to Iraqis and non-Arabs. What has aroused Arab voices against Zarqawi has nothing to do with the immorality of blowing up people celebrating at a wedding -- it has to do with the immorality of blowing up Muslims celebrating at a wedding.

As Prager noted earlier in the column, prior acts of terrorism have evoked slightly different responses:

Jordanians are shocked that Islamic terrorists would blow up families, including families celebrating a wedding. They are so shocked that for the first time in history, Muslims have taken to publicly demonstrating against Islamic terror. And why are they shocked? Because the terrorists blew up Jordanians. As long as Islamic terrorists blew up men, women and children who are Jewish, Christian, Hindu, American, Australian and black Sudanese, the Arab and larger Muslim worlds were not particularly disturbed. In fact, Palestinians, who comprise the majority of Jordan's population, celebrated when Jews were blown up at Passover seders and at weddings. And they took to the streets and cheered in the Palestinian fashion, handing out candy, when Americans were incinerated in office buildings.

As I was reading that passage, I thought to myself, well, they've also been silent when Iraqi Arabs have been killed. Doesn't that put paid to your argument, Mr. Prager? I should have guessed that, before many paragraphs had passed, he'd have an answer to that:

Of course, Arab Muslim men, women and children are blown up almost weekly in Iraq, but, hey, that's OK because the monsters doing it hate America and seek Israel's annihilation. And in the Arab world -- and in much of the Muslim and leftist worlds -- hatred of America and Israel gets you a moral pass. In the Arab/Muslim worlds (with individual exceptions, of course), as among the world's leftists, an act is almost incapable of being judged evil if it is committed by those who hate America (especially the America of George W. Bush) or Israel.

I'm glad the Arab world is shaken by this act of barbarism, but I'm with Prager -- I'd feel more sanguine if Arabs were shaken by the barbarism itself, rather than by the fact that, suddenly, they are its victims.