Standing firm in the face of a medieval culture

I have nothing to add to Daniel Pipes' summing up of the cartoon furor:

The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not. More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more offensive than the Danish ones. Are they entitled to dish it out while being insulated from similar indignities? Germany's Die Welt newspaper hinted at this issue in an editorial: 'The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet.' Nor, by the way, have imams protested the stomping on the Christian cross embedded in the Danish flag. The deeper issue here, however, is not Muslim hypocrisy but Islamic supremacism. The Danish editor who published the cartoons, Flemming Rose, explained that if Muslims insist 'that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos ... they're asking for my submission.'

There's more to Pipe's article, but the above is the underlying premise. And I lied -- I do have one more thing to say. For those a bit unclear on history, this is life in the Caliphate, circa say the 12th Century: Islam is completely dominant, and the others in the Caliphate conform to Islamic norms. Alternatives for those lucky to live in a "liberal" Caliphate are second class status, heavy taxes and mandatory service in the Caliph's army. Alternatives to those unlucky enough to live in a "conservative" Caliphate -- well, think Saudi Arabia, where all religions but Islam are criminalized, where women are left to die in burning buildings rather than allowed to be in the streets unveiled, where people are stoned to death for adultery (there goes Hollywood), and where your kid gets his hand cut off when he steals that candy bar. And Saudi Arabia is a relatively friendly Caliphate compared to Iran. Talking to Technorati: Cartoons, Censorship, Saudi Arabia, Islam, IranRelated Tags, Cartoon riots, Caliphate, Hypocrisy, Sharia law