Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

Salman Rushdie is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and Pakistan and Iran aren't happy about it. I find this to be excellent news, and I hope that more Western nations will do things that annoy the tender sensibilities of Muslim extremists.

Here are some perfect examples of just how unhinged Islamic countries are, quoting from a story in the Australian about the reaction to the knighthood announcement:

Some radicals burned effigies of Queen Elizabeth and Rushdie in fresh protests in Pakistan....

Britain in turn voiced "deep concern" over reported comments by Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Ijaz-ul-Haq that the honouring of Rushdie justified suicide attacks....

Iran also summoned the British ambassador, Geoffrey Adams, to protest at the knighting of Rushdie, and the Iranian foreign ministry's director for Europe, Ebrahim Rahimpour, told him that the honour was a "provocative act", state media reported.

"The British government's insulting, suspicious and ill-considered act is an obvious sign of Islamophobia which has terribly hurt the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims," Rahimpour was quoted as saying.

"The consequences of this provocation, which has angered Muslims, will be directed at the British queen and government."

For a people who repeatedly demonstrate that they know little beyond how to murder (whether foreigners (such as in London), other Muslim sects (such as in Iraq), or simply other political parties (such as in Gaza), it is rather amazing that they are so prone to "hurt feelings".

It is time for more knighthoods for people who have offended Islam (although Rushdie's body of work is so massive and so impressive that the uproar over the small part of "The Satanic Versus" to which Muslims object should be dwarfed by the admiration of all intellectuals for his incredible writing.)

It is time for more Danish cartoons.

It is time for civilized governments to tell Islamic governments that they will be held responsible for destructive actions of their citizens anywhere in the world. It is time to react angrily against baldfaced threats against the Queen, our President, or any citizens of democracies.

It is time for Iran and other Muslim nations to know that we are willing to live in peace if somehow they can do so (which I believe is not possible), but that despite the struggle we are having in Iraq, we can and will defend ourselves against them, and that we are fully capable of realizing and fighting World War IV against Islam if they do not keep their insanity confined to within their own borders.

Years...or centuries...of appeasing Islam has demonstrated conclusively that at best it accomplishes nothing, just as appeasing Hitler not only didn't stop him, it emboldened him into thinking his enemies had no backbone. It is far past time for civilization to stand up against anti-civilization, for reason to stand up against lunacy, for all other religions to stand up against Islam...not because it is "other" but because its raison d'etre is our slavery or death.

The renewed furor over Salman Rushdie is just the latest in a never-ending series of reminders that our enemy is implacable, murderous, and, by any modern definition, insane. And, like it or not, that enemy is Islam. Not simply "radical Islam", but Islam itself because it is inherently radical, intolerant, disloyal to country (and loyal to dogma and jihad) and unstoppable by pretty words and constant accommodation.

President Bush doesn't know much, but he knows that. If there is anything which he deserves credit for, it is not backing away from that realization even when it might help his polling results. With a little luck, Americans realize the facts of Islam as well and will not make the disastrous error of electing a Democrat to office just at a time when we need real strength in the White House, not pacifists or those whose decisions are based on popularity rather than principle and our very survival as a civilization.