Friday, March 14, 2008
Soft-headed "soft power"
Leaders of Islam gathered in Dakar to plot a strategy for combating the "defamation" of Islam in the West.
The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to the fury of the Muslim world.
Though the legal measures being considered have not been spelled out, the idea pits many Muslims against principles of freedom of speech enshrined in the constitutions of numerous Western governments.
The United States is responding to this frankly obscene idea -- that the body of opinions called Islam should somehow be held free from criticism of other opinions -- with "soft power":
While the Muslim world worries about the image of Islam in the West, the U.S. envoy to the OIC attended the summit to try to tackle the thorny question of America's image among Muslim states.
Sada Cumber calls his campaign the "soft power" of the U.S. - an effort to find common ground with Muslim nations by championing universal values the U.S. holds dear like religious tolerance and freedom of speech.
Maybe I missed something, but is there even a shred of evidence that Muslim nations, in the main, value either religious tolerance or freedom of speech? How is Sada Cumber going to locate the common ground he purports to seek?
Westerners, including most Americans who have given the matter any thought, regard freedom of religion as a subset of freedom of speech and know that there simply cannot be one without the other. Muslim nations, with a couple of exceptions, regard freedom of speech and, therefore, freedom of religion (which ought not be confused with freedom of worship for established religious minorities), as incompatible with Islam. Otherwise, citizens of those countries would be free to criticize Islam or reject it for another set of opinions, which of course they are not.
3 Comments:
By 
Assistant Village Idiot, at
Fri Mar 14, 11:24:00 PM:
I see the soft part. I don't get where the power comes in.
By 
, at
Sat Mar 15, 12:16:00 AM:
This is why Muslims are my enemy. All of them.
Muslims demand to determine what I, as a FREE MAN in the West, may say, do, or think.
This is only going to harden Western attitudes towards Muslims that they all should be sent packing back to Muslim nations in the West. And that Muslims in Muslim nations need periodic smacking down to keep them in line.
By antithaca, at
Sat Mar 15, 12:38:00 AM:
avi: perfect comment RE: soft "power"
anonymous: For every person that decides to defend their right to speak & believe & worship freely one or more will see this type of attitude (on behalf of the OIC,etc) as just another reason for more dialogue in search of greater understanding. Understanding of what exactly? Your guess is as good as mine.
