Open forum on the Cartoon Jihad

In the second hour of his show, Hugh Hewitt hosted a round table on the subject of the Cartoon Jihad. Seated at the table were Joe Carter of the Evangelical Outpost blog, Michael Medved, and Dennis Prager.

(Update: The transcript and MP3 files are here, courtesy of Radioblogger.)

One of the points Hugh has been making, and which I find extremely irksome, is that in publishing the cartoons, newspapers are radicalizing Muslims.

Bull.

Even if the cartoons turn out to contain themes that hit all the Islamic buttons dead-on, I agree with Dennis Prager. The newspapers are not radicalizing Muslims. Neither are the editors, and neither is anyone else. The "radicalized" Muslims are that easily driven into radical extremism because for them, it's an extremely short trip. The notion that we have to avoid publishing material because it might drive the rest of Islam into the extremists' camp is absurd.

I find it useful to take the notion of the "global village" seriously for some points. Imagine the entire world as a small village, with each house representing a country. Now, for example, I justify something like the invasion of Iraq by comparing it to a house where the father is abusive. Where he beats his family, tortures and kills his pets (and maybe even the hired help), and takes pot shots out the window at the people trying to enforce an easement on his property. In the absence of a police force assigned to deal with this situation, the only alternative is for good people in the neighborhood to take action.

In essence, I find it helpful to reduce these vast geopolitical issues to the personal level.

Now, imagine the case of a woman living with an abusive husband. He slaps her around at the slightest provocation, and insists that any trouble between them is all her fault. Last month, she drew an idle doodle, and he went ballistic. He broke several of her bones, destroyed her paint set, and told her never to offend him that way again.

To me, Hugh's warnings against further radicalizing the already extremist Muslims is the same as someone warning the woman not to do anything to "set off" her husband. Don't urge counseling, don't leave him, don't get a restraining order, and above all, don't subject the man to any negative consequences of his actions.

Again: Bull.

Civilized people don't burn down embassies because they don't like a cartoon published by some paper. Civilized people live in, and form an active part of, a community where this sort of violence is an extreme last resort, and only for sufficient cause.

A society, even a 1400-year-old, religiously based one, which wants to be treated like a civilization, had really better learn to act civilized. If it doesn't learn to act like a civilization, it doesn't deserve to be treated like one.