The Hate Us for Our Freedoms; or, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day – the Sequel…

When the line, “They hate us for our freedoms” was first uttered by George Bush, (jr), I laughed. Who would bother to hate another for their freedoms? Every man, every society, every religion in the world has the ability and the responsibility to work to ensure their own freedoms. I thought some people might be envious of our ‘freedoms,’* but, ‘hate’ us? No way.

I am beginning to think Bush might have, unknowingly, shared an insight into a small group of people, controlled by a few religious leaders, that do hate us for our freedoms. Or, at the very least, get really pissed off and kill people when we exercise them

The lead on Fox News this morning was a piece about the killing yesterday, in Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan, of four Nepalese and three Rumanian guards working for the United Nation’s mission there. {Or, least it was the lead. Now the lead is the hole in the airliner story.]

The New York Times and CNN.com reported the killings as current events, but did not lead with their accounts, as Fox News did.  All the reports contain, essentially, the same information.

The mob that killed the UN Peace Keepers were angry because of the burning of a Koran by non-denominational evangelical Pastor Terry Jones in Florida on 20MAR2011.  Jones is also remembered by some, (and, apparently, despised by quite few more), for his infamous threat to burn a large number of Korans last summer.

Okay, so here comes the commentary….

I am sick and tired of this bullshit. No one is more tolerant of different  religions than I am. This was a not a religious act. It was an act of criminals, plain and simple. I am not tolerant of criminals.

It seems that some religious authorities, (or, at least, the Imams who provoked this action.), in Afghanistan fail to understand that you don’t get to riot and kill people when your feelings get hurt. No matter how much your feelings get hurt. It seems, every time, something like this happens, there is some Imam who takes advantage of the situation to further their own agenda by inciting their followers to commit acts of violence, up to and including murder. Am I the only one who finds this totally bizarre, unacceptable  and antithetical to the very concept of civilization? I hope not.

From what I know of Terry Jones, he sounds like a jerk. He seems like a reactionary after his 15 minutes of fame. His attempt at 15 minutes of fame, we are led to believe by some, have led to, at least, two riots and seven murders. 

For this reason Mr. Jones has been asked to stop exercising his constitutional right to free speech by the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. 

I say, so what if what Jones says hurts the feeling of some zealot who feels that violence against the west solves all his/her problems? Or, more likely, likes their** ability to provoke violence as a measure of their own power.

Some say we must give up our constitutional right to free speech to appease two guys with AK47s squatting around a campfire somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan and Iraq, (coming soon, two more guys squatting around a campfire in Libya), whose Imam will tell them to start killing people. 

To those people I say, get a clue. Appeasement doesn’t work. Take, for example, the German take over of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. English Prime Minister Chamberlain and  French President Daladier sold out Czechoslovakian President Benes in an effort to appease Hitler. It didn’t work. Hitler continued his policy of Lebensraum and invaded Poland in 1939. Followed by France, the Low Countries, Denmark, Russia and most of eastern Europe, etc. As this clearly shows, the only problem with appeasement is – and here is where history is unquestionably clear – there is no appeasing intolerant tyrants.

The Imam’s who provoked this riot are responsible for it. Jones is an ass, but his speech is constitutionally protected. I may not like him or what he stands for, but I will fight to the death for his right to say it.

In a recent post on the forums at Slate.com about a new law that is being considered in the Florida legislature to outlaw taking pictures of farms, (Yes, that’s right, farms. You know, dirt and building materials arranged in a practical manner. That kind of farm.), a fellow poster vehemently posited, (in direct response to my statements about what constituted a ‘reasonable expectation of privacy,’ as interpreted by the SCOTUS), that prohibiting the photography of a farm was reasonable, even if ‘it’ had no reasonable expectation of privacy, because it might make someone uncomfortable.

He*** called me a “Constitutional Fundi” (Fundi, apparently, meaning fundamentalist), because of my reliance on an ‘ancient text’ – the Constitution of the US. He added that I was just as bad as religious fundamentalists, because I refused to change with ‘time and circumstances.’

First, I thanked him for calling me a constitutional fundamentalist. I am a constitutional fundamentalist. I believe every word in the Constitutional of the United States. Even the ones I don’t agree with. And reminded him that farms have no constitutional right to privacy; in fact, they have no rights at all. He took exception to that, too.

This type of response to the reasonable assertion of our constitutional liberties threatens the very existence of our civil rights. He is entitled to his opinion – however bizarre and unreal – but he fails to realize that constitutional rights are a hedge on how far the government can intrude into our personal lives. They protect the rights of the few over the tyranny of the many. The  Constitution of the United States is the single greatest living document the world has seen in the last 300 years.

But, to appease an Imam sitting in the “Blue Mosque” in a backward country with no real functioning government, we should give up the rights granted us by the Constitution of the United States. We should silence people like Terry Jones and anyone else that would say something that would upset one of these Imam’s. (To me, it seems anything said may upset them, so we are not safe in saying anything.) In other words, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan is telling us to give up our free speech rights to appease a pair of un-appeasable tyrants.

I don’t think so. In fact, I know so. We cannot give up our constitutional rights to these intolerant religious charlatans. We need to draw a bright line between us and them. Between a country founded and governed by its citizens and country that has not significantly advanced in the last 500 years of repressive religious rule. We should not stop doing what makes us “American” for two guys squatting around a campfire in the mountains of Afghanistan for fear they will be directed to kill someone in retaliation for our expression.

I am not saying that everyone should act and think like Americans. I am perfectly happy – nay, enthusiastic – that they can worship in their own way and live as they choose. I believe they have the intrinsic human right to do both. They can put on saris and dance on a hilltop worshiping the moon, for all I care.

What I will not tolerate is them killing people when someone says/does something they don’t like. 

It seems to me the solution is for NATO to withdraw all of its forces from Afghanistan. The UN should stop providing humanitarian aid. All NGOs should immediately leave. In other words, we should leave Afghanistan - Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Darfur, Tunisia, Iran, Jordan, Palestine and on and on - to their own devices. 

When people get tired of following around these ‘Imams’ and blindly doing what they say, they will assert themselves and overthrow what they see as an oppressive regime. Two months ago, I would have said that might take a little time. Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen have since proved me wrong. When a critical mass of people rises up against a tyrannical government, change is given – in a very short time.

We owe the people of Afghanistan nothing. Afghanistan was among the worst ideas of a man who history will record as right up there among the top two worst presidents ever to lead this country. They don’t want us there** **In fact, they are willing to die to make us leave. 

So, we should respect their wishes and leave. Posthaste or as soon thereafter as possible. Leave them to live in the mess of their own creation. When they get tired of it – like the people in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – they will rise up and end it. It is not up to us to end it for them. They have to do it for themselves. And I say we should leave as quickly as possible and let them do it. Or not. Depending upon what they want.

Now, to the point of Let’s Draw Mohammed Day – The Sequel.

Most of you are familiar with the “Let’s Draw Mohammed” FaceBook page created in May of 2010 in reaction to death threats directed at the creators of the South Park cartoon show. Mohammed had been depicted on their program wearing a bear suit so they didn’t have to, actually, show a picture of Mohammed. One thinks this is a rational commentary on the totally bizarre idea that no one can draw a picture of Mohammed.

The bear suit didn’t work. It still pissed off a couple of guys who told the creators of South Park that they would end up like Theo Van Gogh. Mr. Van Gogh was murdered in Holland after he made a film about Islam’s mistreatment of women.

The Wikipedia entry about the event is here. 

It is my conclusion that we should have another “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.” We should directly exercise our constitutional rights to free speech. No matter who we might offend.

And we should leave Islam to wallow in the pit of its own making.

Unlike the cartoonist behind “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” I will not go underground when violence is threatened to silence expression jihadests do not like. I understand why she did what she did. Although it is not what I would have done, I respect her for making the choice she felt she had to make.


I, on the other hand, am willing to make a stand in defense of my civil rights. I will not let a tyrant drive me into hiding.

* Which, ironically, are shrinking by the minute.

**I am trying to use gender neutral pronouns, but I may slip. At any regard, I am not know whether it is possible for a woman to be an Imam and/or if there are any female Imams. The two Imams involved this murderous act were men.

***This is a gender neutral form of ‘he’ since I don’t know if the poster was male or female. Jeez, I hate political correctness.

****Unless, of course, you are the Karzai family or one of their cronies  who are making a large fortune by stealing everything that isn’t nailed down and quite a few of the things that are.

I was going to write a review of the Glock 35 today, events prevented that. So, maybe, tomorrow.

The biggest non-event of the day is that the Japanese reactors are leaking highly radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. The story was on the first page of CNN.com, this morning. Now I can't even find it on their site. It wasn't mentioned in this morning's New York Times email, either.

I hope someone is paying attention. I would hate to believe the energy companies are strong enough to go on with their plans to build more of these disasters in the US.