Written by: Anonymous

When we invaded Iraq, we heard a great deal of argument from European opponents of the war that the invasion would upset the Arab street and incite Muslims to commit violence against the West. While the war certainly generated animosity in the Muslim world, I don't recall that the invasion resulted in riots and demonstrations of the magnitude created by the Muhammad cartoons. Yet many of these same Europeans now vociferously support the publishing of these cartoons.

In light of the reaction from the Muslim world, the positions of these Europeans on Iraq and the cartoons appear contradictory. But I think for many European Leftists a very consistent motive underlies their positions - a suicidal, utopian anti-Westernism.

I can see why most people would find this argument ridiculous at first. After all, it is Muhammad and not Christ these cartoons are mocking. And the issue at stake is a Western concept - freedom of speech. But ask yourself this, if these were racist cartoons depicting Muslims as apes or monkeys, would all of these same people be jumping to their defense and republishing them? Indeed, I think many of these same people would find such cartoons quite censorable.

I believe the real reason many on the Left are stridently defending the cartoons is because they see suppression of the cartoons as a challenge to radical secularism. They believe the cartoons must be defended because acknowledging a line that cannot be crossed in attacking Muslim religious beliefs means that there is also a corresponding line that cannot be crossed in attacking Christian beliefs. And the Left accurately perceives Christianity as an impediment to their utopian visions for remaking Western society.

That said, the majority of Europeans who support the publishing of the cartoons probably do so because they genuinly believe in the freedom of the press and/or because they no longer wish to tolerate the invective and madness that has developed in much of the Islamic world.

But before we get too excited that Europe is finally waking up to the danger of Islam, we should remember that many of the Europeans who seem to be rising to Western civilization's defense are Leftists that will still viciously oppose any attempt to defend it using military means. For foreign wars, just like religion, have no place in the brave new society they are building, and their most important enemies will still be those within their own civilization that stand in their way.