Held hostage by a fear of ugly truths YOU can only hope those offended by cartoons of Mohammed are equally as offended by images of those who behead, execute and detonate bombs in his name. I hope they are sickened at the latest video from the IS Islamofacists showing a young boy murdering two kneeling hostages by shooting them in the head. They must be angry, too, when that child, looking no older than 10, raises his arm in praise and triumph to his god as he steps over the corpses and walks away. And here we are treading carefully over a cartoon. So sick and out of proportion is the situation that newspapers are considered brave for reprinting the latest Charlie Hebdo cover, with the forbidden front page. In Australia some media outlets have elected not to — they say out of religious respect. I’d say cowardice. Then again, you’re not dealing with an army of letter writing complainers. Radical Muslims have a tendency to overreact when upset. It’s why many Western nations such as ours continue to dance around the real issue and tolerate the intolerant. On Monday morning ABC TV news showed its respects to the religion of peace when it launched into tolerance overdrive. They were about to screen footage of the French magazine’s front page when the lady co-host pre-empted what was about to happen with a disclaimer: “A warning now to our Muslim viewers. We are about to show a caricature of the prophet Mohammed. It’s on the front page of the first Charlie Hebdo magazine published since the terrorist attacks in Paris. “And, if you feel you’ll be offended by this image, please look away now or … switch off.” The presenters then looked at each other righteously, nervously nodding in agreement, paused for a few seconds, and the show went on. I assume this will be the ABC’s new benchmark when they air offensive stuff on all religions. Doubt it. Who were the hundreds marching down the city streets during the 2012 Hyde Park Muslim riots? Remember thugs armed with baseball bats? Ultra-tolerance has many in the Australian media confused to the point of embarrassment. The public is well aware we have a problem. Many Muslims would agree, but switch on your TV and you’re almost talked out of it. We saw it this week on Channel 7’s Sunrise when Andrew O’Keefe appeared to be almost in denial of the need for a discussion. News Corp columnist Rita Panahi argued there was a failure to confront the jihadist elements within the Islamic faith. O’Keefe barely let her finish the sentence. In some corners of the media it’s become fashionable to look the other way. The “acceptable’’ thing to say is that the extremist dimension of Islam is tiny, despite adequate evidence that it’s not so small. Who were the hundreds marching down the city streets during the 2012 Hyde Park Muslim riots? Remember thugs armed with baseball bats? The signs “behead those who insult the prophet”. The rows of riot police required to restore order. Who are the 150 or so so-called Australians who’ve taken up arms to fight for IS? Stupidly, we’ve let 20 of them come home. What about the dozen men spending their lives in maximum security, convicted of plotting acts of terrorism on Australian soil — mass murders that would have happened had the authorities not got to them first. And then there are the now weekly counterterrorism raids happening in suburbs all over the map. It is even fashionable to believe Martin Place terrorist Man Monis was not a terrorist at all, just a “lone wolf”, ignoring that he had 14,000 followers of his anti-Australian rants on Facebook. The few politicians who dare to question the growth of radical Islam in our community are branded alarmist. Commentators who raise the issue are portrayed as racists. I’m not going to insult your intelligence with the usual disclaimer that not everyone who is Muslim is an extremist. Of course they are not. That said, there are enough people committed to a violent take on that religion to pose a threat and it’s about time we had the courage to at least talk about the problem. It’s in all our interests to weed it out. Hearing people rationalise that perhaps the French cartoonists brought this on themselves and the French agitated the situation by banning the burqa in public just shows how far this has all turned and how frightened many have become. If that’s your view, you are no better than the idiot who thinks the pretty girl in the short skirt in the bar is asking to be raped. Australia needs to grow up and wake up to the problem before it grows to a level that’s unbeatable. We have to date been well served by our police and security agencies but let down by a reluctance to debate and deal with what’s really happening.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 07:12:26 +0000
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