We are engaged in a war on many fronts with radical Islam. We are doing everything we can to prevent this from become a general war with Islam. That is because we would like those moderate elements, those which are mainly interested in getting up each morning, opening the shop, and raising their children with hopes of a brighter future, to stay that way. We would like them to recognize that we share these goals in common.

So when the pope hauls out the medieval rhetoric, or when Danish newspapermen decide mocking Mohammad might make for a whiz-bang exercise in freedom of speech, they aren't helping.

The idea that they, the Muslims, did it first doesn't help. Yes, the Arab media is full of vile libels, insults and threats to the West and western religions on a daily basis. Their religious and political leaders spout murderous bile and slander regularly. There should be a greater spotlight thrown on that. The utter hypocrisy should be held up for all to see, and more pressure should be placed on Muslim leaders to denounce it. In civil society we try to discuss our differences generally without burning other people's property or killing people. Of course, everyone should be able to do that.

But the fact is, we are not dealing with stable, civil societies. We are not dealing with modern democracies forged by centuries of intellectual debate and violent struggle to establish individual rights. Islam's period of progressive thought -- isolated to a few centers of learning -- ended about 800 years ago. What we are dealing with is a stunted society, still operating on a 14th-century paradigm. And when you start making Mohammad jokes, you poke a stick into that. This does not advance anyone's understanding of our differences, nor in anyway does it help resolve our problems. It just gets them riled, and gives them another excuse. It confirms for them everything they believe. (ed: I've never understood why it is that the media has it that the world is suppose to be so damned sensitive to Muslim sensitivities, as though they were little children not yet able to cope in the dialogue of the modern world and its requirement for self examination and critical analysis)

Crittenden does have a point - "poking a stick" doesn't "advance anyone's understanding of our differences, nor in anyway does it help resolve our problems." It does in fact "gets them riled, and gives them another excuse to riot again, and yes, with their 14th Century mentality, it confirms for them everything they believe. But does this mean we should simply cave-in to their medieval world and go live in it with them? Why is it that we have to "tippy toe" around on egg shells so as not to offend delicate Muslim sensitivities? Aren't moderate Muslims themselves equally to blame for not shouting down their more vocal radical brethren? Why should moderate Muslims following what they believe to be the true Islam cowtow to freaks stuck in an 800 year-old world view? Why should the rest of us? Why should "A Londoner Blogger" walk out of mass with his family on Sunday and be greeted by a masked trash pile of human beings threatening the Pope and saying things like, "Jesus is the slave of Islam", "Islam will conquer Rome", "Pope Benedict watch your back" and other hateful things? We should his wife and children have to witness such insanity as hearing threats and seeing placards such as "If the Pope does not appear on TV and apologise ... we will blow up all of Gaza's Churches" (if this doesn't clearly prove that the Pope is right - what does?)? When are all of us grown ups going to stop catering to the children that are radical Islam today?

Why is it that the entire non-Muslim world is expected by the media to bow down and genuflect before a medieval society stuck on hate and violence and bent on controlling the world or the destruction of it?

To this, Dan Riehl posits:

I wonder what would happen if a group of Christians and or Jews surrounded a mosque this way the next time one of their highly visible haters ranted about wiping Israel off the map, or talked about their desire to bring death to the infidels? Though it probably isn't hard to predict.

We'd be hearing from the so-called moderate Islamofascists about how intolerant and oppressive we are. They go right from hater to victim with no trouble, or self-examination at all.

Somewhere, somehow, sometime soon, the media, the liberal elite, the left, and the political leaders of the West, must grow a pair of cojones and along with Muslim moderates, who are in equal need of a pair of their own - need to do as Crittenden suggests in his article. We need to make iit clear that we will not tolerate violence or incitements to violence. If and when necessary, kill those who would kill us, and demonstrate our benevolence through measured military campaigns, which bring free democratic votes and billions of dollars for reconstruction. There is indeed a reasonable argument to be made that this is the arena in which our tactics should be adjusted - not by throwing insults - but with harsher, less forgiving military tactics and intelligence measures in response to indiscriminate criminal action. And all of this needs to be done in collaboration with and with the participation of, those moderate Muslims that are sick and tired of having their faith be categorized, exemplified, and represented by the violence, intolerance, and mindset of their radical brethren stuck in a 14th century culture, mindset, and world view.

I do not believe that non-Muslims are alone in being frustrated with the Islamic extremists and the media's and politicians' appeasement of them. I count among my closest friends, numerous Muslims, all of whom are frustrated and angry over the actions of the extremists. What the radicals want to believe is their business, until it becomes our business - and they have now made it our business and its high time we stop this thing we are slipping into - insane appeasement of a religious "animal house".

Be sure to see all of the images at Catholic Londoner.

Cross posted from Hyscience