Our Era of Blasphemy Vigilantism

Today on NRO

THE EDITORS: Honor the Charlie Hebdo victims by exercising free speech. The Charlie Hebdo Massacre.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: A gentrified cocoon of progressive privilege has cost Democrats the middle class. The Party of Snobbish Elites.

ANDREW JOHNSON: Mike Huckabee's controversial history on Common Core. Huck's Core Problem.

LEE EDWARDS: Rather than surrender to despair, we should strive to further conservatism and liberty. Is Life Worth Living?

SLIDESHOW: Je Suis Charlie.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

January 08, 2015

Our Era of Blasphemy Vigilantism

Which of these represents incitement to violence?

A) Making a film depicting the violent death of the ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

B) Telling an angry crowd the night of the Ferguson grand jury decision, "Burn this b*tch down!"

C) Chanting, "What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it [sic]? Now!"

D) Making cartoons that offend Muslims.

As you no doubt have observed, some Americans on the left would pick (A) and (D), but not (B) and (C). I can see the case for B and C, but I would be pretty wary about prosecuting individuals in either case. If our society is going to bring the force of the law against a person, and either fine them or put them in jail, there has to be a pretty direct connection between their words and the violence that ensued.

A certain segment of Muslims in France -- and in just about every Western country -- is attempting to implement blasphemy laws through vigilantism. Sure, there's no law on the books saying you can't do it, but if anybody catches you doing it, some young man -- with seemingly nothing in this world he fears losing if he's caught or killed attempting to commit murder -- will come and find you and attack you.

Few American media companies are showing the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo that enraged the rage-addicted Islamists of France. Credit Slate, the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, and BuzzFeed for showing them. That's not an easy decision; you never know when some Islamist out there might decide to show up at the front door of the offices with a knife, a gun, lighter fluid, or a homemade bomb to register their objection to a publication's decision. Or maybe the bastards look up your home address.

Nonetheless, two of the infamous images are on NRO right now.

Here are the editors, with some real talk beyond the obvious scoffing at the cliché that Islam is a "religion of peace."

Thus, there are in practical terms two Islams — a religion, if not of peace, then of peaceful accommodation, and a religion of death.

Western political leaders try to dismiss this second death cult as a perverted or false Islam, or even as nothing to do with Islam at all. That dismissal is false and, worse, completely unpersuasive. The death cult has learned imams and sophisticated theologians among its adherents. They can quote Islamic texts in support of their revolting doctrines — and do so far more convincingly than President Obama, David Cameron, or Tony Blair do in support of their own. Their scholarship strengthens the faith of the suicide bombers and child soldiers. And because they justify murder and issue fatwas mandating it, they exercise some intimidation even over the leaders of the other Islam.

Muslim political leaders are far more aware of this than those in the West, and increasingly prepared to fight the death cult. On the eve of the Paris murders, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended the Coptic Christmas Mass in Cairo — the first Egyptian president to do so — and reached out to these infidels in the clearest terms: "We will build our country together. We will accommodate each other. We will love each other."

A week before, on New Year's Day, Sisi, in the course of an address to leading Muslim theologians, had called for a revolution in Muslim "thinking" to abandon its commitment to texts and ideas that justified killing infidels . . .

Our Foes: A Strange Breed of Bloodthirsty, Ruthless Clumsiness

Some parts of yesterday's outrage feel reminiscent of the Boston bombing – for example, two brothers who are suspects. Some parts feel like the sloppy guys who tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993:

Investigators chasing the two brothers who allegedly attacked satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, killing 12, found an improbable clue in their abandoned getaway car: a national identity card, according to French officials.

The document carried the name of 34-year-old Said Kouachi, a man with no police record, the officials said. But, following the trails, investigators dug out court files of his brother, Chérif Kouachi, 32, who was sentenced to an 18-month prison term in 2008 for being part of a terror group, according to Paris prosecutors.

A manhunt was under way Thursday for the two, France's most wanted men, but officials warned it could take days to find the heavily armed suspects. A third suspect has turned himself into police. Police are questioning seven other people as part of the manhunt, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said, and searched an apartment in the eastern city of Reims overnight.

Police officials said they were puzzled as to whether the ID card of the elder Mr. Kouachi had been dropped by accident or had been left voluntarily, in a move to claim responsibility for the attack.

"You cannot rule out the possibility they left the ID intentionally," said Emmanuel Quemener, a police officer affiliated with the Alliance union.

The suspects acted with a mix of military-like professionalism and surprising clumsiness in Wednesday's attack, police officials said. When arriving in the street of the Charlie Hebdo offices, the alleged gunmen first stepped into the wrong building. But they later displayed a high level of training, wielding their AK-47 rifles with ease, and acting with extreme determination, suggesting the action had been prepared in advance.

Conservatives, Spectators to America's Theater of Outrage

Stephen Miller, summing up the state of America today and how conservatives remain relatively powerless, despite some governorships and GOP majorities in the House and Senate:

The only problem for Obama, the protesters and their media is this is the culture their policies have created. Conservatives held a minority of power for almost a decade and they certainly don't have a foothold on anything happening culturally. It's not conservatives getting people fired from jobs, disinvited from speaking engagements or formulating rape fantasies. That wasn't a conservative the NYPD along with hundreds of other police officers from around the country turned their back on twice.

Progressive media must be gobsmacked that in the vitriol-filled war of words between the NYPD union and their darling Warren-wannabe mayor, Bill de Blasio, there isn't a single conservative to blame. For once they've found a public sector union they aren't willing to support. Instead, they cherry-pick comments from retired politicians and columnists even though not one of them holds the influence of an Al Sharpton. There is no Scott Walker and there is no Rick Perry's racist rock.

Leftists are tearing apart leftist-controlled cities: Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, St. Louis, and so on. What do conservatives have to do with it?

This past Sunday, a group calling themselves #BlackBrunch stormed restaurants in the progressive utopias of Oakland and Upper Manhattan to terrify private citizens who for the most part sympathize with their philosophies. These stunts aren't happening in Utah or Texas, but in communities rotted out from decades of progressive liberal policies. Yet conservatives, who take no part in either their demonstrations or ideology, are targeted because of a cable television channel they choose to watch in the privacy of their own homes. (Even though that network's pundits largely agree with protesters in the case of Eric Garner.) Harvard can't even blame conservatives for the changes in their healthcare plans they demanded, just not for themselves.

Conservatives don't control culture. They don't control Hollywood, music, film, journalism, the web or universities. They are spectators to the theater of outrage currently manifesting itself in this country. They can root for their side on social media — which is also, by and large, controlled by liberal ideology — but that's about it. Conservatives are an island of misfit toys. They are sitting in lifeboats and helplessly watching the Titanic slip under.

ADDENDA: At 7 a.m., Fairfax County Public Schools said they were sticking by their decision of the previous evening to have a two-hour delay.

At 7:30 a.m., they announced they were closing for the day entirely. They really, really hate parents.

It snowed Tuesday, and it is cold today.

When the Bureau of Labor Statistics talks about the seasonal adjustment in labor productivity, this must be what they have in mind.

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