There is something sad and grave about this article from the NYTimes, the interior of a world rending apart, voices in the wilderness under arrest, nothing is easy: Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslim Against Muslim.
And from the LATimes, a compelling article from an American Muslim of Pakistani ancestry.
The second truth — one that the West needs to come to grips with — is that there is no such human persona as a “moderate Muslim.” You either believe in the oneness of God or you don’t. You either believe in the teachings of his prophet or you don’t. You either learn those teachings and apply them to the circumstances of life in the country you have chosen to live in, or you shouldn’t live there.
[…]
In fact, the most glaring truth is that Islam’s mobsters fear the West has it right: that we have perfected the very system Islam’s holy scriptures urged them to learn and practice. And having failed in their mission to lead their masses, they seek any excuse to demonize those of us in the West and to try to bring us down. They know they are losing the ideological struggle for hearts and minds, for life in all its different dimensions, and so they prepare themselves, and us, for Armageddon by starting fires everywhere in a display of Islamic unity intended to galvanize the masses they cannot feed, clothe, educate or house.
Related posts:
Jihad on cartoons ridiculing Mohammed
Violence over cartoons escalates
The gospel of peace
Just the fuse
This is completely out of control
On democracy across borders
glasses off. 