Beyond Charlie : Why The Free World Must Standup and Pay For Its Culture Of Freedom : On Overcoming The Chamberlain Syndrome In the Western World
It is well known that Hitler started rearming significantly in 1933, in violation of the treaty of Versailles. It attacked and annexed Austria in 19 38 . It attacked and annexed Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia in 1939 . British Prime minister Neville Chamberlain , the author of appeasement policy ,in a ostrich like fashion could not see the inevitability of war and instead conceded Sudetenland and travelled to Germany to sign Munich award in 1938. ! It was only in 1939 after attack on Poland that he joined the war . The rest is history .
The inevitable lesson of the second world war is that if the war is inevitable, the delay in joining it will only increase the cost later . We are unfortunately learning the same lesson again in this ‘ Clash of Civilisations ‘.
Satanic Verses episode of the writer Salman Rushdie of UK was like the begining of Hitler’s rearmament in which Government of Iran in 1988 ,openly violated the International Law by announcing an award for death of a foreign national on Islamic Religious considerations . Khomeini publically placed Islamic traditions over the International Law. Fortunately Britain had the Iron Lady Margret Thatcher as the Prime Minister. She vigorously defended the right of free speech and Rushdie is still alive. Unfortunately due to oil crisis the world was dithering and Iran’s act went unpunished. This permissiveness fuelled the appetite of Islamist Extremists. Libya’s support to Lockerberie bombing was a natural extension. World Trade Centre attack of 11/9/2001 done with full knowledge of Mullah Omar government in Afghanistan, gave extremists a new confidence that the mighty America was also vulnerable and with in their reach. But quick American rebuttal made the price of State’s involvement in terror activities unbearable.
It had two other fallouts. The state sponsored terrorism by Islamic countries was abandoned in public but the underground support to terrorists continued by many countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran etc. Secondly it gave fillip to ‘ Suicide Terror’ which absolved the governments yet achieved its objectives .
Within the class of Suicide Terror ‘ Mumbai gunmen ‘ butchering hundreds of people was a big escalation . Killings were not done spontaneously as retaliation to some act. It was an extremely well planned act and executed to precision by remote control in a control room in Pakistan, by almost illiterates young men who were well trained by Pakistani state terror apparatus of ISI . But it was a mindless escalation. Terrorists had no idealogical objectives so it only boosted the confidence without providing any inspiration. Due to political considerations world did not punish Pakistan just the way it left Libya,Iran and Germany before .
Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris is the next step of terrorism. It is akin to the moment of Hitler’s first attack on Austria . The war of imposition of Islam on western liberalism has now begun. Those who have done research well ,know that it has the whole hearted support of ordinary muslims across the globe as confirmed by the senate resolution in Pakistan and field surveys in India and other countries. Only public condemnation and lip sympathy is being given by some liberal public figures by meaningless phrases like ‘Islam is a religion of peace’. The overwhelming majority of poorl muslim population feels that it was actually a lynch justice and for a justified cause.
Pope is wrong in raising the issue of provocation and limits of freedom.
West too was once a closeted society like the Islamic society today. It has had its share of Inquisitions and tortures like Islam . It had those obnoxious blasphemy laws. It learnt from Galileo and Copernicus episodes, from Martin Luther and gradually evolved into a modern rational society through a torturous journey. It practices and has uniform laws for freedom of expression for all. It permits lampooning of Christ and Bible by non believers inspite of blasphemy laws. Most of the western social revolutions like abolition of slavery, women liberation and equality, Gay Lesbian freedom and even the abolition of slavery have come out of this freedom of expression. West gained this freedom at enormous social cost.
Those who do not like Christ or Prophet Mohammed can express and criticise and express their disagreement publicly in a peaceful manner. A truthful cartoon or book is not a bomb. It can cause no physical harm . How can we restrict or restrain cartoonists or writers or film makers as they all are peaceful expression of differences. West will have to surrender its hard earned freedom of expression in stopping such art forms .
The Charlie killers and their backers are really asking west give up its culture and to accept Islamic doctrines and values in their countries while Islamic countries make no matching concession to other religions locally. Muslims women can have right to wear burqas in France or England if the western women can wear a bikni publically in Saudi Arabia. The same applies to religious freedom too , it has to be mutual.
So Charlie Hebdo attack is really the first cultural invasion of West by Islam!
West like Chamberlain can avoid this war temporarily and pay a much higher price later or alternative is to stand up now and defend its free culture and rights even by an open or clandestine war . It will be a just war for a much more valuable cause .Those who chose to be the neo Chamberlains will ultimately pay the price of Hiroshima . The book ‘Clash of Civilisation’ had mentioned after careful analysis that in any conflict muslims were first to resort to violence in around 75% of the cases . Charlie Hebdo is just another illustration of its correctness . A cartoon cannot be considered a grave provocation . Even if it is , only courts can give punishments after a fair trial according to the established law .
But west is now ruled by fear of reaction of the large influx of islamic population it has permitted to enter and settle in its territory. It cannot invoke covert counter terror operations on its own citizens or other countries at present .The Islamic terror infrastructure has penetrated so deep globally that the fear is natural . Also Fox news episode about ‘no entry zones ‘ indicates that Islam has already moved in and controlled the public opinion by the oil money . The soft Chamberlain approach will look so attractive to weak European governments. But it cannot have no other consequences other than what history has already taught us .
Britain and France have ruled middle east for ages .It is not that the ways to win this war are not known .
It is not only a question of mustering the will of late Margret Thatcher .
