by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s The<\/em>\u00a0Corner<\/em><\/p>\n Everyone is trying to outdo one another in righteous condemnation of the Reverend Terry Jones and his micro-flock, to assure the world that 50 people out of 300 million does not a majority make. That is altogether fine and good, and yet we all know the asymmetry involved \u2014 whether it is a scholarly remark made by a pope and the Muslim riots in response, or the policies of many Arab countries forbidding open worship by other religions and, in some cases, the presence of non-Muslims in entire cities.<\/p>\n But all that said, our political and military leaders \u2014 whether a general, a secretary of defense, or a president \u2014 are making a grave mistake by commenting directly on this pathetic figure. If a gesture is needed by our leaders, a simple \u201cThe United States ensures freedom of speech, even disturbing expressions of it, and has always paid the subsequent price for ill-manners\u201d would have been enough.<\/p>\n We are at war with radical Islam, from the battlefield in Afghanistan to stealthy terrorists here at home, and we are struggling to win the hearts and minds of Muslim populations in general. But we can\u2019t offer 24\/7 exegeses of 300 million Americans\u2019 free speech. No such we-must-be-perfect-to-be-good burden was thought to accompany past wars, even though zealots at home often misinterpreted our efforts against Japanese militarism, German Nazism, or Communism, and despite the fact that our silence sometimes aided and abetted our enemies, both directly and indirectly.<\/p>\n We are reaching the point where the damage done to America\u2019s image by 50 book-burners is outweighed by the damage done by hypersensitivity on the part of the United States government, which hopes to assuage the hurt feelings of those abroad who equate that tiny number with our culture at large \u2014 often in an abjectly hypocritical fashion. We know where this leads \u2014 to endless efforts to micromanage all elements of American life to protect the sensitivities of those who, by act and deed, are far more intolerant of different religions and cultures.<\/p>\n Already we\u2019ve seen the omnipresent Imam Rauf suggest that, if he were not to get his selfish way, then nebulous, omnipotent radical forces abroad would be upset, and consequences for our troops would follow. His time would be far better spent either lecturing Saudi financiers to stop funding hate-filled madrassas and mosques or, even better, galvanizing world opinion over the carnage in Chechnya, where Russians used a level of violence against Muslims in Grozny that we have not seen since Mr. Assad leveled Hama.<\/p>\n If our leaders don\u2019t relax, cool it, and stop these weird presidential \u201cteachable moments\u201d and all this stooping to editorialize about local irrelevancies (cf. the beer summit, the Tony Robbins-like escapades of the ubiqutious Imam Rauf, the line about Arizona law enforcement supposedly deporting the innocent \u201cout to get ice cream,\u201d etc.), we will devolve to the level of psychodrama. Indeed, this brilliantly entrepreneurial book-burning pastor has taken our government down to that level as it is. What\u2019s next? Heaven forbid a gang-banger in East L.A. and his 50-person tribe should start sporting anti-Islamic insignia on their chests. Or Mr. Rushdie should quite rudely publish a sequel to\u00a0The Satanic Verses<\/em>. Two more inappropriate Danish cartoons? Is the Cabinet going to start devoting 3-4 hours a week to apologetic commentary directed at the Islamic world for the rude and uncouth among us?<\/p>\n Radical Islamists surely hope so.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s The\u00a0Corner Everyone is trying to outdo one another in righteous condemnation of the Reverend Terry Jones and his micro-flock, to assure the world that 50 people out of 300 million does not a majority make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[515],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-kj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":945,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-son-of-islam\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":0},"title":"Obama, ‘Son of Islam’?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Stonegate Institute Many in the media are indignant with Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. 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Michael Moore, known for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2009"","block_context":{"text":"September 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/september-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2301,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/once-upon-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":1259,"position":3},"title":"Once Upon a Time…","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Whatever happened to the old Barack Obama? by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Once upon a time, a fresh new politician, Barack Obama \u2014 black, young, eloquent, and hip \u2014 soared with rhetoric about hope and change. The people were mesmerized. 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