I’m not afraid of Islamists. As long as we in the liberal West don’t browbeat ourselves into submission, and as long as we take sensible measures to defend ourselves from the threat of mass terrorism—especially from WMDs—there is no reason for free, modern, and enterprising societies to fear losing to medieval Islamism. What makes me nervous is that there are too few leaders today willing to follow Reagan’s example from the Cold War in saying this, and that there are too many “opinion leaders” and officials who are eager to split the difference between good and evil.
Consider Yale University Press, which decided not to publish the Danish cartoons of Muhammad in a forthcoming book entitled The Cartoons That Shook the World. Not only that: it also pulled “a drawing for a children’s book; an Ottoman print; and a sketch by the 19th-century artist Gustave Doré of Muhammad being tormented in Hell” from the same volume. The director of the Yale University Press, John Donatich, followed the usual line of saying that the decision to censor his own press’s book was “difficult”—but that when “it came between that and blood on my hands, there was no question.”
So the press accepted a book on the cartoon controversy, then decided at the last moment not to reproduce the actual cartoons on the grounds that if any riots resulted, the press would be responsible for the results. That’s a messed-up editorial process and a silly mutilation of the resulting book. But note who is not held responsible: the potential rioters, who are apparently automatons and spring uncontrollably and unstoppably into action whenever a Westerner dares to offend them. Thus, as part of our relentless quest for a quiet life, the press must avoid causing offense to anyone. If that is not appeasement, I don’t know what is.
As usual, though, Britain leads the way when it comes to this sort of dangerous foolishness. Earlier this month, three female police officers in South Yorkshire participated in an “In Your Shoes Day” exercise. They spent a day walking around in public in hijab, headscarves, and niqab veils, accompanied by four Muslim women, who were then treated to a tour of the custody suite and the CCTV office in headquarters. The point of all this: to teach the police officers about the pervasive racism of British society by revealing to them all the oppression and insults they would encounter when wearing a burka.
Actually, nothing much happened, so the point of the experience was rather lost. Or perhaps it wasn’t: one of the police officers reported that the day “had given her a greater appreciation of how Muslim women feel when they walk out in public in ‘clothing appropriate to their beliefs.’ ” Yes indeed, the police in South Yorkshire are being taught—and happen to accept the lesson—that the most conservative style of female dress is the one “appropriate” to Islam, and that anyone who protests this is illiberal at best and racist at worse.
Thus, explicitly, the police are taught to sympathize with the most radical Islamists and to regard with suspicion any Muslim liberal who dares to resist their intimidation. And, as Yale University Press has shown, intimidation persists for a simple reason: it works.
