Some Perspective From Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn posted an article at today’s National Review about a request he had received asking him to write the forward to Geert Wilder’s book Marked for Death: Islam’s War Against the West and Me. Mr. Steyn’s first reaction to the request was to say no. He stated, “Mr. Wilders lives under 24/7 armed guard because significant numbers of motivated people wish to kill him, and it seemed to me, as someone who’s attracted more than enough homicidal attention over the years, that sharing space in these pages was likely to lead to an uptick in my own death threats. Who needs it? Why not just plead too crowded a schedule and suggest the author try elsewhere? I would imagine Geert Wilders gets quite a lot of this.”

He then rethought the issue. Later in the article he reminds us of the words of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who says:

…share the risk. So that the next time a novel or a cartoon provokes a fatwa, it will be republished worldwide and send the Islamic enforcers a message: Killing one of us won’t do it. You’d better have a great credit line at the Bank of Jihad because you’ll have to kill us all.

Mr. Steyn also comments on the basic culture of the Netherlands, home of Geert Wilders:

It is not easy to be Geert Wilders. He has spent almost a decade in a strange, claustrophobic, transient, and tenuous existence little different from kidnap victims or, in his words, a political prisoner. He is under round-the-clock guard because of explicit threats to murder him by Muslim extremists.

 Yet he’s the one who gets put on trial for incitement.

 In 21st-century Amsterdam, you’re free to smoke marijuana and pick out a half-naked sex partner from the front window of her shop. But you can be put on trial for holding the wrong opinion about a bloke who died in the seventh century.  

Please follow the link above and read the entire article. It is enlightening as well as humorous. As Americans we need to be aware of the negative impact embracing the concepts of Sharia Law can have on our society.

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