The Muslim world is afire with outrage over images of the Prophet considered to be derogatory. Yet their outrages against other religions are despicable, horrendous, horrible and barbaric. What other religion demands killing those of different beliefs?
Worldwide Muslims number over a billion and assuredly not all are terrorists, extremists or insisting upon forcing their law on everyone. Clearly those who demand blood as the price for any insult they claim shall never accept democracy or could ever comprehend a Bill of Rights so much a foundation of liberated peoples.
The war of extremist theology against non believers is nothing new. The world has witnessed its ugliness and its cost in innocent victims for generations. The U.S. supported dictators throughout the Middle East, in large part due to the need for oil but also to suppress the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.
Containment that was the byword for U.S. foreign policy used against the Soviet Union cannot work to combat this threat. Targeted killing of extremist leadership will continue but will not change the reality for ideologues who believe paradise is their reward for killing infidels.
Sadly, nothing indicates anything different can be expected. If the economics of the poor in these countries improved, ordinary people might find hope for a better future, thereby quieting the voices of extremists.
In the meantime acts of violence destroy economic investment and development insuring the cycle of poverty continues, which empowers zealots of uniformity and hate.
Edward Horn
