Pandering to Muslims

Nearly a month ago I wrote about the fallout resulting from the printing caricatures of Mohammed. To summarize, I wrote that the Muslim "street" response was due in large part to promotion by tyrannical rulers who wished to focus public discontent on the 'depravity of Western Civilization' rather than human rights abuses in the Middle East. This was a predictable and understandable response.

Commentary from "moderates" in the US and Europe seemed to suggest that the freedom of the press was limited to lampooning Jews and Christians. I remain dumbfounded at this editorial double standard. Have "moderates" been scared into submission by violent elements in the Muslim world?

Last week the carnage continued. This time, the victim was a student newspaper in Corvallis, Oregon (Oregon State University).

A student's column in the Oregon State University campus newspaper has prompted protests by Muslim students, who say it is offensive to their faith.

The piece headlined "The Islamic Double Standard" was written by OSU microbiology student Nathanael Blake and published in the Daily Barometer on Feb. 8.

The column accused Muslims of expecting special treatment after a Danish newspaper published cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Riots over the cartoons amounted to "savagery," Blake said. "Bluntly put, we expect Muslims to behave barbarously," his column said. . . .

At the Daily Barometer, editors said e-mail and phone calls poured in. Senior editors have met with the Muslim Student Association.

"The pain that it caused . . . did not subside with time," said DD Bixby, the Barometer's editor-in-chief. "It kind of just festered."

She said editors have been checking copy with Muslim students, and on Tuesday deleted one paragraph from a piece scheduled to be published the next day.

From James Taranto of Best of the Web,

So let's see if we have this straight: Muslims are upset over being accused of "expecting special treatment," and they respond by agitating for the newspaper to allow them to censor material they find offensive. What's wrong with this picture?

I feel I need to repeat something I've mentioned before, lest someone accuse me of being anti-Muslim. I do not condone ridiculing religion. However, this expected double standard is ridiculous.

This suggests an attitude that somehow Muslims are more serious about their religion, or that their faith is more sacred. I reject that thesis outright. It may be possible to suggest a superiority of one religion, nevertheless, barring a widely publicized heavenly visitation, it is impossible to establish such a claim.

Here again, a trend that defies understanding. This argument hasn't been limited to my few Muslim acquaintances. It has been popular among many who, inexplicably, feel it necessary to explain away the violent Muslim response.

I'm beginning to think this is just another manifestation of a common belief from intellectual "elites" that the Muslim world is incapable of embracing liberal democracy, liberty and freedom. If that's the case, then their pander is just the latest iteration of condescension from the same groups that always thinks they know best: liberal press and academics.