Spurn the other cheek

Sunrise over Eastern Point at the mouth of York Harbor Monday morning. We thought to capture the magic of it all with birdsong filling the air and set our little digital cam to the movie mode. You can watch the sunrise and hear the birdsong -- together with a whole lot of unwanted background noise -- the wind, perhaps? -- here. [Drat. It doesn't work. We've forgotten how to post videos . . . Will work on it once we get back home tomorrow. Update next day: Now working.]

"This reality of oppression and decline stands in dramatic contrast to the surging Muslim minority of the West," writes Daniel Pipes at FrontPage [via DhimmiWatch] of the plight of Catholics in Muslim countries. We've blogged before about Benedetto's courageous crusade [That word!] to rescue the Judeo-Christian legacy from the Eurabian threat of unassimilating, intolerant Muslims and their anti-Western fellow travelers of the left, as in this citation from Tunku Varadarajan's Opinion Journal inteview with Oriana Fallaci last year:

As a cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI wrote frequently on the European (and the Western) condition. Last year, he wrote an essay titled "If Europe Hates Itself," from which Ms. Fallaci reads this to me: "The West reveals . . . a hatred of itself, which is strange and can only be considered pathological; the West . . . no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."

Pipes explicates the telling contrast between retro-Islamic intolerance of everything not itself vs. post-Christian suicidal tolerance of everything but itself:

“Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It’s our duty to protect ourselves.” Thus spoke Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican’s supreme court, referring to Muslims. Explaining his apparent rejection of Jesus’ admonition to his followers to “turn the other cheek,” De Paolis noted that “The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century . . . and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights.”

That's how it is with asymmetrical warfare. Burgeoning Muslim immigrants in Europe vs. withering Catholic populations in the Middle East:

This reality of oppression and decline stands in dramatic contrast to the surging Muslim minority of the West. Although numbering fewer than 20 million and made up mostly of immigrants and their offspring, it is an increasingly established and vocal minority, granted extensive rights and protections even as it wins new legal, cultural, and political prerogatives . . .

This widening disparity has caught the attention of the Roman Catholic Church, which for the first time is pointing to radical Islam, rather than the actions of Israel, as the central problem facing Christians living with Muslims.

And from this side of the pond, two brilliant analyses from Betsy Newmark and Dr. Sanity on why they -- the left elites weaned on Chomsky & Company -- hate us, quoting from the Gramsci-meme-invested Mark Kurlansky:

SOMEONE HAS TO SAY IT or we are never going to get out of this rut: I am sick and tired of the founding fathers and all their intents . . .

We ought to do something. Instead, we keep worrying about the vision of a bunch of sexist, slave-owning 18th century white men in wigs and breeches. Even in the 18th century, the founding fathers were not the most enlightened thinkers available. They were the ones whose ideas prevailed.

That's the bad news. The good news is that Betsy, the good doctor and Glenn Reynolds's Army of Davids are on the case.

Comments

[Teresa]

Well, the Roman Catholic Church could never be accused of being quick on the uptake. If you cast your mind back, just prior to the start of the Iraq War, the Vatican was all too eager to roll out the red carpet for one of Sadam's leading henchmen (the "token" Christian in his government?) and also to make very public with an excellent try at humiliation, a private conversation with Tony Blair... all with the intention of making the US back off of Sadam.

Up until now they've been doing their best to, not only turn the other cheek, but hand over the keys to the Christian castle, to make sure that the fascists of the world know that the Vatican backs them up against the evil US of A. (they were pro-German during WW2 also)

How is it that it has taken them so very long to figure out what has been progressively documented for years? The discrimination, violence, and even murder has been going on for a very very long time. Yet, now it's a problem.

Makes me wonder what's happening behind the scenes that we haven't heard about. Sounds like they're finally scared. Better late than never I suppose. Still it would be interesting to know what has brought about this sea-change in direction.