Cartoons don't justify Islamic violence

DallasBlog.com | Tom Pauken:

“We in the United States and Western Europe are very open about allowing all faiths to practice their religion openly, including those who follow the Muslim faith. It is what we mean when we speak about the importance of religious liberty. Yet, in a number of Islamic nations, Christians and Jews cannot openly practice their faith. I think of Saudi Arabia as one example of this. Isn’t it time for Muslims to show similar respect for other faiths that we show for theirs?”

Ed Cognoski responds:

It would be convenient if the rest of the world shared our Western values, but they don't. Freedom of religion is the exception in human history. Neutrality towards religion is even more a rarity, even in the world today. Even Great Britain, the birthplace of Western liberal democracy, has an official state religion. A nation being Islamic doesn't prevent religious tolerance. Malaysia, where Islam is the official state religion, has a constitution that guarantees religious liberty. But the norm for many nations in the Middle East is both an official state religion and the practice of discrimination against other religions.

Like it or not, we don't have the right to demand other nations adopt our concept of individual liberties. We need to live in a world where others don't respect those liberties. For the most practical of reasons, we need to focus more on how we must behave to survive and thrive rather than on how our adversaries should behave to live up to our values and ideals.

We need to continue to respect Islam and all religions, because such respect is of value to us regardless whether it is reciprocated. We need to defend ourselves against attacks by those who are offended by Westerners exercising their freedoms. We need to use common sense to avoid foolishly provoking other societies just because we can. We need to continue to show by example why our notion of Western liberal democracy, is, as we firmly believe, morally and practically superior.