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West Should Not Apologize for Cartoons

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - We don't agree with tasteless insults aimed at Islam. But the Muslim mobs and those that rationalize their actions have no standing to gripe about anybody else's behavior and must be bluntly told as much. Perhaps the man in the Arab street who riots when he hears or reads rumors about an insult to Islam being made somewhere doesn't understand the Western concept of freedom of speech. But the problem with the constant demands for Western apologies and prosecutions of critics of Islam is that the stream of regrets is strictly one way. Insulting Judaism and Christianity in the Arab world is part of these countries' mainstream discourse. Anti-Semitism is so deeply ingrained in the Muslim media that it is merely a matter of routine more than anything else. Western leaders should send a harsh message warning Arab and Muslim governments that we are aware that they don't have clean hands on this issue. It should be made plain that monitoring Western speech about Islam is not their concern.
2012-09-21 00:00:00
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