A rchive Date
[ 18-02-2006 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Coren_Michael/2006/02/18/1449251.html
The culture war myth
By MICHAEL COREN
Sat, February 18, 2006
Anyone who believes that opponents of Muslim extremism are necessarily defenders of tolerance should see my e-mails from last week.
I strongly condemned the violent reaction of many in the Islamic world to the now-notorious cartoons of Mohammed printed in a Danish newspaper, but also stressed that the cartoons were wrong, that Muslims had a case and that as a Christian I have little in common with western secularism.
There was much support, but to hundreds of others I was either an idiot or a liar. How ironic that alleged defenders of free speech should abuse a journalist for, well, speaking freely. But I won't be silenced, in spite of the insults and threats.
Generally speaking, we don't comprehend the anger of the Islamic world because, unlike them, we threw God out of the house years ago. There are of course many observant Christians in Europe and North America, but they face a constant struggle against decadence, immorality and materialism and, more often than not, they lose.
The media are so confident that they can kick religion around that they are genuinely shocked when religious people turn around and protest. And then the media pretend this is some culture war between Islam and western culture.
Well, just hold a moment. My culture is not that of Brokeback Mountain, gay marriage or publicly funded abortion, any more than it is of going to a mosque or praying to Allah. My culture is not that of prime-time TV pornography, teen promiscuity and commercial greed any more than it is making a pilgrimage to Mecca.
In other words, I pursue a third way and will not take artificial sides in a battle that has nothing to do with me. Nor will I accept the hypocrisy of the West.
A hypocrisy that for example, forms alliances with Egypt and Saudi Arabia but invades Iraq.
A hypocrisy that imposes so many censorship demands on Al-Jazeera TV that it will likely never be broadcast in Canada, but simultaneously welcomes Howard Stern to one of our new satellite radio networks - one partly owned by the CBC.
Beyond hypocrisy is dishonesty. It is dishonest to argue that the West stands for tolerance and does not enforce its religion on anybody. It is tolerant only of that which it considers acceptable and has abused genuine Christians for more than a generation.
As for having no religion, Canada and Europe are profoundly religious. They practise fundamentalist secularism, where any serious discussion of faith is derided. The West worships not at the altar of a creator but at the boots of the created. Money, thrills and instant success. It has replaced God with a new car and a second vacation, put selfishness and exploitation in the place of the Christ.
It is tragic that we cannot empathize with hundreds of millions of Muslims who put God at the epicentre of their lives. But then our leaders and opinion-makers can't even empathize with evangelical Christians and observant Catholics who are their neighbours and fellow citizens.
Think back to when Paul Martin was filmed as he bought a wreath last December. He was asked by a reporter whether it was a Christmas wreath or a "holiday" wreath. The wretched man paused, obviously in agony, then exclaimed, "It's a $250 wreath!"
A prime minister who campaigned as a Catholic and a man of faith was too embarrassed, too frightened, too politically devious to even imply that he was buying an object remotely connected with the religion he claimed to follow.
Muslims cannot understand this and, frankly, neither can I. Let me say again, this is not my war.
You can e-mail Michael Coren through his website, http://www.michaelcoren.com
Have a letter for the editor? E-mail it to editor@tor.sunpub.com
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved
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