By Scott Tibbs, February 7, 2008
Ian Buruma laments the politics of resentment in the Los Angeles Times, noting that among populists, "(t)olerance is seen as weak and typical of people who live far removed from the harsh realities of the street, where upstanding Dutch folks are being menaced by violent and unruly foreigners." One may wonder why the so-called "liberal elites" are held in such low regard by conservative populists and their followers around the world, and then you read things like this and everything becomes clear.
A quick recap: a retelling of the classic story "The Three Little Pigs" has been shunned by a government agency in Great Britain because it could be "offensive" to Muslims. The agency no doubt had the psychotic reaction of some Muslims to newspaper cartoons featuring the Muslim "prophet" Mohammed in mind. (See previous articles here, here, here.) The terrorists have won again.
Have we learned nothing from history? Have we forgotten the Sudatenland so quickly? Appeasement of tyrants and terrorists does not work, has never worked, and never will work. Once you give them what they want, they will see weakness and push for more and more. Those who seek peace in our time will reap only their own destruction at the hands of the enemy they thought had accepted a truce. While no one wants war and no one likes war, the only real hope for freedom is to stand up to and defeat the world's bullies.
Christians who cry for "tolerance" via censorship would do well to recognize that freedom of speech benefits Christians more than anyone else. When wicked men control the levers of power, the first persons to be silenced will always be those who speak the truth. We've seen this with the Old Testament prophets, with John the Baptist, with all of the Apostles and even with Jesus Christ. We saw it during the Cold War in the USSR and we see it today in Communist China. Censorship will never bring peace, only more persecution.
