The same Western intellectuals who insist on our right to mock both Judaism and Christianity are often the first to charge “Islamophobia” and “racism” when Islam is presented accurately and criticized, not to mention presented in a series of rather innocuous cartoons.
What is to be done about this state of affairs? First, we have to reevaluate the meaning of free speech, both in terms of hate speech and wartime realities. Along the same lines, we must find some legally and politically sound ways to slow down or to eliminate entirely the growth industry of jihadist hate speech in America.
Islamists do not hesitate to falsify, exaggerate, and censor our culture, e.g. the Danish cartoon incident. We cannot allow our traditions of freedom and tolerance to be taken over by intolerant forces in the service of repression or terrorism. This is not easy to do but it must be done – and quickly – by the best lawyers and legislators in our land.
Second, we must begin to insist that Muslims allow the same free speech and religious practices to religious minorities in their countries that they wish us to extend to them in the West. This means that if Muslims want religious freedoms in the West, they have to grant such freedoms to Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities in Muslim countries. It is well past time they did so. The Middle East is already entirely judenrein, free of Jews, except in Israel, and I doubt whether any of the 800,000 Jewish refugees from Muslim countries, or their descendants, will want to return. But Christians have long been – and still are – persecuted, often severely, under Muslim rule. Thus, America might begin to peg every trade or peace treaty with a Muslim country or business to an agreement about religious tolerance and freedom.
Third, we should not allow a falsely positive or superficial picture of Islam to be taught in public schools (and inserted into textbooks), nor should we teach a balanced view of Islam as long as Islamic schools, both here and abroad, refuse to teach anything true about Judeo-Christian culture.
Finally, we endanger countless Muslim women and girls – and freedom-loving Muslim men – when we extend religious freedom to Muslims who believe it is their religious right to subjugate, torment, mutilate, and murder women and dissidents. In a dangerous cultural ju-jitsu, Islamists have been using our strengths against us. Previously, we in the West insisted how proud we were to tolerate the intolerant. We can no longer afford to do so. Instead, we must stand up to intolerance and hate speech, just as we must stand up to jihad – with all our hearts, and with all our might.