By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
Q: What’s the difference between a Christian radical and a Muslim jihadist?
A: Not too damned much.
We’re having a Salman Rushdie moment on steroids. As the ignorant are prone to do when prodded, zealots across the Muslim world have arisen in defense of their Prophet, once again ready to punish disrespect with death and terror. We knew there was a fuse out there, waiting to suddenly spark our attention and justify our feeling that chaos was closing in, but nobody would have guessed that a couple of movie-maker wannabes with hate-filled hearts would strike the match that lit it.
What we could assess with surety, however, was the inability of the fundamentalist world to do other than react in the worst possible terms to any goad, in this country with self-serving rhetoric and across the Mid-east with fire and death. Would it seem uncaring to mention what a typical, boring and mindlessly stupid response this is? Nah, I cried at the service for the American dead returned to Dover today, my hand over my heart. Let’s just say this kind of fire-bombing, rock-throwing, mindlessly-violent stuff — man’s inhumanity to man — is getting old. Or maybe I am, whatever.
The fragile new governments established in the countries that liberated themselves from dictatorships during the Arab Spring now find themselves facing down their own religious fanatics. In Benghazi, the newly established government is filled with remorse at the death of a man who proved their champion in harder times. In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood is caught between their own fundamentalist leanings and the people’s determination for a 21st century government. These newly configured governments chose a moderate path forward, each trying for a homegrown blend of the old way and the untried path of democracy, but as with so many similar ventures — big and small, in this era of radical polarization — the enemy to their progress may be their own hardcore fundamentalists. Everywhere, nations are facing the worst aspects of their own culture, trying to claw them back into the black and white absolutes of the old paradigm.