Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali et al Slam Islamic Totalitarianism

MANIFESTO:

Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

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I urged the Editor of the Independent Coast Observer to publish the Mohammad cartoons. Then I signed a letter proposed by a frequent political adversary, Steve Finz, again urging publication of the cartoons Islamists find so offensive. Today I found that Islamists find just about everything anyone does offensive. In India Muslims are protesting against a variety of pictures, including of Mecca and animals, even on decks of cards. The first protest they made that involved force or coercion was one too many.

They can protest all they want. Damn, that's the American way! But threats mean no respect, and violence means that they are disrepecting their own religion far more than an Infidel like I could. If there is an Allah, He has got to be wondering how His work got so screwed up, especially since nothing is supposed to happen without His OK.