In Human Events this morning, I discuss one obvious lesson of the jihad bombs in Stockholm:
[…] And so we see yet again, with this new escalation in the jihad against the West, that the freedom of speech is one of the foremost battlegrounds of this war. Jihadists like Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly, the suicide bomber who killed himself in Stockholm on Saturday, want to punish Western countries — even relaxed, multicultural Sweden — for daring to allow the freedom of expression to the extent of permitting depictions of their prophet that they find insulting. Meanwhile, the Islamic supremacists of the 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), is working at the United Nations for the same end: to compel befuddled Western governments that no longer remember why they ever protected the freedom of speech in the first place, or why that freedom is so valuable as a bulwark against tyranny, to give up that freedom in order to avoid offending Islam.
This two-pronged assault, if successful, would extinguish any honest discussion of the ways in which Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. And that may be part of the point. For without such discussion, the West would be mute and hence defenseless in the face of the advancing jihad.
That’s why it is more imperative than ever for Western officials — in Sweden, the United States and elsewhere — to speak out strongly in defense of free speech, and to take firm steps to ensure the safety of people like Lars Vilks and Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist forced into hiding after originating the whimsical “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” which was designed to poke fun at the murderous thugs who would kill over a cartoon. It was all in fun, that is, until those thugs set their sights on Norris herself, who lost her career, her home and her very identity – while the world yawned….