From Kathleen Parker’s syndicated column, picked up here from the Myrtle Beach Sun News, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
Let’s hear it for outrage to religion.
So goes my prayerful response to news that Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci will be prosecuted on charges of “outrage to religion.” Apparently, the outspoken Fallaci, now in her 70s, has offended some disciples of Islam with her book, “The Force of Reason,” and, by Allah, they intend to see she pays for it.
At least they didn’t shoot her. Yet.
You’ll recall that last year in Holland, filmmaker Theo van Gogh was fatally shot and stabbed for work deemed unflattering to Islam. Mohammed B. confessed to the murder. Recently, two more suspects, both Chechen citizens believed to be linked to a group of Islamic fundamentalists, were arrested in connection with the crime.
These incidents followed another episode of perceived offense to Islam. In 2002, French author Michel Houellebecq faced trial for calling Islam “the dumbest religion,” and for saying the Quran was so badly written it made him “fall to the ground in despair.”
The courts acquitted him, but the trend is clear. Criticize Islam and face jail or justice at the hands of a true believer. Is it possible that radical Islam really does hate freedom?…
Golly, could that be possible? Read it all.