Irreconcilable Differences

Here is a link to a piece by a Belgian person about the problem of Islam. The author makes a good point that when we in the West talk about "freedom of religion," we tend to make assumptions based on our own paradigm about how religion and basic rights work which Muslims don't share.

The way we see it in the West, some guy made some stupid movie and now all these stupid crazy terrorists are flipping out about it and they all just need to chill out and stop being so stupid.

The way these Muslims see it, our government is EVIL because it effectively promotes blasphemy (by refusing to take measures to censor it), and they therefore have a HOLY OBLIGATION FROM GOD to attack us and either kill us all or die trying.

In the West it is assumed that every person is born with his or her unalienable rights, but of course those rights only extend up to the point where they interfere with other peoples' rights.

For these militant Muslims it isn't really a question of rights so much as divine justice -- a crime against God has been committed, and God demands that his followers exact retribution from those responsible.

When does this sort of "chronic misunderstanding" become "irreconcilable differences"? I'd say about as soon as an American embassy is stormed by an armed mob and innocent people are injured and killed.

US Ambassador Chris Stevens
April 18, 1960 – September 11, 2012

--Dan Colgate