QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:  We certainly oppose religious bigotry, but discussing religious groups, their problems and controversies, has become an honorable part of the journalistic tradition, and often involves exposing wrongdoing.

Sadly, some people, especially on the left, don't quite get that.  The left has suddenly discovered freedom of religion, but only if it applies to their faves, and is prepared to label anyone as a hater or bigot if the favored group is probed in any way. 

Frank Miele is a brave columnist out West.  I always read him and sometimes quote him.  He's been examining Islam, and now fights back against those who are labeling him simply because he's finding disturbing things:

If you believe my accusers, it turns out I am a bad person because I have actually tried to inform myself about the history of Islam in the West, the basic tenets of the religion, and the danger they pose when unopposed. I am supposed to just shut up about the gay-killing, wife-beating, adulterer-stoning, infidel-conquering beliefs of traditional Islam. If I talk about them, it is little old me who is the problem, not the religion that sanctions executing homosexuals or stoning women to death.

Calling someone who sounds the alarm over Islam’s danger Islamophobic is roughly the equivalent of calling Paul Revere Anglophobic for shouting (in folklore at least), “The British are coming, the British are coming.” If the British had been home napping in London town, Paul Revere would have been crazy. But since the British were indeed marching on Lexington and Concord, it made him a hero, not a fool.

I submit that while I may not be a hero, I am certainly no fool when I warn Americans that we face a grave threat from people who hate us in large part because they are Muslims and we are not. The attacks of 9/11 should have proved that once and for all. The Fort Hood shooter and Times Square bomber are recent confirmations.

Yes sir, yes sir.  We need more rhetoric like that, more fight back.  The attempts to label anyone who questions any part of Islam as "Islamophobic" is well under way, led in part by super-jerk Christiane Amanpour.  At the same time, Islam's attacks on Christianity and Judaism are considered merely "cultural" statements. 

We must protect journalists like Frank Miele.  Reasonable tolerance, which Americans practice every day, does not mean blind acceptance.

Contrast Miele's bravery with today's profoundly embarrassing piece by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, in which he apologizes to Islam for our real or imagined sins.  Kristof has won Urgent Agenda's Pompous Fool Award, and may well be in line for another.

September 19, 2010