Enemies Of Civilization

I'm not sure whether to cringe at the title the YDN editors gave my new column or at least embrace the attention it's likely to draw. In any case, I stand by every word in it and I'm unashamed about being intolerant of a fundamentalist creed that seeks to destroy everything I care about through the exportation of violence. This is my attempt to make sense of the heavily underreported slaying of Theo van Gogh (yes, a relative of the other van Gogh).

Salman Rushdie said in the article of his which I quote from in my column:

The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In tis world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.

UPDATE: On reflection, and taking account of the YDN's bizarre fetish for indicative predicates in column titles, a better choice would have been "In war against jihad, fear is no weapon."

UPDATE: In another intriguing decision, the editors decided to print only me and Jamie and leave the rest of the op-ed page for letters, mostly in response to Keith Urbahn's column on GESO. I agree with virtually everything Keith said---making this a bad night for my relationship with leftist orthodoxy---but more on that in the morning.

UPDATE: It just keeps coming. Turns out there was a New Year's plot to murder Ayaan Hirsi Ali, van Gogh's partner in truth-telling. Yeah, Christopher Ashley had it right, she's an "anti-Muslim crusader."

UPDATE: Last but not least, the context. Ian Buruma does some fantastic reporting from Holland.