Buchanan the Dhimmi

A reader writes, under the subject heading “Buchanan the Dhimmi”:

His last words of that article: “What has happened in Europe is that the secular press, which loves to mock the beliefs and symbols of religious faith, has now insulted a deadly serious religion that answers insults with action.”

It’s looking to me like this cartoon provocation was heaven-sent. The message seems to be: arm yourselves, prepare yourselves for battle with a lion! Look, that sleeping creature is no lapdog, but a ravenous lion.

The provocation is a done deal. So what if it took some secular hedonist at a Danish paper to do it? Buchanan wrings his hands and counsels timidity and fear. I don’t think he sees any chance of victory.

LA reply:

See the way he describes Islam, as “a deadly serious religion that answers insults with action.” He identifies with the Muslims because they seem more committed to their religion than we are to ours, and they are ready to use force in its defense.

He’s a perfect dhimmi. Just like a leftist who rebels against relatively weak Western authority figures but eagerly submits himself to some Communist dictator, Buchanan is disgusted with Westerners’ lack of zeal and hopes for some really tough guys to take over the West.

How ridiculous, some readers are doubtless thinking, to imagine that Buchanan wants Muslims to take over the West. But let’s look at it this way. Do liberals want Muslims to take over the West? I’ll grant that the overwhelming majority of liberals don’t consciously say to themselves, “I want Islam to take over the West.” Nevertheless, the logic of their position—particularly their belief that we have no real enemies, and that if we seem to have enemies, it’s only because of the bad things that we’re doing—moves relentlessly in the direction of appeasement and surrender. The same seems to be true of Buchanan.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 09, 2006 07:25 PM | Send