Violence in Libya and Cultural Differences

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1979, Adolph Dubs was kidnapped by militant members of an anti-Soviet Afghan political movement.  He was held in room 117 of the Kabul Hotel while accusations and demands were passed back and forth.  The Carter Administration asked the Afghans to continue negotiations.  The Afghan government, operating as lackeys of the Soviets, ignored Carter and opened fire.  Ambassador Dubs was killed in the crossfire.  That was thirty years ago.  Now, history repeats itself.

On Tuesday, another American ambassador, Chris Stevens, was killed in Libya by the usual pusillanimous pigs.  It appears that the attack which killed him was well coordinated, planned and executed with precision.  I have no idea what our proper response should be.  I am suffering from serious Mideast fatigue.  The Islamic world is stuck in a 21^st Century Inquisition, finding Satan and heretics at every turn; sure they are the only moral authority.  

There has been some effort to place the cause for this violence on a jejune and insulting film about Mohammed.  Evidently, even a 4^th rate video, produced by fools and promoted by religious apostates can lead to unintended consequences.  The assumption is that if we (meaning the collective American population) export from our shores anything that could offend Islamic countries that they might bring down their wrath on our heads.  While I am the first person to agree that our freedom of speech is a threat to any repressive force anywhere in the world, suppressing it is not the key to world peace.  But the violence which this video has unleashed does tell us a great deal about the culture of Islam.

In 1987 Andres Serrano decided to fill a glass with his own urine, suspend a crucifix in it and enter a photo of same in an art contest.  The photo, called, “Piss Christ” was not only entered in the Southeaster Center for Contemporary Art’s, “Awards in the Visual Arts” but won!   The kicker is that part of the funding for the contest, and Serrano’s $15,000 prize came from the tax payer funded National Endowment for the Arts. 

I understand that cheesy art and bad taste are all in the eye of the beholder.  I think the Picasso sculpture in Chicago is spectacular, but the St. Louis Serra Sculpture is a piece of crap.  But by anyone’s yard stick, Serrano’s photo is disgusting sensationalism designed to substitute shock for talent.  But, and here is my point, I would never consider launching a physical attack on the artist, the awards committee, or the building, city or state that displayed the offensive photo.  I know for a fact I couldn’t convince 500 of my closest friends to join in this effort.  I do not know a single person who considers violence to be an acceptable response to personal angst.  Such people revolt me.  

This seems to be the difference between my world and the mobs in the Mideast.  Yes, I know that there are too many violent people in this country.  But Americans who do violent things are breaking the law.  They will be caught and punished.  Timothy McVeigh is really dead and deserves to be.  I also know that there are lots of Muslims who abhor what happened.  The group that killed Ambassador Stevens were probably terrorists using the current unrest as cover for an attack planned long in advance.  But I am talking percentages here.  As a group, Americans don’t declare jihad, we just vote the bastards out.  I like our way better.

We must tread softly through this mess, and keep the faith.