Paris Attack: Live by the Pen, Die by the Sword
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/paris-attack-live-by-the-pen-die-by-the-sword?f=must_reads
by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET) January 13, 2015
While we may want to believe "the pen is mightier than the sword," the deadly and cowardly January 7th attack on the Paris offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo by three Muslim terrorists seeks to send us a contrary message.
Unfortunately, it was the newspaper's use, twice, of its pen in publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, along with a more recent caricature of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, that brought a deadly response by Islam's ruthless sword.
The killers were heavily armed-wearing bulletproof vests knowing French police pose no serious threat as they normally are unarmed.
The attack had the touch of a carefully planned military operation. Attackers methodically went through the office executing victims as if with a target list in hand.
The terrorists' brutality was evidenced in video footage outside the office. One shooter, after getting out of his car when a policeman fell to the ground wounded, walked up and, without hesitation, shot him in the head as the officer pleaded for his life. He then returned to his vehicle to complete his escape.
Witnesses described hearing the by now all-too-familiar cry of "Allahu Akbar," followed by shouts of "We've avenged the honor of the prophet!"
One of the victims was Stephane Charbonnier, who was the artist behind the satirical cartoons. While President Obama was decrying Islam to be a peaceful religion, Charbonnier was contending with death threats and a fatwa. Despite being the subject of an Islamic death warrant, he was preparing for yet another satirical piece on Islam.
Charbonnier demonstrated a lot more courage than Obama. Asked in a 2012 interview about threats against him, Charbonnier left no doubt where he stood. "I would rather die standing," he responded, "than live kneeling."
Islam's message carried out by jihadists is this: not only are depictions of Prophet Muhammad off-limits, there is to be no criticism of what he proffered as a religion 1400 years ago.
We need to realize we fool ourselves by attempting to divide Muslims into extremists who embrace the view of killing infidels-whether running afoul of Islam's beliefs or not-and moderates who do nothing to distance themselves from such thinking. Because the Quran, to which ALL Muslims must adhere, makes clear non-Muslims must submit to Islam's teachings or face death, both extremist and moderate Muslims support killing non-Muslims. They have to or cannot claim Islam as their religion. As it happened, Charlie Hebdo merely provided a convenient excuse to hit a high-profile target that would convey Islam's disdain for free speech.
All public officials serving in democracies should be required to read the Quran. Doing so would serve as a wake-up call that Islam is not a religion-it is a violent ideology built around cult worship. It is no more a religion than was Nazism-an ideology with which Islam interestingly shares some common beliefs-built around cultist Adolf Hitler.
Modern world critics easily saw through the efforts of David Koresh and Warren Jeffs who sought to create their own self-serving cults. Could it not be that Islam too is a cult-the product of a cultist who 14 centuries earlier successfully enticed uneducated followers to drink his "snake oil" and unquestioningly accept Islam as a religion? Why do we still accept today, without question and as sacrosanct, the ideology of a founder who designed it to destroy any contrary thought or any exercise of free will? Will Western democracies commit suicide by political correctness because they refuse to call a violent ideology, disguised as a religion, what it really is?
If Islam continues to so intimidate Western societies into silence, its ultimate goal in the Quran-promoted by Muhammad-of a global caliphate where its ideology rules supreme may well be attainable in this century.
The line from an 1839 English play-"the pen is mightier than the sword"-suggests the right of free expression ultimately trumps the violence seeking to silence it. In 1870, a literary critic noted this line "is likely to live for ages." Not so if Islam rules supreme.
The Paris attack represents an effort by Islamists to end that age. They seek to destroy such free expression by editing the line to read, "Live by the pen; die by the sword."
Sadly, it is Western political correctness co-editing the re-write.
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