Liberal blind spot on Islam

Ask a liberal what he or she thinks about Islam and you'll probably get an answer like this: "We need to respect everyone's religious choices and be tolerant of different cultures."

I agree.

But I would add a few things.

I would say that while many Muslims in the world observe their faith in a way that doesn't threaten the rights and liberties of others, Islamic Shariah law and strict observance of the Quran leads to oppression, death and tyranny.

So why do liberals, many of whom have nothing positive to say about Christianity or Judaism, take such a neutral position toward Islam – especially when Islamic fundamentalism takes such a dim view of liberalism?

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What am I talking about?

I could provide many examples, but here's a good one from Saudi Arabia last week.

There's a fellow in prison there by the name of Raif Badawi. He is a self-proclaimed liberal. In fact, he founded a website called "Free Saudi Liberals" to protest the brand of strict Shariah law practiced in the oil-rich kingdom.

He was tried last year on cyber crime charges and disobeying his father. The cyber crime was setting up a website for liberals in Saudi Arabia. And, yes, disobeying your father, at any age, is a crime in Saudi Arabia – if it means questioning the faith. Badawi was originally convicted and sentenced to seven years and 600 lashes.

That was the bad news.

The good news is the sentence was overturned and a new trial ordered.

The really bad news is in the new trial Badawi was convicted again and sentenced this time to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

Let me remind you what this sentence was for – starting a website promoting liberalism.

For the life of me, I can't find even one defense committee established for Badawi by any Westerner. I haven't seen any protests by liberals at the Saudi embassy. I haven't seen boycotts organized against Saudi oil or other products. I have not seen a divestment campaign by liberals against the kingdom. Heck, I haven't even seen any nasty letters to the editor written by liberals about the Saudi treatment of this fellow liberal exercising what America's Christian founders recognized as his God-given, universal right of free speech.

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So it is apparently up to me, hardly a liberal, to speak up for Raif Badawi, because his fellow liberals are too busy criticizing Israel and conservative evangelicals in America to stand up to this kind of brutality and religious totalitarianism.

So I ask, again, why do liberals give Islamic Shariah law virtually a free pass?

Here are the possibilities:

• They're afraid of the consequences;
• they're commitment to the multiculturalist falsehood that all cultures are equal trumps their commitment to liberty, tolerance and free expression;
• they are completely ignorant of the oppressive nature of Shariah law and death-cult qualities of Islamic fundamentalism;
• they are too busy criticizing their own country and Israel to get sidetracked with the loathsome conditions in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Islamic world.

Am I missing anything?

Apparently, liberals also fail to notice who are generally the first victims of Shariah law when it overtakes a nation. Liberals.

Even more to point, all of those for whom liberals create special protected classes are the immediate targets of Shariah law – homosexuals, women and minorities.

Think about it. How many times have you seen a liberal condemning radical Islam or Shariah law?

It just doesn't happen.

So how strong is that supposed liberal commitment to women's rights, gay rights and minority rights if they won't stand up to the world's biggest oppressor of women, gays and minorities?

Do liberals only fight for their constituencies in Western countries where it is safe and convenient to do so?

How come liberals never utter a peep about the grotesque, barbaric, oppressive society that is Saudi Arabia?

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