JVLV: ISIS COMES TO AMERICA; PUTIN SHOULD FOCUS ON OUR COMMON THREAT, By Jiri & Leni Valenta, 5-4-15

           The Jihadist terror has now extended from Europe across the Atlantic to North Garland Texas.  Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the man on an Al Qaeda hit list for his daring film, “Filna,” was the keynote speaker at an art exhibit and cartoon competition portraying the prophet Mohammed that was almost disrupted by two armed Jihadist sympathizers. He explained that the purpose of the competition was in part a response to the January murders by Jihadists of 12 cartoonists and editors of the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, in January.  

            Wilders almost wasn´t there, however, thanks to two American congressmen, Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN), who tried to block his entry, foolishly citing an International Religious Freedom Act that allows the State Department to block foreign leaders responsible for violating religious freeom.  It was a bad move on their part, since the only one whose rights would have been violated, had they succeeded, was Wilders and his Texan audience’s.

Recall too that in February, terrorists attacked a free speech forum in Copenhagen that featured Larks Vilks, whose Mohammed cartoon was finally published in a Swedish newspaper in 2007 as part of an editorial on free speech and self-censorship. Other Swedish papers would not touch it.

            However one may decry the “provocation” in which these cartoonists have indulged, or even the poor taste they may exhibit, in this country free expression is guaranteed by our Constitution.  Nor do the Jihadists realize that Americans – including many American Muslims, will die to defend that right.  Neither do we hesitate to poke fun at either our president, the Pope or God himself in the service of social commentary and artistic expression.  It is the Jihadists who must tolerate our cultural values and not we who must censor ourselves and conform to theirs. That said, Wilders himself was cleared of all charges of waging hatred and discrimination – practices we do not tolerate -- in his controversial film.

         Thankfully, our Texas lawmen shot and killed the terrorists before they could repeat the Charlie Hebdo massacre of Paris..   As Wilders declared, “Don´t mess with Texas.”   ISIS has claimed responsibility or the attack.  The incident, however, is a turning point in that it brought home the real nature of the Islamist threat to Americans – who have often paid insufficient attention to events abroad that do not pose an immediate threat. Indeed we have barely noticed that our own American cartoonist, Molly Norris, has been for years in hiding after she depicted a likeness of Mohammad.  Now we in America have finally received a dose of what the Europeans are living with and why some holocaust survivors like my mother and uncle fear the “Nazis” are coming back. 

       Therefore, we have to learn from the work of analysts in Holland, France and Denmark , more about the causes and consequences of European Jihadists.  Finally, we ask our Russian colleagues to help us understand how Russia is handling representations of the prophet in its media.  Have any carricatures appeared there? If so, what was the official and public response?

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