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February 10, 2006
Alaskan in Exile
by Neil Zawicki

[Editor's note: We have decided that, as a supplement to Neil Zawicki's column this week, we will reprint one of the infamous Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. We realize that, to many Muslims, it is offensive. We are reprinting it not as a stand for free speech, but purely for 'frame of reference' for our readers. Here it is.]



    It’s getting worse out there. Riots are blooming like wild poppies all over the earth in response to a collection of Danish editorial cartoons critical of Islamist extremism, and people are getting killed.

    I’m not in the business of doom-saying, and think of myself as generally optimistic, and as your mayor, I will lead with optimism and decisive thought. But when I read the headlines, I can’t help but shake my head, and wonder what kind of world we will have when I take office.

    It is not lost on me that whenever Islamist extremists are criticized for being a violent bunch, they react with violence. And it’s not good for PR on their side to go around calling for beheadings and kidnappings as a rebuttal to a charge that they are a group of beheading kidnappers. Of course, they do endure a lot of criticism, and some of it is over-simplified and nearly racist. So, too, is their response.

    I mean, for (deity of your choice)’s sake, it’s just some cartoons. Think of it. What if Don Rumsfeld went over and beat the crap out of every cartoonist that put him in a bad light? Or better yet, if he beat the crap out of the relatives and colleagues of those people?

    No sir, this is not good playground behavior.

    There are Danish troops in Iraq. About 560 of them. And Danes the world over are now fair game for retribution, and the Islamic Jihad has now upgraded the target base to all Scandinavians— just because of some cartoons.

    Is that it? I’m Afraid not.

    The word “afraid” was capitalized.

    It’s bigger than the cartoons and the Arab reaction to them only pulls into stark relief the precarious tension between the Western and Arab worlds. We pretend our troubles in Iraq and the Middle East are due to American policies and the Islamists who hate them, but that is only one little part of the picture.

     The Western World has an undertone of suspicion and lack of respect for the Arab world, and the Arab world has the same for the west. Meanwhile, Iran has banned surprise nuclear facility inspections and has declared they are going full-bore into uranium enrichment. The United States has threatened sanctions or even tougher action, and now Russia has told the U.S. to lay off.   

     I wish it wasn’t this way, but it is. Pretty soon, some serious side taking is going to take place, and it won’t be safe at all anymore to vacation in places as pleasant as Minorca or Rio De Janeiro without belonging to a heavily armored convoy of flint-eyed face smashers fresh from some scrap in who knows where.

    Remember: Vote for Neil April 4.
   
   
   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
     
   

Neil Zawicki, exiled Alaskan, is Editor at Large for Insurgent49, a former reporter for the Alaska Star, and winner of the Alaska Press Club's 'Best Columnist' award. He is now living out the rest of his days in an undisclosed location in Oregon. He can be contacted at -  neil@insurgent49.com
- Columnists -

Editor's Desk
by Aaron Selbig

Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Alaskan In Exile
by Neil Zawicki

The
Bramble Bush
by Kevin Morford





- also by this writer -
Copyright 2005 Insurgent Media. All Rights Reserved.
in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.