Pericles

I am probably older than you. I am even old enough to remember the Mau Mau!

Your post shows a lack of understanding of terrorist groups. Let's take the IRA as an example.

At any one time the IRA had few men under arms. But they were far from a fringe group. They had a global network of supporters among the Irish diaspora who supplied finance and, occasionally, logistic support. They also had until recently a relatively safe haven in Republic of Ireland.

What ultimately brought the IRA to the negotiating table was generation change. A new generation of the Irish diaspora were less enthusiastic in their support. Even within the Republic there was a sense that they were an anachronism. This enabled governments, especially in the Irish Republic and in the US, to crack down on their support base.

It is interesting to compare the IRA with the Chechen rebels. The Chechen rebels are what the IRA might have become had there been a global Catholic terror network they could have utilised for support.

The IRA had limited aims. Had the Brits given Ulster to the Republic their attacks would have ceased. The IRA never attacked third parties. They never killed people who wrote books they did not like.

The goal of Muslim terrorists – especially in Europe – seems to be nothing less than the remaking of European society. The actual terrorists may to be few in number but, like the IRA, they could not function without a network of sympathisers and their financial support.

Pericles, stop being naïve about this. PERSISTENT terrorist groups cannot function without a support base. They are thus NOT a fringe.

Given the documented cases of murderous attacks on those whom Muslims dislike your insistence that Wilders' bodyguards are "for show" is strange.

You, CJ Morgan and Steel seem to be like Polykarp whom you despise. You have your views and you are not going to let the facts get in the way

What sort of facts have you provided that have gotten in the way of my statements so far?

stevenlmeyer/smeyer: << You, CJ Morgan and Steel seem to be like Polykarp whom you despise. You have your views and you are not going to let the facts get in the way >>

Er, no Steven. It's you, Boazycrap and a couple of others at OLO who confabulate imminent danger for the rest of us at the hands of your imaginary foes. The current issue seems to be entirely manufactured:

* Random House gives $100K advance to first time author for a romantic novel loosely based around Mohammed and Aisha, well known objects of salacious fascination for Western pulp fiction market (not)

* Publisher's editor, at galley proof stage, suggests that said pulp fiction might attract violent response from evil Muslims whom the novel is designed to offend

* Random House announces that it has institutionalised Islamophobia by pulping the first run of the novel, due to imagined threats that only just occurred to it at the point of publication, supposedly post-printing.

Frankly, I think the whole thing's bullsh!t, and our resident Islamophobes have taken it and run with it, as is their wont.

At least it's funny to watch, in a schadenfreude way :)

It is an almost perfect analogy, stevenlmeyer.

>>Let's take the IRA as an example<<

First, simply substitute "Islamic terrorists" for "the IRA", and "rogue Islamic states" for "the Irish diaspora" in your paragraph, and see what happens.

"At any one time Islamic terrorists had few men under arms. But they were far from a fringe group. They had a global network of supporters among rogue Islamic states who supplied finance and, occasionally, logistic support.

See what I mean?

These are ordinary, run-of-the-mill terrorists. Nothing more, nothing less.

>>What ultimately brought the IRA to the negotiating table was generation change<<

The same will happen to Islamic terrorists. In the same way that the blinkered Bostonian finally stopped giving money and “moral” support to the IRA, the politics of the rogue states will shift away from lending their name to murder.

The parallels don't stop there.

>>Had the Brits given Ulster to the Republic their attacks would have ceased.<<

The IRA knew this would not happen. Not because of “the Brits”, but because the six counties consistently voted themselves to be part of the UK.

Similarly, Islamic terrorists know that there is nothing that they can be “given”.

>>The IRA never attacked third parties.<<

Oh, please.

Kings Cross and Euston station? Birmingham pubs? Christmas shopping at Harrods?

>>They never killed people who wrote books they did not like<<

You'd need to be able to read first.

But does the name Airey Neave mean anything to you?

>>stop being naïve about this. PERSISTENT terrorist groups cannot function without a support base. They are thus NOT a fringe.<<

I have no idea where you got the idea that I consider Islamic terrorism “fringe”, stevenlmeyer. It is certainly not a word I have ever used.

They are, however, “merely” terrorists. Having lived through the IRA atrocities, and being aware that these people care nothing for human life, yes, they are a concern.

But to turn them into bogeymen that lurk under every Christian bed is, frankly, to hand them a victory that they haven't earned, and certainly don't deserve.

Looks like "The Jewel of Medina" is to be published after all.

See:

http://www.reuters.com/article/artsNews/idUSN0330476620080903

My guess is that the reaction from Muslims will be approximately zero. However the publicity resulting from Random House's cowardice will probably multiply sales. This could prove a windfall for author Sherry Jones.

I read the dreadful "Satanic Verses" after Khomeini's death sentence on Rushdie. I think I shall give this one a miss.

Question:

Random House is a subsidiary of a German company, Bertelsmann AG. Was it the German head office that pressured the American subsidiary into ditching "The Jewel of Medina?" European companies tend to display more fear of Islam than American ones.

Thanks for the update, Steven. Like some of us said, your fears appear to have been somewhat exaggerated.

However, the question with which you ended your update seems just a bit tenuous. Do you know the saying about flogging a dead horse?