There was a major moment during World War I when the troops of both sides put their rifles down and rose up and met in no-man's-land with hugs and high-fives, and sang Christmas carols, poured brandy and showed each other wife-and-baby pictures.
I've always felt that must have been a great feeling. Now I know it was, because last week we conservatives and liberals rose up and joined each other in contempt for National Public Radio and their idiot-fascist firing of Juan Williams for candidly confessing his unease when persons in Islamic garb board the airplane.
It grew out of Fox's Bill O'Reilly saying "Muslims killed us on Sept. 11!" on "The View." Many Americans who have no problem with that phrasing are turned around when the NPR types point out, "We don't say 'Christians killed us in Oklahoma City!' do we?" Many of those Americans say, "Oh! That's a good point!" I think it's a lousy point.
Perpetually overlooked is the question of the "auspices" of any individual act. Let's go all the way back to the Crusades. That was not a case of some Italian farmers fighting some desert nomads. That was not a case of some French noblemen fighting the merchants of Damascus. The auspices were clear; it was the Roman Catholic Church against the Islamic world.
Jumping ahead, you can't blame the Holocaust on "Christians." The religion of Nazi Germany was brief and blunt: "God has manifested Himself in Adolf Hitler!" There were no Christian auspices at Auschwitz. The fact that Catholic and Protestant churches were unmolested by the Nazis doesn't disprove, weaken or even touch that point. The auspices were Nazi, not Christian.
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What were the Christian auspices of Timothy McVeigh at the Oklahoma City bombing? Zero! How about Sept. 11? National Public Radio may well want to call time-out for a perspiration-dry-out on that one.
Lamentably, the Islamic auspices underpinning Sept. 11 are high, if not total. Are we now ready to approve the statement that "Muslims killed us on Sept. 11"? Not quite.
The Islamists and NPR might well say, "Aren't there atrocities committed under American auspices? How about the sport-slaughter of civilians from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan by American troops?" Quite correct, but when that occurs the full weight of American jurisprudence descends upon the thrill-killers, leaving no doubt how America feels about such crimes. It's been more than nine years since Sept. 11. Where is the evidence of Islamic disapproval of the attacks?
We've seen the jubilant Muslims dancing on the West Bank when they learned of Sept. 11 (the dancing stopped when their frantic leaders yelled, "Cut it out! We don't want Americans to see this!"). And we've heard a few nicely worded statements in English by Islamic leaders, and we have a troy ton of evidence that those same leaders say the direct opposite when talking to Islamic audiences in Arabic and other Islamic languages. But where is the thunderous, unified, heartfelt Islamic denunciation and repudiation of Sept. 11? Where is the painful Islamic outcry of, "How DARE you jihadists destroy our great and holy religious name by killing masses of innocent people?"
Nine years. And counting.
I'll cut innocent Muslims some slack for being intimidated by the jihadists. I'll cut them some more slack for helping the FBI get the bad guys more often than we hear about. But until people like me are convinced the Islamic masses are truly sorry for Sept. 11 and truly furious at those who did it, we will continue to stay in our chairs when Bill O'Reilly says "Muslims killed us on Sept. 11," we will continue to praise Juan Williams for his honesty, and we will continue to yearn for an NPR defrocked, defanged and defunded.
NPR clearly pulled the wrong sow by the ear. If they had shame, they'd renounce all public funding and compete with other networks for commercial sponsors. If they had honor, they'd have done that decades ago.
The incredibly hostile outburst by NPR President Vivian Schiller suggesting Juan Williams keep his feelings "between himself and his psychiatrist OR his publicist; take his pick" feels a little like hearing a marriage implode at the next restaurant table. Could it be she's furious that Juan is the only one on her team who sunders his NPR chains of political correctness and tells the truth?
Never forget: One good apple ruins the whole rotten bunch.