Over the weekend, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, two events happened on opposite sides of the Atlantic. And the contrast could not be greater.
In Florida, this two-bit whacko preacher threatened to burn Korans. This nobody managed to garner all kinds of attention from around the world. Muslims all over the place were outraged. The New Black Panther Party issued veiled threats. President Obama said it was a bad thing. General Petraeus, from Afghanistan, said it would not be helpful. The FBI even visited the pastor for as-yet-undetermined reasons. And Americans all over denounced him as a hateful, bigoted jerk.
In the end, he didn’t burn any Korans.
Meanwhile, across the pond, a bunch of Muslims held their own gathering in London. They’re a little vague on details, but it seems to have been a generalized anti-American rally. They weren’t happy about our policies and actions in the Middle East, and they probably weren’t too keen on the almost-burning of some Korans, but the anti-American angle was pretty clear: they showed up at the US Embassy and burned American flags and copies of the Constitution.
Millions of Americans failed to demonstrate their outrage at this gross insult. Many didn’t even hear about it. But generally, they weren’t outraged because they weren’t paying attention.
And why the hell should they?
This demonstration of “Islamic rage” is a temper tantrum. More specifically, the kind of tantrum a toddler throws: the only emotions it generates is amusement, mild annoyance, and embarrassment in the child’s guardians.
And in this case, Islam has no grown-ups to be embarrassed by it.
Hey, assholes: so you burned copies of our flag and our Constitution. Big whoop. We don’t believe in voodoo or sympathetic magic or whatever you wanna call it. Instead, we just say “look at the babies, playing with fire. All they’re gonna do is burn themselves.”
Morons. We do worse to ourselves FOR FUN. You’re gonna have to try a lot harder to get us worked up.
And you really, really, really don’t want to do that.
