No Sense of Irony

Charles Krauthammer's syndicated column published September 22, 2006, was entitled, "Lost in the Intimidation by Islamists? A Sense of Irony." His opening point: "Today's Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine emporer's remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of Islam and violence," Islamists engage in...violence!

After citing numerous historical examples of violence by Christians, Jews and Muslims, he continued: "Islam, of course, spread with great speed from Arabia across the Mediterranean and into Europe. It was not all benign persuasion. After all, what were Islamic armies doing at Poitiers in 732 and the gates of Vienna in 1683? Tourism?

"However, the inconvenient truth is that after centuries of religious wars, Christendom long ago gave it up. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the violent purveyors of monotheistic relgion today are self-proclaimed warriers for Islam..." The column makes many of the same points as I tried to make in my Sept. 20 post, and expresses some of them more cogently and persuasively.