We must resist Islamist demand for submission

"Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad's teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission." 

Civilizations clash all the time, but we are watching the first skirmishes of an epic conflict. Modern Islamism is a totalitarian movement every bit as expansionist as communism was. Both seek to create paradise on Earth, so they feel tremendous latitude in commanding compliance with their programs.

The desire of many European countries to atone for their imperialist pasts has led them to an untenable position regarding their own Muslim immigrant populations and Islamists around the world. They practice multiculturalism, but there has been no assimilation by their immigrants or acceptance of a free Western society. They have maintained an insular culture and enforced many abhorrent customs, including forced marriage and honor killings. Now Islamists worldwide are expanding the scope of their assumed authority and demand submission or violence in ostensibly free countries.

The Palestinians replaced one corrupt terrorist group with another and a nuclear Iran is a real possibility. The Netherlands saw Pim Fortuyn gunned down for an anti-immigrant stance, then Theo Van Gogh was slaughtered and an Islamist screed pinned to his chest with a knife. The letter threatened his partner in making the film "Submission," a tale of the oppression of women by Islam. Her name is Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, a member of Parliament, and she has become a leading voice of Muslim dissidence. She lives under guard but has been out front in condemning violence against women and nonbelievers by those who impose their religion on all.

Now we have violent protests worldwide about cartoons depicting Muhammad and Ms. Ali was not silent (www.nrc.nl/opinie/article215732.ece):

"I am here to defend the right to offend. ... I do not seek to offend religious sentiment, but I will not submit to tyranny. Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad's teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission."

Osama bin Laden calls to restore the Caliphate across the Middle East, but states directly that is only a base for expansion into infidel territory. Islamism is united in hatred of the West and the need to deflect attention from the huge disparity in quality of life between their states and free ones.

Demonizing the West as evil in mosques and schools inoculates the young against their natural desire for the freedom and plenty they can't get at home. Islamists realize they must consolidate now or lose any chance as their youth continue to be exposed to the tempting blasphemy of Western culture. Islamists are making their play, and the West needs a coordinated response.

There were signs of spine-stiffening in Old Europe when German and French papers published the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, but then a New Europe EU appeaser said that the press should self-regulate their right to publish such items and the French editor was fired.

The demands from the extremists will not moderate; God has told them to do this. The question for the free world is whether any one group's God is the arbiter of our freedoms. I truly hope not.

Freedoms you can't exercise don't exist, and if any group of religionists can set a standard for offense too low to be compatible with liberal society, we have lost. As Ms. Ali stated, there is a difference between respect and submission.