A Miscellany 414
Poking the beast
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by: John Tyrrell
The article which was here has been removed by me voluntarily. I don’t like removing material – I prefer to show a progression of thought. Nevertheless, I made an exception in this case.
No pressure was applied to delete the article. If it had been, I might have felt obliged to leave it up.
What was here was a response to the Charlie Hebdo murders, a response further influenced by a silly Saudi Arabian sheikh declaring that the making of snowmen was blasphemy.
What was written here was in my view appropriate for the moment. However, I question whether it is appropriate to leave up indefinitely. The editorial cartoonist, Daryl Cagle recently referred to this sort of activity as “poking the extremist Islamic beast to elicit a predictable response.”
I think I had good reason to poke the beast back in January. But I see no reason to continue jabbing that sore spot indefinitely.
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