Lowry says of Mr. Nakoula:
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula deserves a place in American history. He is the first person in this country jailed for violating Islamic anti-blasphemy laws.
His case has symbolic significance in the ongoing battle over whether the Muslim world will embrace modernity, and the panoply of freedoms associated with it, or whether it will continue to slide backward by adopting blasphemy laws punishing expressions deemed offensive to Islam. The administration has been dismayingly willing to accommodate the latter tendency. Nakoula’s jail time appears indistinguishable from what the 56-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, devoted to pushing blasphemy laws around the world, calls “deterrent punishment” for “Islamophobia.”
His video, which did spark violent protests in the Muslim world by the kind of people who are looking for an excuse to protest, should have been an object lesson in freedom. Obama should have explained that our culture is full of disreputable film directors and producers. Some of them are even honored by the Academy.
Adding that murderous rage is an unacceptable reaction to even the worst insult would have been nice, too.
Alas, I don't find the symbolic significance of the Nakoula saga to be in the struggle for the soul of the Moslem world. Sure, that is vitally important. We must support that fight, as I've repeatedly written. But the symbolic significance is the struggle for the soul of the West. I'm not so sure we're qualified to teach the lesson Lowry wants the Islamic world to learn.
One can hardly blame our Islamist enemies for whipping up frenzied mobs over the film or trailer for the film--whatever allegedly was out there. This murderous tendency is one more reason that the jihadis are our enemies, no? What can you expect from them?
But I expect better from us. We should stand up for our freedoms. We should not apologize to the Islamist world, trying to understand the excellent if regrettable reasons the film gave Islamists to riot and kill. In the end, I would rather know why we don't stand up for our society and freedoms? Why do we hate us?
Really, I don't blame our enemies for hating us. They are slime. Why wouldn't they hate us? But honestly, can't we in the West appreciate what we have and have the backbone to defend it?
Honestly, if we were a unified society proud of our achievements and what we represent, I really wouldn't worry about a bunch of pathetic cave dwellers who fantasize about destroying the West. We'd butcher them before lunch and be on with our lives.
But the sad fact is, many in the West would kneel before their beheaders and feel priviliged to be killed by the jihadis.
I keep noting that we still haven't tracked down and made the people responsible for Benghazi pay for that outrage. Perhaps the Obama administration thinks that they already did that when they arranged for Nakoula to sit in jail for his sins.
I'm afraid we need the object lesson in freedom more than our enemies.
