The race is on

Scared beyond belief again by what Andrew Sullivan had to say this morning on the Chris Matthews Show I feel like I now have to prepare for what this century will actually turn into. I think it's true, as most people say, that the 20th century ended when communism collapsed and the 21st century started on 9/11. But what this century is forming into is what I am just coming to realize. We are beginning to change the Middle East. We're not really changing it by this "democratization" but just by confronting Islam itself. Not the Islam we see in America but the Islam that has either not changed or is hearkening back to the middle ages.

The new clashes that have erupted across the middle east from the cartoons of Muhammad are showing just how true this is. Late last year there were a few Danish cartoons that featured Muhammad, most in derogatory ways like having a bomb for a head. Now that these images have made it to the area of the world where any drawn images of Muhammad in a derogatory form are blasphemous, the true reaction is being seen.

Of course devout Christians take offense to derogatory pictures of Christ and some Hassidic Jews were punishing Madonna for mentioning a prophet in one of her songs as it's against their religion for any mention of a prophet to be used to make money. The difference lies in the retaliation. The Islamic reaction is vengeance of the worst sort. The attacking of the Danish consulate this weekend in Beirut for instance, but simply in general, 9/11 being the most obvious, resorting to murder as the only answer. Now we must turn the confrontation into dialogue. We're going to have a lot of reactionary coups, and elections, and attacks during this century. And yes, it's going to take a century. The race, as Andrew Sullivan said, is going to be if we can modernize Islamic thinking before they get The Bomb. Lets start the discussion. Good luck to us all.