Analysis: State of denial in the West

Millions of people may have marched through the streets of Paris and other major French cities, but it does not change the stark reality.Though the terrorists who slaughtered journalists at Charlie Hebdo and Jews at a kosher supermarket were killed, the terrorists have the last word.The world media got the message. Henceforth it will carefully censor itself under strict Muslim scrutiny. No more freedom of the press for the West. The new issue of Charlie Hebdo was mentioned on major television channels, such as BBC, SKY NEWS, CNN and others – but they all carefully refrained from showing the picture of Muhammad, which took the whole of the front page of that issue.Only a few – a very few papers – did reproduce that page. And yet the representation of the prophet was in no way disrespectful.True, this phenomenon is not new. It started in the wake of the violent manifestations against the publication of the so-called Muhammad cartoons. However it seems that from now on “the free and enlightened world press” has understood the message that one does not mess with Muslims and will toe the line. There will of course not be such restraint concerning the symbols of Christianity and Judaism, let alone demonization of Israel through false reporting.After all, while 50 heads of state had made the trip to Paris to show their solidarity, there was one glaring absence. US President Barack Obama, self-styled leader of the free world, wasn’t there and wasn’t even represented by a senior official.A White House spokesman did say it was a mistake, and Secretary of State John Kerry hastened to Paris to apologize, but it was too late. The decision not to attend could only have been made by the president himself and the Muslim world was quick to get the message. Since he took office, Obama has been at pain to stress that he wanted a dialogue with the Muslim world while refusing to address Islamic terror – and apparently not understanding that he was making his country more vulnerable.By refusing to march in protest against Islamic terrorists who had committed terrible crimes in the name of Islam, he was making an ideological and strategic statement.And to make his position even clearer, he brazenly declared on January 16 that Europe should treat its Muslim minorities better and assimilate them the way the United States had done.Can he have forgotten the war of Islam against America? Or the latest atrocities committed by “assimilated” Muslims living in the United States, from Fort Hood to Boston? America may be fighting al-Qaida terrorists in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan, mostly by using assault drones, but it calls them “extremists” or “criminals” while ignoring the religious ideology that fuels them. In other words, without identifying the underlying problem.Officials – and the media – do not publish the name of Muslims arrested while committing a crime, and often call them “youngsters;” if they do name them, they are not adverse to mentioning the difficult background and lack of assimilation of the perpetrators, in effect blaming themselves as Obama just did. Why indeed stress that Muslim communities often have their own rules, and that their televisions are tuned to inflammatory Muslim channels calling to Islamize the West? Only a few, a very few private Internet sites try to expose the truth.In France, following the murderous attacks of the last 10 days, that trend was more than ever evident. We were told time and time again that though the terrorists acted in the name of Islam, they did not represent Islam.Not one word about a war of civilization.No, what was targeted was France’s hallowed freedom of speech. Not the continuing harassment of French Jews by Muslims.During the fraught hours of the siege of the Hyper Cacher supermarket, the media talked about “hostages,” not about Jews, though in a chilling interview given to a TV station during the siege. the killer said he was killing Jews because they were Jews.To this day the French have a problem with the word “Jew” – maybe because it brings back unwanted memories that France – and many in Europe – still do not want to examine too closely.Worse, President François Hollande felt the need to rush to the Arab World Institute in Paris and explain that Muslims were the first victims of racism and intolerance.Whose racism? Whose intolerance? Who are always the victims of intolerance if not the Jews – and democratic values? The French president stated solemnly that there was no contradiction between Islam and democracy. Yet Islam does not recognize the laws of man, only those of Allah, and the Shari’a is unambiguous on that point.The French government and the governments of most European states as well as the Obama administration appear to be in a state of denial. By refusing to see the reality, they are making it worse since they are not addressing it.However, people are not blind and all over Europe there is the beginning of a groundswell of demonstrations against Islamic terror – leading to the unwelcome rise of the extreme Right and the decline of traditional parties.In this theater of the absurd, the West absolves Islam of all the crimes committed in its name and Israel is being sued in the International Criminal Court.