Tom Friedman Gets It Right

In yesterday’s post about “Islam and the First Amendment” I suggested that Muslims were demanding a respect for their religion that they were not giving to anyone else’s religion.

When their prophet was blasphemed they felt justified in reacting with violence. At the same time they routinely blaspheme everyone’s else’s religious leaders.

This morning Tom Friedman took up the same theme in his column. I do not suspect that Friedman reads this blog—if he did his columns would be much better—but his and my point is well taken, and well worth a read.

Here’s a sample from Friedman:

And, second, before demanding an apology from our president, Mr. Ali and the young Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Yemenis, Pakistanis, Afghans and Sudanese who have been taking to the streets might want to look in the mirror — or just turn on their own televisions. They might want to look at the chauvinistic bile that is pumped out by some of their own media — on satellite television stations and Web sites or sold in sidewalk bookstores outside of mosques — insulting Shiites, Jews, Christians, Sufis and anyone else who is not a Sunni, or fundamentalist, Muslim. There are people in their countries for whom hating “the other” has become a source of identity and a collective excuse for failing to realize their own potential.