A Modest Proposal

Our Neighbor, pondering posts like this, and this, posted a rather long comment. The comment is hereby promoted to a guest post, to make sure it is not missed:


I think we should do a study of all the Islamic countries, and find the one that is the most open, the most tolerant, the most respectful of religious minorities, the most liberal. We should get an accurate description of their rules and policies toward minority religions (esp. Christianity). Then we in the West should simply adopt equivalent rules:

That is, if that most tolerant of the Islamic countries allows Christians to worship and proselytize, then we should allow Muslims to worship and proselytize to the same extent. If that most liberal of Islamic countries issues licenses to Christians to let them run places of worship, then we should issue licenses to Muslims to the same extent. If that most free of Islamic countries allows public criticism of Islam and its prophet, then we should allow Muslims here to publicly criticize Christianity and Jesus. If that most benevolent of Islamic countries requires public officials to respect the Christian Bible and the Cross, then we should likewise require that our officials respect the Koran and the Crescent. If that most sensitive of Islamic countries prohibits Islamic symbols in public that might hurt the feelings of fragile Christians, then we should prohibit Christian symbols (and other things, like pictures of pigs) to the same extent.

But if, instead, the most liberal Islamic state effectively burdens the practice of Christianity, or saddles it with licensing obligations, or restricts the Church's public activities, or puts sanctions on those who convert to Christianity, or threatens Christians with legal problems if Muslims accuse them of proselytizing or defaming the Prophet, or expects Christians to understand that they are a minority and should just get used to it--if that's what we find, then we should simply revert to our status quo ante of about the year 2000. We should then invite any Muslims who do not feel grateful for the unaccountable freedom and welcome that they enjoy in this stupendously magnanimous country either (a) to suck it up and be quiet and look away from any pig pictures that hurt their feelings, or (b) to invest their energy in addressing the gross injustices against Christians that are perpetrated officially and without apology in Islamic states and cultures, or (c) to go to the Islamic state of their choice and bask in the Muslim bliss that they will presumably find there.