Friday digest

- You know what word I am really starting to hate? "Dialogue". It's code for appeasement, appeasement of the likes of Omar Ahmad, Chairman Emeritus and co-founder of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, who, according to my buddy Neal Boortz, allegedly stated the following back in 1997:

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

No word if he'll be attending this conference in Oz this weekend.

Then, we have everyone pretending that Buddhists, Hindus, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, atheists and agnostics are just as likely to commit violence in the name of their faith as are adherents to the religion I conveniently didn't mention, just like new UK PM Gordon Brown would prefer.

Think about what columnist David Ignatius of the Washington Post said this week:

A chilling measure of Muslim anger is that several of the suspected bomb plotters arrested by the British are doctors. What kind of rage would lead a physician trained in the healing arts to pack together nails, explosives and propane gas in a mix that would shatter bones and rip apart flesh? This is a revolt of the privileged, the uprooted, the disconnected. It speaks of self-mutilation as much as mayhem against others.

How about the words of Irshad Manji, someone who, while we're handing out Orders of Canada these days, would be at the top of the list if I was in charge:

After rounding up the Toronto suspects, police held a press conference and didn't once mention Islam or Muslims. At their second press conference, police boasted about avoiding those words. If the guardians of public safety intended their silence to be a form of sensitivity, they instead accomplished a form of artistry, airbrushing the role that religion plays in the violence carried out under its banner.

They're in fine company: moderate Muslims do the same. Although the vast majority of Muslims aren't extremists, it is important to start making a more important distinction: between moderate Muslims and reform-minded ones.

Moderate Muslims denounce violence in the name of Islam but deny that Islam has anything to do with it. By their denial, moderates abandon the ground of theological interpretation to those with malignant intentions, effectively telling would-be terrorists that they can get away with abuses of power because mainstream Muslims won't challenge the fanatics with bold, competing interpretations. To do so would be admit that religion is a factor. Moderate Muslims can't go there.

Reform-minded Muslims say it's time to admit that Islam's scripture and history are being exploited. They argue for reinterpretation precisely to put the would-be terrorists on notice that their monopoly is over.

Does any real leader seriously think that twisting oneself into a pretzel for the sake of "dialogue" is going to stop people like those involved in last weekend's attacks, bent on destroying themselves and others, from carrying out such atrocities? Sadly, Muslims like Manji are in the microscopic minority, despite the ongoing effort of most Western politicians to pretend that no truth needs to be told about the tensions inherent with the dominant interpretation of Islam and the concept of pluralism.

While others would argue for the closing of Gitmo and the shutdown of the wiretap program, I'd argue that it's time for some tough love. Anything less is basically rewarding the efforts of the terrorists.

- Speaking of Boortz, he had a golden rant yesterday on his site (same link as the one above) concerning the mother of Chris Benoit, who said that if only federal agents had protected her 40-year old, steroid-injecting son from himself, he'd still be alive today.

Leaving aside whether or not you think this was caused by mental illness, as I do, or by decline brought on by years of substance abuse, is irrelevant. What's disturbing is that she expected the state to step in and tell her boy that what he was doing - injecting steroids - was probably not the best idea.

Memo: He knew. He didn't care. And the fact that he didn't act in a responsible manner is no one's fault but his own - not the government's.

- Is there anything more tragically pathetic than celebrity activism?

- Alan Dershowitz, certainly no GOP apologist, comments on the Libby commutation, here. Other perspectives here and here.

- Today my buddy Greenchief ranted at length about how much he hates American pro hockey player Jeremy Roenick, so for those of you who don't know who he is or would just like to reacquaint yourselves with some of his best moments, I thought I'd provide some, such as:

- JR cuttin' rug in Las Vegas;

- JR pimping on a late-night talk show (with some Mick or Scot, I don't really know), and featuring a cameo appearance by Chris Rock (note JR's classic mispronounciation of the word "drowned");

- JR revealing that he's a massive fan of hip-hop pioneer Tone Loc;

- and finally, a moment of greatness the Greenchief and I can agree on, JR knocking the Leafs out of the playoffs, in overtime, on Toronto ice.