The intolerance of "tolerance"

David Harsanyi at the Denver Post has an interesting piece on Islam, Juan Williams, and "tolerance".

Writing about the recent firing of Juan Williams by NPR for supposedly making "bigoted" remarks, Harsanyi had this observation:

There are many books — a genre actually — that expound on the profound stupidity of religion and its followers. Though I enjoy some of these works, I can't help but marvel at how the most severe accusations are reserved for modern Catholicism or Evangelicalism while, if we're lucky, some tepid criticism will gently fall on the faith featuring the most fundamentalism in the world.

Indeed. Harsanyi is a devout skeptic, so he can hardly be considered a shill for Christianity. Yet he is able to detect the cowardice in much modern writing about religion that professes to see dangerous Christian fundamentalists lurking under every bed, yet is willing to ignore the rise of 7th century barbarians who shriek, "Allah Akhbar!" while lopping off the heads of infidels, set off nail bombs in crowds, and fly jets into buildings.

Here is what I wrote back in April about Comedy Central's decision to block an episode of South Park that showed Muhammad in a bearsuit:

I believe that the real reason the entertainment industry and the media will attack Christianity at the drop of a hat but avoid anything even remotely critical of Islam and other religions is simple - they just don't like Christianity. They view Islam and other religions as competitors to Christianity, and are willing to cut non-Christian religions a tremendous amount of slack.

I am not suggesting that many in the entertainment industry and the media are Muslims, or even sympathetic to Islam. But it is clear that their humanistic view is directly at odds with Christianity. Christianity holds that humanity is fallen, and is in need of a Savior. Many secularists do not believe in any Savior at all (expect perhaps Barack Obama). "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" seems to be the operating idea here, not a deep attachment to any non-Christian religion.

Modern secular progressivism is a profoundly anti-intellectual political philosophy that rejects reason and freedom while celebrating the subordination of the individual to the dictates of an all-powerful State. The media's willingness to join hands with Islamic fundamentalism is a calculated political decision (a modern-day Hitler-Stalin pact between two competing groups of totalitarians) rather than an outbreak of respect for opinions that differ with theirs. Should progressive ever believe that Islam is a threat to their power they will treat them just the same way they treat Christians and Jews - with hatred, contempt, and fear.

It is important to remember that while Christians may be a primary target of secular progressives (the unhinged reaction by the media to Christine O'Donnell is just the latest example), they are not the only target. Anyone who does not bow the knee to the State is a heretic. Christians, atheists, libertarians, conservatives, Jews - in the media's eyes we are all becoming enemies of the State. Unbelievers like Harsanyi are coming to realize that.