The Long Con

And no, I'm not talking about last night's episode of Lost (a good episode showing what conmen do if they want to make a bunch of money not involving a switch in their car insurance to Geico). Instead, I'm talking about the long term views of the Islamists and jihadists. We've got to take the long term strategic view of the rioting that blew up supposedly about the Danish cartoons, and put it into the larger context.

People forget that the Islamists have made no secret that their intentions are long term conquest - years and decades (if not centuries) in the making, and not necessarily an overnight victory. The Islamists would appreciate speeding up the timeframe for their ultimate victory, but that's neither here nor there. They simply pray for ultimate victory and hope that the tools for such victory become apparent at the appropriate times.

The Islamists have their timeframe and we have ours, which is measured on our political schedule. Every two years we have Congressional elections and every four years we have Presidential elections. The Islamists can simply wait out til someone else is in power and they'd be able to ratchet things up more.

Terrorism is only one way to achieve victory. The information/media war is another.

Poke and prod at the boundaries, such as they are, and make inroads into Western democracies and Europe all the while. Austin Bay noted the other day that this current cartoon conflict is an aspect of an information war. And the media has fallen for the Islamist interpretation such that it is over the portray and usage of the image of Mohammad despite the fact that this interpretation isn't supported by history (or even current events). Wretchard at Belmont Club has more on this here and here.

Those Wacky Iraqis has more (they're a milblogger btw).

All the while, the Islamists and their coreligionists are ginning up more demonstrations with one planned in London for 100,000 to show up. And the media coverage, including that at the NYT, completely misses the boat and fails to note that the Danish imans purposefully and clearly sought to inflame people with the addition of bogus cartoons. The BBC even apologized for publishing that particular cartoon as being true.

In other words, while the anger against these cartoons is quite real, this intifada was cooked up - and it was all part of the Long Con.

UPDATE:
It's all about Taqiyya (sounds like tequila, only far more deadly).

UPDATE:
Posted to the following: Basil's Blog, bRight and Early, Don Surber, Part Time Pundit (who comments on the Daily Illini publication of the cartoons), Shrink Wrapped, USS Neverdock, mark in mexico, Roger L. Simon, and All Things Beautiful.

And according to Memeorandum, the EU is mulling imposing a speech code.

The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU commissioner said on Thursday.

In an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said the charter would encourage the media to show "prudence" when covering religion.

"The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," he told the newspaper. "We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."

The cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper last September before being reprinted across Europe, sparked a wave of protests around the world.

Newspapers which have published them say they are exercising their right to freedom of speech, while critics say the cartoons are deliberately offensive. Depicting the Prophet Mohammad is prohibited by Islam.

Let's examine this for a moment. The Danish paper acts on its own in September 2005 and the result is a big silence. Nothing happens. A Danish iman decides to take the cartoons and their hoaxed additions on a roadshow in the Middle East to drum up an intifada and it doesn't really take until the Iranians, Saudis, and Syrians decide to get into the fray - using them in their ongoing war against the West.

The EU response is to consider limiting speech? They're trying to pick the easy way out - the path of least resistance thinking that no one will mind. Sorry, that doesn't cut it. Free speech is free because we accept certain kinds of speech that we find distasteful and hurtful. Driving this hateful speech underground doesn't help matters - it makes it more difficult to track. The EU is essentially considering giftwrapping the Islamists a cheap victory - and anyone who values free speech would be screwed in the process. Sister Toldjah, No Pasaran, TigerHawk, and Cold Fury.

UPDATE 2/10/06:
Cleaned up the quote removing the extraneous Advertisement from the clip.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon" embassy torchings "muhammad image archive"