In his “Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie,” David Warren reverses the popular meme that summarizes the response of a decadent, de-christianized West to a surly, truculent Islamism.
A nice sample of his writing is this:
A great deal of blather has been expended on “the defense of our values.” This plays right into the fanatics’ hands, for they know we don’t have any.
Another is this:
When the French president, François Hollande, went round to the Charlie Hebdo office, after the massacre, all he could deliver was a bundle of clichés. It was like a social call, on the dead.
Militant Islam can only be checked by Militant Catholicism. Europe’s loss of that last spells her doom — or, in God’s Providence, the occasion of her conversion.
Meanwhile, let us not wave the Charlie Hebdo flag (or the silly “tag,” #JeSuisCharlie). Why? I will let Mr. Warren answer that:
Consider, for instance, a cover from Charlie Hebdo in 2010. The cartoon depicts Pope Benedict, holding a condom aloft and declaring, Ceci est mon corps. (“This is my body.” [Blaspheming the most sacred words of the Mass!]) It was typical of the magazine’s efforts to shock. It was a nice try. But it fell short of blasphemy because, in the modern West, blasphemy simply cannot be achieved.
Neither let us take seriously the nonsensical idea that the cartoonist’s pencil is mightier than the scimitar of the Prophet. We need a Skanderbeg, a Don Juan, or a Jan Sobieski to fight this battle, not an Alfred E. Neumann.
