The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.Heroic sentiments, indeed. Doubly so perhaps when one remembers that Jyllands-Posten is the same newpaper that originally published the now infamous drawings.
Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.
The signatories are notable intellectuals & writers, many of whom are members of the religious and ethinic Muslim community. People like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie, & Ibn Warraq. The sad fact is that while such statements are needed now more than ever before, they will likely fall on ears deafened by the hate-filled cries of fanatics and fail to be acknowledged by minds destroyed by dogmatic, fundamentalist ideology.
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