Cartoons and burning embassies

Joe Miller has a neat little discussion on the cartoon debate at his blog around the corner. As Joe, I don't have much to add to the raging debate that you can follow at Andrew Sullivan's, signandsight, Volokh Conspiracy, etc. (and don't forget Juan Cole, who makes some interesting comparisons with Northern Ireland). (Nevertheless, I left a longish comment, egg on my face. How do you recognize a professor?)

Anyway, two more things:

First, Chris Bertram has written a *very* useful argument in and for the debate, over there at Crooked Timber.

Second, and seriously now, what strikes me as most important in the whole affair is the sense that this is really an important juncture, definitely for Europe and probably for the rest of the world. Maybe more important than September 11, March 11, or July 7: In those events, foreign terrorists entered the US, Spain, and Britain and committed mass murder. The reaction against such acts is nothing qualitatively new: Destroy the terrorist organizations, keep foreign terrorists out of the country, and prevent those who get in from committing further acts. Difficult but doable.

In the cartoon affair, we are not dealing with terrorism (yet?), but -- possibly worse -- with widespread mass agitation and violent activism against some of our most fundamental values. The activities take place mainly outside Europe and the US, but they are very effective in putting Europeans under pressure. A Danish newspaper publishes some cartoons that offend several Danish Muslim activists, who take the cartoons to a number of Middle Eastern countries to mobilize a mass movement to change Danish laws, they receive support from some Middle Eastern governments, and a world crisis is born. That's globalization, folks, and nobody seems to know how to deal with it! In the past, if immigrants caused trouble in Europe or the US, the common perception was that they could be simply deported. Now the concept of immigrant and foreigner does not even make sense in the conflict, as it does not matter where the demonstrations take place. Sure, in principle Britain could deport many of those guys who demonstrated in London last week, but it would not change the situation. We better get used to such global societal conflicts and find a way to deal with them *and* protect our values.