An Unseen Timewarp?

I often feel like between the West and much of the Muslim world, there is an unseen timewarp that one passes through. Certainly, we could dismiss misogyny (including limits on their freedom and genital mutilation) as traditional or embrace it thanks to multiculturalism, to name one example. But I think a prerequisite for modernity is freedom of expression and religion. Just to cite another example, see the brouhaha over Queen Elizabeth's knighting of Salman Rushdie. He's an important author, therefore he deserves to be knighted. But because he also dissed Islam (pretty easy to do, I've probably already done so), the Muslim world is screaming bloody murder. There's the obligatory flag and effigy burning (Queen and Rushdie) in Pakistan, where the religious minister also said the act justified suicide bombing. The Iranian government has claimed it's a sign of institutional Islamophobia in the West - which goes to show how delusional these folks are.

This hasn't gotten too much traction in the MSM, no doubt because it disturbs their vision of Islam as a "religion of peace." But imagine their outrage if homophobic groups had loudly protested the Queen's knighting of Sir Elton. A bright spot (so far) is that in contrast to the Danish cartoons fracas, European Muslims haven't gotten in on the act yet.

I think I miss the days when burning the Queen in effigy would result in the Royal Navy putting aboard a landing party to chastise the cheeky natives. The world may not have been kind back then (it never has been) but at least it was somewhat predictable and controllable.