Keeping the Faith

I haven't remarked on the two Fox News journalists who were kidnapped in Gaza and later released after their forced conversion to Islam, because it's one of those stories where you have to hit just the right note or you look like a complete idiot.

You don't want to come off like David Warren, the columnist who accused the journalists of cowardice and feels that they should have died a martyr's death-- an argument that is as narrow as it is heartless. Very few of us have ever been in a position to judge those men. After all, even St. Peter denied Our Lord in His darkest hour and he went on to be the first pope.

Alternatively, you don't want go in the other direction like the usually reliable Captain Ed and all but claim that submitting to forced conversion is somehow a demonstration of Christian virtue and a way of refusing to play the Jihadist's game. This sort of sophistry fails to recognise that it is possible to stand up one's own faith and not be a "fundamentalist" and it is equally possible forgive a man's surrendering his convictions to save his life, but still recognise that there was a moral failing involved.

Mark Steyn, however, has found the sweet-spot in his recent column where he argues that what the journalists did is "understandable," but that the reaction that this is no big deal is a poor reflection on our side.

If you're a Muslim, the video is anything but meaningless. Not even the dumbest jihadist believes these infidels are suddenly true believers. Rather, it confirms the central truth Osama and the mullahs have been peddling -- that the West is weak, that there's nothing -- no core, no bedrock -- nothing it's not willing to trade.

In other words, you can "no big deal" a civilisation right into oblivion.

By the way, that deafening silence you hear is all the Muslim "leaders" in both East and West condemning the conversions.