www.weeklystandard.com sept 07
Preemptive Appeasement
Europe's new strategy for the war on terror.
Provocative in their assertion of Islam's incompatibility with democracy, the rally organizers nonetheless would have been violating no known law. Yet Thielemans (who had approved a September 9 rally by a group of conspiracy theorists who claim that the September 11 attacks were orchestrated by the Bush administration) neither liked them nor the possibility of a violent reaction from what he termed "Muslims," "peace activists" and "democrats."
This is but the latest manifestation of a disturbing European malaise--preemptive cringe before the threat of violence from Muslim extremists.