Ilkka writes:

The case of the Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones nicely, uh, illuminates the principle first pointed out by Jussi Halla-aho, that the relationship between Western progressives and Muslims is disturbingly similar to that of a dysfunctional family with the elephant in the room that one of the family members is a violent alcoholic. The rest of this family walks on eggshells trying not to provoke him to rage and violence, and in fact blames each other for any violent outbursts.

It’s an interesting analogy.  Why, the excuses almost write themselves!  “He’s only like this when he gets tired” (“Not all Muslims are terrorists”) , “He’s really a good provider” (“Our Western civilization owes so much to Islam”), “I probably said something to set him off” (“You said something to set them off”).

I’m somewhat mystified as to why Western progressives – humanists and secularists all! – are so eager to succor and defend radical Islamism, its terrorist acts, its theocratic reach and its hostility to gays and women.  Perhaps with Communism a dead letter and the socialist experiment in peril, the tranzis, the tenured, the tax-eaters and the trash need a new weapon in their war on the West.  The enemy of their enemy is their friend.

The peril for them is that come the day their erstwhile allies will now become their nemesis.  “We’ve hired Hitler!” Franz von Papen crowed on January 30, 1933, thinking that his old guard would serve as a check on any dictatorial tendencies.  A year later in the “Night of the Long Knives” Papen had to flee for his life.  Other allies like Hugenberg and Duesterberg were ousted when Hitler consolidated his power.  And that’s the good scenario.  Are our progressive Goodthinkers destined to be the Schleichers, the Zinovievs, the Bukharins and the Molas of the New Day?