"Yes We Can" - Al-Qaeda's English Mag Publishes Wanted Dead or Alive List

Memri, the Middle East Media Research Institute has the latest edition of Inspire, al-Qaeda's English language magazine. This edition features a 'Wanted Dead or Alive' hit list of targets for 'crimes against Islam' , with the heading 'Yes We Can' and 'A Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away'.

(h/t, The Weekly Standard)

The list includes Molly Norris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Flemming Rose, Morris Swadiq, Salman Rushdie, Girt Wilders [sic], Lars Vilks, Stephane Charbonnier, Carsten Luste, Terry Jones, and Kurt Westergaard.

Geert Wilder, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushdie, Terry Jones and Kurt Westergaard are likely familiar to you. Wilders, Ali, and Jones are noted critics of Islamism and sharia, Rushdie is still under a fatwa by the Iranian mullahs for writing The Satanic Verses, and Westergaard is one of the cartoonists who drew the famous MoToons.

Molly Norris' huge crime was to initiate a project called 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day' after the fracas ( which included a suspected terrorist attack) over a South Park episode that didn’t actually depict Mohamed, but made fun of the Islamo-seethe over the subject.

A fatwa was subsequently issued by a number of adherents of the Religion of Peace, and our own FBI claimed they couldn't protect her and advised her to go into hiding. Molly is an American citizen whose rights are presumably protected by our Constitution. That apparently counts for nothing next to appeasing Islam in today's America. She'll be hiding and living in fear the rest of her life.

Fleming Rose was the editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that originally published the MoToon cartoons. He's already had a couple of close calls, as has Kurt Westergaard.

Lars Vilks is a noted Swedish artist who did a series of drawings of Mohammed. Swedish art galleries who planned to exhibit them were hit with numerous threats of violence and backed out, but the drawings were published in a couple of Swedish newspapers. While Swedish authorities refused to comply with demands from Swedish Muslim organizations that he be arrested and jailed, fatwas were issued, including one from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq which has offered a bounty of $150,000 for his murder. There have been several attempts to earn it. While our FBI told Molly Norris to fend for herself, the Swedes at least defended his rights as a citizen and put Vilks under police protection. He will need it for the rest of his life.

I have no clue whom Morris Swadiq or Carsten Luste are, but I do know whom Stéphane Charbonnier is. He's a cartoonist and editor of Charlie Hebdo, a French humor magazine a bit like America's National Lampoon that published a satirical edition of the magazine guest edited by Mohammed - 'a hundred lashes if you don't die laughing'!

Apparently the Muslim sense of humor agrees more with the Ayatollah Khomeni's famous quote about there being no laughter in Islam. A number of France's Muslim organizations went berserk, calling for Charbonnier to be prosecuted and jailed. The magazine's offices were firebombed, its websites were hacked, several staffers were assaulted and Charbonnier is likewise under a death fatwa.

The magazine's offices now have a permanent police guard, and Charbonnier will also need security protection for life.

I can already hear your response...after all these are just fanatics, most Muslim are non-violent, et cetera, et cetera. We've been telling ourselves that for awhile now.

But the 'fanatics' are surprisingly numerous, energetic, and mainstream, and in some of these cases have the active support of governments in Muslim states.And most of the Muslim organizations in the western countries involved have taken a firm stand that this or anything else they deem 'critical' of Islam ought to be criminalized, so they're essentially legitimizing what's going on. While they've almost all made grudging, pro forma statements condemning violence, were it left to them everyone of these people would be punished harshly. Even if they're sincere about condemning violence, all they really disagree with is the penalty involved.

And more to the point, prominent Muslim voices disagreeing with these sentiments and standing up for the very freedoms they enjoy in western socities are few and far between.

I have a feeling that the very opposite would be true if Muslim writers, artists and publications were being threatened and attacked in this way by non-Muslims. Non-Muslim liberals of both the political and classic variety would be absolutely vociferous in standing up for the freedom of Muslims to express themselves.

In fact, we can already see it in the Leftist frenzy over 'Islamophobia'.

Do most Muslims believe in a free society, not only for themselves but for others? Is Islam compatible with a free society, especially when the population of Muslims increases to a significant degree? Can a free society survive once that happens?

Western governments, including our own are bending over backwards to avoid even thinking about those questions, let alone answering them. But eventually, they're going to have to be answered...and let's not forget that not answering them is also an answer. Molly Norris, Geert Wilders and some of the others on this list would undoubtedly have something to say about that.