Baby Steps

In your Chicago Sun-Times, Neil Steinberg sets aside his well-worn broad brush:

You'll notice I say "some Muslims" and "part of the Islamic world." I'm going to try to always do that from now on. Because hatred is contagious -- you tend to become the monster you fight, as Nietzsche pointed out. So, just because a few howling despots paint the West as an undifferentiated mass of evil, doesn't mean we have to return the favor. That's playing their game and, as they will discover (sadly for us, in about 300 years) it's a losing game.

As images of outraged Muslims burning churches in the Middle East are broadcast in our living rooms, we need to remember that for every masked guy firing a Kalashnikov into the air, there are 1,000 others selling dates in Basra and driving cabs on Devon Avenue and treating patients at Swedish Covenant Hospital.

But nevertheless, I trust that Neil's next column will contain something that will leave me nigh apoplectic.

Update - From September 20, 2006:

But remember we're not talking about Muslims in Northbrook, we're talking about imams in Egypt, who have yet to learn that you can still be a good tea-drinking Muslim and buy your tea at Starbucks.