All These Apologies Aren't Doing the Apologists Any Good
by John Riet

The riots taking place in the Middle East and Europe prove one thing: Muslims still haven't learned the secret to shaking off the chains of poverty. Muslim men and women have spent the last week or so torching Danish flags, holding signs that warn Europe their 9/11 is coming, and burning embassies… and all over a satirical cartoon of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. They can do this for two reasons: 1. Unemployment gives them nothing but time to cause trouble and 2. They know that we will do nothing about it. In fact, we'll go out of our way to apologize to them. Perhaps this time the Europeans and our own American liberals realize that we can only apologize to these "poor oppressed people" so many times before we understand that it's not us. It's them. In fact, this culture has done historically little to earn the respect they so desperately seek today.

Every culture reaches a point when they have to decide which path to follow. For instance, around the 13th century, much of Europe decided it could no longer live strictly to serve God and prosper at the same time. Up until then, Christianity mostly forbade the idea of usury - the economic concept of charging interest for money and property that is lent. It's a key element for building a healthy commerce. Then the Christians started looking at the more prosperous Jews, who did believe usury. They quickly realized that they could adhere faithfully to the word of God and live in poverty, or they could engage in activities that produce wealth. This was a key turning point for Europe.

After that, they started exploring uncharted lands, looking for new trade routes and trade partners, innovating new technologies to make life easier for its citizens. Granted, not all of the activity was what one would call moral. There were dirty deals with questionable people, slave trades, thefts, piracy, etc. But I dare you to show me one culture in the history of the world that has clean hands. The point is that Europe started behaving in a way that would make it more prosperous.

Meanwhile around this same time, the Muslims in the Middle East were taking the opposite road toward perpetual poverty and conflict. Since the prophet Muhammad reared his head into Arab society in the 7th century and established his own spin-off of the Judeo-Christian religion, Muslims have decided to devote their lives to Allah instead of themselves. This once great race of people who made unprecedented strides in mathematics, alphabets, science, architecture, and art was reduced to a society that prays toward the East five times a day, refuses to eat pork, and constantly makes territorial war with their neighbors - be they Jew, Christian, or even other Muslims.

In 1300 years, you can see the difference in the two cultures that went in opposite directions. Europe and American became economic super powers and technological innovators. We've allowed man to instantly communicate over oceans; we've given man the power of flight; we've discovered ways to produce more than enough food for everyone; and the list goes on and on. The Muslims? They're still a society that prays toward the East five times a day, refuses to eat pork, and constantly makes territorial war with their neighbors - be they Jew, Christian, or even other Muslims.

As cultures, we have both made choices. And these choices have yielded different results. We chose freedom and capitalism. They chose oppression and poverty. And they hate the fact that our choice led to a greater prosperity. They hate us and they hate our freedom. The latest example is the demonstrative riots now taking place over a form of Denmark's freedom of expression.

Yet, as obvious as all this might be, there are still those among us in Western culture that feel the need to apologize for the fact that we made the right choices. We must apologize to the Muslims for working hard and producing goods and services that provide a better quality of life.

But let's be honest. This "I'm sorry" mentality is not really new. We've been doing it to our own citizens for the past century, and we continue to get the same results. The governments of Europe and America have been trying to "make it up" to the less fortunate members of society. Whether it's based on income, race, religion, culture, intellect, physical shortcomings, etc., we've been desperately trying to make up for those who just can't seem to get ahead.

In doing so, we've created a welfare state that produces people who don't want to work nor take responsibility for their own lives. We've created socialist programs that discourage production and are destined for financial ruin. And thus, we have members of society who have time on their hands to cause trouble - all because they've grown up knowing they don't have to work because their quandary is no fault of their own.

Let's be perfectly clear: these downtrodden folk (whether they be Americans, Europeans, or Muslims) are not poor because of anything we've done. They are poor because they refuse to and engage in affluent activity. In the case of the Muslims, they won't even step out of the 7th century. It's time to stop apologizing and making excuses to those who hate us. We've been doing it for decades and it has done more harm than good.

It's about time to be proud of what we've accomplished. Let's brag about our prosperity. Stop apologizing for being successful. Maybe we'll inspire responsibility and hard work. Perhaps those who live off the government will realize there's more opportunity in getting a job… any job. Perhaps the Muslims will realize there is more prosperity through work rather than rioting, building car bombs, and praying five times a day.