A Most Effective Weapon

Where tyranny is involved, the news these days is not great. Indeed, |thinking of this I can remember Lord Strunsky, my late husband's father, citing a rather dark time at the start of the Second World War. He would then imitate a famed BBC announcer's voice by stating "This is Alvar Liddell, bringing you news of fresh disasters."

And so it is today, what with the atrocities being committed by such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and the like, all in the name of a religion founded on mercy and compassion. Not only do these creatures border on the sub-human, they cannot even read the dictates prominent in their prime text, the Qur'an. All very sad.

The "warriors" of these sects want to be seen as invincible martyrs for the cause, and boast of their total fearlessness. This almost holds true, save for one thing that they really do fear.

The best example of that thing in my opinion can be seen in the policies of that paragon of Nazism, Adolph Hitler. One policy was a "hit list" of those he most wanted exterminated. If you expected expect that at the top of such a list would be Churchill and Roosevelt, along with Stalin (a late entry) you would be right.

But not at the very top.

There you would find the comedic pianist Victor Borge, who always referred to Hitler as "Herr Schickelburger, the inept house painter," and portrayed the great leader as a total clown, and not a very good one at that. 

Hitler, whose ego was way too large for his demented psyche, was enraged. He was also, retaining a tiny bit of sanity, conscious that if Borge's work ever became widespread, there was a serious danger that his insane approach to governance would be exposed, and he would lose most of his followers (save for the truly warped, such as Himmler, Goering et al.) Hundreds were given the task of rooting out Borge, and the man had to flee from Denmark to England for safety.

So it is with the Islamic jihadists. They were truly disturbed when the Paris satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon featuring Mohammed, and immediately attacked, killing as many employees as possible.

Then the whole thing blew up in their face, with millions around the world marching in protest of the killing and suddenly far more aware of the danger of giving any credence to such "warriors". Now they could be seen for what they were -- murderers in total fear of being mocked.

Unfortunately, this sad tale is likely to continue. It will be, I fear, some time before a host of mullahs and imams, joined by priests and rabbis, (and yes, the Pope) join with Voltaire and state "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."