Off with their heads

Another American was beheaded yesterday by al-Qaeda. Paul Johnson, an employee of a company sub-contracted by Lockheed Martin to work on Apache attack helicopter systems, was kidnapped last weekend in Saudi Arabia, his captors demanding that the Saudi government release all its al-Qaeda prisoners. They (rightly) didn't, and Johnson paid the price. A few hours later five of the terrorists (including their leader) were killed in a shoot-out with Saudi security officers, five of whom were also killed.

"To the Americans and whoever is their ally in the infidel and criminal world and their allies in the war against Islam, this action is punishment to them and a lesson for them to know that whoever steps foot in our country, this decisive action will be his fate," said an al-Qaeda statement posted on a web site along with pictures of Johnson's body and severed head.

Al-Qaeda reality check: If it's a war against Islam you want, you should maybe take a little look at some numbers first. There were an estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in 2000, around the world, compared to 4.8 billion non-Muslims. About 70 countries have a predominently Muslim population, but there are over 200 more that don't.

As you are well aware, we infidels respect diversity. We respect different opinions, different beliefs. Our cultural axioms are freedom, tolerance and peace. We even tolerate your brand of Islam, a fact you exploit to fly our planes into our buildings, to bomb our streets, to kill our citizens. We tolerate you like we tolerated Napoleon, Wilhelm II, Hitler and Hirohito. But our tolerance towards them had its limit, and so it does towards you. We will not tolerate a serious threat to our culture and the values for which we stand.

You rewoke the sleeping giant, the giant that is democratic civilization, on September 11, 2001. You think it's oblivious to your calls for a global Islamic government, for holy war against it. But it's listening, even while it rubs its eyes and stretches, and it's starting to get pissed. Napoleon, Wilhelm II, Hitler and Hirohito all learned what happens when the giant gets pissed. Be careful what you wish for.