Mark Steyn: Mugged by reality? [The Australian, July 25, 2005]

Mark Steyn certainly ate his Wheaties this morning:

Bomb us, and we agonise over the 'root causes' (that is, what we did wrong). Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that 'Islam is a religion of peace'. Issue bloodcurdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush, Blair and Howard. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the 'vast majority' of Muslims 'jihad' is a harmless concept meaning 'decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles'.

Until the London bombings. Something about this particular set of circumstances - British subjects, born and bred, weaned on chips, fond of cricket, but willing to slaughter dozens of their fellow citizens - seems to have momentarily shaken the multiculturalists out of their reveries. Hitherto, they've taken a relaxed view of the more, ah, robust forms of cultural diversity - Sydney gang rapes, German honour killings - but Her Britannic Majesty's suicide bombers have apparently stiffened even the most jelly-spined lefties.