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Obama and Kerry Are Going Too Far To Prove We Are Tolerant and Inclusive

This ethic came under attack in the 20th century when Frans Boaz and Bertrand Russell introduced moral and cultural relativism. Boaz wrote there were no inferior or superior cultures, that all were equal and couldn't be ordered in an evolutionary scale. Russell believed the survival of democracy required tolerance and understanding of others.
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During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes revolutionary: George Orwell.

I fear we are losing our moral compass in the West under President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry. Political correctness has unleashed attacks on the very foundation of Western Civilization: ethical monotheism; the Judeo/Christian ethic brought out of a desert 3500 years ago by the Jewish people. It is an ethic that bequeaths rights but demands in return concomitant responsibilities. It was and remains a revolutionary ethic that moves us away from tribal warfare into liberal democracies. We are obligated to not only care for our family, for we are our brother's keeper, but to care for the stranger, because we were once strangers in a strange land.

This ethic came under attack in the 20th century when Frans Boaz and Bertrand Russell introduced moral and cultural relativism. Boaz wrote there were no inferior or superior cultures, that all were equal and couldn't be ordered in an evolutionary scale. Russell believed the survival of democracy required tolerance and understanding of others.

And now we tolerate behaviours that are anathema to liberal democracy.

Great Britain, the country that gave us the Magna Carta in 1215 which decreed: "To no one will We sell, to no one will We deny or delay, right or justice," has recognized the legitimacy of some Sharia principles. Britain, in the name of tolerance allowed the integrity of western culture to be breached by laws denying equality, human rights for all no matter race, colour, creed, religion or sexual orientation.

How does this acceptance of laws that deny rights promote democracy? Rather than stand up to egregious human rights abuses our leaders worry about accusations of imperialism and Islamaphobia.

We have allowed left wing ideology to cloud our judgement and distort our priorities. In 2006, to counter left wing fundamentalism, British intellectuals from the left came together to write the Euston Manifesto.

"Leftists who make common cause with, or excuses for, anti-democratic forces should be criticized in clear and forthright terms."

"We are opposed to all forms of terrorism. The deliberate targeting of civilians is a crime under international law and all recognized codes of warfare, and it cannot be justified by the argument that it is done in a cause that is just. Terrorism inspired by Islamist ideology is widespread today. It threatens democratic values and the lives and freedoms of people in many countries.

"We defend liberal and pluralist democracies against all who make light of the differences between them and totalitarian and other tyrannical regimes.

"We decline to make excuses for, to indulgently "understand", reactionary regimes and movements for which democracy is a hated enemy -- regimes that oppress their own peoples and movements that aspire to do so. We draw a firm line between ourselves and those left-liberal voices today quick to offer an apologetic explanation for such political forces."

Unfortunately, Obama and Kerry have chosen the path of the moral equivalency of the left. How else to explain America's responses to the Middle East, let alone Russia?

Kerry continues to appease Abbas, now saying it's no longer necessary to confirm Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, while keeping quiet about the plans of Abbas to make the new state of Palestine Judenrein while neighbouring states remain staunchly Muslim.

How does Obama defend this statement of March 17?

"I have to commend President Abbas. He has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence, has consistently sought a diplomatic and peaceful solution that allows for two states, side by side, in peace and security; a state that allows for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people and a state that allows for Israelis to feel secure and at peace with their neighbors"?

There are no facts on the ground upon which to make these statements. Quite the opposite.

Compare the leader of the free world to the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, who, despite criticism at home from the left, has steadfastly defended liberal democracies, especially Israel, a democracy in a sea of autocracies and theocracies run by despots.

"Canada supports Israel because it is right to do so... It is, thus, a Canadian tradition to stand for what is principled and just, regardless of whether it is convenient or popular.

"Indeed, Israel is the only country in the Middle East which has long anchored itself in the ideals of freedom, democracy and the rule of law...These values are not proprietary. They do not belong to one nation or one people.

"Likewise, when they are threatened anywhere, they are threatened everywhere... what today threatens the societies that embrace such values and the progress they nurture? Those who scorn modernity, who loathe the liberty of others, and who hold the differences of peoples and cultures in contempt."

We are tolerating those who wish to destroy Western Culture to prove that we are tolerant, inclusive and accommodating.

Howard Rotberg in his book, Tolerism:The Ideology Revealed asks "How did we get into the mess that so many people think that Tolerance is more important than Justice?"

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