Freedom: A Relative Concept?



In a piece for CBS's Sunday Morning this past weekend, reporter Allan Pizzey argued despair reasonably fuels terrorism and that freedom is a relative concept.

Pizzey explained in his October 14 report: “To Western ears calls for blood-soaked martyrdom are an alien concept, but consider the way things are for millions of Muslims of all ages. If you were born into grinding poverty where upward mobility isn't even a dream and have little to sustain you in life beyond religion, you too might find yourself screaming for the new Messiah with a $5 million price on his head. Osama bin Laden's simple view that Muslims are the innocent victims of Western infidels might well seem a clarion call to fight to a death that leads to paradise.”

Pizzey also contended: “Every where you go in the world you will hear some version of the words 'we are a freedom loving people,' but like beauty, freedom is a perception that lies in the eye of the beholder. And we ignore other nations' version at our peril. The most dangerous perception of all may be that one's own side has an exclusive claim to either the truth or patriotism.”

Not everyone may believe the American version of “the truth,” but that makes it no less accurate.

(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)

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