James P. Pinkerton writes in a recent editorial for Newsday.com:

“It’s time for all of us to recognize that different cultures have different values. For the West, broadly speaking, the Highest value is freedom, including freedom of religious expression. But for the Muslim world, the highest value seems to be Islamic piety.”

In Muslim Countries – the highest value is obedience to Allah and his Prophet. Why is this so difficult for the West to understand today? After all – it was only four centuries ago that the Bruno’s of this world were destined to meet a dismal fate for defying the then highest value of the European culture: Obedience to the Christian God. Muslim countries today are quite simply akin to Europe in the dark ages; only worse because the Muslim doctrine itself encourages violence whereas the Christian doctrine did not.