Unenlightened

WHERE do you get a Danish flag to burn when you live in Damascus or Karachi? I am not sure that I would find it easy to come by one, and I live in France, a fellow member of the European Union. In fact, I don’t think I could even find a French flag to burn in the streets of my nearest town (though I confess that I am not an experienced flag-burner).

Moreover, Damascus is not the kind of place where spontaneous demonstrations happen: A genuine expression of mass popular sentiment there would be a revolution, not a demonstration. Let us also not forget that the Syrian regime is itself secularist and therefore anti-Islamic, at least in theory. Islam is to Assad what Russian Orthodoxy was to Stalin during the Second World War.

About the Author

Theodore Dalrymple

Mr. Dalrymple, a retired doctor, is a contributing editor of City Journal and The New English Review. He is the author of False Positive: A Year of Error, Omission, and Political Correctness in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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WHERE do you get a Danish flag to burn when you live in Damascus or Karachi? I am not sure that I would find it easy to come by one, and I live in France, a fellow member of the European Union. In fact, I don’t think I could even find a French flag to burn in the streets of my nearest town (though I confess that I am not an experienced flag-burner).

Moreover, Damascus is not the kind of place where spontaneous demonstrations happen: A genuine expression of mass popular sentiment there would be a revolution, not a demonstration. Let us also not forget that the Syrian regime is itself secularist and therefore anti-Islamic, at least in theory. Islam is to Assad what Russian Orthodoxy was to Stalin during the Second World War.

About the Author

Theodore Dalrymple

Mr. Dalrymple, a retired doctor, is a contributing editor of City Journal and The New English Review. He is the author of False Positive: A Year of Error, Omission, and Political Correctness in the New England Journal of Medicine.