How Much Are Your Beliefs Worth?

Is there anything you believe in that you are willing to die for?

Most Westerners see the forced conversion of the Fox journalists in the Middle East as despicable because it violates human rights we believe in - individual freedom, including freedom of choice.

However, Mark Steyn comments below that most Easterners are not looking at the violation of the individual. They see the conversion as a sign of the moral bankruptcy of the West, that individuals don't have anything they believe in strongly enough they are willing to die for. Are they correct?

"...for the Fox journalists and the Western media who reported their release, what's the big deal? Wear robes, change your name to Khaled, go on camera and drop Allah's name hither and yon: If that's your ticket out, seize it. Everyone'll know it's just a sham.

But that's not how the al-Jazeera audience sees it. If you're a Muslim, the video is anything but meaningless. Not even the dumbest jihadist believes these infidels are suddenly true believers. Rather, it confirms the central truth Osama and the mullahs have been peddling -- that the West is weak, that there's nothing -- no core, no bedrock -- nothing it's not willing to trade."