In September of 1938, on his return from Munich, Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gleefully declared: "My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time." In his hands, he held the Munich Agreement, which gave Germany the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Less than a year later, Hitler seized all of Czechoslovakia and went on to invade Poland. The rest is history. What is the lesson? Appeasement does not work; it only emboldens the aggressor. This is true not only in the Western world, but all over the planet. The Tibetan people are a minority in their own homeland due to the late Tibetan government's insistence on appeasing China and pursuing peaceful diplomacy instead of militarizing when it had the chance. Further east, North Korea continually harasses South Korea, yet South Korea continues to reward this behavior by giving its northern neighbor millions of dollars worth of aid. This year, however, it has become clear that the most dangerous type of appeasement in today's world is not directed towards aggressive states. Instead, it is directed towards an aggressive ideology: Islamofascism.

A few weeks ago, a top German opera house canceled the showing of a creative rendition of Mozart's Idomeneo. The problem? The production included a scene in which the severed head of the Prophet Mohammed engages in a dialogue with the severed heads of Jesus, Buddha and the Greek god Poseidon. German security officials warned the opera house of an "incalculable risk," but where exactly is this risk coming from? Have Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka laid a violent siege to the German embassy in Colombo? Have Christians all over the world organized vicious protests in which a plethora of German flags will be burned? Let us not kid ourselves; we know where the threat is coming from. One population and only one population would consider causing mayhem as a result of something as trivial as a play. There is a growing cancer in the global Muslim community that needs eradication, not encouragement. Many moderate Muslims have asked the United States and Western Europe to play a larger role in preventing the fall of Islam to extremists, just as many moderate Germans begged and pleaded with Britain and France to stop Hitler before it was too late. By bowing to the demands of Islamofascists, we spit in the faces of the moderate Muslim leaders who have asked us for help and make the same grave error as Neville Chamberlain by emboldening the enemy.

When peaceful anti-globalization protesters gather in Europe, they are pepper-sprayed, beaten, and detained. But, when the Mohammed cartoon outrage occurred earlier this year, unruly European Muslims were given a free pass to wreak havoc. It is no wonder that the Germans believe that the showing of Idomeneo will cause a security threat; European countries have made little if no effort to demonstrate that public disturbances brought about by those offended by a comedic depiction of the prophet Mohammed will not be tolerated. As many have noted, it is only a matter of time before a full clash of civilizations occurs. By appeasing today, we only add to the consequences that we will face in the future. Perhaps the director of the opera and European policymakers should heed the words of Winston Churchill: "There is no greater mistake than to suppose that platitudes, smooth words, and timid policies offer a path to safety."

Some commentators have argued that situations similar to the Idomeneo controversy hurt the chances for dialogue between the West and the Muslim world. Dialogue, however, did not prevent the spread of fascism across Europe, and it will not prevent the spread of fascism throughout the Muslim religion. It is time that the West takes a firm stance and refuses to budge every time there is uproar about an artistic depiction of the prophet Mohammed or any comment made by a public official that fails to depict Islam as the most peaceful religion on earth. Free speech, no matter how questionable, is a hallmark Western tradition. As many people as it killed, Nazism was unable to change the fundamental values of the West. Let us pray the same can be said of Islamofascism. What better country than Germany to play a leading role in defeating the fascism of the 21st century? Over half of a decade after World War II, Germany still has a large debt to pay to society. The German government owes it to the free world to see that the opera house reinstates the play immediately.