Not Your Father's Civil Disobedience

Lee Harris at Tech Central Station:

But the fact that al-Qaeda embraces violence and celebrates terrorism -- doesn't this small detail destroy the basis of (President Jimmy) Carter's analogy? If you can equate bin Laden with Martin Luther King, and al-Qaeda to King's non-violent movement, then, by all means, go ahead and draw the same analogy that Mr. Carter drew about Bush's domestic surveillance program. If, on the other hand, you cannot equate the two, then Carter's analogy becomes at best ridiculous and at worst obscene.