As if we needed more evidence of the absolute lunacy of Islamic fundamentalism, here's the latest:
Furious Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies on Saturday as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad showed no signs of abating despite calls for calm...
Chanting "God is Greatest," thousands of protesters stormed the Danish embassy, burned the Danish flag and replaced it with a flag reading "No God but Allah, Mohammad is His Prophet." They set fires which badly damaged the building before being put out...
Demonstrators also set the Norwegian embassy ablaze. It was brought under control by firefighters.
Police fired teargas to disperse protesters there and also used water hoses to hold back others from storming the French embassy. Scores of riot police were also deployed to protect the U.S. mission.
The entire civilized world needs to be united in this. Every nation that values freedom and sanity at all needs to send the same message to these reactionary thugs - grow up. Your beliefs are not so special that they can't be satirized. Get over yourself. Unfortunately, that's not what is happening.
In South Africa, a judge has issued an injunction against publishing the pictures in that country. In Jordan, where a brave editor published the pictures along with a message telling people not to overreact, not only was the editor fired he's now been arrested. But the European Union appears to be on the right side:
Despite the number of European newspapers which had used the images, European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told La Repubblica it was not for the European Union to apologize.
"No, it's not Europe's duty, nor do I think it is the duty of (Danish) Prime Minister Rasmussen. We don't have the power to apologize in the name of the press. That would be violating the basis of freedom of the press," he said.
Now if only our own government had some spine.
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Keep dreamin. Our government is freaking out over text and images on t-shirts. I really like the incident in Oregon during the last presidential election campaign when three teachers were thrown out of the Jackson County Fairgrounds, and detained and arrested because their shirts said: ""Protect Our Civil Liberties." How long before wearing the wrong thing, or posting dissenting views on blogs, or fulminating about ID'ers lack of intelligently designed intellect will lead to similar sanctions here??? And then will the people of this nation rise up and protest???
Exactly what I thought. "They're not ready to play with the big boys."
'Spine' has nothing to do with it. The Shrubbery is trying to make some cheap political capital in the Muslim community. And if that happens to send the message that the US doesn't care about civil liberties, well no skin off his or his supporters' noses. From the point of view of someone who evidently regards a free press as an inconvenience, that stance should hardly be surprising.
- JS
I agree with JS, but I'd take it a step further. If Bush didn't take his shot at cheap political capital, it would have further undermined the US's already abysmal state of credibility in Iraq. That would have been the case even if the administration had said nothing. Bush's condemnation, as with those of other governments, is a study in political expediency. It has nothing to do with principle.
I'm amazed that the Islamists don't see the irony here.
They are angered by the cartoon portayal of Islam as a violent religion, so what do they do? Riot, burn down embassies, and hold signs that read "Behead them" "Kill them" etc.
Amazing.
While I try to have sympathy for people who feel put upon and defamed, this whole thing is around the bend. Were the cartoons provocative? Absolutely! And I don't think we (any we you choose) should go out of our way to mock or diminish anyone's deeply held beliefs. That's part of trying to live in a civil society. BUT! The reaction we're seeing is beyond the pale. All it shows is that far too many people are uninteresting in living in a civil society. These are the reactions of a dark ages mindset and show an intense fear of living in a complex society.