The Outrageous Religion Of Peace

Yesterday, I brought up the "outrage" Muslims have been showing for European newspapers over their reprinting of a few Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed. Michelle has photos up of how the "religion of peace" has gone completely batty over this. The images include the burning, destroying, and trampling of Denmark's flag, confrontations with police in Jakarta, the "occupation" of a French office in Gaza, and a masked gunman pointing his rifle at a symbol for the European Union. To say the least, these people are not happy with us.

But the news is not helping their cause. FOX News had this story to start their day off.

Tens of thousands of angry Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and calling for vengeance Friday against European countries where caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published.

Angry protests against the drawings were spread in the Muslim world.

In Iraq, thousands demonstrated after Friday mosque services, and the country's leading Shiite cleric denounced the drawings. About 4,500 people rallied in Basra and hundreds at a Baghdad mosque. Danish flags were burned at both demonstrations.

Muslims in Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrated against the European nations whose papers published them.

The caricatures, including one depicting the Muslim prophet wearing a turban fashioned into a bomb, were reprinted in papers in Norwegian, French, German and even Jordanian after first appearing in a Danish paper in September. The drawings were republished after Muslims decried the images as insulting to their prophet. Dutch-language newspapers in Belgium and two Italian right-wing papers reprinted the drawings Friday.

Danish Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen, in a meeting with the Egyptian ambassador, reiterated his stance that the government cannot interfere with issues concerning the press. On Monday, he said his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper, but that he personally "never would have depicted Muhammad, Jesus or any other religious character in a way that could offend other people."

Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.

In mosques throughout Palestinian cities, clerics condemned the cartoons. An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind the drawings should have their heads cut off.

"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.

About 10,000 demonstrators, including gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas firing in the air, marched through Gaza City to the Palestinian legislature, where they climbed on the roof, waving green Hamas banners.

"We are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood our beloved prophet," they chanted. "Down, Down Denmark."

Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Koran and the sayings of the prophet, forbids depiction's of the Prophet Muhammad and other major religious figures — even positive ones — to prevent idolatry. Shiite Muslim clerics differ in that they allow images of their greatest saint, Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, though not Muhammad.

Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail had this bit of wisdom that the "religion of peace" may want to pay attention to. The world, as a whole, does not want to see this become a clash of civilizations, but if the Muslims keep going ape at the drop of a hat, they may force the world in that direction.

“The protests in the Middle East have proven that the cartoonist was right,” said Tarek Fatah, a director of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

“It's falling straight into that trap of being depicted as a violent people and proving the point that, yes, we are.”

Is it really a trap when radical Islam rears it's ugly head, and even those with a brain within their religion tend to lose their mind, as well? The more "moderate" elements of the "religion of peace" cannot even control these people, and it's scarier when they begin siding with the radical elements.

But, as I am in the middle of writing this, Michelle points to a new twist. Our own State Department has weighed in on this mess. Anyone want to wager which side they come down on?

The United States blasted the publication by European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as unacceptable incitement to religious or ethnic hatred.

"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the beliefs of Muslims," State Department spokesman Justin Higgins said when queried about the furore sparked by the cartoons which first appeared in a Danish newspaper.

"We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility," Higgins told AFP.

"Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable. We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices."

The cartoons have caused an international furore, with protests in many Muslim nations and from Muslim political leaders.

While many European newspapers have turned the publication into a free speech debate no major US newspaper has published the cartoons.

Editors at several US news organizations told AFP they were covering the escalating row but had decided not to reprint them or air them on television out of respect for their readers or viewers.

If there was ever a case to be made regarding a top-to-bottom clean-up of the State Department, this is when it should be done. How dare our State Department condemn the Danes for their freedom of speech. And how dare they insinuate that these depictions are anything but truthful. Has the State Department been living under a rock for the last five years? Did they miss the memo from Iran in '79? I used to think that there no one in the world was better at appeasement than the Europeans. At this point, I would be willing to ship the whope State Department over to France so they can sing kumbayah together as Europe burns to the ground.

These are CARTOONS! We do not seem to get offended at the swipes taken at our beliefs by big-wig TV and Hollywood executives. The "Book of Daniel" anyone? How about the lovely art exhibit a few years ago in New York that Rudy Giuliani fought over that included a crucifix in a toilet fullof urine, and elephant dung splattered all over the Virgin Mary? We saw no Catholics out in the streets calling for the artist's head. There were no Christians stomping on New York State flags, and threatening museum workers with automatic rifles.

Leave it to a news service in New Zealand to put things into perspective for the morons in the State Department.

The drawings were commissioned by the Jyllands-Posten (Jutland's Post) to accompany an article on self-censorship and freedom of speech after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen was unable failed to find artists willing to illustrate his children's book about Mohammed for fear of violent attacks by extremist Muslims.

Islamic teachings forbid pictorial depictions of Mohammed.

The cartoons were published on September 30 with an explanatory article by the newspaper's culture editor, Flemming Rose.

The following is a translated summary of the article and explanation of the cartoons published in the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia.

"The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings.

"It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where you must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule.

"It is certainly not always equally attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is less important in this context. [...] we are on our way to a slippery slope where no one can tell how the self-censorship will end.

"That is why the Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Mohammed as they see him."

The article continues by describing each of the cartoons in question. If you have not seen them, go to Michelle Malkin's site. She has them posted, and she is going to continue to post them. (We figured out the links here; if we could figure out how to put pictures up, we would post these cartoons, as well.)

This is stupid, arrogant, and preposterous. And there is no way that we--the United States--is going to capitulate to a minority of thugs and murderers because they are offended. You want offended? I will give them offended. I am offended that these thugs, these ANIMALS are alive. I want every one of them dead. How about that? How about if we call for their heads because we do not like how they are acting? I am sick of bowing down to them. The PC, apathetic, appeasement crowd needs to shut it's hole, and let life move on. The Muslims are offended? Good. As Thomas is fond of saying, if you are not ticked off, then you are not paying attention. I guess now they are, and maybe ... just maybe they will do something about how the world sees them and their precious prophet.

The Bunny ;)