Michelle’s post is indicative of just how ignorant we are.

Michelle and her type get emotional at the site of a few photos of people that represent a minority of the muslim world. Getting emotional is for the weak and un-educated.

The images in the media represent the muslim world as much as these photos represent the western world:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4m6cx/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/4363390-r1-082-39a.jpg

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4m6cx/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/4363390-r1-000-55a.jpg

If she wants to emotionally fall victim to the extremists propaganda, she can do so in the privacy of her own home. But don’t pass it off as news.

Plea to bin Laden to retaliate

Tens of thousands of Sudanese demonstrators in Khartoum filled a downtown square, calling for a boycott of goods from Denmark after the publication of controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Some shouted: “You Danish Satan, the Muslim people are now out after you!” Some even shouted for al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to retaliate for the insult to their prophet. “Strike, strike, strike, bin Laden!” the frenzied group chanted.

SBD

I haven’t changed my mind through the rather long, bizarro gauntlet of some of the comments ahead of mine — many left by posters with whom I’ve agreed more often than not.

That Karzai and other allies were offended by the Danish newspaper cartoons, I find completely understandable. I am regularly similarly offended by antics, behavior and statements of some of my fellow Americans (I guess they are) on the political left, when they push the First Amendment envelope and use vulgarity and obscenities to denigrate my religion, my flag, my president.

And I’m not real tolerant — an image of Robin Williams, for instance, will never remain on my television screen longer than it takes me to reach the remote control (and I loved his portrayal in “Survivors” and a couple of other pre-GOP-political dominance films).

I fully admit to not liking it when my sensibilities are offended, and to react by letting anyone who can hear me, know exactly how I feel. I might even write letters or sign a petition to withdraw tax subsidies, for example, from so-called “art” with a Christian icon and elephant dung, or a crucifix in a bottle of urine.

I don’t think that’s an unreasonable reaction, if I’m offended. And it seems to be pretty comparable to the reactions of Karzai and other Muslim allies, to cartoons which offended them. Their reaction, by the way, seems no more intense than the letter to the Washington Post, signed by several US generals, who were righteously offended by a recent ugly cartoon depicting “Dr. Rumsfeld” standing over an armless, legless serviceman in a hospital bed.

Your points were excellent, and well made. Enough said.

You already lost all credibility with me. So if you wish to debate others – knock yourself out.

Now, that perhaps you have, and regulars like Snapple are
pointing to the cartoons of the Islamic world, you
may also wish to consider this regarding following our
“moderate” “allies”:

“The “moderate” Muslim governments have no interest in standing up for free speech; they don’t tolerate it in their own countries and supporting the West would put their (pseudo) Islamic legitimacy in question. For the Islamists to back down and be seen as backing down is to show fatal weakness.

The most interesting question concerns how this ends. Will the Muslims settle for a non-apology apology that is the specialty of those schooled in the PC world? (”I am deeply sorry if my cartoon has offended anybody’s feelings.”) Or, will they continue to demand full obeisance to their skewed perception of what free speech involves?

If the Islamists feel that they are not yet ready to openly confront the Europeans on their home turf in Europe, prominent Imams will accept the proffered apology, the crowds will dissipate, and things will quiet down.

Click here: ShrinkWrapped: The Inexorable Logic of Terror

This from my initial post – #2 in comment queue:
Bibles in Saudi Arabia???? Try it AJ! And it won’t take much
looking around the web to get a good overview of the political
view of the Islamists’ world.

Photo montage of Militant Islam’s Reactions and Open Trackbacks

Dont hear Muslims bitching about this mural from 2003.

There’s been an enormous amount of aburdity written about the cartoons of Mohammed printed in a Danish newspaper and now re-printed in a number of European papers. But through all the din a few voices of reason have managed to come through, som…

Often the most effective ammunition against an opponent are his own words, or in this case, cartoons.

Let them be embarrassed by how they depict others. Show what they put in their textbooks.

Never has the adage ‘Information is Power’ felt more critically relevant. And never has the Power of ‘Dis-information’ revealed its evil effectiveness more poignantly. I am grateful for a better understanding of the meaning behind these not so long…

I will try to come by now and again and free the suspended comments – but no promises!

All of you have a great weekend.

Why do people need to complicate the calculus with irrelevant or secondary issues?

Unfortunately there are no secondary issues in the religion of peace. You are either with them or against them. Cartoons have become irrelevant now, they are simply a means to an end.

Jihad is a fundamental part of the Muslim belief and the Quar’an asks all good Shari’a abiding Muslims to either wage it themselves or abet those who will. Once you have understood that, you will understand that there are no moderate Muslims, there are only Muslims who do NOT follow the Quar’an to the letter. If you think that belief in Jihad in the Quar’an is exclusive to Bin Laden and co. you are simply wrong.

When you have time read myThe Jihad Apocalypse ‘A Muslim Obligation’

My friend at Sigmund Carl & Alfred puts it rather well today:

Imagine that in the West, you had a school system which sat the children down each day and fed them a tumbler of whisky. They might not like it at first, but they would eventually get used to it. Later on, they would start to look forward to it. By the time they left school, a fair proportion of them would be alcoholics. Perhaps not a problem if they kept it to themselves, but the ones who went out and drove over people or otherwise killed them would start to be a concern. So you would have to start a program of drying-out clinics, to cure them. And they might be successful, although there’s no such thing as a cured alcoholic, just one who hasn’t had a drink for a length of time. And you might just question the wisdom of spending money and effort creating alcoholics, only to have to spend more money and effort to cure them later.

In Saudi Arabia, we don’t feed our children alcohol. Instead, we feed them race hate. It’s a progressive thing, building up layer by layer, using the material you see above. Thankfully, many forget it, just like we all forget algebra and bits of history. But there is a proportion for whom it sticks. They are our “alcoholics”. And their hatred extends not only to Jews worldwide, but also the countries that are seen to support them – North America, Europe, Australasia. And a proportion of these decide to do something about it, and sign up with the terrorist groups. Eventually they might get caught, and repatriated. And we have our own “drying-out clinics”. It’s a program where we get people to talk them round, to see the error of their ways, to be rehabilitated. And unlike a drying-out clinic, we keep them in prison in between times, so you can imagine that the “success rate” is a lot higher. It’s documented here.

Rose, Jyllands-Posten’s cultural editor is right when he says:

“There is a lot at stake. It would be very naive to think this is only about Jyllands-Posten and 12 cartoons and apologizing or not apologizing.

This is about standing for fundamental values that have been the foundation for the development of Western democracies over several hundred years, and we are now in a situation where those values are being challenged,” he said.

“I think some of the Muslims who have reacted very strongly to these cartoons are being driven by totalitarian and authoritarian impulses, and the nature of these impulses is that if you give in once they will just put forward new requirements.”

I have never said that no one should be offended, and you are missing the point if you think that this issue boils down to that. It is everyone’s right to be offended, including ours when we are forced to see grotesque versions of ‘Piss Christ’.

But we do not declare war on Islam because of a painting nor do we haul people out of hotels and threaten their lives, nor do we burn flags and threaten to behead every non-Christian because of a cartoon.

Why should we make different rules for Muslims just because they shout the loudest and threaten us the most? Do we recall our Ambassador from a country that ‘offends’ us by posting rude photographs of anyone of who we deem to be our religious leaders? Do we withdraw offending cartoons or take down paintings simply because the believers of a particular religion are offended. Do we close down institutions and expel people out of our country for drawing an offensive cartoon, or writing offensive prose?

It is easy to speak of tolerance when you simply ban the very existence of Christianity in an Islamic country. What sort of moderation or tolerance is that. There are no Christian churches in Saudi because they are illegal. Simple isn’t it? Meanwhile England is busy building the largest mosque in Europe .

The whole thing is upside down AJ, and I am afraid that appeasement will bring us closer to Ahmadinejad’s dream rather than away from conflict. The conflict is at our doorstep and is not about some silly cartoons. It is about breaking down our core value system of democracy, liberty and the freedom of speech that we hold so dear. Chipping away bit by bit…..and the more we apologize the more the goalpost will simply shift.

Anyway I have already said far too much, and I do after all have my own blog to run. Good to see you AJ.