Draw me a Picture.................

Anyone who has been following the news for the past 3-4 days is well aware of the Muslim outrage over satirical cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. According to Muslim law, it is forbidden to draw the Prophet as it could encourage idolatry which is against Muslim teachings. Radical Muslims also see this as yet another attack on Islam by the West and have since taken to the streets around the globe in violent protest. Quite frankly, I find the entire thing incredibly insane. Foreign embassies are being attacked, people have been KILLED and trade routes are being cut off all because of a cartoon? With respect, these radical Muslims need to realize that there is a good part of the world that does NOT practice their religion and thus could give two wits about a cartoon that--quite frankly--showcases the face of Islam that many of us are familiar with.
A couple of talking points:

• First off, what this is REALLY about is a classic case of East meets West. What these enraged Muslims do not seem to grasp is that in a free society, the press is not controlled by the government and thus they can print whatever they damned well please. The press corps of Denmark, Germany, Italy ( and a host of other countries ) are under no obligation to recognize or adhere to Islamic law as these countries' laws are based on secular thought and not on religious texts. ( Kudos to the Europeans for giving the Muslims the proverbial "fuck you" by re-printing the cartoons to illustrate their commitment to freedom of speech. ) Muslims living in these countries would do well to remember that when you live in another country, you are making a social contract with the native people to adhere to the mores and laws of the land in which you are living. Thus, in a free society, you are certainly entitled to be angry about something which you find offensive, but you do NOT have the right to violently attack other people and their property. You do NOT have the right to quote scripture as some sort of justification for your actions because that is not the law. If these enraged Muslims feel that this is unfair, I suggest moving back to a Middle Eastern country where religious law is the norm.

• The origin of these satirical cartoons can be traced right back to Islam itself, or at least the militant wing of it. By taking to the streets and shooting, looting and going mad, these Muslims are reinforcing the very stereotypes that were showcased in these drawings. In addition, I find it highly amusing that these very same people who are protesting in free countries can only do so because of the freedoms guaranteed them under these countries' unholy, secular laws. Funny how that works..................

• The assertion that these cartoons are an attack on Islam is absurd. At best, they are a means to satirize the very real association of Islam with violence.......which has been going on since I can remember ( about 36 years ) and I think at least a few thousand years before. Newspapers and magazines in the U.S. routinely satirize Christianity and publish images that I'm sure right-wing Christians find offensive. And yet you don't see them on the streets looting and setting things ablaze and suggesting that our government censor our press. The price of living in a free society is having to deal with ideologies or points of view that are at odds with your own and in my estimation, it makes a country richer and fosters intelligent debate.
  

• Finally, the latest rumblings from Iran suggest that an Iranian newspaper is soliciting cartoons satirizing the Holocaust to " test the West's resolve concerning free speech". To wit:
  

"Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel's crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?" wrote the Iranian daily Hamshahri, according to the Reuters news agency.

Clearly, these folks have never read The Onion or seen The Daily Show.