you are right on the money: this is an expression of deep insecurity which manifests as intense aggression against anyone who dares to criticize.

part of this has to do with honor-shame culture and the deep sense of injury that muslims feel about their position in the world today -- passed by not only by their traditional rivals, but even in the last decade, by other "third-world" countries like the east asian "tiger economies."

the real problem is that we in the west, worried about hurting their feelings, allow them to bully us with their insecurities. it's one of the reasons that talal abu rahme could get away with his outrageous claims about muhammad al durah and no one dared question him aggressively.

The question is: Who's going to give them the lesson? Norway is groveling - will Denmark hang tough? Will the EU come to Denmark's defense? I have some hope that at least Bolton will come through on our behalf at the UN. As long as everybody sucks up to them, the Arabs have no motivation to take a look in the mirror.

danish people are pigs that all what i can say, touching to islam's prophet is a fool act that will be punished by allah, god is great but fear its anger

I believe Payne's comment very much speaks for itself. It is very difficult to have a rational debate on this topic, when one of the parties has left rationality and threatens with all sorts of terror. This is - in fact - the general sense in Denmark right now - we are amazed about the Moslem outrage on this, and feel we cannot do anything but answer as we have done all through this: "If you have a problem with an article in the (free) press, take it to the courts."

Danish ham is known to be tasty the world over. Danish pastry routinely hits the spot with a cup of jo in the morning. Danish cookies at tea reflect excellent taste on the part of the hostess. A Danish Kringle at Christmas is a welcome gift. Danish Grave Lochs and creme cheese on a bagel will get your day started perfectly evertime. Danish cartooning though has no heritage of humor or acclaim but that may be changing. One audience sitting above the worlds oil reserves seems to take notice of it. While I am not laughing at the prospect of $3.00/gallon gasoline I do find the hypersensitivity to a cartoon somewhat humorous.

When your ambition is to have no ambition. When you spend your days looting, shooting and polluting. Getting worked up over a cartoon seems odd. Perhaps therein lies the secret to this puzzle of civilization. Our messages to date with this audience have been with words. Words don't work. They are a pictographic society. They communicate with images across the barren boring desertscapes of endless sand. The pictures are a language. They are telling us this. Send them more pictures.

The great Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey has three separate entries on this subject. They are well worth reading, all the more so considering the fact that A) He is an Arab; B) He is a Muslim; and C) He lives in the Middle East.

The other interesting aspect to this is how europe is reacting because it's one of the EU that is being held up to threats on the muslim street and from the palaces of the rulers. How much would they have defended Israel or the US over the exact same issue I wonder.

And also, thanks for making me feel extremely geeky with your analogy...why, perhaps I should ask the UN to censure you!

0_o

And this, from Mona Eltahawy in a Lebanese newspaper:

"Muslims must honestly examine why there is such a huge gap between the way we imagine Islam and our prophet, and the way both are seen by others."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=21654

This cartoon rage thing could turn out to be a much bigger, world-wide problem. There's cyber-hacking going on in Demmark, riots and demonstrations in Muslim countries around the world, the boycott against Danish products. There's something different about the response here, compared to the response in the Muslim world to the Koran flushing nonsense. The difference of course is that that the Danish newspaper and government have both refused to apologize or censure. This episode of Islamic nuttiness has a more ominous feeling to it.... I hope the Danes hang tough and that Europeans and Americans hang with them.

Thanks for posting on this topic. The Danish newspaper which published the original cartoons has been forced to apologize. The Brussels Journal blog which has led the reporting of this attack on free speech is now receiving threats. Given the state of free speech in Europe as evidenced by the Italian "prove Christ existed" case, I expect Brussels Journal to be forced to remove the cartoons and their reporting. To guard against that possibility, I have reposted the cartoons and the Brussels Journal reporting thread on my blog. I urge all bloggers who care about free speech to do the same. See Farenheit 451 Alert

The pictures are of Mohammad depicted as a crazed bombing terrorist. Of course it is offensive. It is offensive primarily because it simply isn't true. Mohammad was not, in any way, a terrorist and Islam does not, in any way, condone or promote terrorism.

What if an Arabic newspaper published a picture of Jesus getting his dick sucked by a 9 year old boy because so many Christian priests have done just that?

I bet the outcry from the Christian community would be massive and global.

If you seek out to deliberately offend people, don't be surprised when they are.

It is also important to note that no shots were fired and no injuries have been reported.

We live in a world where we can afford the luxury of written indignation and expression of outrage via the public forum.

Take away the good house, the A/C, the ice in your soda, the literacy, the proper education, the abundance of food and water, and the unfettered access to the internet and replace it all with an AK-47.

How would you react to someone deliberately defaming your Prophet?

I am a Muslim and I am offended, but I have the luxury of public debate.

Keruvalia,
While Mohammed didn't use missiles or rockets (which of course weren't available then), he and his followers did routinely ambush and steal from traveling caravans. They militarily conquered other tribes. Mohammed fought in something like 60 or so battles. As you know, there's an entire section of the Koran that deals with booty, how the stuff belonging to the conquered peoples gets divvied up. Sorry, Mohammed just wasn't all that peaceful.

While there may not have been bloodshed (yet) over the cartoons, there have been the usual riots, demonstrations, and flag-burning. Over a dozen stupid cartoons.

I haven't heard of any riots from this month's cover of the Rolling Stone.

Of course Mohammed promoted terrorism and was a terrorist! He beheaded an entire tribe of Jews in one day in a public market. These were not armed fighting men, these were thousands of passive unarmed men, including boys who had just approached puberty.

Any religion that has in their doctrine that if you ever leave it, ie become an apostate, you can be executed is a terror based system.

Furthermore the Koran is filled with offensive comments about Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims.

Why are you not concerned about this? I will tell you why, because Islam arrogance makes you think you are better than everyone else and therefore you can have different rules that apply to you. Its ok for Muslims to claim Jews and Christians falsified their bibles, but its not ok for a little cartoon to appear in a newspaper.

Go look at this link and see how the Arab newspapers repeately put out offensive cartoons about Jews and the USA.

http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/asam_jul_dec_saudi_arabia_2005.htm

Lets see how offended you are by that.

Hey Keruvalia

Do you realize what you just said? You said if we were like the Muslims who had none of the Western comforts like we do we would act like them and start shooting an AK47 every time we didnt like what someone said.

Well realize that this is an admission by you that Islam is a religion of violence, because when you remove all the Western comforts from the Arabs you leave them with nothing except for their Koran. In effect you just admitted that Koran does teach violence as a way of self-expression.

Very interesting, so much for Islam being a religion of peace....

Been there, done that.

This whole matter is so ridicilous that it's not even funny, or is it?

It seems like all the arab countries are condemning Denmark? For what? Denmarks hasn't done anything wrong, it was the cartoonists!! And who pays the price? The innocent workers who are producing danish products (which are most likely arab workers in the arab world! Which is ironic).

It's also weird that the jihad terrorists who are bombing in the name of Islam are said to misinterpret the koran, and Islam as a religion shouldn't be condemned for the actions of those few wicked..... hm..... yea rite.
Ok, why are the arab countries then condemning Denmark as a whole for actions of one newspaper?

Hell, if the West thought like the arabs do, then Saudi Araba would surely have been bombed to oblivion because of 9/11, because all the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia!

I think the arab countries are trying to pick a fight with some country that they actually can pick a fight with. Araba countries totalling hundreds of million people attacking a country of mere 6 million people?
The funny thing is that denmark could probably take on all of those countries armies and win.

Hey ... you guys realize that less than 13% of the world's Muslims are Arab, don'tcha?

Fascinating bunch of assumptions going on here.

First, I am a Jew by birth. My mother is Jewish and I was raised Jewish and, yes, the images of antisemitism offend me equally.

I converted to Islam a couple of years ago. I am a tall, white, blue-eyed Irish Jew who, after months of careful study, came to realize the beauty and unity of Islam.

There is no arrogance or thinking I am better than anyone else as that is not permitted in Islam.

I shall leave you now and remind you of what the Prophet - whom you all seem to think is a terrorist - said: Whomever hurts a non-Muslim, I shall be his adversary at Judgment.

You claim to know, but you do not. Apostates are not to be executed, but rather left to the descretion of Allah - just as everything is to be.

Read Qur'an before you judge it based on what someone else has told you. Otherwise, the price of your ignorance far outweighs any outcry I could make.

Asala'amu Alaikum.

I sure am glad that Muslim countries don't believe in collective punishment or anything!

We simply cannot accept the bluntness of arabic governments, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lybia etc., to condemn Denmark for respecting free speach.

What do they actually want from denmark? To punish the newspaper? The artists? The editor? What, kill them off? Torture them la arab style?

Any country in the world where free speach, liberty, freedom and democracy is respected should be offended by this outcry and demands by the arabs. The danish should not offer any apology, they shouldn't have to apologize for having freedom of speach any more than arabs should apologize for all the terrorists.

Those countries, which are all run by a tyrant, have a long way to go, in all matters of governing, democracy, freedom of everything, before they can actually criticize one of best countries in the world to live in, where freedom, democracy, human rights and minority groups are respected.

Did you know that a large portion of denmarks people are muslims? And denmark accepted them with open arms? Helped them to integrate into local society? Assisted them financially?

Wanted to add this:

I noticed on the news that people in those arab countries were burning the danish and norwegian flags. Isn't that a insult to the danish and norwegian people? Still you don't see us going out to the streets burning the koran or the flags of those states, or boycotting arabian goods.
And you don't see the governments of Norway and Denmark demanding an apology from the Saudis, Libyans, or the Egypts.

Seems like flag-burning is a national sport in the arab world, terrorism #2.

I love the hypocrisy. The state-owned Arab/Muslim press routinely attacks Jews, Christians and the West with hateful, medieval rhetoric and nonsense. The Danes publish a silly cartoon and - WHOOSH - half the mideast is aflame. It's like dealing with 1 billion ten-year olds.

What a horrible bunch of losers. Now they're going to go sobbing to UN to make it all better. "We demand you censor free press Mr. Annan, just like in our backward countries!"

I'd like to declare a fatwah on ignorance. Then I'm going to conduct a test. I'm going to print up an awesome t-shirt with the Mohammed cartoon on one side, and the aforementioned Fellatio Jesus on the other. I'm going to walk around town and see who stabs me in the chest and cuts my head off first. My guess? A follower of the "religion of peace."

"You claim to know, but you do not. Apostates are not to be executed, but rather left to the descretion of Allah - just as everything is to be."

Keruvalia, try telling that to the apostates from Pakistan, France, Indonesia, and numerous other countries who have been attacked with acid or been raped or killed because they converted to Christianity. Maybe you can assemble a group of other American soul-searching converts (oops- reverts) and go on a "Religion of Peace" tour abroad. Try convincing the rest of the ummah how peaceful your religion is. They need convincing more than we do.

To Keruvalia

Regarding the so called "beauty of Islam", why do you Muslims always assume people who criticize its doctrines do so because of what someone told them rather than whats really inside the Koran?

I have read the Koran, I have also read the Hadiths, and its the most discrimatory and ugly religion I have ever discovered.

If you are a non-Muslim you are treated like an inferior under Sharia law. You cannot even testify against a Muslim in court. If you are a woman your testimony is worth half that of a man.

Whats beautiful about that? Whats beautiful about a country like Saudi Arabia where nobody can build a church or a synogogue? Whats beautiful about people going to jail simply because they posses a bible.

The Koran has nice things to say about Jews and Christians in the beginning, but when Mohammed got rejected as the false prophet he was he turned on the Jews and the Christians and ethnically cleansed them from the region.

What you Muslims like to do is to tell us the wonderful things it says in the begining of the book, but ignore the stuff near the end. Its called Taqiya, or deception and its ok to do it under your Sharia law if the purpose is to confuse the Infidel so he lowers his guard.

The facts are Islamic apostates can be executed, its says so quite clearly. Women are also owned like they are cattle. In Saudi Arabia and other countries a woman cannot even leave the house without a male escorting her. Thats how insecure Muslim men are, they dont trust their wives or their neighbors.

And if you were a Jew remember the Koran tells you not to be friends with Jews and Christians so if you are a good Muslims you will stop associating with your family members now that you converted.

Which Koran have you been reading, one that was written by Karen Armstrong?

Dear Keruvalia

There are no Christian terrorists offering elaborate and specifically Christian theological justifications as they blow up children in pizza restaurants and crash jetliners into office towers.

Hundreds of Muslim terrorists offering elaborate and specifically Christian theological justifications have blown up children in pizza restaurants, bombed synagogues, attacked churches in Iraq, blown up communter trains in Madrid, and crashed jetliners into office towers.

It is not some Danish cartoonist who say that the Prophet is a advocate of terrorism, it is the hundreds of suicide bombers, and the Muslim theologians, news commentators, politicians and ordinary people who support them who equate Islam with terrorism.

If you don't like it, persuade your fellow Muslims to stop murdering innocent people.

Keruvalia, this is how a terrorist operates. He uses threats and fear to terrorize people into doing what he wants them to do.

Why are there no Jews living in Saudi Arabia anymore? Because your wonderful prophet threatened them to convert to Islam or else. Those who did lived, those who didnt had their heads chopped off or were forced to leave their property which supposedly now belonged to your Mohammed. Why? Well just because he decided so, but obviously he claimed that Allah told him, except that nobody other than Mohammed the benefiary, could supposedly hear these words being said by Allah.

So much for the Muslims's claim that there is "no compulsion in religion."

Volume 9, Book 85, Number 77:
Narrated Abu Huraira:

While we were in the mosque, Allah's Apostle came out to us and said, "Let us proceed to the Jews." So we went along with him till we reached Bait-al-Midras (a place where the Torah used to be recited and all the Jews of the town used to gather). The Prophet stood up and addressed them, "O Assembly of Jews! Embrace Islam and you will be safe!" The Jews replied, "O Aba-l-Qasim! You have conveyed Allah's message to us." The Prophet said, "That is what I want (from you)." He repeated his first statement for the second time, and they said, "You have conveyed Allah's message, O Aba-l-Qasim." Then he said it for the third time and added, "You should Know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to exile you from, this land, so whoever among you owns some property, can sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle." (See Hadith No. 392, Vol. 4)

Islam forbids making fun of prophets. And this is why you will never see a picture or cartoon of Essa, Moses or any other prophet in arab or islamic papers.

This is the underlying cause of the fury. The issue needs to be addressed in a civilised manner and care has to be taken that it is not blown out of propotion.

Fine, then nobody who believes in Islam should mock the prohets or draw their pictures. Why Islam thinks they can control what non-Muslims draw or say is beyond me. The situation is already way past "blown out of proportion."

But, the ones who made the cartoon, as far as I know, are not islamic and therefore *islamic* law does not apply to them. Just as the US 1st ammendment garuntees no freedom of speech if you are living in iran.
Or, are you proposing that sharia takes precedent over all lands and peoples of the earth?

It's pretty weird, have you guys looked at Google earth, and zoomed in on Israel? (enabled boundaries)

Israel is all green, prosperous, but when you zoom into any other neighbooring country (arab states) then all you see is a desert.

What conclusion can I draw from this?

From what I already know: Arab states are badly managed, corruption runs high, justice is zero, freedom is nonexisting, poverty high, unemployment very high.

Is religion really such a big part of this all?

Maybe Islam is a good private religion, but as soon as you mix it with all these whining fanatics, controlling the government, threatening, etc. then everything goes to hell.

The really weird thing is, when muslims migrate to other prosperous countries, they seem to bring their problems with them; unemployment, threatening religion, poverty, honor killings etc.

Also, if I can't say Islam sucks without getting bomb threats then I've proved my point.

I am getting sick of this things! why dont we just leave them alone, they also don't do anything which has something to do with our religious.. have they ever made a cartoon of Jezus being hanged up??? or Maria getting a baby without being fucked up??? ... just think of this.!! ..

Unknown, you don't read many Saudi or Egyptian newspapers, do you? Plenty o'cartoons published in their papers that mock Jews and Christians.

I am not surprised at the hideous way that the Arab nations have threatened Denmark, and the Danish people living in the Middle East. When westerners travel to their countries we have to respect their crazy rules - like covering up if you are a women just because of muslim men's weaknesses - yet when they are in our countries they never attempt to integrate and still expect their traditions to be honoured. The West has a history of freedom of speech and without it we become as backward as Arab nations where people are totally brainwashed. Islam does not mean Peace- it means Submission - ie you cannot think for yourself. Danish people all over the world should be proud of themselves and their country!

I just wanted to state one important fact the arab countries have the lowest rate of sexually transmitted diseases, virtually no history of changing their main ideas on certain issues which are relevant, for example didn't the united states used to buy slaves that were black, and most of the southern states stilll hate blacks , they used to have to use different toilets,, NOW that is a backward country, its like trying to deal with a bully , now the the black community is united thanks to martin luther king , the whites were too scared,. they then built a huge fence between mexico because they didn't like hard working hispanics that were taking all the white ppls jobs because they are lazy fatties who eat mcdonalds all day, now they are picking on the muslim community because the troops in in iraq are getting slaughtered , the palestinians are uniting and the greater muslim world is uniting they want to crush it before it gets out of hand like with the black ppl, I think americas slogan shouldnt be united we stand but, lets stand together seek and destroy anyone who tries to steal our hamburgers

I just wanted to state one important fact the arab countries have the lowest rate of sexually transmitted diseases, virtually no history of changing their main ideas on certain issues which are relevant, for example didn't the united states used to buy slaves that were black, and most of the southern states stilll hate blacks , they used to have to use different toilets,, NOW that is a backward country, its like trying to deal with a bully , now the the black community is united thanks to martin luther king , the whites were too scared,. they then built a huge fence between mexico because they didn't like hard working hispanics that were taking all the white ppls jobs because they are lazy fatties who eat mcdonalds all day, now they are picking on the muslim community because the troops in in iraq are getting slaughtered , the palestinians are uniting and the greater muslim world is uniting they want to crush it before it gets out of hand like with the black ppl, I think americas slogan shouldnt be united we stand but, lets stand together seek and destroy anyone who tries to steal our hamburgers

I just want to state that Moslem countries have some of the lowest literacy rates in the world (That's the ability to read and write if you don't understand). They also produce the fewest Nobel prize winners and scientists. They also have the most barbaric system of justice where people can get killed simply for not wanting to be a Moslem anymore. As far as the lowest incidences of STD's, that because the women are kept virtual prisoners, and the men can have many different wives so they don't need to have any affairs. They marry 4 virgins and that keeps them busy for a long time. They are also allowed to beat their wives so they can get their wives to do whatever they want sexually because they have to please their husband or else.

Some other things I want to state as well. If their islamic society was so fantastic they would not be flocking to the Western countries. Why do they leave their Islamic paradises if they are so fantastic? And if Islam is the perfect religion, why are people so insecure about it that you cannot even criticize it. To go so crazy because of a cartoon published 5 months ago is a sign of someone with very big insecurity issues.

If it were not for our need for oil we would not be hearing all this nonsense over a stupid cartoon. The next car I am going to buy is a hybrid so I don't have to give these arabs any more money than is absolutely necessary.

One thing the Muslims have done that is good. They have show us that the cartoons were very accurate, because if they were not, they would not be threatening to kill innocent people who had nothing at all to do with the publication of these cartoons.

Just say no to fascist ideologies.

Oh, and I forgot, America might have been the biggest buyer of slaves, but the Muslims were the biggest slave traders and still are. Sudan is a country that comes to mind.

Mohammed owned many slaves and his favorite thing was to kill his opponents and take their wives and children as booty.

To see a muslim make an issue of American slavery, while defending Mohammed the original slave trader, is an amusing sight to behold.

Muslim slaving

Actually, historians widely believe that Muslims were at least the equal of westerners when it came to the purchase of slaves.

The envglish word slave is taken from the ethnic name Slav - the Muslim purchase of Slavic slaves was a mainstay of medieval commerce.

In early modern times, the causuces outpaced the Slavic Balcans as the source of slaves for the Muslim market.

Muslim (Maghrebi, Barbary)slave raide on the coast of England continued into the early nineteenth century. I am talking about ships form the North african coast that landed in Cornwall, captured several dozen English men and girls, and sold them in ports in the Maghreb. they also raided Ireland and Iceland for slaves.

But the largest trade was African. The reason why you do not see black African communities of in the Middle Est of the size that you see inthe Americas is that Muslims routinely neutered black male slaves. The women were used as concubines, or as housemaids-and-sex-toys, just as maids form the Phillipines and India are used in the Gulf States today.

As is usual in such situations, not all children of such unions were allowed to grow to adulthood.

There oare chrmes of which we can absolve Muslims. Slaving is not one.

Salaam All,

I am an american Muslim reverted alhamdulillah almost 5 years ago. Insha Allah this finds everyone well and in the best of Eman.

I do understand why the people are doing what they are doing and what they are saying with regards to the prophet...he has never been depicted and is never to be depicted so that is why the outrage. There are other ways to handle this situation and certain people are not handling it the right way. There is a way to be diplomatic...as you can tell the most educated (rolling her eyes) people on our (Muslims) side as always are shown on the news. I do not look at this as being a Muslim or not being a Muslim, I know what my religion tells me and I never doubt that. I doubt how the uneducated and culturally inapt act if that makes any sense. Only Allah knows best and insha Allah he will guide these people and show them that this is not the way to act. There was a story where the prophet PBUH told a person to not kill or act out toward another person because they were making fun of or mocking the prophet. Insha Allah people will start using their heads.

Ma Salaama,

Brandy

I condemn those cartoons and feel sorry the thoughts of those people who believe this kind of insulting and nonsense papers are inside the freedom of thoughts..u europens must learn much more about human being and the soul rather than dealing with machines only..u beleive that u know everything on life but be sure that u know nothing because u feel nothing..please once in your lifetime read the Kur'an and try to feel what Allah says ...I pray for u to find the reality of life...

hi Anna and the others who look like good people but know nothing about history .. please read on history ...u know nothing about Islamic world ..u just talk with slogans...a slogan is not a thought ..do not forget this..u think it s easy for a man to kill himself!!!!how u can explain this with only one word that Terrorist ???why those people stop their lives with others ???please think and read deeply ..not only from one point of view..look the all.... ...The knife in the hand of a killer is a danger but in the hand of a doctor is a life..Just read Ottoman Empire and its kings' life deeply u will understand what i want to say..today America looks the biggest but u know still fighting with a small lookin country..how ottoman empire achived this victory over the world ..u think with only wars ???think twice !!and read and read ..u will see the reality ..i hope and pray u will...and ı pray for all of u as a muslim

I wonder how, in this age of political correctness, where children's books are being rewritten to delete references to gollywogs, can someone, so blatantly publish material that is bound to offend millions of people around the world.

I think that it is sad that during a time when the world should seek healing, when the world and its governments are trying to understand the problems in the middle east and its history, at a time when both muslims and non-muslims are trying to reach out to each other (and btw, not all muslims are arabs nor are they violent and fundamentalists) there are those who do not think further than sloganisms like 'Freedom of Speech', just because. Even in western societies the laws of the land look behind the words of things, into the spirit of things, and in this case, the words may say "Freedom of Speech" but the spirit is one of hate. Condemn islam if you want, but since you are from the more 'enlightened' western culture, do it with the intellect and finesse that you say you possess. Do not succumb to tit-for-tatness, since you say you are of a higher culture and a deeper depth. These cartoons, unfunny, offensive and crude, make you no less than the so-called barbaric 'muslims' that you so hate.

If you perpetuate a narrow view, then narrow will be the result. The world is already in a bad state, and we are ALL at fault. Lets all heal it together.

For the muslims the protests not be of violence, but by prayer, for better understanding among all of humanity.

Good luck to everyone.

Curiouser and curiouser. Not since the ever popular debate on flat versus round earth has friction produced so much social heat. As a young Irish offspring growing up in Boston, I remember by grandfather talking about the newspaper cartoons depicting Irish immigrants as ape-like caricatures by the oldline Brahmin press. Their invasion signaled the end of sanity and civilization.

While I am sure it did not please my people, I don't recall the Prime Minister of Ireland demanding an apology from the US President. Times may have changed.

Maybe Marx was right. It is the opiate of the masses. Diluting the quality of the opiate is probably not a good thing. Makes the users upset.

Anyone remember the book "The Passover Plot". My, my, my what a furor that created. As I recall the half-life of the furor was about a week.

But then again those participating in the furor had other things to do, besides being furorees. (I know it's not a word, but you must admit, you hear music.)

What is different now is availability of time to be a furor participant. When your ambition is to have no ambition. When you spend your days looting, shooting and polluting. There is plenty of time for all things in the Name of Furor.

As to the slave trade reference above, one wonders what history book and what country is the source of this islam-o-phile reference. Give me a break. These puppies invented slave trading.

Hell what else could they produce from sand to trade? Silicon chips? They had nothing to trade but camels, figs, dates and conquest victims.

Sort of like today. When the oil runs out, what will be left. Outrage. Yeah, that sounds like a great export item. Let's sell outrage to the world. Big market for outrage. We have surplus outrage. Let's start early before the oil runs out to get a jump on the outrage market.

Columbus headed west to try and find a new route to the orient why? Because it was shorter? No. Because he had nothing else to do? No. Because the peace loving, slave trading, super intolerant, broad minded and global thinking peaceniks in the middle east were killing European trade as a means of making Europe submit.

This country represents the historical greatest pain in the middle easts ass because it was an escape route they could not reach to threaten the Europeans. Guess what. It still is.

allah can suck my dick

Invite to visit my cartoon gallery to here: http://ammcartoon.blogdrive.com

"But, the ones who made the cartoon, as far as I know, are not islamic and therefore *islamic* law does not apply to them. Just as the US 1st ammendment garuntees no freedom of speech if you are living in iran.
Or, are you proposing that sharia takes precedent over all lands and peoples of the earth?"

Absolutely correct, that is the complete plan of the Muslim faith - not to live alongside Christians or Jews or any other religions - but to dominate and make everyone obey their religion.
Wake up free world.