Cartoons - no joke!

Apparently Muslims can't take a joke, or rather they can't accept that freedom
of opinion and of the press means that cartoonists can poke fun at their
"sacred cows". Most moderate Muslims might find cartoons about
Mohammed unpleasant, but not so shocking that they will demonstrate against
the countries where the offending cartoons were published. But, the radicals
and the extremists view this as part of a war against Islam and they are
striking back. Not only were there demonstrations around the world, but in
Gaza the UN mission was taken over by armed gunmen (again) and all foreigners
were threatened. A German teacher was kidnapped for a few hours and most
foreigners (including many leftist pro-Palestinian activists) ran for the
Israeli border, where they know they will be safe. There were also death
threats against several Danish cartoonists and publishers, and there is now a
boycott of Danish goods in many Islamic countries. This would all be absurd
if it were not so serious
Actually, according to Islam, only God is really sacred, and so cartoons
poking fun at Mohammed and the wordly preferences of Muslims should be
quite in order. But, clearly the harsh reaction is a means to quash the free
expression of even humorous comment on Islam. They genuinely believe
that theirs is the only true religion and one must take their opinions very
seriously, or die!
One of the cartoons shows Mohammed barring the way into heaven for a
suicide bomber and the caption reads, "not yet, we've run out of virgins!"
Another shows an Arab (Mohammed?) with a bomb in his turban, an ironic
comment on suicide bombers.
There is a heavy dose of hypocrisy here, not only are anti-Semitic cartoons a
staple of newspapers in every Muslim country, including Egypt and Saudi
Arabia, but in many parts of the Muslim world Christians live in fear.
Anti-Christian and anti-Western cartoons are the least of their worries,
Churches are regularly bombed (in Pakistan, Iraq etc.) and Christians
regularly attacked. That's why the Christian population of Bethlehem has
almost disappeared, only 30 years ago there were a majority of Christians
there, now there are barely 10%. As Muslims move in, Christians move out.
You will also find that Arab Christians when speaking publicly are among the
most pro-Palestinian, because they have to be. If they uttered any criticism
of their Muslim "brothers" their family might not survive the night!
If we (that is the West) allow Islamists to dictate our culture or enforce
self-censorship by threat, as they tried to do with Salman Rushdie when they
burned his book, and as they are trying to do now, then we are on a very
slippery slope. These people mean business, they are against freedom of
expression and freedom of the press, and they want all press to be
controlled - by them!