The offending cartoons....

[MikeWaters]

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146

Only in the ME can you say "we will kidnap and kill until you apologize about the cartoons" and it apparently not sound ridiculous.

[Archaea]

When was the last time somebody said, "Death to Denmark"?

It must have been sometime during the Viking raids.

[SteelBlue]

This is going to get interesting. Europe is ripe for a huge backlash against the growing muslim population. Political parties that were considered a racist joke just 15 years ago when I was there are now gaining momentum. Such ridiculous protestation in the muslim world will only undermine any progress that progressive European muslims have tried to make. If there is any kind of "retribution" taken on some of these editors as it was on Dutch director Theo Van Gogh, I predict that there will be a reaction from a once calm and tolerant population that will make the Paris riots look tame.

[outlier]

Originally Posted by Archaea

When was the last time somebody said, "Death to Denmark"?

I saw a "Death to France", too. Maybe we can team up with the Arabs on that one and get some goodwill out of it.

o

[outlier]

I also liked the told-you-so nature of this reply from Lebanon (link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060202/...rk_cartoons_dc).

"In Beirut, the leader of Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizbollah said the row would never had occurred if a 17-year-old death edict against British writer Salman Rushdie been carried out."

They need to catch the perpetrators in the act and hit them with rolled-up newspaper, that's what I think. Otherwise they'll never learn.

o

[outlier]

Originally Posted by outlier

Maybe we can team up with the Arabs on that one and get some goodwill out of it.

And now it's happened (sort of):

Under the headline "US sides with Muslims in cartoon dispute".

"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060203/...artoons_usa_dc

We need to re-write the constitution to indicate that freedom of the press doesn't cover publishing stuff that might be offensive to people living in geopolitically sensitive areas.

o