The Cartoon Crisis Continues

I see that at least one American paper did print some of the cartoons at issue: the venerable Philadelphia Inquirer. 2 dozen Muslims protested but it seems they were quite a bit better behaved then their fellow Muslims abroad. No buildings were burned. Protesting and boycotting is a perfectly legitimate way to protest something you don't like. What's offensive about so much of the worldwide Muslim movement against free speech is that they are advocating government censorship and lynch mob violence. Some Islamists have responded with their own cartoon depicting Hitler in bed with Anne Frank. Responding with their own offensive cartoons is a big improvement over arson and threatened murder and terrorism. I don't think they'll get much response to it because it's obviously just an attempt to be offensive for the sake of being offensive. The Danish cartoons cut deeper because there is an element of truth to them. The violent riots only prove this. Showing Muhammed as a terrorist is an accurate depiction of some elements in Islam. It's certainly not true of all Muslims but no other religion seems to have such an alarming tendency to blow things up and torch embassies.

Will we learn from this?

One good aspect of the Islamist attack on liberty is that they are exposing themselves as a real threat to the freedoms that the Western World takes for granted. Maybe Europe will wake up and start restricting immigration from Muslim countries. I think any Western company would now be crazy to invest in an Arab country. Imagine, you invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a business in the Middle East and then someone back in your home country prints something triggers the angry Islamist mobs. In one day, you lose all of your investment and your employees are faced with death threats and your products are boycotted. One day we in the West will come up with alternative sources of energy. When that day comes, the Arabs will have nothing. I can't wait.

Uncle Sam's Pathetic Response

The US Government's response to the cartoon situation has been pathetic. They call the cartoons offensive but say nothing about the threats of violence by the Muslim protestors. Isn't America the home of the First Amendment? Even more distressing is the absence of any American paper publishing the cartoons. U.S. newspapers have much less to fear since American Muslims are more moderate and freedom of the press is protected by the Constitution unlike many European countries where there are laws against speech that offends religion. Yet, papers in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Norway are showing much more courage and a stronger belief in free speech. The savages are showing what they think of freedom in pictures that Michelle Malkin has put on her site. They are lucky to be in a country that gives the freedom to display such offensive signs. You can bet that a country ruled by the Islamists would not be so tolerant.