I'm not going to re-print caricatures of Muhammad. (I'd like to, just because it will annoy a lot of these rage-filled crazy people, but I won't simply because it would serve no other purpose.) We've all seen the images by now anyway.
I would like, however, to point out that you moderate Muslims need to figure out a way to get things under control over there. Religion in general holds far too much power in the United States, let alone in your countries where you can still be arrested and even executed by the state for blasphemy.
No wonder the whole sane and civilized world is trying desperately to keep WMD out of the hands of people like Iran. These are countries in a part of the world where rule by the law of man is abhorred, reason is absent among leaders, and only religious zealotry prevails in government. You can't give a big gun to these people. They would eventually, inevitably, shoot us with it.
So, for all the Muslims out there reading this blog: please - call your friends and family overseas and let them know that they need to tone things down and get themselves under control. Let me also state for the record that I hope we (i.e. our collective governments) stand up for our freedoms in this time of uncertainty. While I'm definitely NOT looking for confrontation and bloodshed with our Muslim friends, I also realize that Muslims must come to understand that free speech is alive and well in our countries which means, plainly, that it is unacceptable to kill anyone over publishing a cartoon. The fundamental right of freedom of speech has always been worth fighting for.
The fact that the Muhammad picture was drawn to illustrate to Muslims that some westerners consider them violent is ironically answered with violence rather then dialog. Instead of Muslims collectively responding to the image by saying something like, 'Who, us? We're not a violent people', Muslims have turned en mass to demonstrations, arson, and death threats. Who can blame that poor artist for drawing the picture to begin with? He was expressing something that many people have wanted to say for a long time. We're fed up with all the violence coming out of that region of the world. You need to learn to live peacefully once and for all.
Now, while I'm at it - let me just also say that American foreign policy sucks. Bush's 'my way or the highway' Texas-style leadership hasn't done much at all to win friends and influence people here or abroad. Also, invading Iraq may have been a mistake (not really sure about that yet). And of course Americans can be wasteful, controlling and generally ego centric as a civilization. I don't want to ignore those realities while sitting in my glass house criticizing Muslims. We both suck equally, but in different ways.
I'm usually able to predict things when it comes to fallout from national or international events, but I'm on the bleachers for the event - at least for now. A direct criticism of Muhammad versus the rights of Westerners to free speech from within their own borders seems to me about the most stark clash of cultures one could possibly imagine. Who knows what will happen next?
