All the Rage
Two quick thoughts about the riots that continue to pick up steam in the Islamic world…
First: Today angry crowds attempted to set fire to the Austrian Embassy in Tehran.
A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday to protest against the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers.The protesters, chanting “God is Greatest” and “Europe, Europe, shame on you”, smashed all the diplomatic mission’s windows with stones and then tried to hurl petrol bombs inside.
Why? Because Austria currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Danish and Norwegian embassies have already been burned down in Lebanon. The violence and the violent rhetoric continues to rise. Which leads me to wonder if perhaps it’s time for the Europe to borrow a page from Israel’s playbook—unilateral disengagement, anyone? They can’t burn down embassies that don’t exist. They can’t kill diplomats they can’t get their hands on. Just a thought.
Second: Check out this cartoon that a Belgian-Dutch Muslim group posted on their website (via MichelleMalkin.com):
Wow—Hitler and Anne Frank in bed together. Surely that offends the Jews, the Dutch (Frank was Dutch), Dutch Jews, and anyone with any moral sense to speak of. But what, exactly, is the point they’re trying to make? That offensive cartoons are offensive? Okaaaay. But the response of the the Jews, the Dutch, Dutch Jews, and anyone with any moral sense makes all those outraged Muslims less sympathetic, no more. No one is burning down Mosques or Saudi embassies, no one is calling for the artists to be beheaded, no one is rioting in the streets of Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Miami, or Skokie, Illinois.
So the Dutch-Belgian Islamic group is actually helping to make the West’s point: it’s showing the Islamic world how grown-ups civilizations react to offensive cartoons. You say, “Gee that’s offensive. Only an asshole would draw, post, or print that cartoon.” Maybe you write an angry letter. Maybe you attend a peaceful demonstration. You don’t, by way of contrast, burn down embassies, shoot Catholic priests, and demand that the “artist” behind it be executed.
Oh, here’s a third thing: I haven’t posted any of the offensive cartoons—except for that anti-semetic doozie, above. So here’s one of the comics that has turbans in a twist: Mohammed wearing a turban that appears to be a bomb.
This comic outraged the Muslim world because, as we all know, Islam means peace. So offended were Muslims by the publication of this cartoon last September, a cartoon that associates Islam with violence, that they faithful Muslims had no other choice than to riot, bomb, burn, and issue death threats.
In other news…
Via Sullivan: The U.S. Supreme Court building has images of Mohammed in it—honoring him as a lawgiver, along with Moses and others.
Via Kos: Our good buddies the Saudis appear to be stoking this.
Via GatewayPundit: Fake cartoons are being circulated to stoke Muslim anger—cartoons that have appeared in no European publications. These cartoons were drawn, one expects, by Muslims. Off with their heads!
I agree their actions may seem objectionable, but one simply cannot dismiss their concerns out of hand.
For example, I once had the occasion to write a positively *huffy* letter to the editor of the New Yorker in response to a particularly odious Jules Pfeiffer cartoon.