`TOON WARS AND TOLERANCE

There are lots of apologists in the Main Stream Press who's comment on the Mohammed cartoons basically boils down to ` we have to respect Islam and you have to understand their rage'.

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

This fracus about the Danish cartoons is only incidentally about freedom of speech, and certainly not about `insulting religion'.

I get a real chuckle that some of the same people who now justify Islamic violence over a few cartoons were the same ones frothing over the mild, non-violent protests by Christians over `The Last Temptation of Christ' or the labeling of a crucifix immersed in urine as `art'. Then, they were the first ones on the `freedom of expression' bandwagon. And even with all the protests, the last I heard Martin Scorsese is alive and well, without a Christian death threat on his head.

That sort of thing seems to be a Muslim perogative.

What we're seeing here is simply just a challenge to freedom of speech but something a little darker..a well organized power play by Radical Islam in an attempt to intimidate any criticism of violence or terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam, at a time when many people in the West have finally realized that it's not exactly the `Religion of Peace'...at least not to a substantial portion of its adherants.

The recent attempt to pass a law against `insulting religion' in Britain was another attempt to make criticism of the `Religion of Peace' illegal. Fortunately, it failed, or some British mosques would have been out of business.

There are many peaceful, decent Muslims, but the Jihadists and killers are not exactly a fringe element.And for some reason, these same decent and peaceful Muslims are conspicuous by their silence on Muslim violence against `kaffirs', unless you talk to them VERY privately.

The background of this attempt to flex radical Islam's muscles is one of the most underereported aspects of this whole story..the fact that radical Danish Imams like Abu Laban and Abu Bashir travelled throughout the entire Middle East and appeared on stations like al-Jazeera fanning the flames and showing the cartoons, including a couple they thew in for good measure that were not published by the Jyllands-Posten but were falsely represented as having been published..one showing a caricature of Mohammed with a pig's snout and ears and another showing Mohammed drooling over one of his wives, nine year old Aisha. The Copenhagen Post

Abu Bashir was even shown on BBC World News this week showing the caricature of Mohammed with pig features to representatives of the Arabic League and falsely claiming that the caricature was one of the 12 Jyllands-Posten drawings.

What do you think defames Islam more: a silly cartoon or blowing up teenagers at a disco and calling it `holy martyrdom'? What's worse? An image of Mohammed or invading a school in Beslan and raping and murdering schoolchildren in the name of Islam?

I'm frankly sick and tired of people excusing atrocities like these because we have to `understand their rage' or because it's somebody else's fault, or because they want to appear politically correct.

It's time non-Muslims demanded and received the same tolerance and respect from Muslims worldwide that Muslims apparently expect as their due from others.

The vilest and most anti-Semitic cartoons since Der Sturmer appear EVERY DAY in the Arab press. And Muslims burn Israeli flags with a religious symbol on it and today are burning Danish Flags with a Christian Cross on it. When they're not blowing up or burning churches and synogogues in Gaza, Kossovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Egypt....without even mild criticism from the Islamic world at large.

As for the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban, perhaps if Muslims refused to make excuses for their violent co-religionists and practiced more tolerance themselves, their complaints might be taken more seriously.

Tolerance works both ways. It's time Muslims started practicing it as well as demanding it.