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2/5/2006 The fanatics are at it again....What a surprise, another day and another excuse for the religious fanatics that constitute a large section of the Islamic faith to throw their toys out of the pram. How can a a group claiming to represent the 'religion of peace' react to fairly standard political/religious cartoons by burning down embassies, mass violent protests and the boycotting of Danish produce round the world.
Grow up I say, all faith groups are regularly lampooned by the media, why should Islam always be treated with kid-gloves? Have they ever heard of freedom of expression? Why are they consistently the most sensitive of religious groups? Remember that this was the case before 9-11.
By threatening to kill those who insult them, the terrorists are demonstrating THE VICIOUS REALITY behind the caricature of Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban better than any cartoonist ever could. Entirely predictable.
For those who are interested, below are a few of the more 'offensive' 12 cartoons that were published in a Danish newspaper.
    Any thoughts? 'What a load of bollocks' springs to mind. To get that upset over these images demonstrates the mentality of the group representing the greatest threat to world peace.
The utter hypocrisy is that Muslim countries regularly lampoon Christians and Jews in their comics while demanding the west refrain from any criticism of Islam.
More Islamic meddling? After the 12 pictures were published in Denmark, a delegation of Danish imams went to the middle east to discuss the issueof the cartoons with senior officials and prominent Islamic scholars. It is widely thought that they openly produced a booklet that showed not only the original 12 pictures, but also three fraudulent anti-Mohammed depictions that were much worse than the ones published in Denmark. It is widely believed that these 'bonus' images are what ignited outrage in the Muslim world. These images are shown below (ignore the red writing which has been added on).
   I am not saying this is fact, but if you do a few internet searches you will see that there is definitely something going on. The person who inserted these cartoons (Abu Laban a notorious Islamist) stated 'mockery against Mohammed deserves the death penalty'. Can you see protestants and catholics rising up demanding death to anyone who insults Jesus Christ? Very unlikely. The difference between the fanatics and the West is the aility to apply rationality, common sense and reason to these situations.
While they criticise the West for insulting Islam, it seems the Arabs are quite happy to insult Israel, the USA and the West in general. See below examples of cartoons that Arab newspapers have produced:
In this cartoon, from Al-Watan newspaper in Qatar (June 23, 2002), Ariel Sharon is shown watching on the sidelines as an Israeli plane crashes into New York’s World Trade Center. The Arabic words alongside the Twin Towers are “The Peace.” This cartoon restates the widely held myth in the Arab world that Israel and the Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks which were in fact carried out by al-Qaeda. 
The cartoon above, from Arab News (April 10, 2002), shows Ariel Sharon wielding a swastika-shaped axe to chop up Palestinian children. Arab News is a Saudi-based English language daily which is supposedly one of the Arab world’s more moderate papers. 
In the above cartoon, from Akhbar Al-Khalij (Bahrain) (June 10, 2002), the anti-Semitic caricature of a Jew on the right says: “Say: ‘I hate the Arabs!’” and American president George W. Bush, made to resemble a parrot, repeats: “I hate the Arabs, I hate the Arabs.”
Double standards anyone??
A last thought. If Muslims hate the west so much, why are they living here? Why not go to Saudi Arabia instead of England, France or Denmark. The very fact that they are allowed to protest against the photos and insult the very countries that they live in highlights the difference between their intolerant medieval society and the West. Consider the photos below:
These photos were taken on the streets of London in the last week. Shocking? Absolutely. Would westerners be allowed to get away with such protests on the streets of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar or any other Arab state? That needn't even be answered. The cartoons raise the most important question of our times - freedom of expression. Are we going to cave into pressures from societies with a medieval mindset or are we going to defend our most precious freedom - freedom of expression, a freedom for which thousands of people sacrificed their lives over the last century. A democracy needs such freedoms, the freedom to argue, to debate, to dissent and even insult or offend at times. This is a freedom sorely lacking in the Islamic world. Without this fundamental freedom Islam will continue to stifle thought, human rights, individuality, originality and truth. It surely remains unassailed in its intolerant and fanatical views. In summary we must defend freedom of expression - our western heritage and not apologise.
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