Xymphora hasn't been around enough. "Sand niggers" is a common phrase, but he left out "towel head", which I've heard quite often. At least down south.

Well, I think the thought experiment is revealing.

And I haven't seen the cartoons, though I've read a couple of written descriptions.

We do need to acknowledge that a substantial percentage of Middle Eastern Muslims do hate Americans (and Europeans), and think that it is good for muslims to kill westerners.

Certainly not every muslim thinks this, and I have a lovely muslim friend, and blah blah blah.

And, other non-muslims might hate Americans and Europeans, so it's not right to single them out, and blah blah blah.

And America certainly deserves blame for its horrendous, ill-directed, counter-productive and bungled response to 9/11 and blah blah blah.

But a fair number of muslims, especially in the middle east do want to kill us, and most of them probably don't object too strongly if we die, and not too many of them object strongly.

And that is a truth that is in the cartoons. And if we return the favor and treat muslims as not fully human, then that is a truth that is in Xymphora.

Who's better and who's worse? I don't know. But try this thought experiment: Door one: living as a muslim in Cleveland, Ohio; Door two: living as a christian in Tehran.

Your choice?

If you would just change the location to DEEE troit, that would be my choice.

It is such a relief to read words reflecting common sense and human intelligence. Thanks, sinful. mfd

How about living as a Muslim in Teheran when the choice is between the Shah and Khomeini? How about that when you voted for Mohammad Mossadegh and he was overthrown in a US backed coup that gave you the Shah? People don't always become wingnuts without a few pushes, you know. Yes there are quite a few people in the Middle East and elsewhere who would like to see us all dead. We trained some of them too. Following the Saudi royalty's advice, the US supported the Muslims Brotherhood as a counterweight to Nasser. Zbigniew Brzezinski's crackpot scheme to suck the Soviets into a Vietnam is backfiring on us. The deeply perverted aspects of the Bush doctrine haven't won us any friends.

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000715.html

It's fine to deplore the actions of wingnuts wherever they may be. I wouldn't care to live in a theocracy under any circumstances. I especially don't want the country I live in to become one.

What a damn fool question this person asks. Of COURSE I'd defend the right of some evil swine to publish a derogatory caricature of a Jew or an Afro-American or anybody else. Wouldn't you?

If you wouldn't, if you believe there ought to be laws against "hate speech" and the like, then you do need to shut up about the cartoon business - because you don't have a clue what freedom of expression is all about. If freedom of expression doesn't include the right to be insulting, offensive, disgusting and obscene, it isn't freedom at all.

That being said, the comparison is specious. To insult someone's race or ethnic origin is contemptible - you've got the right to do it, but it's still despicable - but religion is an entirely different matter. There's no obligation to respect anybody's religion, only their right to practice it. If somebody wants to believe in some stupid ancient superstition, that's certainly his privilege, but I'm not obliged to respect it. Any more than I'm obliged to respect his political beliefs or his taste in music.

Some idiots have called the cartoons racist, but that is patent nonsense since Muhammad was an Arab and therefore a member of the white race just as much as Bjork. (Contrary to the moronic ideas of Mr. Farrakhan & Co., Arabs are Caucasians.)

I know where this sort of thing is coming from, though. It's because it feels so damn uncomfortable to find yourself on the same side of right-wingers and, let's admit it, a certain percentage of bigots. I don't like it either, but it's necessary to look at the issue honestly without being distracted by extraneous matters.

There is a common fallacy:

(1) A says that 2+2=4.
(2) A is demonstrably an asshole.
(3) Therefore 2+2=5.

It is a childish pattern of thought. Outgrow it.

Christians used to eat (literally) boiled muslim babies. Yeh, I can understand the resentment, the hate, the violence, all of it. But that doesn't mean I condone it. MLK had good reasons for violence, too, but rose above it. Same for Gandhi. We need to understand other's motivations, but we need to stand for principles, which in the fulness of time, will lead to a better world.

Something missing in the typical news story is that Denmark (and most other countries, including Canada) doesn't have "freedom of the press" and "free speech." Other countries have some pretty clear rules on "hate speech" and what you can't print. Or sell; ask eBay about that.

Well, they *have* freedom of the press and free speech, but limited by certain rules.
In Germany, for example, you may not slight the religious beliefs of others or deny the Holocaust, to name two of them.
But, quite obviously, it's no problem to publish offending caricatures of a prophet Mohammed, while there would be an uproar if any paper printed a similar caricature of a crucified Jesus on the first (or any other) page.