Extremists Drag Islam Through the Mud. Again.

I suppose it serves me right for saying something even remotely positive about Islam, because the same day in Denmark five muslim men were arrested in a plot to murder one of the twelve Danish cartoonists who drew a caricature of the prophet Mohammed that Islamic extremists deemed offensive, to put it mildly.

And as we all know by now, Islamic extremists tend to react to things they find offensive by blowing them up or otherwise sending whoever is responsible for the offense on a one way trip to meet Allah personally.

So because an illiterate merchant from Mecca who lived and died fourteen centuries ago was evidently a little camera shy and banned any images depicting him these five men have taken it upon themselves to try and kill a perfectly innocent cartoonist who was exercising the freedom of speech that he enjoys under the secular democratic government of Denmark.

The ban against depicting Mohammed has only been sporadically enforced throughout history anyways.  The ban, when it is enforced, is in place largely so that Muslims don’t run afoul of the second commandment and start worshipping “graven images” rather than Allah.  I’m probably arguing a subtle point here that will be lost on a violent radical fundamentalist offshoot of a religion that believes all other religions should be converted or subjugated, but I seriously doubt that any Muslim is going to be bowing down and worshipping a caricature of a vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his head.

Then again, if Islam keeps getting publicity like this then it could well be that the vaguely middle-eastern man with a bomb strapped to his body will become the universal symbol for their religion no matter how loudly moderate elements protest the peaceful intentions of their religion.

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