Quote:
They may not have time to support a democracy, but the sure have time to rally in the streets if some cartoonist half the world away draws a cartoon about Mohammad!


First let me just say that the muslim response to the cartoons was totally ridiculous. In my opinion, we basically just made our situation worse. One of the best things that the worldwide Muslim community can do is hire a multimillion dollar PR firm.

Having said that, let me say that I don't think the average non-muslim will every truly understand how devoted and important Muhammad (pbuh) is to them. I'm not trying to say that muslims are stronger or more passionate towards their faith than other people, but muslims take it to a whole other level. You just can't compare a cartoon that depicts Mohammad as a child rapist or Mohammad as a mass murderer to Jesus jokes on Saturday Night Live or something.

The size of those protests is also a direct result of people having nothing better to do. When you and most of your buddies aren't working, its pretty easy to take a day from your job search and rally with the other bajillion people that don't have anything to do. Rallying in the streets for a couple days is totally different then being invested in a political process.

When you don't have an income and basically live in a shithole, you're going to get pretty pissed when some asshole living half the world away in a beautifully prosperous country viciously makes fun of the one thing that is still important to you in your life -- your faith.

Finally, believe it or not, I have a feeling that Muslims aren't the only ones that will get this riled up when someone attacks their faith. I think people in the U.S. don't understand because, quite frankly, not very many of us are that religious.

Heres a project: head down to Mexico City and hold a sign or wear a t-shirt depicting the Virgin Mary doing something obscene. Or go into some country village in Poland and depict the Pope as a pedofile. Then start counting the minutes before you get shot in the face.