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If religion is that important to the Muslim community, then the world needs to know that and respect it. We're a global humanity and will have to start getting along with our "neighbors" all over the world.


Agreed, to an extent. But really, we can't devolve into relativism, where we accept anything that someone believes in. Just because Muslims view religion as "that important" doesn't mean that Danish cartoonists (or Comedy Central) has to follow their rules or wishes. And that failure to follow their rules and wishes is in no way an excuse to carry out acts of violence or terrorism. I say this, of course, with the full understanding that we are not talking about Muslims in general, but rather a hyper-violent hyper-fundamentalist subset of Islam.

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The insight from visuvius is exactly what the world needs more of. It helps broaden our understanding and combat "terrorism", the instilling of terror, carried out by both radicals and the American government. (and hey, if we find out that various middle eastern cultures want to battle with each other forever, than we should let them)


I couldn't agree more. With, of course, the caveats above.

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Of course, foreign terrorists will need to likewise extend a little understanding toward America, realizing that many of us do not support the democratic missionary work being done in Iraq. And there must be a reason that America supports Israel, but it's surely beyond what the government will let the citizens comprehend.


In my opinion, Israel is supported because they're a Christian nation (for all intents and purposes) in the Middle East. And I totally understand the rest of the Middle East being royally pissed that we support them. To me, Israel is guilty of just as much terrorism (if not more) than all of radical Islamic splinter groups combined. They just call it "military" instead of "terrorism".

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[edit] Oh, and no level of "broadening our understanding" should try to justify NAMBLA and crap like that. Instead, we should extend the offer to understand that people involved seriously need help with their issues.


This was exactly my point. Any claim that we need to "broaden our understanding" as to why violence is carried out because of a cartoon is (in my mind) functionally equivalent to trying to understand NAMBLA. Just because the radical sects of Islam want to commit violent acts when their faith is mocked doesn't make it acceptable, and never will. Nor does the fact that NAMBLA members want to have sex with children make their acts acceptable. If we do live in a free world, then Danish cartoonists get to make fun of / mock Mohamed, and the radical Muslims can get pissed about it. But violence and acts of terrorism are not part of the package. If they were, we would get to randomly bomb a peaceful city in the Muslim world every time they say something we don't like.

Eye for an eye and everyone's blind, my friend. People need to just learn to be pissed without resorting to violence.
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Dave