Muhammad Bomb Head Mess - Lack of Respect

The Danish are really feeling the heat of this thing with the PM saying that they are unfairly portrayed as intolerant. It is a very interesting clash of two cultures here. We have on one hand the highly secularized Europe who looks at making fun of the top dog in a religion as nothing more then a free speech issue. On the other hand we have the highly religious Middle East who feel that their Prophet is being attacked by Denmark who isn't even one of their traditional enemies.

I have a feeling that the Danish certainly weren't prepared for the backlash of just printing a few cartoons would cause. They are looking at it with secular eyes where all things are fair game for ridicule and lampooning. This shows the lack of respect the secular West has for the Muslims and their beliefs. They can go ahead and make fun of Muhammad and Muslims have to just sit there and take it since the West is operating under the auspices of "free speech."

The far left shows this lack of respect whenever they talk about pulling the troops out of Iraq willy-nilly without any rhyme or reason. They all know that Iraq will fall to pieces and many Muslims will be slaughtered in the ensuing civil war. They don't care about that because a civil war will win them Senate/House seats and possibly hurt Bush. They don't have enough respect for the Muslims in Iraq to see them through to a prosperous future. In their eyes our soldiers aren't worth dying so Muslims can be freed.

You even see this lack of respect whenever you see someone saying that Western style democracy cannot flourish in the Middle East. Some liberals view Muslims as too corrupt, backward, or ignorant to understand democracy. They even seem to dislike how democracy is flourishing in the Middle East since it is helping Bush build a legacy.

One thing that I found interesting is that it might have been easier for the Muslim world if these cartoons were first printed in the New York Times or in Haaretz. It is more hate from the same sources. The idea that all this disrespect came from the supposedly tolerant Europe must really feel like a slap in the face. This is the same Europe that sided with Palestine when their suicide bombers were slaughtering innocent Israelis. They sided with Saddam against the US. They even have some of the largest concentrations of Muslims living within them outside of the Middle East. So now the Muslim world might perceive that they have no real friends to turn to anymore.