Did You Know...

You’ve seen the pictures of Syrian Islamists torching the Norwegian and Danish embassies.

Now, listen and watch as they scream “Allahu Akbar!” during their Stone Age mob rampage. Over what, exactly? Oh, yeah. A bunch of cartoons. Cartoons.

Download and watch the video (Windows media .wmv file).

Via Yahoo! News/CNN/International TV.

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Instapundit’s round-up of news and blog analysis is here.

Rusty Shackleford takes a strong stand.

So does Ed Morrissey:

Editorial cartoons exist to challenge political thought and expose hypocrisy. Among religions, Islam should be the least protected from this form of speech, as it insists on involving itself in temporal political matters wherever it is practiced. Indeed, it insists on dictating political and legal matters, usually in the most extreme terms, and it uses the life of Mohammed as its claim on political and legal supremacy. Christianity hasn’t taken that position in centuries, focusing on the spiritual and individual rather than group diktat. Judaism hasn’t had the means to develop that kind of theocratic position for over two millenia until the establishment of Israel, and even then the Chosen have chosen a liberal democracy for themselves rather than rule by the high-priest descendants of Aaron.

That insistence on dictating terms of temporal power makes criticism, by cartoonists or editorialists, absolutely necessary in order to combat the stultifying reach of sharia. Islam sets the terms of debate. It cannot insist on temporal rule based on Mohammed and the Qu’ran and then expect people to refrain from criticizing either one. Christians understand this, even if they don’t pursue the thought intellectually to its end. If we Christians insisted on basing all government and laws explicitly on the four Gospels, we would necessarily be forced to intellectually defend each and every passage, as well as the life and actions of Jesus and his disciples and their assumed infallibility to rule on human activity.

For this reason, we must support the publication of the cartoons by European news organizations. Islam wants to impose its tenets on us, and if we give up the option of political criticism, we have moved more than halfway towards surrender to the Islamists. For those individuals who cross the line into unnecessary offense, the option to use free debate to argue the point will remain open as long as we defend free speech.

Austin Bay analyzes the Syrian government’s role in orchestrating the mass demonstration:

Thousands enraged, huh? More likely scenario: the dictatorship is using The Cartoon War as a convenient issue to deflect the anti-regime heat building inside Syria and shift media focus from the murder investigation.

Yes, but do watch the video. The virulent hatred of those thousands is real.

John Hinderaker at Power Line reports on the latest threat by an Islamist organization affiliated with al Qaeda to murder Danes.

The group’s warning was:

You will see your own blood as an answer, and that is revenge from our prophet.

Here’s another warning: