Catharsis

Why is it largely unmentioned that the “cartoon riots” in the Muslim world aren’t just about the offending Danish cartoons? I strongly suspect these riots are more about lashing out at the West in general than true anger over sacrilegious comics. Tension has been building between the Muslim world and the West for some time; tension exacerbated by the occupation of Iraq and the demonizing of Islam following 9/11 among other things.

I personally have no sympathy for those allegedly outraged by some obscure cartoons in an obscure newspaper in an obscure country (sorry Denmark, you’re cool but really not a tower on the world stage). I detest religious extremism of any stripe but let’s not kid ourselves that this is all over some mean-spirited cartoons. This runs much deeper than that even if the cartoon rioters don’t realize it.

I’m also intrigued by those here who are outraged by the outrage over the cartoons. A lot of it is flat-out anti-Muslim bigotry; “See, these people are violent and they’re all terrorists”. My guess is these talk radio folks would not be as outraged over the outrage if the riots were here and over cartoons depicting Jesus in some negative way. I’m not equating, just saying if the tables were turned there would be far less concern about rioting over such things.