To this editorial in Der Spiegel, I say "Hear, hear!" The reaction of the Islamic world to the Danish cartoons has been wholly irrational and consistent with past lunacy. I am disgusted by it and at the same time I hope that it provides such a stark contrast that the world will finally see what might be the scourge of the 21st century.
I am sick and tired of being told that we need to respect their rights when they so wantonly fail to reciprocate. If they could keep to themselves, then I'd say they could live however they'd like. But when they bomb our cities, kill our troops, kidnap our journalists, and now destroy buildings because they don't like a political cartoon, I say that they've abrogated their right to tell us what we should do.
The Rule of Reason has got some great links on this matter.
[UPDATE (2/9/2006): And of course there's now Mohammed Dance. {via}]
[UPDATE 2 (2/9/2006): Ironically, 900 Danish websites and 1,600 Western sites were defaced today. Do we need any more evidence that this whole flare-up is just a ruse for general anti-Western sentiment? If it were anything else, wouldn't the attacks and vandalism have been centralized around the actual "perpetrators"? Moreover, can you imagine if we painted Islam with such a wide brush because terrorists were Muslims? Oh wait, I remember what happened: we stopped "profiling" Muslims for special treatment aboard airplanes and started treating them the same as 70-year-old grandmothers flying the friendly skies. And our wonderful president took to the airwaves to remind the American people that Islam is a wonderful religion that deserves oh-so-much respect because it is so peaceful (unless you're a woman or run afoul of Sharia) and just as good as Christianity (except it's not and you should really go to church more, you heathens). This whole mess is so sickening.]