[generally]

This newspaper would not have published the cartoons of Mohammed at the centre of this controversy, images which we regard as vulgar and fatuously insulting. But - and this is the crucial point - we reserve absolutely our right to make our own decision, free of threat and intimidation.

This is the best article I have seen on the topic.

Freedom for me, but not for you, is what the radicals want.

[muawiyah]

The cartoons were neither insulting nor tasteless.

Have no idea where this guy is coming from.

[BeAllYouCanBe]

Freedom for me, but not for you, is what the radicals want

This bears repeating. I have heard the protests of "right-winged-talk-radio" and how it must be stopped as one example of the process. There are so many groups trying to get Sean or Rush in trouble.

[FerdieMurphy]

Rioting against Danish cartoonists in cities that have hosted their raggedy butts makes about as much sense as a mooselimb moron can conjure.

[Fruitbat]

It is a good article, but the author, as do most, misses the crux of the problem completely. "Radical" Islam is the "real" Islam. The "peaceful" variety is actually the one "breaking from tradition" and teaching.

The protesters in London with their disgraceful slogans - "Behead those who Insult Islam", "Britain you will pay - 7/7 is on its way" - have made it all but impossible for a genuinely free debate on this issue to take place.

What people don't realize, nor this author, is that whereever Islam is, so too will be "radical" or "militant" Islam. It's breeds itself among Islamic society and uses it as a hiding place. These people are cowards. Even the "peaceful" ones are cowardly b/c they don't even stand up to those that are making life miserable both for them and the rest of civilization.

Just as the slogan goes, "Not saying 'no' is just like saying 'yes'," so too, "peaceful" muslims that don't react sharply and harshly passively back "militant" or "radical" muslims.

Unlike this author suggests, the solution is to prevent the spread of Islam within any society that desires to live peacefully. Otherwise, the expectation is clear. Expect Islam, just as it has since its invention in the mid-first millenium, will seek to conquer, violently if necessary, take over, and oppress.

For the reality in that, all one has to do is look around the world and wonder and ask why Islamic countries are almost all decades if not centuries behind the times in human rights and general civility.

[bboop]

Mark Steyn's column today is even better.