Free Republic

  What are the long-term consequences of the Muhammad cartoon furor? I predict it is helping bring on not a clash of civilizations but their mutual pulling apart. This separation, which has been building for years, has dreadful implications.Signs of disengagement are all around.· Trade: Boycotts now exist in both directions. Even as the U.S. government sanctions Iranian products, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his government will “revise and cancel economic contracts” with countries where newspapers published the cartoons. Several Muslim countries have suspended trade with Denmark, while Muslim-owned stores in Canada have removed Danish products. The Pakistani medical association...