Free Republic

Hardline Muslims barged into a high-rise building housing the Danish Embassy on Friday to protest the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad. They then tore and burnt the country's white and red flag. The rowdy protest was one of the first in the world's most populous Muslim nation against the 12 cartoons, which first appeared in September in a Danish newspaper. They were reprinted in several other European newspapers this week in a gesture of press freedom.

I watched only part of President Bush's State of the Union address. I just couldn't bring myself to watch the whole speech. I soon discovered that I wasn't alone. Since then, I had the opportunity to talk to a number of academic acquaintances in the Middle East. I was interested in getting a firsthand Arab response to the turmoil taking place between the Europeans and Muslims, but I also took the opportunity to get some feedback on Bush's speech. To my surprise, none of them heard the address. When I told one that Bush had promised to put in place...