On the 'Cartoon War'

A decent overview of the Fatwa of the Toons here.

What caught my eye last week though was Hugh Hewitts take which is a bit different here. Hugh points out that the cartoons WERE offensive to muslims. Given the number of burned embassies and murders in the aftermath of say, "Piss Christ" that horrid dung painting of Mary, and any number of afronts to Christians the sneering, bigoted, arthouse left has perpetrated over the last few years, he....
oh wait....
that number was zero....

However, while I'm not persuaded by the main thrust of his argument, he does have an overall point which is valid and not getting a lot of play.

While this war is in some ways a war of civilizations (and one that's been going off and on for over a thousand years), to the extent we can diffuse that component we are doing a good thing. An ethically, stratigically and morally SOUND thing.

The President has gone out of his way to declare that this is NOT a war on Islam. His Afgani Barber demonstrating that he trusts Muslims with sharp pointy objects around his head. This also is one of the reasons for the campaign in Iraq, that is, to bring this HUGE swath of the worlds population into a modern age.

If we can avoid convincing the muslims that we are a trancendental threat to their religion they will look less favorably to the Al-Quaeda types that are a trancendental threat to their lives.

On the other hand I absolutely stand with the buy Danish movement, I have no problems with people boycotting either,it is a peacful protest that is far preferable to blowing things up, but that is a two way street.

And on the gripping hand, "The Major" (everyones favorite "irasci-belle" )has a really good couple of posts on this topic here and here.

She makes an important point: "Tell me, why should moderate Muslims be just like us?"
Go read the whole thing...and follow the links there and read them too.

Then go back to Ghost Blog and just scroll for a bit. Everyone should do that from time to time.