The controversy over the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper is more than it appears.

The question we have to be asking ourselves is how a set of rather innocuous cartoons made their way to the middle east and where they got all those flags to burn...

Conspiracy theorist might consider this a devious psyop, but it is more likely a symptom of a volatile situation waiting for a spark. The tension between Islam and the west hasn't been this intense since the Crusades, and lots of different parties can find a reason to exploit the situation.

We saw something similar with the Koran-flushing story reaction.

So we understand the dynamic, but what do we do about it? Well, one school of thought suggests that we censor ourselves to avoid giving offense, but the same people who are passing out tinder, er--r-r I mean flags and reproducing the pictures to outrage Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere, don' t need to wait for a fine opportunity. Our own political environment makes it clear that no one actually has to do anything wrong, it just needs to be able to appear to be wrong in order to extract political advantage.

By the same token, we should understand that just as Americans are seldom fooled by the antics of politicians and their media accomplices, neither are Muslims mindless disciples--the demonstrations we are seeing on television are no different that the million-something marches that descend on Washington every year--sound and fury signifying nothing. They tell you that "some" people are upset, but nothing about the general mood of the country, or a people, or the members of a religious faith.

The bottom line is that the kindling is arranged well before the match is struck and that the best policy is one that clears the fire hazard rather than ban matches.

Lagomorphic Tendancies wonders when one of those exploitive parties is going to get into the game.

I wonder where all of this will go next, and I am terribly curious to see how the fascistic fundamentalism is going to play out in the sympathies of the left… So far the BBC is taking the position of how terrible it is for the evil, disrespectful Western cartoonists to offend the great religion of peace. Selective respect for the diversity of only one religion is a hard position to defend, so it will be rather amusing to sit back and watch them try to do it. I wonder if they actually think we don’t know that this has nothing to do with respect and everything to do with the fact that they are just plain scared to death of these people.

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Why? Because when the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon bemoans that, if only the execution order on Salmon Rushdie had been successful seven years ago, “this rabble… would not have dared,” the veil is lifted and Western nations must admit that they face terrorism rather than innocent piety.

Joe makes a good point--terrorism in large measure is a means to control speech as much as policy. Say the wrong thing in a totalitarian state and you disappear, which of course means that few people will dare to say the wrong thing. Historically we and the Islamofacists have demonstrated a clear pattern--they attack, we retreat, as a result they are emboldened and press their advantage. Would there have been a 9/11 without a Lebanon and Somalia? Success breeds success. If the western press caves on this, it will not be the end of it, but the beginning.

Unfortunately, some people don't get it.