The Muslims since the middle-ages have shunned the Western Culture. For one reason or another they decided to not evolve as Western cultures became more industrialized and modern.
The whole middle-east is a **** mess. Fighting battles that have been going on since at least 1187.
However, they perhaps have every reason to be p***ed off with Christianity - look at the farce that was the Crusades? If that was Western Culture, no wonder they didn\'t see it as being particularly enlightening - in fact, western "civilisation" was, to a large extent, a giant step back. If you look at it all historically, more of the roots of science and culture come from the Middle East than anywhere else anyway.
As for Islam itself, when you look at it in the context of multitheistic societies prevalent at the time, it did put forward a reasonable case for a code for living. Christian bigots like to say that the tenets of Islam are the same as Christianity, but the majority of Christianity is derivative anyway: most of the major faiths have the same root beliefs and ideals. The
initial intentions of Islam were good, but the minority extremists have hijacked Islam for their own ends, in exactly the same way as the West hijacked Christianity to serve its own.
What happened with those cartoons is disgraceful. Their initial publication was nothing other than a childish act guaranteed to raise circulation, an act by people who know full well that to create an image of the Prophet is one of the worst crimes. No respect has been shown to the Islamic community. It doesn\'t matter whether we think such a ban on images is a stupid idea (as I do!): the press has a responsibility to be impartial (fat bloody chance!). If there was a cartoon showing Jesus in a stormtrooper\'s uniform, bayoneting a Jew, there would be similar disgust (if not more) and the politicians too would join in condemning it. And publishing them again in other papers, knowing the furore it would cause, shows just how low the tabloid press are.
However, I don\'t agree with the way some people have protested. Such actions have done more to damage their cause, than to help it. People have forgotten the reason why they are protesting - it is just the violence which sticks in their minds, further damning the majority of Muslims, who just feel hurt and debased by the actions of these newspapers.
I\'m not quite with Wolfman on this - not all are equally to blame. But the extremist leaders and zealots of most religions are.
And by the way, no I am not a Muslim. I was baptised a Christian and attended a Church school until the age of 11, by which time I had already worked out what a load of crap organised religions are.