Ponniyin, it’s not about anyone ‘pandering to Arab morals.’ It’s a simple fact of humanity, you should tolerate others and not insult what they hold dear. As a Muslim, I don’t care if you go get drunk or whatever. It’s your life. If you’re going to draw prophets, well keep them to yourself and don’t spread them around to piss people off. Like I said, it’s your life, draw what you want and leave us out of it.

I don’t think it is a simple fact of humanity to respect to “religious morals” of 7th century.. What do you think about the hateful verses in the holy documents of Quran/Hadiths about polytheists/idolators/kafirs. And the glaring in your face message 5 times a day from the loudspeakers that claims “there is one no god but Allah and Mohammad is his prophet”. Isn’t it a simple fact of humanity to tolerate those polytheists/idolators and not to piss them off.. What do you think of the “arab governments” policies not to allow people to even bring magazines containing religious pictures let alone allowing “freedom of worship”.?

I would have taken the “politically correct” line of treating all faiths equal etc.. etc.. even a few years back when I was ignorant, not anymore.. You want the European society to pander to these backward religious sentiments of immigrants. These folks have a painful memory of pandering to “religious sentiments” and have fought hard to come out of it.. Read this …Jean-François, knight de la Barre (1745 – July 1st, 1766) was a French nobleman, famous for having been tortured and burnt at the stake for not having removed his hat before a Catholic procession. In France, he is a symbol of Christian religious intolerance, along with Jean Calas and Pierre-Paul Sirven…

I found the jew holding the worlds businessmen hostage over holocaust funny…

A most kind and open minded view… perhaps you could ask the Arab/Muslim media to extend the same privilege to other faiths too ? Or is it another case of “do as I tell/order you, not as I do” ?

Freedom of expression is nothing w/o the freedom to offend. You are free to rebut those arguements but vandalism and burning tires on the street pisses others off. an Indian did not draw any of those cartoons, yet there were riots and call for murder by an elected rep in india? This is why it becomes an external issue.

I don’t think the rest of the world has “time” and “patience” to wait for enlightenment in Saudi Arabia..

It’s not just a Saudi Arabian problem (although they’re certainly the major cause behind the current “export” of their interpretation of Islam), it’s a global problem wherever there are sufficiently disgruntled Muslims who have jihadist leanings.

I’m not denying that “external intervention” is an inviable solution if the global Ummah is unable (or unwilling) to solve this problem themselves. As mentioned in the last paragraph of my post #71, it’s worth bearing in mind that there will be retaliation (on multiple levels) against any group who is perceived to be attacking Islam’s more controversial tenets. This doesn’t mean that such steps should not be taken, it just means that one should be fully aware of — and prepared for — the consequences.

With regards to your earlier points:

1. If the jihadists really are acting in accordance with the “true” interpretation of Islam, then the religion in its orthdox form deserves to collapse completely (or evolve into something with a greater resemblence to Sufism).
2. However, if the jihadists are wrong, then — as I mentioned previously — the global Ummah has a responsibility to take matters into their own hands and solve the issue interally if possible, especially as this is now having worldwide ramifications.

Economic impacts are wildly inflated by a MSM looking to write a particular story that sells papers and a political party looking to deflect blame for an already weak economy. In the stock market, short sellers will sell for any reason at all: a HP earnings report, solar flares, Britney Spears gets the sniffles. Those going long will bid shares up for irrational reasons as well.

But if you look at the real economy, the impacts are limited. Nasdaq and the NYSE were up and running again in less than a week. The financial sector in Lower Manhattan is a very small portion of the GDP. The argument only makes sense if you’re arguing tipping point, but then you have to rigorously prove these things, not assert them based on sensationalist media.

In short, there’s no causality.