Mohammad Cartoons and Video just a pretext

Submitted by Edward Cline (United States), Sep 21, 2012 at 15:32

Daniel asks: "Or would [publishing the most famous Danish cartoon every day} lead to routinization, to a wearing out of Islamists, and a realization that violence is counter-productive to their cause?" And then the Muslims would stop rioting? He answers that the regular publication of the cartoon "will make it harder for Islamists to mobilize Muslim mobs." They would grow tired and inured to the sight of Mohammad in an explosive turban. But, I don't think the riots have been spurred by either the cartoons or the video. I think it's a matter of one Islamist group playing a game of one-upmanship with another group. It was a Salafist cleric who was trying to outdo the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party in Egypt to demonstrate he could produce riots and mayhem, as well, by drawing attention to an obscure video no one in the States or the civilized world had ever heard of.

Any pretext could have served that purpose: a Bugs Bunny cartoon (actually used in one of Charlie Hebdo's cartoons), an offensive swirl in a scoop of ice cream that supposedly resembled Mohammad (as happened in Britain), a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan urinating in the direction of Mecca (all directions face Mecca). It is interesting to note that the Cairo and Benghazi "demonstrations" and attacks were planned days before attention was drawn to the video, and news of it was broadcast on Egyptian TV. The excuse had to have something to do with America. Muslims will never tire of rioting and threatening and killing. A cartoon of Mohammad wearing an explosive turban will do as well as Mr. Pipes demonstrating outside the Egyptian embassy carrying a sign that read: "Reason will dominate the world."

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