Out of Hand

(This is a subject I've been trying to not talk about, because it's so incredibly stupid and insane... but I got a bit riled up reading the headlines tonight.)

In case you didn't think so already... these cartoon riots have gotten absolutely insane.

With Saturday's deaths, at least 45 people have been killed in protests across the Muslim world, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Fourty-five people have been killed because of a set of cartoons - five months after they were originally published. Cartoons that depicted Mohammed with a turban made out of a bomb, implying Islam to be a religion of murder and mayhem. In response, Muslims have been rioting - and now, killing people - for almost a month.

Let's make something absolutely clear: These riots and protests have absolutely nothing to do with the cartoons, and most likely, never really did. This is about people disguising hatred and intolerance for other viewpoints under the guise of religious indignation - and then using that indignation as a pretext for violent action against those whom they hate. Violence like this:

An Associated Press reporter saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city center with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tire around a man, poured gas on him and set him ablaze.

...

Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order, Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Iwendi said security forces arrested dozens of people in the city about 1,000 miles northeast of the capital, Lagos.

...

"Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters," Ezeoke said. Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.

Sick. Of course, this is exactly what the cartoons were about.

UPDATE: Check out this post at Instapundit - my favorite:

"It is time for the Western nations to know that the mere existence of the Western world is an 'insult to Islam.' There is a double standard at work here. We must tiptoe around to avoid offending Muslim 'sensibilities' while they can clearly state a goal as the destruction of Israel and run cartoons with impunity depicting other religions in an 'insulting' manner.

The rest are excellent as well. Read the whole thing.