Idols, Not American

I'm trying really hard to understand why these cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet, Muhammad, are causing such a hateful fervor. It is my understanding that the Islamic faith forbids such pictures of Muhammad because it boils down to idolatry. Can pictures of a god begat idolatry - the worship of a physical object as god? That's what I don't understand. Can someone so devoted to their god (in general, not just Muslims) not differentiate between their god and the ink or paint or whatever medium that depicts said god? I'm asking here...

Maybe it's a culture thing? I mean, Christians sure do have numerous depictions of JC. But, unless the artwork shows JC strapping a bomb belt or something, I don't see Christians getting riled up like this. Wait a tic, one of the cartoons is a picture of of a Muslim, presumably Muhammad, with a bomb-shaped turban. Yet, I haven't read or heard anything about anyone being offended by the point of the political cartoons. All I hear is that it's offensive to Muslims to draw Muhammad. Who cares what the picture says?

What's really disturbing is that people are being killed over this. Embassies are being burned. I read that a Christian neighborhod was razed. A bomb was thrown into a FRENCH cultural center in the Gaza strip. It's sad that all this violence is happeneing, but it's sickening that people who have NOTHING to do with it are targeted.

Here's some nice quotes for you:

Women wearing woodcarver chanted and held banners proclaiming: "Kill the one who insults the Prophet."
"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted."
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

I can understand the offense, but is such violent anger necessary?

And how come we never hear of rioting when some terrorist kidnaps an innocent and chops their head off on videotape? Isn't that offensive to the religion? Where's the uproar over that? Isn't that offensive to the peaceful teachings of Muhammad and the religion? Again, I'm asking...

The real problem is we don't like jokes when they are true. And, there's a little bit of truth in those cartoons, not in the religion, perhaps, but in how the world perceives it due to the actions of its members. No one likes looking in the mirror. The truth does indeed sting.

I wanna thank Eddie for pointing me to some good, clean, blasphemous humor. Again, it's about having a sense of humor...