MESA Nostra’s Juan Cole weighs in on the Cartoon controversy in this article from Reuters. Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, said in a commentary on his Web site that the current controversy “must be understood in historical context.” “Most Muslim societies have spent the past two centuries either under […]

If this was indeed perpetrated by Israelis, rather than by Muslims seeking to exploit a fresh provocation, it is nothing more than irresponsible vandalism — which leads to, you guessed it, yet more violent demonstrations on the part of Muslims. A peaceful response to anything just doesn’t seem to be in the playbook. From CNN: […]

Theodore Dalrymple muses how in regards to the cartoon controversy, it’s the French who”ve been courageous, the Americans and British spineless. In City Journal: This time, the French have put the British and Americans to shame. From the outset of the crisis over the Danish caricatures, they have vigorously defended the right of free expression, […]

From the Philadelphia Daily News: The FBI believes that the unemployed Wilkes-Barre man tried to conspire with al-Qaeda to wreck the American economy. Agents say Reynolds plotted to blow up the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, a Pennsylvania pipeline, and a New Jersey refinery. The sensational allegations, disclosed in a federal transcript obtained by The Inquirer on Friday, […]

From Bloomberg: Feb. 12 — U.K. security forces have thwarted three terrorist attacks since the failed London bombings of July 21, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will say in a speech tomorrow, as he seeks to raise his profile beyond financial matters in his bid to lead the nation after Tony Blair. “The terrorist […]

From ABC News: (02/10/06 — CHAPEL HILL) – A political cartoon in a student newspaper is triggering protests on campus. UNC-Chapel Hill’s Muslim Students Association is demanding an apology after a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed appeared in the Daily Tar Heel newspaper. “It’s very disrespectful, and I find it racist,” said student Rafsan Khan, […]

Sober political analysis from Herb Keinon at the Jerusalem Post: …Putin’s invitation to Hamas Thursday didn’t come out of the blue. A week earlier at a mammoth press conference in the Kremlin, he made it clear that Moscow did not view Hamas the same way the US and Europe did. His answer to a question […]

Chris Elliot of the Enigma Report has created this helpful website for those of us whow want to support Denmark by purchasing Danish products. …Because freedom of expression and freedom of speech are bedrock values in any true democracy. Because external forces that try to control what a Danish paper chooses to publish in Denmark […]

An update on the Ashura bombing in Pakistan from VOA: Rival Muslim groups in northwestern Pakistan have ended an armed standoff after two days of violence that killed 38 people and injured dozens more. The police chief in Hangu said Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims reached a cease-fire agreement in talks Saturday. The fighting began Thursday […]

From AP: JAKARTA Fearful Danish consular staff have fled their embassy, Indonesia’s foreign minister said Sunday, after Denmark urged its citizens to leave the world’s most populous Muslim nation citing security concerns amid anger over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Danish Ambassador Niels Erik Anderson and embassy staff have temporarily relocated “to an unspecified location,” […]