From their point of view they should not based an entire society or punish others for the views of one person, the cartoonist. Now in the reverse we should not judge their society from the actions of a few extremists. Though after hearing about their actions I really have to wonder about Mohommend. Is this a prophet that spoke of forgiveness? I bet he was. Is the Islam religion a loving religion? I bet it is. though those who say they practice it seem to need a lot more practicing.

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The problem is that they show no inclination to rein in the extremists whatsoever. At some point, the extremists are the responsibility of their country. If Syria doesn't shut them down, then they accept responsibility for their actions.

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I agree with that. Someone in authority should say something and try to rein them in. I don't see it all. I wonder how the Islam followers in the US are reacting to this.

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The problem with declaring war is that we don't have anybody to declare against. The muslim states are decrying the cartoons, but are not themselves (publicly) advocating violence.

I like Havarti more than radioactive glass.

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Sure we do. The host country is responsible to see that embassies are protected, under international law. We would have been right ti respond to the takeover of the embassy in Tehran with military force in 1979; that we didn't was because the president at the time was too gutless to defend American soil.

If Syria can't keep its people from burning embassies, they can and should be held responsible.

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The depressing thing is that a few centuries ago, the Islamic world was a center of philosphy, science, and math. (All those terms in science and math that start with "al-" are Arabic in origin. "Algorithm" too.)

I have to wonder what it is that took that culture down to its current depths.

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I have discovered that religion, when taken to extreme (any religion-- Im equal opportunity) can take down any culture, because it is, in and of itself, counter to change (which is an inevetable factor of culture.)

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My theory is that back then, the Sufis were in charge.

I've never heard of Sufi Muslims causing trouble, it's the others who seem to have a hard-on for breaking things and killing people.

Unfortunately, as Sufism declined, so did the fortunes of Dar Al Islam.

(FYI: Am not Sufi, am Christian. Just sort of relaying what little I know about this sort of thing.)

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At some point in the next 25 years our culture will infect theirs and things will change. Confucius says " If you wait by the river long enough the body of your enemy will float past". This is already happening in many places in the middle east. Just be patient, even the destruction of embassies is movement towards change for the better. Non-extremists see this happening on the news and condemn it. The news in the middle east is so controlled, so slanted towards the extremist view that many people know not to trust it and read between the lines. Iran's government may be adversarial at the moment but if nearly everyone under 30 listens to western music watches western movies and disagrees with the way the government is currently run how long will that government last? It's only about 30 or so years old now. Angry students attacked the U.S. Embassy in 1975 and took hostages after deposing the oppressive Shaw of Iran. Who says that can't happen again with a more positive governmental result? Time heals all wounds and I believe the Middle east will transform.

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Khrushchev thought the same thing. His famous "We will bury you" speech was meant to imply that Communism would outlast the West. He wasn't exactly correct about that.

Similarly, we can't assume that the Islamofascist movement won't die off. Who knows? It might get even stronger with time.

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