It is more than sad or wrong. It is pathetic. As one of the oldest cultures in the world you'd think they would be prepared to try being a civilized society already. It's truly a piity they don't have an overriding voice of sanity and peace to help them through these tumultuous times..

Yes, exactly, and I'm glad someone's finally saying it. Blaming Newsweek or whoever is exactly the same kind of bad logic that leads some people to justify or explain away 9/11 as a result of one or more actions of U.S. foreign policy. Conservatives rightly pointed out the flaws in this logic, and I think it's only the chance to take an easy shot at a liberal media source that makes these same people use that same reasoning to now attack Newsweek for "causing riots". You're right, the ultimate fault is with the rioters themselves.

heeey! I said it yesterday!

Well, sort of; you didn't really make a value judgment one way or the other.

This Tech Central Station article has some insight as to why Muslims get worked up over the desecration of the Koran (via the Dallas Morning News blog).

I agree totally, except that one of the problems with Newsweek is that their breathless coverage of this stuff is designed to reinforce this PC attitude of "mustn't offend Muslim sensitivities... ever". This is interrogation of terrorists for Chrissake. They've already forgotten what happens if we don't get the info?

Very good point. I think it comes from Rousseau's sentimental, noble savage view of non-Western cultures, which underlies modern liberalism.

When Muslims went on a pogrom in Nigeria over the Miss Universe pageant, liberals blamed the pageant, saying it was dispectful of Muslim culture. But Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka said that was crap, & that the Islamofascists would have seized on any pretext to massacre people they deem as evil.

Note also the Leftist delusion that it was Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount that sparked the intifada, which takes the blame off Arafat, who planned it, & the Palestinians who perpetrated it.

I'm sorry but you are just wrong on this one.

This is akin to the security forced of the UK or Canada, in an attempt to rattle some prisoners of theirs, wrapping a cross in the American flag and peeing on it.

Then, when people congregate to protest this action, some stupid riot police (like those seen in recent world bank protests) start shooting into the air, and accidentally kill some people.

We claim to be the ally of dozens of Muslim nations, but it's OK to desecrate a symbol that means more to them than their own nation? And don't tell me we don't know that, because that's the only reason why interrogators would try this stunt. They have well versed experts who know what rattles Muslims, and attempt to use this during their interrogations.

And the notion that offending a billion Muslims, or even hundreds of thousands that we consider our friends, in an attempt to get some information out of a few thousand suspected (but released without any charges for the most part) terrorists is crap as well.

Kearns, if someone peed on the American flag in front of me, I'd be hurt, I'd be angry but I wouldn't kill anyone nor would I riot in any way. I'm sorry, I don't care how important the symbol is, Muslims need to be told that murder is never justified. Now, again, whether or not this ever happened is in dispute. But if it did, it still will never justify killing.

Hey everyone,

I don't get the impression that people are glossing over the behavior of the rioters in the Middle East, at least not from the blogs I read. But let me tell you, I'm the daughter of Iranian Jews. I've visited Iran twice before the revolution. My parents tell me that if an Iranian were to give his dog (or cat) a Biblical name like Abraham, Moses (Mussa in Farsi) or Mohammed, they would get the death penalty. My parents have also told me several times to never EVER even joke about such a thing in front of a Moslem.

Why are you glossing over the condemnation of torture in your quest to prove Newsweek did wrong?

Newsweek is just your lastest diversion from the root issue---the for-profit occupation of Iran that enriches Bush's campaign contributors and makes the world a more dangerous place.

You continue to think and act as if the rich and powerful are noble and blameless...

for-profit occupation of Iran that enriches Bush's campaign contributors

We're occupying Iran? Whoa, how'd the "MSM" miss that?

-the for-profit occupation of Iran

Are you privvy to some information that most of the world isn't aware of?

OOPS! That should have been "the for-profit occupation of IRAQ."

Mea culpa...

"Muslims need to be told that murder is never justified"

Am I missing something? My understanding is that the deaths are due to poor handling of rioting. And generally rioting is due to poor handling of a protest.

Same thing happens in the west for the stupidest of reasons.

Really Kearns?? I live in NYC. Last summer we had the RNC convention. There were many, MANY protests. Can you tell me how many Americans were killed then?

I wasn't aware that New York was "the west".

However:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoa_Group_of_Eight_Summit_protest

Many more involve large amounts of violence. (And my pizza is here so I'm not searching for anymore).

I don't think that it is a surprise that a fledgling country like Afghanistan, or a chaotic place like Nigeria, or a crazy place like Pakistan would have a few riots over this. Riots just make no sense, people damage and hurt was is closest to them.

But, to demonetize Muslims is crazy, Don't paint 1 Billion with the colors of a few thousand, that's just not fair.

And Karol, I'm sure you know that a riot of one is just a temper tantrum...

Kearn's quote: "This is akin to the security forced of the UK or Canada, in an attempt to rattle some prisoners of theirs, wrapping a cross in the American flag and peeing on it.

Then, when people congregate to protest this action, some stupid riot police (like those seen in recent world bank protests) start shooting into the air, and accidentally kill some people."

We have American prisoners? Even hypothetically, I want to know how that happened. Second, we wouldn't bother to get a flag and a cross. We would call Bush names, and then retract them later and apologize. Right after we raised the living conditions of the prisoners above many of our unincarcerated citizens, but I digress.

If you go to a protest wearing a Palestinian headscarf and carrying rocks, the riot police oughta whup your hide. I don't agree with many world policies, but I want to see 20-something re-hippies whining about how cruel our govenment and police forces are like I want a 2nd ass. This is a whole thread on its own. Next.

"Am I missing something? My understanding is that the deaths are due to poor handling of rioting. And generally rioting is due to poor handling of a protest."

Wouldn't have had to be good or bad handling of any riot, had there NOT BEEN ONE. Your argument absolves the rioters, and blames the reactors. Had the story of desecration been true, which it isn't, the reaction would still have been extreme. I understand cultural sensitivity - "that's the way they are..." etc. - but some stuff is still just too far out there, regardless of tradition, or past behaviour. Step up and evolve.

Near as I can see it, nobody is demonizing 1 billion muslims, but those of us non-muslims ("other") are a little non-plussed by the ease of riots. Everything is a reason to trash a UN office, or embassy, or government building. Every imagined or actual slight results in 1000 young men (apparently unemployed and waiting for the cue to "protest" the Great Satan) storming something... with shots fired. Please. The links you mentioned are extremes of US protests. Confrontations like these happen weekly in many places of the world, but are not big news because of their frequency. As a tangent example - China had 500 or so miner deaths last year. By ratio that would be like 100 American miners (China has 5 times the pop). That would make BIG news, and investigations galore. This happens every year in China. Protests that are taught in the history books here are big for us, and average for much of the world.

To sum up - rioters 1, people who aren't whacos 0. The misinformed are happy with your support Kearns, bless your little heart.

Of course NYC is the west. Greenwich is the centre of the world, and NYC is 5 time-zone hours west of it.

BTW if I urinated on an American flag no Americans would get violent toward me? Give me a break.

Monjo... get violent on you? Sure, you'd be yelled at, see punches thrown, likely tackled. You'd also be humiliated on the Today Show, the butt of jokes in Leno's monologue and nationally disgraced but I'm fairly certain you would not be doused with gasoline and set ablaze. Or, stoned to death. Or, for that matter, you probably wouldn't even be decapitated.

And therein lies the major cravasse that I call; a difference.

someone,

exactly, we where supposed to see these types of mass riots worldwide when we invaded Iraq, and when we finally see them once, it is expected.

We are in part trained to expect muslims to act this way and they are in part trained (or manipualated) to act the way they did.

The only difference in afganistan was that they have a goverment that would not accept rioting, where as in other countires it is encouraged if the rioting supports the goverment.

I doubt there will be as much rioting in afgainstian because of this indident.