Hey Kari,
By and large I agree with you. It was not nice to insult our Muslim brethern. BUT, the fact remains that there are elemenst within Islam, albeit disowned by the majority of Muslims here in the West, who DO think that way and use their religion to cause blood-shed and suffering. Was it not a Muslim extremeist who shouted "God is good!" as flight 96 plowed into a cornfield? While igoring what the Koran says about prhibing suicide or injuring innocents. At the same time, Muhammed did encourage conversion by the sword and I have read it in the Koran with my own eyes, so Christains do not corner the market on that shameful past either. Just thought I'd head that one off at the pass, since it is a common theme brough up in these debates. I think that that was all the point that the cartoonist was trying to make--that some twist it. Then you have a backlash, which, if you had been following and researching the story the way that I have been ever since it broke, seems suspiciously contrived and timed. Almost as if the cartoons were an excuse for rather than the reason for venting against "The Great Satan" that is the West. As a trained historian, I can point to other, similar demonstrations and vocal outrage throughout history that were seemingly spontaneous at the time, but were later proves to have been very much orchastrated by pupper masters behind the scenes.
But think about this for a sec... you mentioned the pseudo cartoon re; Christianity. Well, for one thing, only a handful of wild-eyed red-neck Christian types would even THINK about resorting to violence to protest. And one has to wonder just how "Christ-like" those sort really are. Jesus was no wimp, no wild-eyed idealist. His mission was totally different from what some pc-types would have it, but He's never advocate much that is done in His name. That's where you mistake us. Secondly, the world already DOES throw similar sort of crap at us all the time amd even when we do protest in a dignified and peacful manner, everyone shrugs and, essentially, says "So what?" When was the last time that you saw a news story about a Christian that was positive and not a caricature? Furthermore, tell that to some of my Christian friends who live in a low-key manner in Muslim lands, where a slip in the wrong place about their (peaceful) Christian convictions can mean death, at best. They have to be extremely careful. At least we do not put to death (anymore at any rate) those who disagree with us on such matters. Sorry if I've offended by my comments, it was not intentional.