Some people wonder: is Iraq descending into a civil war?

I say:

The Muslim religion is being used to commit atrocities – exactly the message of the cartoon.

I also say:

If the Muslim god exists, he will never permit any Muslim to enter into heaven who has committed any such act of violence. No person involved will be welcome near him. Further, he will bar from heaven anyone who has not raised their voice in protest. He will not allow near himself any person who remains silent.

If the Muslim god exists, he will not send these people to hell. To commit such acts, they are already in their own personal hell, a hell made of rage and of the delusion that they are doing right when they are committing horrors.

Where are the imams, I ask. Where are the Muslim religious leaders worldwide, particularly those who denounced the cartoon? More than that, where are all the Muslims who protested around the world against the Danish cartoon? Muslims even burned an embassy, supposedly because of the cartoon.

Why is there no huge outpouring of outrage against Muslim atrocities? Why is any single Muslim at home instead of out in the streets demanding that this violence cease?

Of course, we know where the imams are. Some are speaking out against the violence. Others are the main culprits, whipping up hatred and rage.

So why the outrage over the cartoons?

Once again I say:

The cartoon accurately portrays an aspect of the Muslim religion, as it is currently practiced. Some Muslims, in the name of their religion, support and practice violence and destructiveness, cruelty and horror, devastation and massacres.

Then why the protests against the cartoon?

Many people do not want to see themselves, to see what they are doing. This cartoon reveals them to themselves.

But instead of acknowledging the evil that is being done, the evil that many are doing, they do the easiest thing. They attempt to silence it.

Perhaps, deep down, they are ashamed. Or perhaps many of those who claim to be outraged at the cartoon know that it is easy to frighten others, to threaten violence and do violence. Almost certainly, they have learned to cut themselves off from feeling empathy for those they destroy – as the Hutus cut themselves off from feeling for the Tutsis in the Rwandan genocide; as the Nazis cut themselves off from the millions (Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, etc.) they murdered; as centuries ago, the Christian crusaders cut themselves off from feeling for the Muslims they massacred.