Addendum to last post

After spending a day in Speakers Corner (http://www.speakerscorner.net/history.html) in Hyde Park, a few points I want to clarify from my last post:

I am for freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but against stupidity in the press and stupidity in speech. The cartoons that were drawn and the decision to release them was a stupid idea. However, I don't think you'd see the same types of protests by Christians or Jews over cartoons that offend our religions. Maybe it's because we're already used to it.

I think the radical Islamism that we are seeing in the Middle East and other places is a distortion of the original intentions of Muhammed. Some people mistake extremists that we are seeing on TV as the majority of Muslims or as the only ideology of Islam, but in reality I think the majority of Muslims are against this type of violent protest. The problem is, we are not hearing enough of these calm voices in the Muslim community over the shouts of the radicals in the streets. Furthermore, while clerics are readily able to issue fatwas condemning Salman Rushdie and others to death, it seems much harder for them to issue fatwas condemning suicide bombers and violent protestors. I think the solution to peace has to come from within the Muslim community. Meanwhile, I think the refusal by the papers to apologize is helping to fan the flames.