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What's Funny about Islam?

(UPI) Martin Walker - The 12 cartoons that first ran in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten last September are not a barrel of laughs. The only one that seems to have raised a smile portrayed Mohammed at the gates of paradise, waving away some freshly charred suicide bombers, and saying, "Go away - we are running out of virgins." Threats to kidnap European diplomats and the armed takeover of the EU offices in Gaza are foolish and self-defeating. Those EU offices have disbursed over $3 billion to the Palestinians, and are one of the few life-support systems they have. If a poll were taken among Europeans today, there would probably be a considerable majority for leaving the empty offices to the gunmen and keeping the money for deserving causes in Europe. One alternative use for those EU funds would be an education campaign to explain carefully to newspapers in the Arab world why their vicious cartoon depictions of Jews, and their now hackneyed way of depicting Ariel Sharon as Adolf Hitler, is in appalling taste. The money might also be spent on holding public debates across Europe asking why sharia law demands the death penalty for any Muslim who abandons the faith, when Muslims are free to proselytize and win converts in Europe.
2006-02-10 00:00:00
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