"Take Some Lessons From 9/11!!" Say Malaysian Mohammad Cartoon Protestors

Our "freedoms" are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Religious fanatics and their oversensitivity to anything that runs counter to their tiny, pious world view are making it harder and harder to hold on to what vestiges of freedom we have left. You can't do or say anything that won't, somehow, offend someone. And offending someone nowadays isn't merely a question of dealing with some verbal flak from the person you offended. No, it can get you killed or at least garner death threats. Take two recent situations:

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On the one hand, you have Indian Hindu extremists suing and threatening death to a Muslim artist who sometimes paints Hindu deities in the nude, and on the other hand you have Muslim extremists in Malaysia threatening another 9/11 (to Sweden I assume) for the Mohammad as a dog caricature that was recently republished in Swedish newspapers. Similar situations, in many ways, but very different: One man is being threatened because his artistic expression offends Hindu radicals, and the other man (the caricaturist Lars Vilks)and the whole of Sweden threatened because that one man wanted to exercise his right to free speech.

The Muslim demonstrators in Malaysia are demanding that Sweden do something about the newspapers and the artist Vilks, or else- and we all know what that means.

The protesters burned a Swedish flag outside the Swedish embassy, chanting "Long live Islam" and "Down with Sweden" and carrying posters that read "Take some lessons from 9/11!!!" and "We fight for our prophet."

They also burned a picture of Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who made the drawing of Muhammad's head on a dog's body in 2007 that was reprinted in papers recently.

"We demand that the Swedish government take strong action against the newspapers and against the artist," said Sabki Yusof, one of the protest leaders from the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party. "It's unacceptable what they did to our prophet."

Oh, and it's okay and civilized to threaten to kill someone over this? The more they try to kill free speech, the more artists will exercise their right to it. Some of these protesters simply prove the artist's point. Stop threatening people with death and perhaps the artists wouldn't feel the need to stand up for their rights.

Thankfully, Swedish Ambassador (Helena Sangeland) did not cave to their ludicrous demands.

Helena Sangeland called for more dialogue with Muslims for better mutual understanding but said no action would be taken against the papers. She said she was "very disappointed" that the Swedish flag was burned.

"The Swedish government will not comment nor take any action against media. Freedom of expression is enshrined in our constitution. It is not negotiable," she told The Associated Press. "I don't think Malaysia-Sweden bilateral relations will be affected in any way."

Vilks has said he made the caricature to show that artistic freedom allows mockery of all religions. Several newspapers reprinted the caricature earlier this month when an alleged plot to murder the cartoonist was disclosed.

People mock other religions all the time. The hypocrisy of it all, is that Muslims have no problem mocking other religions, but take major offense when their religion is mocked.

This is my solution- why don't we all stop offending each other's religions.

Right, like that would ever happen. In the meantime, be offended if you choose, but be civilized about it, please!