Antipathetic

In spite of all the intolerance of those Danish cartoons, we should also remember the commotion over Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses in 1988. The book was banned in several countries, there were protests and book-burnings, and a 'hit' was even ordered on Rushdie by the leader of Iran. I remember thinking at the time that I wondered how many of the protesters had actually read the book before declaring it blasphemous. The intolerance even spread to the U.S. where protesters at UC Berkeley threw a pipe bomb at a bookstore that was selling the book. It is important to remember that even America is not immune from such behavior. Freedom of Speech is fine as long as you don't sell any books that a certain group doesn't agree with. However, rioting and burning things down seems to be acceptable.

First it's books, now it's cartoons that the intolerant use as an excuse to riot. Sometimes the best way to bring out someone's true colors is to dumb things down a bit.