Much Ado About... Cartoons?

Is it just me or are Muslims at times over sensitive? It seems that the Palestinian Street and the masses of the Arab world more broadly are always ready to explode. Strangely, rather than the War in Iraq, it was cartoons (depicting Mohammed) that led Muslims across the world (through predominantly in the East) to take to the street. Is all this furor over "lack of sensitivity" in a drawing really justified? How is it that a cartoon showing Mohammed with a missile in his turban is more offensive than Saddam Hussein building mosques with minarets that look like Scud missiles?

True. Islam prohibits all images of Mohammed. But in America you are not allowed to burn flag, yet it happens time and again in the Middle East. Americans do not take to the streets in response to flag burnings. We do not start riots, foment violence, or attack foreign embassies. So when Arab leaders claim we, Americans, need to more sensitive to local cultures, I say, should you not too.

In the West, we constantly push the envelope and subject different groups of people to mockery. Rolling Stone latest cover features Kanye West with a crown of thorns on his head and the title 'The Passion of Kanye West'. Yet Christian Conservatives are not up in arms. In fact, American Muslims while perhaps upset by the cartoons have not been enraged enough to protest. Why is that?

If the Arab Street wants respect then they should protest respectfully. Their current behavior does nothing to help their cause in the eyes of those in the West who would speak for them. Attempts by the Iranians to further trivialize the Holocaust with their own malicious version of a cartoon contest is nothing short of heinous and points to their hypocrisy.