Fundamentalist Muslims demand cultural sensitivity

Where does one begin to strike a middle ground with people who not only believe that it is their right to set standards of dress, behavior and diet for anyone living in or even visiting their country, but also feel free to riot and set fire to an embassy because of something that was published in a newspaper 2,000 miles away?
The short answer: There is no middle ground.
How do you reason with an Islamist who shows no respect for infidels who follow other religions, but demands that the rest of the world respect absolutely his beliefs? You can't.
And that might be the most frightening thing about the anti-cartoon riots that have broken out in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Afghanistan.
Growing controversy
The cartoons that ignited the violence were published in September in a Danish newspaper after an editor was struck by the fact that he couldn't find an illustrator to draw the prophet Muhammad for a children's book. Depictions of Muhammad are considered blasphemous by Muslims and the artists literally feared for their lives. In response, the editor held a contest seeking political cartoons that depicted Muhammad and received a dozen examples from cartoonists who dared. He ran them.
The cartoons are marked by their mediocrity and really aren't worth printing on their merits. But as Islamic states pushed the issue and mounted an economic boycott against Danish products, the cartoons took on a new importance, and some other European publications ran them as statements of solidarity with the Danes.
The anti-Danish effort gained momentum after the cartoons were distributed at a meeting of Muslim world leaders in Mecca in December. Here is another one of those fascinating contradictions the cartoons have inspired. Mecca is a city that is closed in its entirety to anyone who is not a Muslim. And it was in that city that Muslim leaders chose to be incensed by the insensitivity of a Danish editor. Saudi Arabia, an entire country in which there is not a single church or synagogue and a country in which conversion from Islam to another religion is punishable by death, demands that the Danish government rein in disrespectful cartoonists.
Power play
This is no longer about cartoons. It is about power -- how a government like Saudi Arabia is willing to use its economic power against Denmark in a way that will appeal to Islamic fundamentalists and about how governments in Syria and Iran are willing to use the issue to inflame the largely powerless street rabble.
It is about how Islamic fundamentalists in Europe will demand respect under the banner of multiculturalism, while what they expect is for the majority culture to be subservient to them.
It is a clash between two societies, one that is built on a foundation of free and open debate and is trying to preserve that tradition and one that believes that its religion trumps all others.
And that raises a note of caution for everyone, everywhere. There is a clear danger when true believers -- regardless of their religion -- begin to set government policy based on religious tenets. When that happens, there are political opportunists who will use religion to gain or solidify power.
Anyone offended by a depiction of Muhammad should certainly not look at one. Of course that same rule of thumb is increasingly being lost on people throughout the world. Even here in America, there are people who think their standards should prevail in books, magazines, movies and TV shows. American censors do not take to the streets, but they have pursued economic threats and boycotts with the same enthusiasm as the Saudis against the Danes -- and sometimes with quicker results.
We often hear these days that everybody wants freedom. For themselves, perhaps, but not necessarily for the next person.