shut up

why should the rest of the world be any different?

Hezbollah Leader to Bush: 'Shut Up'

i'm slowly starting to get freaked out by this whole cartoon thing. i can completely sympathize with the idea that after four and a half years, muslims may be getting tired of being the world's scapegoats. i sort of look at these protests as the watts riots on a global scale. but as a more-than-passing fan of free speech, i just can't bring myself to view an offensive cartoon image of muhammad as just cause for so much violence.

i feel like most americans want to understand and like muslims. we don't like to think of ourselves as being as xenophobic as the rest of the world thinks we are (well, most of us don't). but i think, as with most "foreign" cultures, our liking of them is tied to our ability to see their similarities to us. and when we don't see those similarities - or, more so, when we see the extreme differences - it can be hard for us to get past that. i fear the current situation is just exacerbating that problem.