Freedom of speech

I saw a sign, on a photography in the newspaper, from Jakarta, Indonesia, stating that "Enough is enough. Be careful with Muhammad saw and Islam". The sign is from a demonstration outside the Danish embassy in Jakarta.

I recently saw a letter to the editor of another newspaper, where a muslim, living in Norway, called for fifteen years in jail as punishment for offending islam and its prophet Muhammad.

The Danish cartoonists, who drew Muhammad caricatures, are living under death threats, just like the author of the Satanic verses, Salman Rushdie.

Does any of you remember when the singer Sinnead O'Connor insulted the Pope? She called him "the enemy". Catholics were outraged, and called her (O'Connor) names. Did she get any death threats? No.

And what about the Iranian newspaper, which published Holocaust caricatures? Did anyone burn down an Iranian embassy? Not that I know of. (By the way, anti-semitic caricatures are common in the media in many muslim countries.)

So why should muslims get a special treatment?

Some muslims accuse the western world of hypocrisy, stating that we can mock Muhammad and islam, but we've got laws against mocking Jesus and Christianity, and against denying the Holocaust.

That's actually a good point. That is hypocrisy. Just like Timothy Garton Ash, I call for the abolition of all blasphemy laws, and all laws against denying the Holocaust.

My demand to the western world is: stop being hypocritic!
My demand to the muslim world: behave!