Cartoon Madness Continues

You've got some Afghan demonstrators claiming that they'll go join al Qaeda while protesting the cartoons.

"Therefore our movement is against Bush as well as against Mush," he told a news briefing, referring to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in Bush's war on terrorism.

MMA Secretary General Fazul-ur-Rehman said the alliance planned a countrywide protest on Friday, another in Lahore on Sunday, and a nationwide general strike on March 3.

He said other protests would take place in Karachi, the country's commercial capital, on March 5, and in Quetta, capital of the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan, on March 7.

The planned protests could coincide with a visit to Pakistan by Bush, expected in early March, although no dates for this visit have yet been announced.

Cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper and reprinted in other European papers have sparked worldwide protests by Muslims who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

Some have turned violent, raising fears of a clash of civilisations between the West and Islam.

Curious that the article omits the fact that there have been quite a few deaths associated with the riots, not to mention the fact that several embassies and consulates have been firebombed or attacked by rioters.

You've got Pakistanis slamming both President Bush and Pakistani President Musharraf despite the fact that neither had anything to do with the cartoons.

The running theme is that the cartoons are being used for varying political and social agendas in the various countries where the rioting or demonstrations are occurring.

Meanwhile, Ed Morrisey notes that the media shouldn't lecture the White House about ethics and morality when they're unable to honestly report on the worldwide Islamic terrorist campaign that uses the cartoons as a convenient pretext.

UPDATE:
AJ Strata considers it madness that a cartoon showing major religious deities (Jesus, Moses, Buddha) complaining about violence was censored in Russia and the Russians shut down the newspaper that first published the cartoon. It's nuts.

Yet, this is exactly what is going to continue happening because media outlets refuse to take a stand for free speech and yield the floor to the militant Islamists who have exploited this issue to their benefit.

UPDATE:
Powerline has a photo of the ongoing Indonesia riots and you've got to wonder whether that guy in the foreground was wondering whether he needed to do a better job posing for the camera. John also notes that the riots in Indoesia have nothing to do with the cartoons and everything to do with militant Islamists who do not respect anyone or any ideas that do not conform to their vision of Islam. The current targets of the rioting in Indonesia are are US businesses and the US Embassy in Jakarta.

Technorati: Buy Danish "jyllands-posten mohammed" "muhammad cartoon" embassy torchings "muhammad image archive"