I believe that the news media have been passing up an important opportunity to communicate openly and honestly with the Moslim community.
In all the controversy and discussion of the Moslims' response to the Danish Islamic Cartoons depicting Mohammed with a turban in the shape of a bomb (and 11 other cartoons of this nature), I have heard no discussion of what the cartoon itself means. I can understand why the Moslims got lost in the form of the message rather than its content - but I am deeply disappointed that the news media, whose task it is to analyze and explain the meaning of current events, has neglected the straightforward message of the cartoons.
The cartoons are not criticizing Islam or Mohammed - they are criticizing the teachers of Islam who portray Mohammed as a prophet who preaches that blowing up babies is the glorious task of his followers.
I imagine that when a cartoonist saw the families of the victims of the brutality of a suicide bomber watching, on TV, the family and friends and teachers of the suicide bomber celebrating the Islamic bomber's glorious accomplishment, that the cartoonist was inspired to create the cartoons.
The Moslems who are murdering people and burning buildings to protest what they consider to be disrepect toward their religion have several objections.
The angry Moslims feel that the cartoonists were not sensitive to message of their religion. But they have not even attempted to understand, much less appreciate, the message of the cartoons.
The angry Moslims believe that the cartoonists were simply trying to offend all Moslims. That is because they are ignoring the message of that the cartoonists felt an urgency to convey. They are ignoring this message with the aid of the news media who are bending over backwards to say nothing that might "inflame the situation" like conveying the meaning of the cartoons. When the media are faced with the confict of doing their job (conveying truth and meaning) or concilliation, they choose concilliation. That is why so many people (like me) are turning to blogs for real news and discussion of vital current issues.
The angry Moslims believe that the cartoonists are condemning all Moslims at once - grouping them together - yet they are unleashing their anger toward all Danes and even toward all non-Muslims. Is there any justification of the cartoonists' portrayal of all Moslims as complicate in the violence of Moslim terrorists? I think there is some justification for collective judgement, since there has been a collective silence by virtually all Moslim leaders and teachers regarding the horrible cruelty of their followers.
The angry Moslims believe that they should be free to express their disapproval by using violence. But they don't feel that non-Muslims should feel free to express their disapproval of Muslim teachers by using violence or even words.
The angry Moslims are offended by these cartoons but they are not offended (judging by their collective silence) by the blowing up of children, the cutting off of heads of hostages, the banning of the practice of other religions in their countries, the barbaric treatment of their women, and their use of their own children as human shields in battle. How many Moslims condemned the date chosen by Moslim countries to attack Israel in the Yom Kippur War? How much respect did that show another religion? How many Moslims object the violently racist anti-semitic cartoons that regularly are depicted in Islamic government controlled newspapers?
I believe that if the news media did their job and explained the message of the cartoons that many in the Moslim community would understand and would in turn help others in their community to more open to valid criticism of horrible actions taken in the name of their prophet.