Not after the State Department let this statement go out.

Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion.

“By inserting itself into a dispute that has become a lightning rod for anti-European sentiment across the Muslim world, the United States could help its own battered image among Muslims.

"These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

"We call for tolerance and respect for all communities for their religious beliefs and practices," he added.

Major U.S. publications have not republished the cartoons, which include depictions of Mohammad as a terrorist. That is in contrast to European media, which responded to the criticism against the original Danish newspaper that printed the caricatures by republishing the offensive images themselves.

Gee, the anti-Semitism and terrorism engaged in and supported by a huge part of the Muslim religion is a hell of a lot more offensive than a couple of cartoons. The out-of-proportion reaction of the Islamic world to the cartoons is significantly more troubling than a few cartoons that indicate that not everyone accepts or respects Islam – especially when that religion is the source of terror, violence, and oppression throughout the world. And that the American government – a government which subsidizes, not merely defends, speech and art which is blasphemous in the eyes of Christians and Jews – would dare to insist upon “responsibility� and “tolerance� is offensive in the extreme.

Maybe we Christians and Jews simply need to bomb, riot, take hostages, and behead innocents to get the same sort of tolerance and respect that the Bush Administration has called for in this infamous act of dhimmitude.

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