Lebanon minister quits over riot

[lovuian]

Lebanon minister quits over riot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4684250.stm
Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh resigned after demonstrators set fire to Beirut's Danish embassy on Sunday.
On Saturday, mobs in Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in a row over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.

"A few minutes ago I put my resignation at the disposal of the cabinet. I didn't wait for an answer and left the meeting," Mr Sabeh said.

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All over cartoons!!!

[Erika]

1. Respectfully, they weren't cartoons

Not at all. This isn't what this is about.

[Karmakaze]

2. No, it is more than just cartoons...

The cartoons are just an easy to point at example of what many Muslims see as a global attempt to wipe out their religion, if not their lives. Much as "gay marriage" is a threat to fundamentalist Christians because it strikes at the very root of their beliefs, the Western world's treatment of Muslim beliefs as being inherently wrong is what has caused this backlash.

For example the hajib or burkha. We in the western world see it as nothing more than a means of suppressing women and treat it with disdain, yet many of us react strongly to the idea of a topless woman on a beach, we also refuse to recognise that they are much the same act - we have marked a line in the sand beyond which is exploitation of women and indecency. Our line is different, but theirs exists for the same reason.

Many in the west refuse to even believe that many Muslim women WANT to wear a burkha or hajib, much like most western women wouldnt dream of going topless on a beach.

Of course there are the extremes such as the Taliban, but they are the exception, and not very different from say the Amish.

In any case, this western disdain for Muslim culture and beliefs has gone on for centuries, and has often resulted in outright slaughter committed by one side or the other. When Bush said "crusade" it wasn't just a slip of the tongue, but in fact the best description for exactly what Bush and his cronies want to do, and are doing. We may refuse to believe it, but 100,000 Iraqi's would beg to differ - if they could talk from beyond the grave.

So when Muslims react to a cartoon of their most revered Religious figure (much like the fundy Christians reacted to some art depicting Jesus or Mary in extreme ways) - it is NOT just because of a cartoon, but because of what they see as the intensifying of a crusade against Muslims that has gone on for more than half a century.