It was extraordinary to see Jack Straw, having been invisible for months because he was out of his depth over Iraq, chastising newspapers for being insensitive to Muslims. Cartoons don't kill, bombs do. The anger now being channelled in protest over the infamous cartoons is political, not religious. It is another example of how the Bush/Blair crusade to impose their vision of civilisation down the barrel of a gun actually undermines the values they claim to be protecting.
I opposed the first invasion of Iraq, I opposed the second invasion of Iraq and I opposed the daily bombing of Iraq in the interum. Blair, Bush and their cronies have killed hundreds of thousands and lied to us about the reasons. They are now preparing the ground, using similar lies, to interfere in the running of another Muslim country. Incredibly, commentators and media lackeys accept that there is a problem with Iran even though they continue to point out - after the event - that the same excuses over Iraq were never valid. I have opposed the double standards applied over UN resolutions; in Muslim countries they must be obeyed but in Israel they are just a reccomendation. I could go on. There are many opponents, like me, of imperialism, whether it be in Ireland, Iraq or Nicarragua. We also oppose the attempt by some media to associate muslims and other immigrants with crime and even terrorism. But now, in a perverse symetry, we are tarred with the bullying brush of intollerance.
Because of the criminal actions of Bush and Blair our freedom of expression has been curtailed. The freedom to criticise, lampoon and ridicule the articles of faith of others is a right that has been nurtured, prized and fought for throughout history from Roman plebian satirists, radical pampheteers of the seventeenth century, Samizdat opposition to stalinist police states to the present day. This isn't a culteral artifact, it is a hard-won freedom, like the right to sexual equality, trade union membership, social welfare and universal education.
No group is a special case. As an atheist I regard all religion as an afront to human intelligence and dignity and I will say so, insult or no. I am insulted when I hear people offer thanks to a god for accidents or the actions of humans; we disagree and we will argue and sometimes we will offend. And then there is war. Dressed as religious hegemony, whether it has been the catholics and the protestants or the Muslims and the Hindus or, now, the protestants and the Muslims the real cause is economic and the real goal is political. It was interesting to note that the initial response of Hamas, the victors, was to declare protection for westerners whilst Fata, the losers and erstwhile secularists, tried to out-Muslim Hamas by sending gunmen to round up Danes. Realising they might have been outflanked, Hamas then resorted to making threats against westerners. Politics.
I have more in common with IRA volunteers defending Irish nationalists from Loyalist pogroms or with Palestinian suicide bombers reacting to the ethnic cleansing of the Zionist state than I do with the right-wing, anti-working class liars who predominate in the british media. But I will always be on the side of the elevation of human intellect over the backward superstition of religious dogma. Thanks to Blair and Bush it is now a dangerous position to take.