The Cartoon Center of Of A Serious Storm ... The cartoon controversy continues to rage. The BBC has broadcast images of the cartoons, and the Even a newspapers in Iceland and Hungary have now reprinted the cartoons. Down in New Zealand, the DominionPost is planning to run the cartoons.

The NYSun reportedly published two of them, and the LA Times is supposed to publish them this weekend -- but where's the New York Times? Where's the Houston Chronicle, the Austin Statesman, and the Dallas Morning News?

The Muslim world continues to whip itself into a frenzy. There are now riots in Pakistan, and more death threats -- to a variety of media. Per MichelleMalkin, the blogger at Secular Blasphemy has received a death threat. If you click to the blog, and take a look at the threat, you'll see that "muhammed" includes Clinton in his general death threats to the western world, even though Clinton's supported the suppression of the cartoons.

Apologies don't seem to make a difference to the offended, rampaging Islamists.

Even though Norway was the first to roll over to Islamist demands, and although the Norwegian Magazinet offered a completely abject apology -- gunmen in Gaza threatened Norweigan citizens anyway.

From the SeattleTimes:

"The reaction in Muslim countries shocks me because it confirms the weight that radical Islam has acquired," said Patrick Chappatte, a cartoonist quoted in Le Temps newspaper in Switzerland. "A real totalitarianism is at work in the world and [it] wants to impose its views not only on Arab Muslims, but on the West."

But Muslim leaders accused European media of provoking strife by humiliating Islam.

"Freedom of expression cannot be the freedom to lie," said Dalil Boubakeur, the imam of the Mosque of Paris and president of the French Muslim Council. "The prophet did not found a terrorist religion, but on the contrary a religion of peace."

Last night, Brit Hume made an excellent observation. He wondered why, with all the poverty, misery and suffering in Gaza, did they decided to protest about cartoons published thousands of miles away?

Great question -- you do not see them howling about clean water, or better education. If you give the Palestinians a choice between clean water, decent housing, jobs, education, or dead Jews, looks to me like they'd choose the dead Jews every day of the week. That's exactly what they have been choosing, come to think of it.

Anyway, the Danish cartoon controversy gives crappy Middle Eastern governments yet another way of diverting Muslims away from things like clean water, better jobs and education -- and the fact that their leaders steal money from them.

The issue is not about Islam, or about freedom of religion. It's about freedom of speech.

I agree with Dr. Sanity:

There can be no backing down now; because to compromise on this would be disaster--in every way the beginning of the end of our own values, freedoms, and culture. Besides, it is compromise that has brought us to this unbelievable situation in the first place.

The very first time we allowed the adherents of a medieval and primitive religion to believe that their feelings about that religion trump all the values of western civiliztion; the minute we began to apologize for our successes and make excuses--or even blame ourselves--for their failures; we were bound to come to this place (via MichelleMalkin)
There are alot of forces that brought us to this point, but just now, I've got a creeping feeling that we're running out of time to play the blame game ( although, if we do manage to do the right things now, our grandkids will have the luxury to figure it out. )

I do agree we cannot compromise on this. We dare not.

Here are a couple of other things that have been nibbling at the back of my mind:

There's a radical group of Islamists from Denmark who have been touring the Middle East with three sketches showing things like Mohammed with a pig snout, and the Prophet being raped at prayer by a dog. These guys have been claiming that those were among the sketches published by the JyllandsPosten (they weren't), and that the phony cartoons prove the attitude of Europeans towards Islam. The Danish group has both muddied the waters, and given Muslims even more righteous anger to throw on the anti-Western frenzy.

According to GatewayPundit: One of the leaders of the Danish Islamist group, Imam Ahmad Abu Ladan, is involved in an international group of Muslims who are known for supporting the anti-Western Islamist struggle of the school of global Jihad. And, while you're admiring the sheen of my tinfoil hat, click to Gateway Pundit, for documentation.

And, then, this morning, in a discussion of the cartoons over at RedState, ProudKaffir asked Why now? Why is the cartoon controversy happening now, instead of last fall -- next summer -- or never ..... ?

Since I've donned the tinfoil hat, let's put some things together. Osama and Zawahiri both surfaced last week. Iran's been defiant about any against any action which might slow down its nuclear program. And, now, Islamists are whipping Muslims into an anti-Western frenzy, and they're not accepting surrender.

Looks to me like the Islamofascists are getting their corner of the world ready to accept war.

(above graphic from HumanEventsOnline, via MichelleMalkin)

UPDATE 1:16 pm: I'd like to direct you to BlackIris, out of Jordan, for one of the most sane views of the Danish Cartoon controversy I've seen out of either the Muslim or the Christian ... or athiest world, for that matter.

2ND UPDATE: Check out Michelle Malkin's Mohammed Cartoons Blogburst!  ¶ 4:19 AM