Tell it, Secretary Rice.

By Robert Birsel

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran and Syria, both at loggerheads with the West, of inciting violence over the cartoons for their own purposes...

M-hm. Mahmout.

Republicus doesn't trust him one damn bit.

ISLAMIC GROUP CALLS FOR END TO RIOTS

By AMIR SHAH
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan: Police shot four protesters to death Wednesday to stop hundreds from marching on a southern U.S. military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop," said senior cleric Mohammed Usman, a member of the Ulama Council, Afghanistan's top Islamic organization. "We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

Other members of the council went on radio and television Wednesday to appeal for calm. It followed a statement released Tuesday by the United Nations, European Union and the world's largest Islamic group urging an end to violence.

"Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam," said the statement released by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

Note By Republicus: That's good news. The key to the strategy to win the war on terror is the hope that, with systemic reformation--enabled by Western military intervention-- giving "Power to the People" (e.g. encouraging, enabling, and supporting democratic governments), change will occur from the grass-roots level, from the bottom up.

Unfortunately, that backfired, as we could see from the election results both in Iran, Palestine, and Iraq (the potential for problems in the latter will--hopefully--be tempered by what is the most progressive constitution in the Middle East).

But what we're seeing is change occuring from within the upper echelons of Islamic leadership, influence from the top down...

BUSH REBUKES MUSLIM VIOLENCE, CHIDES PRESS

By TERENCE HUNT

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush condemned the deadly rioting sparked by cartoons of the prophet Muhammad on Wednesday, and his secretary of state accused Iran and Syria of trying "to inflame sentiments" across the Muslim world.

Bush urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence and to protect diplomats in besieged embassies.

The president spoke out about the controversy for the first time, signaling deepening White House concern about violent protests stemming from the publication of caricatures in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten and reprinted in European media and elsewhere in the past week.

"We reject violence as a way to express discontent with what may be printed in a free press," the president said.

At the same time, Bush admonished the press that its freedom comes with "the responsibility to be thoughtful about others."

Bush commented alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House. Abdullah, too, called for protests to be peaceful, but he also spoke against ridicule of Islam's holiest figure.

"With all respect to press freedoms, obviously anything that vilifies the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, or attacks Muslim sensibilities, I believe, needs to be condemned," the king said.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, police killed four people as protesters marched on a U.S. military base.

There was increasing talk, both in the U.S. and abroad, that some foreign governments as well as extremist groups were fanning the violent protests.
At the State Department, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes. And the world ought to call them on it."

There is little doubt that there is genuine anger throughout the Muslim world, where images of the revered Prophet Muhammad with a bomb strapped to his head are considered racist and deeply insulting.

In the post-Sept. 11 world, Muslims already feel the brunt of the war on terror and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, said Diaa Rashwan, with the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt.

"That only further fueled the anger this time around," he said, the cartoons releasing bottled-up anger and frustration.

In Afghanistan, U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said, "Other countries are having the same demonstrations, same problems," when he was asked if al-Qaida and the Taliban may have been involved.

And Zahor Afghan, editor of Erada, Afghanistan's most respected newspaper, said that "there are definitely people using this to incite violence against the presence of foreigners in Afghanistan."

On Tuesday, Bush had called Denmark's prime minister to express "our support and solidarity" in the wake of the violence.

In the midst of a campaign to blunt widespread anti-American sentiment across the Mideast, Bush sought to balance his remarks by urging the media to be sensitive to religious beliefs.

"We believe in a free press," the president said. "We also recognize that with freedom comes responsibilities. With freedom comes the responsibility to be thoughtful about others."

Sitting alongside him, Jordan's Abdullah said, "Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a religion of peace, tolerance, moderation."

Bush said the furious reaction to the publication of the cartoons "requires a lot of discussion and a lot of sensitive thought."

"I first want to make it very clear to people around the world that ours is a nation that believes in tolerance and understanding," the president said. "In America we welcome people of all faiths.

"One of the great attributes of our country is that you're free to worship however you choose in the United States of America," the president said.

Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Associated Press writers Anne Gearan in Washington and Lara Sukhtian in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Looks like the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan:

News of the World
February 7, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan (Associated Press)— NATO peacekeepers exchanged gunfire with protesters who attacked their base Tuesday in another day of deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, officials said. Three demonstrators were killed.

MOSCOW, Russia (UPI) -- A Moscow museum has announced it will exhibit the entire series of cartoons of Mohammed that have caused riots throughout the Islamic world.

Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum and Public Center, said on Russian television that the center was ready to organize a public exhibition of the cartoons satirizing the founder of Islam that originally were published in a Danish newspaper, Pravda.ru reported Monday.

"We must show the whole world that Russia goes along with Europe, that the freedom of expression is much more important for us than the dogmas of religious fanatics," Samodurov said.

The exhibition reportedly will open in March. Lawyer Yury Shmidt has said he will invite French philosopher Andre Glucksmann and French novelist Michel Houellebecq to the opening ceremony to read lectures about the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Iran's best-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

Agence France (Presse)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accepted an invitation to visit Cuba from President Fidel Castro, in gratitude for Cuba's support of Iran's nuclear program, the official Granma newspaper said on Tuesday.

ISRAEL(Jerusalem Post)-- Israel's Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon said on Tuesday morning that Iran is the biggest problem facing the world since World War II.

He said the UN Security Council must force Iran to accept real supervision that would prevent the further development of its nuclear program.

If they continue with their plans, Ayalon warned, Iran may have the know-how needed for the production of nuclear weapons by the end of the year.

The Good News (Republicus)- Europe is quickly figuring out that George W. Bush was right.

The Evil Cartoons

Well-- aside from the Philadelphia Inquirer-- it appears there was some sort of media blackout on publicizing what all the fuss is about.

Because the "liberal" American Fourth Estate--so "courageous" in its criticisms of homegrown administrations in power (especially Republican ones) and always pouring gasoline on the fire of the American Culture War (if it would burn a few Christians)--is terrorized...

...AND EVEN ACTING AS APOLOGISTS FOR THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS WE ARE AT WAR WITH.

(Well, I guess it is easier to attack a government that champions freedom and a religion that promotes Peace and Love)

Even toughguy President Bush chided the "insensitivity" of the cartoonists (who now have fatwahs on their heads).

Okay, Republicus understands that the President has to do his "Uniter Not Divider" and "Compassionate Conservative" and "We Are Not At War Against Islam" shtick between military operations against the very same type of hypersensitive, fanatical, psychopathic Islamicists who are now holding up signs saying "Damn Democracy!" and "Bush Bites!" (or somesuch), but come on, Dubya, at least throw in a plug for FREE SPEECH and express a little disapproval for the OVER-THE-TOP SPECTACLE OF WHAT LOOKS TO REPUBLICUS LIKE A TROOP OF SCREECHING MONKEYS INFECTED WITH MAD-COW DISEASE AND PLAYING WITH MATCHES.

Is Republicus being "insensitive?"

Were the cartoons showing the Islamic crescent submerged in a tub of urine, a la the NEA funded American Piss Christ exhibit (which caused those radical red-state "Christo-fascists" to riot and torch the NEA building---no, wait, they didn't do that)?

Were the cartoons portraying a sexually-active Mohammad a la the American films The Last Temptation of Christ and the upcoming The Da Vinci Code, which did and will do so for Jesus Christ (even though Mohammad was historically married with children, and Jesus Christ by tradition was not)?

No.

From what Republicus could glean, the cartoons essentially implied--rather strongly--that Mohammad/Islam inspired violence.

Apparently, the Islamists who are violently rioting beg to differ.

STEELERS WIN SUPER BOWL XL 21-10

Congratulations to the new throne-warmers for the Redskins! :)

And just in time: It's a good omen for Lynn Swann's drive to be the next Republican senator from Pennsylvania this very year! ;)