The Anchoress

Not that it is particularly a bad thing, but as PJM notes the so-called Day of Rage during which the Islamic world was going to demonstrate against Pope Benedict has kind of fizzled out. Some Palestinians in Jerusalem set a few fires and declared the pope a Jew (I’m sure the pope did not mind - I wouldn’t).

And there was this Pakistani radical who said the pope should be crucified (he would not be the first Peter to endure it).

But over all, this brouhaha seems to be dying down more quickly than the Great Danish Cartoon Debacle from earlier this year. I wonder why that is.

Perhaps the expressed opinions of Muslims like, author Irshad Manji, who appeared on CBS’ Freespeech segment with a very moderate and sensible viewpoint, told the real story - that aside from the dependable, camera-ready actors of the “Muslim Street,” who seem to be walking gas leaks looking for an available flame - most Muslims were less offended than the headlines and the button-pushers would suggest?

Donald Sensing asks the necessary and sensible question, now: Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that the riots have died down in some Muslim lands as Pope Benedict’s Regensberg speech recedes from the headlines, it is time for serious-minded, responsible Americans and Muslims of Arab lands to take stock. Where do we go from here? We of the West no longer see such violence as an aberration that can be shrugged off by declarations by other Muslims that it really has nothing to do with Islam. Catholic nun Sister Leonella Sgorbati was shot four times in Mogadishu in a revenge attack for the Pope’s speech. Churches in the Middle East were attacked and some were set afire. A Somali Muslim cleric called on Muslims to kill the Pope.
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But now, in the aftermath of the Pope’s speech, things are mostly different. It seems to me that most voices addressing the issue defend both the Pope’s right to say what he said, even if inflammatory, and what he said as well, inflammatory or not.

You’ll want to read the whole thing. Sensing sees a cause for hope, but does clue in to one line uttered by Dr. Al-Dabagh, who spoke of Muslim unity with other religions, a line which disturbed me earlier this week: What is needed now is an international agreement to punish all who insult God’s religions.

Writes Sensing: May God forbid it! That way lies only new inquisitions. I quite concur.

As I wrote earlier, that’s a troubling line because it suggests that all religions need to take on a warrior mindset, that religions need to “band together” to punish unbelievers…I would say what we need now is an understanding by all of God’s religions that God is big enough to take an insult and can deal with insults quite justly without our bloody intercessions.

Meanwhile, some are wondering “what about the Jews?” today, which is pretty appropriate, since it is the eve of Rosh Hashanna. I like this piece by Shrinkwrapped quite a lot and think it is important reading: The Plight of the Canary (the Canary being the Jews, of course…the testing bird…)

Also, do read this piece by Patrick O’ Hannigan which wonders about faith and reason and expression in the public square. As usual Patrick casts out into the deep, and comes up with a full net of fish.

Related:
On Day of Rage, A right to be annoyed?
Re Jews: Popes Message and Dem Habits
American Thinker; An Ancient Muslim Rage is on Display Again