Lars Vilks and Obvious Problems

Swedish cartoon artist Lars Vilks, who became the target of an international murder plot for his 2007 cartoons depicting Muhammad as a dog, was assaulted by a Muslim yesterday during a talk about free speech at Sweden's Uppsala University.

While showing an Iranian film that depicts Muhammad entering a gay bar, a protester charged the dais and headbutted Vilks, breaking his glasses. Police were forced to detain or pepper-spray some "unruly" members of the crowd while the Muslim assailant's co-religionists mostly stood around cheering and shouting "Allahu Akbar!" You can see some video of the incident above.

So we get the idea. "Insulting" Muhammad and Islam is bad; freedom of speech itself - a cornerstone of any truly free, democratic society - is bad if it means hurting Muslims' oversensitive feelings. Meanwhile, those Muslims have no real problem at all with the kind of stuff that the aforementioned "Prophet" actually did according to his own most esteemed biographers - stuff like mass decapitation of innocents, torture and rape.

Recently I have been having some interesting discussions with a guy who says that he doesn't necessarily disagree with what I say about Islam; but he asked me why, despite my self-confessed atheism, I don't talk about other religions just as negatively. The reason, quite obviously, is that Islam is the only religion whose adherents keep doing things like this over and over again. As the linked article notes:

Last month, Comedy Central edited a "South Park" episode showing Mohammed in a bear suit in response to veiled threats by a New York-based Muslim group.

And:

Earlier this year, American authorities arrested two American women [converts to Islam], charging them with taking part in a plot to travel to Sweden and murder Vilks.

Furthermore, the article notes that "[b]efore the attack, Vilks also showed what some might deem offensive pictures of Christian symbols" - there are no reports, however, that any Christians attempted to attack Vilks or stop his presentation.

Islam and its supremacist, totalitarian law is an Obvious Problem for the world, especially when transported into the heart of the West, whose core values so definitively trump those of its ungrateful visitors. It is on this Obvious Problem that we must focus, while all unnecessary distractions must be cast aside.