Cartoon Rioting Taking More Lives and Becoming a World Wide Fad

It's hard to believe, but the cartoon kerfuffle is still accelerating as rioting spreads to more countries and takes more lives. There is no way this would still be continuing with local Islamic leaders instigating these riots and encouraging violence. The latest was in Nigeria:

Rioting over the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad claimed another 16 lives last night in Nigeria as churches were burned by protesting Muslims.

[...]

The Nigerian riots were the first protests in Africa's most populous country, which is divided equally between Christians and Muslims. The worst of the trouble, involving 15 deaths, was in the north eastern state of Borno - a predominantly Muslim state with a sizeable Christian population, which has recently seen an increase in militancy. Troops were deployed in the state capital to restore order.

Britain has a building problem on its hands as some startling poll results were released:

In Britain, a poll of Muslims last night found evidence of growing alienation, with four in 10 calling for religious sharia law to be imposed in parts of the UK with a mainly Muslim population. The law specifies stonings and amputations as punishments, and involves religious police bringing suspects before courts.

One in five also expressed some sympathy with the 'feelings and motives' of the July 7 bombers. However the survey for the Sunday Telegraph found 91 per cent still felt loyal to Britain and only one per cent actually backed the London bomb attacks.

[...]

In London another protest against the publication of cartoons brought more than 10,000 Muslims on to the streets yesterday.

The rally and march, organised by the Muslim Action Committee, saw scores of imams, who usually avoid such demonstrations, on the streets of the capital. The cartoons were originally published in Denmark in September, but only triggered worldwide protests when they were re-published around Europe earlier this month.

In Libya, anti-Italian rioting took place resulting in the burning of the Italian consulate. Why are they against the Italians? The Italian reforms minister printed one of the cartoons on a T-shirt. He has now been run out of office.

The Italian reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli, resigned yesterday after being blamed for sparking clashes in Libya - which killed 11 - by wearing a T-shirt on TV bearing the most controversial cartoon. In Tripoli, the General People's Congress fired the interior minister, Nasser al-Mabrouk Adballah, and local police chiefs, saying disproportionate force had been used against protesters.

And finally, in what will surely lead to further protests, one of the cartoonists at the heart of the problem was interviewed and stated he has no regrets:

The cartoonist at the heart of the row, who has gone into hiding after a bounty was put on his head and conducted his interview with the Glasgow Herald newspaper via written questions, said he had not expected such controversy but did not regret the drawings - the most controversial of which depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban - or their publication.

He defended it as 'a protest against the fact that we perhaps are going to have double standards [in Denmark and Western Europe] for freedom of expression and freedom of the press'. The inspiration for it was, he said, 'terrorism - which gets its spiritual ammunition from Islam.'

Here we go again...

UPDATE: Instapundit, the 800 pound gorilla in the blogging world, has decided to publish two of the cartoons (including my personal favorite).

And Scrappleface informs us that there is now a 6th pillar of Islam.

And it's not just the 12 Mohammed cartoons that are causing trouble. A German cartoon has the Iranians all a'twitter:

A German newspaper yesterday published a cartoon depicting the Iranian football team dressed as suicide bombers, opening up a new front in the row over caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

Iran immediately demanded an apology from Der Tagesspiegel, which showed four Iranian players at this summer's World Cup in Germany with explosives attached to their chests. A caption read: "Why the German army should definitely be used during the football World Cup." The general secretary of Iran's sports press association yesterday described the latest caricature as a "black joke". The Iranian embassy in Berlin called for an apology, saying the cartoon was "an immoral act".

Will the Iranians cut economic ties with Germany as they did with Denmark? I'll bet Germany is a much bigger trading partner, and one they probably can't afford to lose. We'll see.