The latest Islamic frenzy

Ok, I read this article today and it's just crazy. Apparently some Danish newspaper published some cartoon about the Prophet Mohammad and the Muslim community got very upset. It seems that "depicting the picture of the prophet is prohibited under Sharia law," which I can understand needs to be respected in Arab countries where Sharia law is the law of the land, but
this is a European newspaper.

The same cartoon was then reprinted or shown in France, Italy, Britain, and Germany, and the uproar ensued. In Tunisia and Morocco, France Soir, the French newspaper that published the cartoon was confiscated and a few editors have lost their jobs over this.

My problem? One of the firings happened in Jordan (fine it's their law over there, Muslim is the state religion) but the other one happened in Paris. Now, for what I recall, France isn't a Muslim country and doesn't follow Sharia law. It's a democracy with freedom of the press and free speech. How can they capitulate like this because someone protests in some other part of the world? If you feel that you offended somebody, you issue an apology, you don't fire your editor.

Understandably, the journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders "voiced 'incomprehension' at the decision by France Soir's owner to fire his editor."

And just consider what happened in Jordan:

The publication of the cartoons in Shihan, a weekly tabloid newspaper in Jordan, resulted in the firing of its editor. Shihan published the drawings with an editorial urging Muslims to "be reasonable." It is illegal in Jordan for a publication to defile religion and disturb civil order.

A spokesman for the paper said editor Jihad Momeni, a former member of the Jordanian Senate, had been fired.

In his editorial, Momeni asked, "Who offends Islam more? A foreigner who endeavors to draw the prophet as described by his followers in the world, or a Muslim with an explosive belt who commits suicide in a wedding party in Amman or elsewhere?"

So, he knew he was going to run into trouble, but tried to explain his reasoning (which to me makes perfect sense,) alas to no avail. But after all, the law in Jordan is clear. So, it would seem, is in the US, where freedom of the press is enshrined in an old document you might have heard of. It's called the Constitution. So what has CNN (the most trusted name in news) decided to do?

CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.

Again, why? If Muslims can't understand what a cartoon really is, maybe they are all fanatics. C'mon, it's a cartoon.

This is nuts. How did we come to this?

Like I said before, haven't the terrorists already won?