Passion & Rioting-A Muslim Consistency

No one can truthfully claim that Muslims lack passion. Take for instance the ten thousand Sudanese that massed and wanted to kill a teacher because one of her students, named Mohammed, names his teddy bear Mohammed. Undoubtedly that incident taught a naïve, do-gooder English teacher some facts of life. In fact, passion seems to be one of the Muslim predominant characteristics, along with being thin skinned.

They riot at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t seem to be too hard to get a Muslim riled up: you could publish a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed; you could start a false rumor that Americans desecrated the Koran by putting it in a toilet; you could have a ferry sink and drown a bunch of people coming back from the Hajj; you could have a car accident in which Muslims were killed; you could have the police chase some criminals, who then hide in an electrical enclosure and get electrocuted; or you could have a political person assassinated.

Some 38 people have died in violence that has broken out since Ms Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said rioting across the country had destroyed 176 banks, 72 train cars and 18 railway stations, while at least 100 prisoners had been sprung from jails.

Ah yes, passion. It’s a wonderful thing. Perhaps we Americans could use a little more of it. Not that some of us don’t. For instance, how about those who riot when a major league athletic team loses a championship game? Or, wins one? Or, because police officers are acquitted of beating a black man? “Can’t we just all get along?”

Links in this Blog:
Thin Skinned and Dangerous

Musharraf cracks down on rioters