Protests now under fire

Goverments, all of them, are calling for end to protests and these calls are falling on deaf ears.

Yesterday saw strikes in scattered parts of the country--no huge rallies in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, but Peshawar, Quetta, and other major cities in Sindh, NWFP and Punjab are still seeing demonstrations against the cartoons. No reports of voilence thank God.

Calls for nationwide strike. We want to loose business, drive away the FDI t-r-i-c-k-l-i-n-g into the country and scare away poor relief workers. Bravo!

What role have the Muslim leaders (not politicians, not the socalled-jihadis) played to pipe down the negative propaganda forcing people to spread hate? David Yonke in an Ohio newspaper, "There has to be aggressive, assertive Muslim leadership that stands up and says, 'No, that's it,' " said Imam Hendi, the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University and a spokesman for the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of North America.

If 'freedom of expression' is coming under fire in the West, media coverage of the protests is also coming under fire in the Islamic World. Writes Ramzay Baroud: "What the cartoons truly exposed – among many other realizations - is the frightening extent of vulnerability among Arab and Muslim nations and the lack of any meaningful and effective Muslim and Arab media strategy that forcefully attempts to alter the misconstrued Western discourse that endlessly denigrates their culture, disparages their religion and positively questions their humanity."

I'm looking out for a thought-provoking article on the Rational Clerics role during these protests. Please email us if you find one.