When the Associate Press reported a few weeks ago about the outrage erupting in the Islamic world over the publication of a series of political cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammad in various satirical poses, most notably the one with his turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse, I was left dumbfounded.

Muslims across the Middle East took to the streets and began protesting against the cartoons in great numbers. Protesters became increasingly violent, throwing rocks through the windows of Danish embassies and governmental building in the Middle East and then burning them down.

Muslims leaders in countries like Iran and Syria started making public speeches demanding righteous Muslims bomb Denmark for publishing the cartoons and advocating the death of the artists.

Since that time, numerous other newspapers across the European Union have published these cartoons in support of Denmark, opening them up to the same criticisms and violent outbursts that were directed at Denmark by the Islamic world.

This has only fueled the flames of outrage throughout many Islamic countries. Demonstrations have become so violent that police and security forces have had to utilize deadly force to stop the crowds. Countries throughout the European Union have denounced the violence and some are trying to work with Islamic leaders to calm the fury these cartoons have generated.

Many fear retribution from the Islamic world if they publish the controversial cartoons. Even the illustrious Associated Press, from which many publications get pictures for national and international news stories, has taken it upon themselves to censor the inflammatory images.

Let me reiterate, because that last little tidbit needs to be said again. The Associated Press has refused to distribute the images of the cartoons to the numerous newspapers, magazines and other publications that use their wire service. They have, in effect, made an editorial decision for almost every newspaper and magazine in the country without their consent.

It is not the place for organizations like the Associated Press, Reuters or any other one for that matter to decide for the world what can and cannot be shown. While this has certainly made these cartoons more difficult to obtain and publish, it has not made them completely unavailable, as any Internet search will show.

But that is not the point.

Another disturbing thing that has happened in the wake of this controversy is the admission by President George W. Bush that the European newspapers were partly at fault for publishing the controversial cartoons. Bush denounced the violence, but claimed that while the media has the right to express itself freely, it must act responsibly in that expression. This stance was quickly endorsed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). After about a week, the Bush Administration apologized for sounding like they were siding with the protestors and not the Danes and took a more hard-line stance, claiming some Middle East nations, like Iran and Syria, are using the controversy to incite anti-American sentiments across the Islamic world.

I think President Bush missed a big opportunity here. He could have used this to unite the nation and the world against radical Islam. Never before in the U.S. led War on Terror have so many nations across Europe seen radical Islam for what it really is. Countries all over Europe are standing up for freedom of speech and the press, rights guaranteed to all Americans by the First Amendment, and what does Bush do? He slaps them right in the face. Ideals as central to the American way of life as freedom of speech and press are being assaulted, and we as a nation should be outraged.

Now I know it is against Islamic teachings to depict the prophet Mohammad in any way. From what I have read and learned, this practice was imposed mainly to deter idolatry. But even so, the reaction to these cartoons is completely ridiculous.

It is made even more ridiculous when one takes into account the cartoons were published in an Egypt almost four months ago without so much as a peep from any imam or sheik, according to the Web site littlegreenfootballs.com. If the name is not familiar, they were one of the four Web sites that discovered the memos Dan Rather referred to as credible sources alleging President Bush did not serve in the National Guard during Vietnam were actually fake.

Where was the outrage four months ago? Egypt is over 90 percent Muslim, but the rest of the world heard nothing about these cartoons until a Danish newspaper republished them.

And do not, for one second, think that westerners could not and would not feel any differently if the cartoons concerned something sacred to us. It happens every day. Irans President Mohammad Khatami announced a contest to see if westerners could do just that. He called for artists to create cartoons depicting scenes from the holocaust in a less than reverent way.
This is not the same thing. It is not even in the same ballpark. One was a violation of religious dogma and the other was the extermination of over 6,000,000 Jews. There is no comparison. President Khatami just wants to ruffle the wests feathers.

We, as Americans, should be outraged. How much sense does it make that Muslims across Europe and the Middle East are protesting depictions of Mohammad that show him with a bomb for a turban by burning down buildings and threatening to bomb the offending countries? These supposed holy men are advocating the deaths of those responsible for both the creation and the publication of the cartoons.

These are the people we are fighting in the War on Terror. It is these radical fundamentalists who take to the streets, burn down buildings and threaten the lives of others, all in the name of religion, who we must overcome.

This is not about cartoons. This is about freedom of speech. This is about the ideals upon which this country was founded. This is a war on an intellectual and idealistic scale. We must protect our freedoms, even at the cost of angering a few religious zealots who would rather encourage violence than peaceful negotiations.