Enough Already - We Heard You The First Time!

Lebanese protesters burn another embassy in their "outrage" over the publication of these cartoons.

When I heard this story on the news this morning (and its been bubbling around all week), I wanted to scream "Enough Already!". Good grief - a few irreverent cartoons get published in a country well outside of the Middle East, and we get riots in the streets in Beirut? Give me a break! (and just to underscore the point that this is an overreaction, here's an archive full of images of Mohammed - many of them done by Islamic artists)

Then I started to think about this a little bit. Riots over a cartoon? Isn't that just a slightly overwrought reaction - even using the most extreme literalist interpretation of the Q'ran. Rationally speaking - if I'm not a practitioner of that faith, why would I feel bound by any interpretation of the Q'ran at all?

Then I started to think about the overall picture in the Middle East today, and I came up to a much creepier picture.

Consider the following circumstances:

al Qaeda taunting Bush,
Bush rattling sabres (and other bits) at Iran over an alleged nuclear weapons program,
Hamas elected in Israel - an event which no doubt destabilizes Israel considerably.

On top of that, there are signs that Afghanistan is degenerating into its former state of warlord-controlled mayhem; there are few signs that Iraq is going to settle down anytime soon.

Ever since George W. Bush received the keys to the White House, there has been considerable discussion of his administrations interest/belief in Eschatology. Certainly, Eschatologists seem to back Bush. American Evangelical followers rely heavily on their interpretation of The Book of Revelation to guide them. One interpretation of The Book of Revelation is that a major open war in the Middle East (focused around Israel) would fulfil one of the major end-times prophecies.

So...consider the mess in the Middle East - a mess that has become more and more pronouncedly nasty ever since Bush came to power. (and you would be hard pressed to convince me that Bush has even tried to ameliorate the situation). Now, along comes two events in recent weeks - the first being the election of Hamas by the Palestinians, the second being the publication of a few irreverent cartoons in a country thousands of miles away from the Middle East. The overreaction is beginning to smell of political manipulation, with hoodlums being given "free license" to make a fuss and stir things up.

It seems to me quite possible that the pot is being stirred by people who seek open war in the Middle East - on a scale that the world hasn't seen in over 60 years.