Now, the Violence Starts...

Predictably, the Muslim tantrum over cartoons published months ago in a small Danish newspaper has now claimed lives.

Four people have died in violent protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad, following more than a week of demonstrations.

Three people died after police in Afghanistan fired on protesters when a police station came under attack, a government spokesman said.

In Somalia, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead and several others were injured after protesters attacked the police.

Further protests have been taking place from Gaza to India, Indonesia and Iran.

They follow attacks on Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon over the weekend. The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper.

Monday's deaths were thought to be the first, but officials in Lebanon have now confirmed that a demonstrator died on Sunday after jumping from the third floor of the Danish embassy in Beirut to escape a fire.

Fortunately, thus far, the only people who have been killed in this perfect example of the moral lunacy and personal irresponsibility spawned by Islam have been the protestors themselves, consumed by their own fanaticism. But you may be sure that they won’t be the last. Whipped into ever-greater frenzy by their leaders, the radicalized Muslims in London and elsewhere are carrying placards at their protests calling for violence against those who printed the cartoons – or those who simply disagree with them. This, too, is well in keeping with Islamic cultural tendencies.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Muslim cleric, has said the cartoonist behind caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have sparked outrage across the Arab world should be tried and executed under Islamic law.

The cleric said the cartoonist had insulted Islam and must pay the price, as a person was killed during protests against the cartoons in Afghanistan.

"The insult has been established now by everybody, Muslim and non-Muslim, and everybody condemns the cartoonist and condemns the cartoon," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"However, in Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed.

There is nothing surprising in Mr. Mohammed’s statements; they are fully consistent with the teachings of Muslim clerics around the world and not only the "radical" ones. One of the reasons that the Islamic world remains so culturally and intellectually retarded compared to the West or Asia, is its complete intolerance for dissent. What is surprising is that Mr. Mohammed should be allowed to remain in Britain. Just a couple of generations ago, he’d have been booted from the British Isle after his call for violence. It is a sure measure of how badly multiculturalism has weakened the West’s internal defenses that Mr. Mohammed and his peers are allowed to remain and foment violence within the West.

But the cartoon row is serving a useful purpose by exposing to the truth about Muslim values and behavior both to the European public and government officials, the latter class having been previously unwilling to acknowledge the inherent violence and intolerance of Muslim culture. The clarity should be welcome. The cartoon protests, threats and violence will only serve to confirm the growing suspicion among Europeans that Muslims are unwilling and unable to assimilate into Western societies, and that further Muslim immigration is a real threat to their countries. European intellectuals will stubbornly resist acknowledging the brute reality longest, since they are they are most infected by the multicultural poison, but European politicians are still beholden to public opinion, and as it shifts, so must they. With riots in the streets and embassies aflame, the luxury of holding their heads, ostrich-like, in the sands has passed. Today, Britain, which last week was shamefully upbraiding the Danes for publishing the cartoons, has been forced to turn its criticism against the rampaging Muslims.

Downing Street has condemned the behaviour of some Muslims protesting at caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed over the weekend as "completely unacceptable".

No 10 said the police would have the Government's full support in any actions they wished to take as a result of the demonstrations outside the Danish Embassy in London.

It followed calls from Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, for police to "bear down heavily" on any protestors who broke the law during the demonstrations.

Mr Hain said the actions of some Muslims demonstrating against the cartoons in London had been "completely unacceptable and intolerable".

Some protestors carried placards threatening a repeat of the September 11 and July 7 atrocities following the publication of the cartoons across Europe.

Still not quite as strong as it needs to be, and not from the Prime Minister, who should take to the cameras and strongly denounce the protests and order British security forces to take strong action against any one calling for violence, or making threats. But it’s a start. Tony Blair’s mindless adherence to multiculturalist fantasy is so strong that it will probably take something very unfortunate and bloody to break him away from the delusion and come out with a very forceful posture. More unfortunately, there are plenty of Muslims perfectly willing to provide such an incident.