Must - MUST - read

Edward Cline, a guest writer for the Ayn Rand Institute takes the assassination of Theo van Gogh as a theme to delve into the workings and motives of Islam for feeling such hatred towards free speech and criticism, and clear disrespect. The article is far too long to quote here, but it makes great reading. An appetizer:

...overall, drugs, prostitution, and gay marriage are minor bogeymen in the Islamic worldview. Muslims have their own peccadilloes they would rather not have discussed in public, least of all by Western infidels, such as honor killings, bestiality, ritual rape, and a concept of “family” that makes Mafia solidarity look like a friendly tea-and-crumpets soiree after a cricket match.

No, the chief abomination -- indeed, the principal nemesis -- in the Islamic worldview is man the unbowed, man astride a world he has mastered, man a being proud of his existence and of his achievements, man the rational being. Man who indignantly refuses to degrade himself by groveling five times a day to bang his head on the ground in ritualistic submission to a ghost and its prophets [Emphasis mine - Ed], never daring to think outside the sealed envelope of Sharia law. Man who scoffs at and dismisses the irrational. Man the being who sends probes to wander over Mars, plunge into the atmosphere of Titan, and collect atoms of the sun. Man who creates new medicines, and new materials, and new wealth from the raw material of the earth, so that he can live happily on it.

As I wrote in September 2003 (subconsciously predicting a killing like van Gogh's), criticism, let alone ridicule of Islam warrants a death sentence. And their religious leaders

hate life in general, women in particular and are incapable of genuine laughter and happiness.

So please, read Edward Cline's gem.