Can they really be serious?

[Mule]

The Sword of the Prophet, should be required reading for every American.

[Mule]

The documentary channel has a show on right now about the peace loving muslims in Iran telling the citizens that they can sell kidneys, but the govt ends up keeping the money. Allah smackbar.

[jyl]

The small crowd of protestors was mostly government employees who had been ordered to demonstrate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/world/africa/01sudan.html

Despite the display of outrage, witnesses said that many of the protesters were government employees ordered to demonstrate, and that aside from a large gathering outside the presidential palace, most of Khartoum was quiet.

This was an orchestrated event by the Sudanese govt, for political and PR purposes.

The Sudanese govt has been under pressure by the West due to the atrocities in Darfur, which is the western province of Sudan. The govt is behind most of the killing, through the Janjaweed militia, as an attempt to cleanse Sudan of its black ethnic villages. As such, the Sudanese govt has obstructed relief and humanitarian efforts, has not cooperated with the African Union peacekeeping force, and is trying to block the United Nations from sending a larger peacekeeping force.

Since the Sudanese govt is trying to keep Western countries and the UN from interfering with the atrocities in Darfur, it is therefore in the Sudanese govt's interest to stir up its own population against the West, and to get some "leverage" against the UN. Using this incident to convict the British teacher and put on a staged demonstration is a political maneuver of the Sudanese govt.

It has nothing really to do with "radical religious extremists", Muslim fanatics, etc. Think of it like when Bush gives a speech calling some country an axis of evil and freezes its financial assets. The Sudanese govt is "freezing" this British teacher, and making its "speech" through this staged demonstration.

Unfortunately, the US mass media doesn't bother to think, and neither do most of their readers/viewers. it is easier to froth on about savage Muslim crazies.