I have to admit, when I saw this article this morning, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I thought Salon's coverage of this issue had been mealy-mouthed and equivocating considering its emphatic, sometimes harsh and simplistic criticism of fundamentalist Christians in its pages. Why it took so long for a simple statement of condemnation for the way in which the media has treated this issue to appear, I have no idea, but I am glad there is some corrective to the ridiculously apologist articles that have run in the last few weeks.

I guess my position on this issue is a touch simplistic - I have little time any religion which would condemn me to death, or life as a second class citizen, for being in love with a man. So when legitimate satirical cartoons are used to whip up sentiment to such an extant where people are killed as a result, I have a smaller amount of patience then usual.

I do have to respond to one thing - JimH said earlier that he believes the depictions of Mohammed with a bomb in his turban were as insulting as a cartoon of Jesus raping a young boy would be to a Catholic. I believe this is a false analogy - the cartoon of Mohammed is saying that violence has been done in his name, that people have been using an interpretation of the Koran as a justification and enticement to kill. This is fundamentally different to the Catholic paedophile scandal, which has nothing to do with the Bible or with the figure of Jesus - it was just a horrific case of abuse of authority.

It seems, thankfully, that this storm is finally blowing over, though not without tragedy to the families of those who have dies or suffered because of the ruthlessness of certain leaders. It is also sad to see the cravenness it has exposed within large sections of the media and the government (though I should really expect nothing less from the pygmies who lead the world nowadays). I just hope that Western democracies survive the next test of liberal secularism is a more noble and respectful way.

If these cartoons are throwing fire on gasoline, then how do you defend Muslims who have included in their protests about the Danish cartoons, those which have never been printed by the newspaper, ie, one with Mohammed drawn as a pig. This is an example of Muslims crossing a line which the Danish cartoonists never did, and attempting to fan the flames into an inferno for their own selfish (and murderous) aims...

If you read a decent critic for any length of time, then you would realise that all those traits and prejudices that you list are eventually revealed. The best critics, who truly open themselves up to an experience, will betray a lot more of their beliefs then a snarky poster who acts like they are some kind of champion for critical transparency.

People like Stephanie, Roger Ebert and Manohla Dargis give that kind of satisfaction for me as a reader - I feel like I almost know them simply from reading their reviews week in, week out (and its even more fun when after years of reading, they surprise you with a left-field opinion - though I am still shocked that Ebert swallowed Crash's tripe to such an extent).

I think another one of the points highlighted by this article is that a large majority of the films released by Hollywood tend to be misogynistic, homophobic and one dimensional to one degree or another. These are the bread and butter economics of Hollywood, yet for about 2 months around Thanksgiving to Christmas (or if you live in England or Ireland, January to February) we get a sprinkling of "spinach cinema" that gets awarded. Hollywood is very conservative in most respects (No ethnics, women or gays here thank you - but if you are a mediocre white guy, then come on down!), so its highly ironic, not to mention insulting, that it likes to pat itself on the back by promoting Brokeback, GN&GL, Crash, Munich or Capote.

I don’t believe that Andrew was sneering at what these films were saying, merely at the idea that this is how Hollywood likes to represent itself to the world. It’s the same trick that Bush uses to portray himself as a folksy cowboy, though he grew up with a silver spoon rammed up his butt.