Martyrs on Both Sides

Please read the article first.

Thank you. I'm just going to talk about the attacks on the Danes since 2005 when they created the Mohammad cartoons. There are cartoons about Yahweh, Jesus Christ, Buddha, and Joseph Smith but for some reason it's not cool to have a cartoon about the Prophet Mohammad. I understand that their religion says that there shouldn't be any depiction of the person, but I also understand that not everyone in the world is Muslim. And while I also appreciate that not everyone has grown up with the concept of the freedom of speech, I'm Amero-centrist leave me alone.

Now to the real point of the article. During the French, English, and American Revolutions (I know ours was really a war of independence, but I'm going with popular titles to maintain a theme) people fought and died struggling to maintain what they believed to be a God-given right to express whatever they felt without persecution. While most people think that this means no governmental persecution, it actually means no persecution from any source. That's a point that a lot of Americans miss but I'm not going there right now.

I want to know why people now don't feel like it is their duty, and governments don't think it is their right, to die for what they believe in anymore. If Dutch publishers want to put cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, fully recognizing that there will be repercussions, then they should be allowed to. Why is religion the only cause worth dying for? Why is Islam the only side that has martyrs in this fight?

When the people of the world tell terrorists that they aren't afraid of their antics, then suicide bombers stop being martyrs and become something much easier to deal with: criminals.