Dave,

It’s not that people protested - it’s that most people didn’t. You’re basically trying to use the most extreme examples you can find to paint an entire religion, and that’s just silly. (I don’t do that with Christianity - otherwise I’d be saying all Christians handle snakes and speak in tongues, which is a patently ridiculous claim.)

Her sentence was ridiculous. It was commuted. It may have been done for diplomatic expediency, but what matters is she was let go free, and that most Muslims in Sudan weren’t in a tizzy over the whole mess to begin with.

I’d add that Muslims in the middle east have very little ability to take away my liberties here. There aren’t going to be Caliphate tanks rolling down High Street any time soon; that’s a pretty low probability. In the grand scheme of things, the threat presented by Muslim extremists to the United States is quite low - in fact, I think we’ve face quite a large number of enemies in the history of our great country that posed a much larger threat to life and liberty stateside.

Brian, with all due respect, it is exactly that people protested, and any number would be incredible, but we are talking about a very large crowd, for the death of a very nice british ladies death over a Teddy Bear. Again, any number is bad.

And as far as painting the entire religion, You’re reading into that, in the original article I specifically excerpted quotes from Muslim Brit organizations who we’re also horrified.

And as far as the low threat, tell that to the dead from the WTC. Oh wait, you can’t.

Now let’s imagine that Osama has planted a nuke in an American city, can you imagine him not pushing the button. That’s what we’re up against and why these things matter.

Let’s just say that I don’t quite share your confidence in the low threat scenario, but at the same time I’m supposed to be extremely worried if we start teaching Intelligent Design in a public school. The level and appropriateness of concern seems a little out of whack.

Damn son! fear monger much?

Intelligent Design in public schools is much more likely to impact our lives and the lives of our kids than Osama setting off a nuke.

Oh, hey! Osama. Wasn’t that the guy we were supposed to catch after 9/11? Dead or alive? How’s that workin’ out?

6 long years and your commander in chief has been completely incapable of having any impact whatsoever on global terrorism. Unless, of course, you count lowering violence from Al Qaeda in Iraq after having pretty much created it. LOL. Good show!

We still don’t know the intent. We’re assuming there was none. It is likely that whatever intent there was, it was not evil.

However, Dave - I think you might be able to address this - and I want you to be honest - play both sides here: what if she WAS a missionary? What if her mission, for why she was there, was in fact to help Muslim kids see that naming a stuffed animal Mohammad wouldn’t cause the end of the world, that it is okay, even if their country and/or faith teaches otherwise?

I would have a problem with that - still no death call, still no jail, none of that. But, as a general proposition, what exactly are the lines for missionaries when they go into other countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion or the religion of those with whom they’re working? What are the rules?

Yes - I’m asking something different - but I’m also saying that if there had been evidence that in fact her school works to somehow inculcate different religious beliefs, rather than simply provide education, then we’ve got some issues here. (By the way, this is why people don’t like religious entities getting money for Head Start programs.)

Do not even try to misconstrue what I’m saying: she didn’t deserve any sort of criminal anything. I’m asking from a different perspective, absent some criminal code implications.

The question being: can one religion push the buttons of another religion in an effort to get someone to change their religion? Because if she was actively seeking to accomplish that, it’s not quite as innocent, even though it’s still obviously innocent.

Not that I’m perfectly happy with Bush’s record on terrorism, especially vis-a-vis OBL, but he’s done order of magnitudes more than anyone before him so I will give him that.

On your other point, dang, what can I say, you’d rather be glowing than listen to ID.

Jill: If she was a missionary this would have a radically different context. For one thing missionaries know and understand they live with a constant threat of death. So that’s going to be way different.

As far as I can tell, and you can hit the website from my earlier post, the school has been aroun since aroun 1912 an from the beginning the point was to be truly multicultural an multireligious, which is why it was named Unity. So I don’t think that concern is an issue here.

But keep in mind we have all kinds of religions here in this country, from old time fundamentalists to Hare Krishnas and Vegans pushing buttons, and somehow we usually don’t end up marching in the streets demanding executions.

At least since the early days of Mormonism anyway. So I guess we’ve gotten better at this.

Vegans are not a religious group, right? That’s hyperbole - still, yes?

A little tongue in cheek, yes, but proselytization need not only be religious no?

Oh definitely not - I just wanted to be sure that I didn’t miss something as big as Vegan followers forming an actual religion.