One man — an Egyptian — produces a film critical of Islam, and all hell breaks loose across the Middle East?  Does anyone really believe that Muslim Extremists needed the excuse of a film to go beserk and place America in their cross-hairs?  Those who murder in the name of Islam do so because they love murder and because they believe it is their duty to murder and/or maim those they differ with.  The thought of entering into serious debate never crosses the primitive minds of these types of individuals and part of the reason is that such persons who are clearly drunk on violence and perpetual outrage are largely oblivious to the great conversation taking place in the world on many fronts.  They simply lack the exposure to developments in human thought — and this lack of exposure is by choice.

One study found that the total number of books translated into Arabic during the 1000 years since the age of Caliph Al-Ma’moun [a ninth-century Arab ruler who was a patron of cultural interaction between Arab, Persian, and Greek scholars] to this day is less than those translated in Spain in one year!  That is staggering to think about.  But the Islamic world, which at one time was a leader in a wide variety of intellectual and cultural persuits, is now in their own version of the Dark Ages.