See ya in the funny papers, Mohammed

Here's a swell idea for you—an "international day of anger."

That's what hard-line cleric Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi is calling for—to protest the  Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of cartoons, like the one above, depicting the prophet Mohammed. (I guess an international Muslim boycott of Danish products wasn't angry enough.)

The sheikh's campaign seems to be working, The Scotsman reports:

Palestinian gunmen burst into a West Bank hotel and kidnapped a young German and Gaza militants surrounded European headquarters as Muslim outrage at cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad intensified.

The German was freed a short-time later after Palestinian police snared the gunmen, but the incident was just one of many that have sparked an exodus from the region by European diplomats and aid workers.

Angry Palestinians have threatened Europeans after several newspapers followed a Danish daily's lead and printed the controversial images.

Protesters in Pakistan chanted "death to France" and "death to Denmark", and Iraqi Islamic leaders urged worshippers to stage demonstrations from Baghdad to the southern city of Basra following main weekly prayer services.

Afghanistan's president and Indonesia's foreign ministry condemned the cartoons and Iranian leaders summoned the Austrian ambassador, whose country holds the EU presidency, to protest against the depictions.

In Paris, the Egyptian owner of the daily newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor after the paper published the caricatures. The Jordanian weekly Shihan also printed three of the cartoons, saying it wanted to show readers "the extent of the Danish offence."

Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Koran and the sayings of the prophet, absolutely forbids depictions of the prophet Muhammad, even positive images, in order to prevent idolatry.

Meanwhile, Spain's leading newspaper El Pais has joined other European dailies by publishing a front-page cartoon of Prophet Muhammad.

El Pais did not comment on the decision to publish the cartoon on its front page, which was accompanying front-page news about the angry reaction among Muslims over the republication of the cartoons that already riled the Muslim world when a Danish newspaper ran them in September. The drawings have divided opinion within Europe and the Middle East, where they have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities.

As Michael Smerconish wrote yesterday in The Philadelphia Daily News, "There was a time when telling an inappropriate joke might get you slapped. Or the finger. Today, it gets you fired—and sued."

And now, evidently, it's getting innocent people kidnapped and producing a full-blown clash of civilzations.

If Muslims want to live under sharia, that's fine. But when Muslim law is held up as the editorial standard for every newspaper in the world, well, I think we've got a problem.

Maybe we need to kidnap Sheik Qaradawi and force him to watch Family Guy cartoons until he grows a sense of humor.

Oh yeah, and let's all go out and buy some of those delicious Danish butter cookies.

NOTE: Michelle Malkin has been all over this story. Go have a look. Some of it is postively scary.

UPDATE: "Ok. Let's do it," Michelle urges. "If you've posted some or all of the forbidden Muhammad cartoons on your blog in support of Denmark and the Jyllands-Posten, send a track back or e-mail me your link. It'll actually be a very useful road map for the enormous number of Internet users around the world who are trying to find the cartoons (just check Technorati and you'll see what I'm talking about). I'll get started with a few right now and keep adding as many links to this list as humanly possible."

Okay, here are more of the offending cartoons:

Hey, if the Islamofascists out there can't take a joke …