Earlier quoted context omitted.
Insulting someone people love is never a nice thing, and people are going to react emotionally. Let's say person A insults person B's mum (who died after a long struggle with cancer), person A will rightly get really really offended. This from the love and attachment they had for their mother. Many Muslims have a very strong attachment to Muhammed (if you were to study his life, then you would probably understand why…
I am flagging this discussion because this is ridiculous.
Firs, I was raised in a non-religious home and all my ancestors were either protestant, catholic, or Jew, or probably adored a totem or some other chunk of stone or wood ;-) And as such I have a problem with the emotional reactions. I have a problem with the violence and death threats. I have a problem with a war on terrorism that is conducted by terror and disdain for Muslim protests in return.
This question of the perception of Islam by non-Muslims is such a challenge. Islam has been around and is not going away. However, Islam is complex and diverse. It's so important to keep discussing and resolving and exchanging ideas on this.
Even if us geeks like to think that the world is made of predictable things like science, machines, and nice people, it's not. And it has been that way since the dawn of people. So if a growing portion of the Muslim world thinks there is a problem with the way we portray them, if they keep thinking we disrespect their values and prophets, maybe we ought to listen, debate, and propose new ideas.
I, for one, believe that many Muslims are wedded to a value system that comes more from ancient tribal societies than from modern industrialized democracies. I believe that this is the main root of this clash of "cultures" instead of the "Clash of Civilisations" which sounds like an announcement for a war to come.
I do not want to bore you guys or take this out of the realm of Hacker News etiquette but this seems like such an important issue. Please kill it without killing my karma ;-)
I have lived in the Valley for years before moving to Oregon and I know the culture there is not very favorable to questioning racism, political and religious values. But please ask yourselves if you really think that Muslims are monsters or if you have just not misunderstood them. Then put the violent ones in jail and stop attacking the religion of the other 99% who are peaceful.