Awesome! Fight intolerance with more intolerance.

It's not like secular/atheistic governments have been known for brutal intolerance...secular Turkmenistan, Communist China, fascist Italy, the communist Khmer Rouge, and the list goes on...

In reality, thinking hasn't changed in the West - before, people used to follow the Church and burn heretics at the stake - now, people follow 'atheism' / 'whatever atheists are supposed to believe' and burn heretics at the stake. Nooooothing has changed.

...completely ignoring the brutal oppression which Noam Chomsky calls "murder, not war" of Israel against the Palestinians, which even Israeli civilian activists protest against.

Let me guess - you're from the USA and believe mainstream media?

...Everyone would be clamoring about free speech, freedom, etc.

In reality, there is no consistent standard of free speech that will be agreed upon by everyone. Saying something in support of the Nazi party is different, saying something about the Queen is different, even releasing pictures of someone related to the Queen is different.

But no clamor of free speech when it comes to Western countries. We're civilized, after all, right?

+1 if I could - I enjoy reading your insightful comments.

Well said - however, what is freedom of speech when the masses are kept in the dark? Distract them with entertainment & irrelevant issues so they don't see what's really going on - that's the tactic of the Roman government with its citizens.

Weeeell - the tensions against the US have been festering for quite a while in the Muslim world (and for good reason - support of all the countries now being overthrown by the Arab Spring). People don't really consider the political implications of foreign events, often only relying upon whatever the media says...anyways here's a little video of my own...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-dBftRbz94&feature=related

I'm an American too - but Americans only have the illusion of free speech. let me ask you, of all the talk of Osama bin Laden that was happening, how many major American news sources actually played the videos or showed the transcripts of bin Laden's addresses to the American people? There are so many examples of this. Americans are only told that they have freedom, freedom of speech, etc., so they believe it.

Excellent comment - this video explains your last point - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-dBftRbz94&feature=related

The violence/protests is more probably due to political reasons. The US, unfortunately, has a long history of supporting the oppressive governments in the Muslim world (with only a couple exceptions such as Libya), as well as supporting Israel, which basically treats the Palestinian civilian population as military targets. Combined with the fact that two million Iraqi children died due to sanctions (which was "worth it") so the US could protect its oil supply, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan & the torture camps they put up there (Bagram air base), I mean....basically tensions have been festering for a long time, and it's safe to say that, were it not for US-imposed tyrannical regimes in that area, there wouldn't even have been a need for an "Arab Spring".

That being said, I think the video being put up on YouTube is actually a good opportunity for Muslims to dispel myths/misconceptions about the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him), such as the violence, marriage with a young Aisha, etc...

And regarding that last point - the hardcore right-wing conservatives have only been bringing this up ever since the controversy erupted over priests molesting children. They've repeated the lie so many times, it's become "true" - without anyone ever verifying the information (a sad testament to the level of gullibility of the masses). Here's a little video about it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-dBftRbz94&feature=related

All right folks, I'm Muslim (gasp)....
There are actually no "texts" in the Qur'an that say to "kill people", those are only a few verses taken out of context and fed to the public by the right-wing with political motivations. It is absolutely haram (forbidden) in Islam to kill a person - even if they committed a crime deserving capital punishment. (In that case, they must be taken to court and proven to be guilty without a strand of a doubt. Much more burden of proof than is required to put someone on death row today, BTW. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said "It is better to free ten guilty people than to punish one innocent person.")

Your post's low rating of 1, unfortunately, is a sign of how deep the Jobs-worship has become here. Seriously people - something can be insightful that doesn't agree with your opinion, too.

For a guy who said "Let the revenue come in first, then worry about philanthropy" when asked why Apple didn't donate to philanthropic causes.

Also for a guy who was known to be not someone you'd like to meet in the elevator...

...and am glad it was done then. While in some Muslim societies men get circumcised later on in life, I'm glad it was done when I could have no recollection of it.

Also, female circumcision (FGM), the way it is practiced today in some middle-eastern societies (by both Muslims and non-Muslims) existed long before Islam and is completely forbidden in Islam. Islam actually encourages sexual pleasure for men and women in marriage. Many Islamic scholars worldwide have condemned FGM; however, their voices are not heard by the mainstream news media.

Actually, most people blindly accept whatever they hear about Islam from the media, without taking into account the veracity of their source of information. In fact verifying the source of one's information as scientifically as possible is the basis for the science of hadith: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_studies

Ok, then don't cut your hair, don't trim your beard (whether you are a male or female), don't cut your nails, and never shave your armpit/pubic hair.

We were "made like that", after all.

Really, /. ? Just picking on Saudis? Read the above comments - vast majority are something like "ha ha camel jockeys" or "lol those sily talibans", racist generations, things like that...

You know, based on the comments in almost every middle-east related story, (although they are great engineers) most slash dotters apparently have no ability to filter out political-driven propaganda and news reports, unfortunately.