One of the 12 Danish cartoonists whose caricatures of Islam have led to the violent protests has told a German newspaper he is distraught over the consequences and now faces at least two death threats. All the cartoonists have gone into hiding.

As George Neumayr writes (emphasis mine),

"Only radical Muslims would consider rioting a rational rebuttal to descriptions of Islam as violent. What other religious group riots or issues death threats after it is criticized? It is precisely because Christianity is so tame that Western liberals often feel safe to lampoon its history as violent. They wouldn't dare level similarly harsh criticism of Islam.

One of the unstated reasons for hesitating before calling radical Islam violent -- the reason the fog of political correctness thickens around it -- is that it does contain elements of violence. Western society falls silent lest its criticism of Islam result in an explosion of anger validating the criticism. "

(...) Yes, crude caricatures of Islam are improper. Yes, multitudes of Muslims are peace-loving and decent. But it is hard not to notice that Islamic protests whipped up by militants such as this one are more opportunistic than sincere, and that they are designed to stifle legitimate criticism of radical Islam's undeniably violent history and designs -- criticism that receives fresh evidence from the wildly intemperate anger it stokes.