Embassies were torched in Syria and Lebanon. A priest was shot in Turkey.
You're right that most of the Middle East (including, of course, Qatar) reacted much more moderately. However, many of our students supported the embassy-torchings and other violent reactions.
And that is, incidentally, why my perception of Islam was affected. If the violent reactions had been confined to a few isolated psychos, I wouldn't think any worse of Islam. After all, when artwork offensive to Christianity is produced, sometimes a few psychos make death threats against the artist. But that's not what happened. An awful lot of those "rational, moderate" people actually SUPPORT the more violent reactions. Ridley was gleeful about them, and held them up as a model of how Muslims should act. That makes the extreme reactions more than just a few isolated incidents. If mainstream Muslims think it was appropriate, then that DOES reflect on the religion as a whole.
Re: Hi again
You're right that most of the Middle East (including, of course, Qatar) reacted much more moderately. However, many of our students supported the embassy-torchings and other violent reactions.
And that is, incidentally, why my perception of Islam was affected. If the violent reactions had been confined to a few isolated psychos, I wouldn't think any worse of Islam. After all, when artwork offensive to Christianity is produced, sometimes a few psychos make death threats against the artist. But that's not what happened. An awful lot of those "rational, moderate" people actually SUPPORT the more violent reactions. Ridley was gleeful about them, and held them up as a model of how Muslims should act. That makes the extreme reactions more than just a few isolated incidents. If mainstream Muslims think it was appropriate, then that DOES reflect on the religion as a whole.