You could call it Osama Bin Laden's battle plan. I am looking at a world map and all of the places where violence has broken out in response to those cartoons about Islam, and I am wondering if Bin Laden and his followers are celebrating right now.
For years, they openly pined for the day when they would achieve their much desired Clash of Civilizations, a war between the Muslim world and the West. Look at a map of these protests, and you can't help but wonder if they are getting closer. From Africa, through the Middle East, all the way to Indonesia, the protests are erupting in many of the major Muslim countries.
Are most Muslims involved? Of course not. Moderate Muslims are denouncing the violence and saying those who are burning and breaking and killing represent a tiny fraction of the Muslim community. Most Muslims, they say, are offended by the cartoons, but just as troubled by the violence.
Still, Bin Laden and his followers have been appealing to poor and politically and educationally disenfranchised Muslims for years to stand up for their faith in a radical way. Looking at a world map right now, I wonder how many people out there are listening to them and using this dispute as an excuse to further radical Islam's war on the West.
