MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov.) -- Indignant Arabs are burning cartoons that depict Prophet Mohammed with a pig snout.
A respected European television channel has fleetingly showed the incriminating cartoon, hinting that Muslims have a weighty reason for fury.
Unfortunately for the channel, there was never such a cartoon in the 12-picture series published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten. Many European newspapers have reprinted them later in solidarity with the Danish journalists. The "Mohammed the pig" caricature was deliberately used to exacerbate tensions and make the actions of Europeans more insulting and sacrilegious.
This is fresh proof that certain forces, and possibly organized centers, are trying to push events to the edge of an abyss. You can describe it as a war of the South against the North, a battle of Islam and Christianity, or a war of civilizations.
Some people would discard this supposition as just another example of the theory of a global collusion. We have had Zionists and Masons, and now we have new type of villains. But this cannot explain why the cartoons, published four months ago in an obscure provincial Danish newspaper for local public, have provoked such an outbreak of passions at a highly delicate moment in global history - just when the radical Hamas movement has come to power in Palestine and some members of the Iranian administration are trying to create perimeter defense.
Years ago, Salman Rushdie produced hundreds of pages of a much more sophisticated and literary, and hence more effective, Islamophobic publication. But the war of revenge was proclaimed only against the author of The Satanic Verses and not his country of residence, the United Kingdom, let alone Europe or the Christian world. With time, Rushdie was forgiven and forgotten.
The European embassies in the area spanning from the Middle East to Africa were not stormed and innocent civilians, including Catholic priests, did not die then. But the current reaction is disproportionate to the cartoonists' sin, compared to the sky-high scandal over The Satanic Verses.
This prompts the conclusion that global outrage against the Mohammed cartoons was engineered and orchestrated. By whom? The search should begin in the terrorist zone. Bin Laden and his colleagues could not have dreamed of getting such a present from the Danish newspaper that decided to put a sign of equality between the Prophet and the al-Qaida chief.
The terrorists hurried to exploit this gross mistake to demonstrate to the "Great Satan" (the Untied States) and the "licentious West" that Muslims are consolidated and stand together from Lebanon to Somalia. At the same time, this attempt to frighten each and all seems to be addressed also to the respected Arab leaders. They should see the current events as a trial of their regimes' strength.
Paradoxically, the U.S. can objectively benefit from the global hysterics around a dozen vulgar cartoons. Washington needs Europe to support its potential decision to use force in order to solve the Iranian nuclear problem. The U.S. administration can now tell the Old World leaders, who bristle at America's unilateral leadership: Look at the fires burning on the doorstep of European embassies. Can one talk politics with this crowd, or allow Iran to get access to enriched uranium or plutonium?
I sincerely hope that the thousands of Islamic extremists creating havoc in the Arab capitals do not represent the historic wisdom of the 1.5-billion strong congregation of Prophet Mohammed. The Koran, just like the sacred books of the other global religion, says, "You shall not kill any person - for Allah has made life sacred." But those who take up iron rods and torches to protect Islam do not seem to remember this.
