Thank you for your posts on this thread.  I have to admit that I find the general tenor of this debate to be quite depressing, as far as my hopes for cross-cultural understanding go.  (I mean "this debate" in general, not specific to here at ET, although I'm not ruling here out, either.)

I heard something even more depressing from an Egyptian friend today as we were talking about this.  She said, "I love Europe, I love the West, I adore Europe, but with all of this, I keep wondering why do they hate us?  I don't want to think that people would hate me just because I am a Muslim, but that's what it feels like."

I didn't know what to tell her.  Of course "they" don't hate you?  Do they?

Oh, how I hope the answer is no.  But I also cannot answer the "why" question -- why taunt?  Why needle?  Why intentionally inflame tensions that are clearly close to the breaking point to begin with?