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Cartoon Protesters Attack Western Businesses

Protesters ransacked Western businesses in the city of Lahore and stormed a diplomatic enclave in the capital last Tuesday to vent their anger over caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. It was the worst such violence in Pakistan since the cartoon controversy erupted last month. Protesters in the historic eastern city burned a hotel, two banks, a KFC restaurant and the office of Telenor, a Norwegian telecom company.

Two defenseless movie theaters and several vehicles also suffered from the zealous violent protestors, who protesting against intolerance and stereoptypical images in the West of Muslims as being violent. In Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, hundreds of young men pushed past security guards and made their way into the heart of the main enclave for foreign embassies. Again, part of protests against the perception the West and indeed much of the world has of Muslims as overly violent.

The protestors calling for increased respect for their religion are sure to get it after they vandalized cars, smashed windows at a branch of the British bank Standard Chartered, and shouted slogans such as "Expel European Ambassadors" and "Death to Denmark," the country where the cartoons originally were published in a newspaper five months ago. Many in the world charge that the protests are being manipulated by governments. It is hard to see how this would not be the case.