Now it has to stop! (update 5.2.05 12.34 pm)

This is just coming in off the wire ...

Danish consulate in Beirut set on fire by rioters 

This is just coming in off the wire ...

Following a demonstration against Jyllands Posten's cartoons, Denmark's embassy is burnt to the ground in Damaskus Syria alongside Sweden's and Chile's who just happened to be in the same building.

Syria protestors set Danish embassy on fire over cartoons - Reuters 

Danish embassy torched in Syria - BBC

Cartoon row: Danish embassy ablaze - CNN

For more coverage see the also the Wikipedia article on the events! 

The most scandalous about this is that this and other recent surges in violent protests are prompted by silly rumours of coran-burning at noon in Copenhagen and that the Danish government will begin to systematically cleanse the country for muslims. Even more scandalous ... who is spreading these rumours? Two days ago a Danish Imam was on Arabian television talking about the same nonsense; i.e. coran burning at noon today in Copenhagen. For the record, burning the coran or any other religious scripts, symbols, or icons can get you in prison for as much as four years!

What is the main message here;

We are now way beyond cartoons and a discussion of the freedom of speech and press. Rumours and misinformation are now resulting in terrorism, pure and simple. My patience is slowly but surely running out. My view on muslims and Islam remain the same though; I refuse to believe that they/it are terrorists, violent, and ignorant by nature ... the few are ruining it for the many. But where are the moderats here?! Reconciliation is moving farther away by the hour and I only think one side of the table is to blame for that.

My emotional reaction is partly a natural and logical reaction to what I see, but on the other hand I also have a semi-personal stake in all this since one of my best friends' father is the Danish ambassador in Syria. Her whole familiy is in Syria at the moment (and safe!!) but she is rightly very anxious and worried.