They don't look like smiles to me. Why should the protesters smile, anyway?
They are getting shot at, and several protesters have been killed!
I agree that violent reactions over cartoons seem petty and irrational.
(See the cartoons below.) However, I have seen ridiculous displays of
"outrage" over burning a flag right here in the USA.
As a proud member of the "blame America first crowd" I assure you that the
Moslem world has a lot to blame on the Christian world, and especially on
the US. They should blame the GOVERNMENT of the USA, not the citizens, of
course. However, when our government claims so much "democracy" exists in
our country, (despite the fact that we don't even have honest vote counts
any more), people without good news sources just might think the American
citizens endorse the abuses.
Just imagine that you lived under an absolute monarchy, propped up by
selling the minerals of your country, (which should be in private hands), to
foreigners. Or imagine that your country had forced people of your faith
out at independence, while people of the other faith marched in. Or
imagine your country suffered a bloody civil war between two faiths, when a
new country with a third faith decided to invade it for awhile. Or imagine
that foreigners from other continents had destroyed the towns and farms of
your parents and grandparents, forced you to grow up in a "refugee camp" or
crowded into one tiny strip of land, where your family remains half a
century later, despite repeated insistence by the UN that you be allowed to
go home, while the occupiers live lavishly on what used to belong to your
family, make you work for slave wages, if they let you work at all, and
regularly kill, torture, and imprison your people while every human rights
organization in the world objects.
Now, when the only civil liberty you have left, your religion, comes under
attack from the foreigners, you might, like these students, feel angry.
See the actual cartoons on my web site for a short time:
http://harlandh.cnc.net/cartoons/
(Print them out and keep them with your copy of "Satanic Verses")
As always you can check out Al Jazeera for yourself at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
If you care to knew the TRUE story of Palestine & Israel go to:
yours in liberty,
Harland Harrison