The cartoons insulted a belief system not only undeserving of the merest shred of regret but utterly deserving of unreserved condemnation. Islam is disgusting. It is a perversion of developing minds and a direct fast track to mediaeval savagery.

A belief system is not a person. Beliefs held simply because of birth or geographical location are not respectable.

Besides, beliefs can be private and the rest of us need never know about them. Once voiced, or wailed from minarets, or bombed suicidally into innocent bystanders, beliefs become assertions and deserve to be questioned. Even ridiculed. No holds barred. If they be rationally defensible, let them be rationally defended. But let us find a better way of insulting those beliefs than by shielding them patronisingly from criticism or satire.

As some posters have said, those who disagree with the satire of the cartoons are free to respond in kind.

I am disturbed by the creeping, pernicious acceptance of Holm's arguments apparent in some posts here.