In a phonecall to Barnabas Fund on 7th February the Bishop of Peshawar, Pakistan reported that two church-run schools at Mardan and at Bannu had been attacked the day before by Muslims protesting about the Danish cartoons, which were republished this year in various other European countries and Jordan. Bishop Mano Rumalshah was thankful that police intervened promptly and helped to evacuate the frightened children, and that no one was seriously injured.

However, he may soon find his hopes for the protection of Muhammad are fulfilled in the wake of the international response to the Danish cartoons of the Islamic prophet, a response which appears to have been not only orchestrated but deliberately aggravated.

The worldwide responses to the cartoons have raised two questions.

They suggested that my viewing the movie would be beneficial in responding to the reporter's questions. I told them and the reporter that my going to see Brokeback Mountain would be similar to asking a former alcoholic to go to a liquor store to buy his neighbor a toddy for the body.

Germany's Die Welt newspaper hinted at this issue in an editorial: "The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical. When Syrian television showed drama documentaries in prime time depicting rabbis as cannibals, the imams were quiet." Nor, by the way, have imams protested the stomping on the Christian cross embedded in the Danish flag.