Angry Muslims Burn Stuff.

I'm sure they threw rocks, fired shots in the air, and tried to recruit a few suicide bombers as well. We get the idea, guys.

And the idea that the Islamofascists want us to get is this: "Hey, West. Abandon your principles. Abandon your commitment to free press, free speech, the free exchange of ideas, even offensive ones. Replace all this with a society in which Islamic laws (such as those which forbid depictions of the Prophet) are respected even by non-Muslims, and in which Muslims themselves are judged only by Muslim courts. In other words, let us slowly cripple your legal systems, and exempt ourselves from them entirely. We'll call this 'respect.'

"And if you 'respect' us, we won't burn your stuff. You know, your flags, your buildings, your people who work in those buildings. That kind of stuff."

Here's something noteworthy, though. The mobs have been angry at the Danes over some cartoons lately (see below). So, as angry mobs will, they set fire to something -- the Danish embassy in Damascus. (The picture is from the AP). And wouldn't you know: the same building houses the Swedish and Chilean embassies. Which gets to the real point: " 'Respect' us, or every aspect of your societies -- those which offend us and those which do not -- will be burned."

To be fair, the American military (which has torched an embassy or two itself) has a similar doctrine. They call it collateral damage.