More on what we learned from the recent Islamic nut roll.

Diana West argues that the Danish cartoons, and in particularly the most inflammatory ones, should be defended for their content, not just on free speech grounds.

When the widely influential Sheik Yusef al-Qaradawi can praise Muhammad as "an epitome for religious warriors [mujahideen]," Muhammad, a jihad model, shouldn't be a taboo subject in the West, either in caricature or commentary, and certainly shouldn't be super-sacralized, in effect, by a fearfully polite censorship. The subject should be laid out for all to see. The valiant Dutch parliamentarian and ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali put it this way: "You cannot liberalize Islam without criticizing the Prophet and the Koran... You cannot redecorate a house without entering inside." And especially when you're not allowed to see what it looks like.

One can debate the extent to which the cartoons themselves provided a teaching moment, but one cannot doubt the educational value of the reaction by Arab states, crazed Islamic mobs, the MSM, and (to some extent) the Bush administration.

"Educational cartoons." Paul, Power Line, 2/17/06 (emphasis added).