Angry Mobs

‘Never underestimate the stupidity of an angry mob' - is a sentiment that has echoed down the ages - but it's as true today as it ever was.

American Embassies have borne the brunt of such attacks in the past week - but in the past European newspapers have met with the same response for daring to use even mild humour - to challenge the way that some Muslims practice their religion.

Now once the righteous mob is in full cry they might decide to take the lives of perfectly innocent 'infidels' - for the perceived wrongdoings of their fellow countrymen.

Or even fellow Muslims in the murderous feud between Shiites and Sunnis - which continues in large parts of the Middle East - in Iraq and Syria, for example.

Salman Rushdie was faced with a similar threat for publishing a serious book (not a humorous one) on the Islamic religion - The Satanic Verses – some years ago.

Yet the Ayatollah of Iran issued a 'fatwa' which called on all Muslims fulfil their religious duty by murdering the author in cold blood - an act that would be rewarded in heaven, of course, rather than punished on earth.

Now I don't know about anyone else, but this seems madness to me – the opposite of what religion is supposed to be about.

In fact it reminds me of the way that Catholic Popes used to behave in medieval times - branding people as heretics at will and declaring their lives forfeit - via a personal hotline to God.