Seething and Outrage to Commence at Any Minute

There is some sanity in the world.

A publisher in Belarus who was jailed for printing Mohammed cartoons has been freed.

On a Friday no less. Don't these folks know that's the weekly day of rage from the perpetually aggrieved?

Belarus's Supreme Court on Friday freed an editor jailed for reproducing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, one of three detainees whose release is seen by the West as key to improving ties with the ex-Soviet state.

Alexander Sdvizhkov, editor of the independent Zgoda (consensus) newspaper, was jailed for three years last month. He was freed after Belarus's Supreme Court reduced his sentence to three months.

"The Supreme Court backed the appeal and, based on health and humanitarian considerations, reduced the sentence to three months," said court spokeswoman Anastasia Tsimanovich. "Given the time spent in detention, he was released."

There are two others still in prison.

The release of three remaining detainees viewed as "political prisoners" in the West is a fundamental condition set by Western countries for improving relations with Belarus, led by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994.

Still in detention are Belarus's most prominent inmate, academic Alexander Kozulin, who challenged Lukashenko's bid for re-election in 1996, and Andrei Kim, a businessman detained in connection with protests last month by small entrepreneurs.

The 12 cartoons portraying the founder of Islam, including one showing the prophet with a bomb in his turban, first appeared in a Danish newspaper and outraged Muslims who saw them as blasphemous.

Belarussian authorities shut down Zgoda in March 2006, around the time when other European journals began reprinting the cartoons. The drawings were reproduced in Danish newspapers this month in protest at an alleged plot to kill the cartoonist.

Meanwhile, protests and flag burnings continued today in Gaza, the Sudan, Pakistan, and Yemen, among other hellholes. The dispatch from Yemen is most amusing.

In Friday prayer, Yemeni preachers condemned strongly reprinting of the offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by Danish newspapers to harm feelings of Muslims across the world.

The preachers considered such act as unmoral and extremist committed under pretext of freedom of expression.

They called on the Danish government to take required measures to stop insult done by some extremists against Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) through reprinting cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) in 17 Danish newspapers.

They said that continuing insult in the friendly country for Muslims leads Islamic countries to review the level of their ties with Denmark.

They also called on the Arab and Islamic governments to issue laws that ban ties with a county or a company insults the Islamic holy places and prevents importing or selling its goods.

They called on the United Nations to issue a resolution prevents insulting any religion and prophets as they are the best human beings and message of peace.

Best human beings?

Heh.

Meanwhile, in other news that offends the incredibly delicate sensibilities of the best human beings, Egypt got into the seethefest by whining today about the upcoming film from Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders.

Egypt on Friday deplored what it called gratuitous attacks on Islam and said it was closely monitoring plans by a Dutch filmmaker to release an anti-Koran film.

"It is regrettable that European lawmakers and politicians use gratuitous methods to gain electoral votes by attacking the sacred values and religions of others," foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement.

Dutch far-right deputy Geert Wilders has said he will be airing on television in the Netherlands in March a controversial anti-Islam film called "Fitna" (Ordeal), which accuses the Koran of inciting people to murder.

Such politicians, Zaki said in reference to Wilders, "focus their hatred on Islam" and plan to broadcast a film undermining Islamic symbols.

These acts "feed hatred against Muslims and encourage extremism and confrontation instead of opting for dialogue based on mutual respect," Zaki said.

These people really need to get a life.