If groups of human beings cannot obtain common understanding of some few fundamental things, there is no hope for communication of any sort.   Some things are so obvious that if one person cannot see them, there is no opportunity for understanding between two people.   Languages are built upon common understanding of something.   That's a bird, this is food, you're a person, I'm a person, this is mine, that's yours, etc.   If there is no common understanding of something, then language is impossible and no expertise can provide translation.   Without such communication, we might just as well beat the hell out of each other, or alternatively, agree to live apart, completely segregated from each other.

Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, of Reuters today compares the uproar over a threatened death sentence for Abdur Rahman, a convert to Christianity, to the Muslim reaction to the Prophet Mohammad caricatures printed in newspapers.   He cites comments made by Muslims claiming a similar belief.   If the differences are not patently obvious to a person who earns his living and proves his value to society via the use of language, there is no hope of ever forging any sort of understanding between the West and Muslim countries.   So, let's get on with things.   We're wasting time by trying to forge any sort of friendship with Muslims.   Let's just build a wall or go to war - total war - with each other.

And in the process, Tom Henegan gets the boot since he cannot distinguish between expressing opinion in a cartoon and killing a person for making a choice which impacts nobody but himself.