Tolerance or appeasement.?

The worldwide unrest caused by the publication of a few cartoons in the Danish press, deemed to be insulting to the Prophet, PBUH, reminded me of happier times, 40 years ago, when my reading frenzy was equally satisfied by the philosophers of the Enlightenment and comics such as Iznogoud. Iznogoud, by the way, for the illiterati, is the vizir intent on overthrowing Haroun El Poussah, Commander of all believers.
I do not remember any outrage from Imams, ayatollahs or tin pot despots against my favorite cartoon in the sixties. And yet, at that time, France was just coming out of the bloody Algerian conflict where we killed over one million followers of the Prophet, PBUH. Worse, in october 1961, French police organized a ,still unpunished, massacre of several hundred muslims whose bodies were hurled in the Seine river. All this with a sizable muslim population in the country.
So what is different today? The roumis have extended their footprint over the Ummah. The US have invaded Afghanistan and wrecked Iraq for no good reason. Technology allows governments to rouse the anger of their citizens and mobilize violence, just as easily as terrorists. To quote Voltaire: "Whenever an important event a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the church, such is always signalized as the Finger of God."

The kleptocratic arab and persian regimes that have enslaved the Middle East, with our support to keep the oil flowing, have jumped on the issue of the Danish cartoons to focus the anger of their hapless subjects on the West, rather than on their own criminal rule.
Many European news media have recognized the danger: we have entered the fight between reason and fanaticism. That is why many papers have reprinted the cartoons. They wanted to draw a line in the sand and refuse to apply sharia law to our secular world. To quote Voltaire again: " Custom, law, bent my first years as a happy muslim. I see it too clearly: the care taken of our childhood form our feelings, our habits, our beliefs. By the Ganges I would have been the slave of fake gods, a Christian in Paris, a Moslem here."

But why have the American media refrained from publishing the offensive cartoons? Tolerance? The American press never shied away from printing cartoons that really offended the French during the Rumsfeld's campaign that bordered on racism....Because Americans are very ethnically conscious after 300 years of slavery? Perhaps because American anti discrimination laws are really and seriously enforced unlike the situation prevailing in France as we saw with the Paris suburbs riots.
I suspect that the American media have refrained from any solidarity with their European counterparts because they have forgotten their History and slouched toward intolerance. Religion has taken an increasing role in the US lately. Religion has been skillfully used by the religious right to cement the Administration's power in exchange for real power. Just as in the Middle east, religion is taboo and the fanatics have TV stations, Mega churches and have bought Congressmen. As our friend Voltaire reminds us, "If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."
The Enlightenment came about as philosophers realized that religion was a source of intolerance, war, and ultimately the collective suicide of entire civilizations. The 30 years war came about after the Reformation. Entire towns and villages were wiped out in the name of God. The Inquisition, the fight of the Cathars, and of course the Crusades were all examples of what religion can lead to. (All muslims learn that the Knights under Sir Godfrey and Baldwin roasted little children on the spit in Aleppo to the rallying cry of Deus lo volt!.)
As Diderot taught us, " From fanaticism to barbarism, is only one step."
I mention my good friends Diderot and Voltaire because they were part of the group of philosophers who inspired Ben Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and George Mason , when they pondered the form to give the new Nation.

I believe that there is an interesting parallel to be made between religious leaders who are ready to drop a nuclear device on our cities in the name of a supernatural and hypothetical Allah, and leaders elected thanks to their beliefs in another supernatural being. Have we regressed to the times of the Crusades? The US are the most powerful country on earth and two thirds of the population believe Jesus walked on water. And they have elected a leader who has a direct line with him.
Post Christian secular Europe is parting ways with neo-christian America where 64 % of the population believes in creationism.

Have the US media kept silent because they are in the same camp as the offended muslims, the camp of the believers against the camp of reason?