Not sure how aware people are of this but today is Draw Mohammed Day. I found out about it too late to produce any sort of video or publication, I would have liked to have made some sort of cartoon of parts of the Satanic Verses had I have known earlier.

Here is one of the participants, and one of the more tasteful and respectful efforts, I feel.

YouTube - Drama hamad

Other participants are obviously using it as an excuse to denigrate Islam or Muslims in general under the guise of sticking up for freedom of speech - which engenders mixed feelings in me. I too hate the fact that certain Muslims threaten (and carry out) violent acts in response to satire, but I think the issue is hugely exaggerated by the press.

There have been some positive responses from Muslims, including a group who have taken part in depicting the prophet (abeit largely through calligraphy) and another set who have countered the effort with "Honour Muhammed Day" in which they will attempt to raise the profile of the prophet by highlighting the wisdom (as they see it, of course) of the Hadith and the Koran.

I've yet to hear of any organised violence resulting from it, though of course some ugly pronouncements from both sides of the argument are easy enough to find in the comments section of Youtube and Facebook and blogs and forums.

Pakistan has responded by banning Facebook and Youtube for the time being.

In general I find the effort a worthy one, and as I said I would have liked to have made a video of my own had I the time to do something I felt was worthwhile - maybe next year.

Of course it is always disappointing to see it used as an excuse for bigoted yahoos (of either stripe) to indulge in triumphalism and prejudice - but I suppose that's the price of free speech.

Anybody else got opinions on it?

Yes, you are a brave man. Do you live in Londonistan?

No, Belfast. Where protestants and catholics still like to occasionally kill one another for not being proper christians.

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By the way, bigotry is a form of prejudice. But to be prejudiced is to hate or dislike for no good reason. So, perhaps you would like to change your view about there being bigotry against Muslems.

I guess then that it is safer to say anything not adoring about Mohammed, the horse thief, than it would be in the more benighted places in Britain. Think the mosque-ridden Midlands. I lived in Britain for some time. It used to be a green and pleasant land. I don't return now.

Mohammed Image Archive Not all Muslims find it offensive and historically it never was classified as such a terrible thing. What this exercise tells us is how the world has changed and how we tremble with fear at doing the most mundane of acts, the act of drawing a man, a man of flesh and blood. PBUH, his a man , why should we indulge in this nonsense?