The new cross burners

Fanatical Islamist mobs, outraged by European cartoons about Muhammad, are stomping and burning the Christian Cross in their mad rampages around the world.

In London they are publicly threatening more terrorist attacks like the July 7 transit bombings.

Hamas, the democratically elected terrorist movement that won control of the Palestinian Authority, has called for the artists and publishers to be murdered.

In Jordan, a Muslim newspaper editor who urged people to calm down was sacked.

In Washington, the US State Department tries to sound even-handed, or perhaps, to avoid taking a stand.

In Lebanon, Muslim gangs sack Christian neighborhoods and vandalize churches.

And from Europe to Indonesia, the crazed Muslim fanatics vent their hate on the Christian Cross, stomping it with their feet, burning it amid jeers and laughs and chants of Allahu Akhbar.

The world press reports it all as the burning of the flags of Denmark and Norway, where the offending cartoons appeared. But the sole symbol on both nation's flags is the Christian Cross.

While many Muslim leaders have denounced the violence and appealed for calm, no Muslim leader anywhere has denounced the cross burnings.

No civilized person should miss or pretend not to see the symbolism, and what it means for us all.