Fear Factor

Have you ever noticed that foriegn cultures are sarcosanct, but Western culture can be thrown by the wayside if it is deemed "insensative" by the politically correct? From Reuters, via Yahoo! News.

Spanish villages are toning down traditional fiestas in which revelers blow up dummies representing the Prophet Mohammed for fear of offending Muslims, the newspaper El Pais reported on Monday.

One eastern Spanish village, Bocairent, decided to abandon the custom of packing the head of a dummy representing Mohammed with fireworks after seeing the angry response by Muslims to a Danish newspaper's publication last year of cartoons of him.

El Pais found that several other villages in the Valencia region had also modified similar fiestas this year. It carried out the investigation after a Berlin opera house decided last week to cancel performances of Mozart's "Idomeneo" because the production included a scene depicting Mohammed's severed head.

Bocairent's mayor, Antonio Valdes, said blowing up the Mohammed dummy was offensive.

"It just wasn't necessary, and, as it could hurt some people's feelings, we decided not to do it," he said.

See? Somebody's feelings might get hurt. Or, could it be that they are afraid of more than feelings getting hurt if Islam is offended? We all saw what they did over the cartoons, after all.

I'm getting more fed-up.

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