MORE RAGE BY THE RELIGION OF PEACE

A CHURCH IN BELGIUM is on the hot seat now, thanks to a photograph snapped two years ago by a blogger, a photograph of an interesting pulpit in the Church of Our Lady in Dendermonde, Belgium, that suddenly became the center of an uproar when a group Turkish Belgians "discovered" it online, and proceeded to follow the well-worn Islamic path of instant outrage.

The Belgian press has reported that police are now guarding the church to prevent vandalism, but also placed blame for this controversy squarely on the original blogger who placed he photograph on his blog.

Here's a run-down:

Church and pulpit built shortly after the Battle of Vienna

Church sits largely unnoticed for centuries, until

Tourist stumbles across "interesting" pulpit, takes picture of it, and posts picture to his blog

Picture on blog sits idly by, largely unnoticed for 2 years

Blogger receives hate mail for daring to post the picture, then posts and ridicules letter (once a blogger, always a...)

Photo and a long-winded condemnation are printed in the front page of a radical Turkish newspaper

Death threats ensue, leading to

Inanimate object protected by police, who

Lay the blame for all of this outrage at the foot of our poor tourist.

While it's precious to observe the Belgian government taking steps to protect this historic church, it is genuinely disgusting to see Europe so hopelessly timid of actually confronting the root of the problem—a complete and utter inability to speak out and bring the long arm of the law against the destructive tendencies of the Religion of the Perpetually Offended.

MOST IMPORTANT ARTWORK OF NEW CENTURY

AARHUS, DENMARK - Kurt Westergaard is in hiding from Islamic militants who want him dead. Now, the Danish cartoonist says he's ready to part with the source of his travails, a small ink sketch of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. But first there is the ticklish question of price.

"I would like to think that it has some value," says Mr. Westergaard, the 72-year-old creator of one of the world's most famous cartoons and one that inflamed Muslims world-wide. "It is a symbol of democracy and freedom of expression. I think I should have a little money for this," he says.

The drawing is locked in a bank vault while the cartoonist shuttles between temporary havens the Danish secret police have found for him around this blustery port city. His is by far the best known of 12 Muhammad-related cartoons published in September 2005 by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. But how do you fix the value of something that auction houses won't touch, that museums won't hang on their walls and that still inspires murderous passions?

Two weeks ago, Danish authorities said they had foiled a plot to kill Mr. Westergaard in his home. Seventeen Danish newspapers, outraged and eager to show solidarity, reprinted his drawing. Muslims again took to the streets. Iran and others demanded an apology. "I always had a feeling this cartoon crisis would not end," says Mr. Westergaard. "Now I know." [...]

Some Muslims here want the bomb-in-a-turban drawing destroyed. Salah Suleiman, an activist in a mosque that helped whip up the fury over it in early 2006, delights in the artist's troubles and says no amount of money can save him from God's wrath: "He is living like a rat.... He is living in hell already."

Ah, the voice of love and piety.

Mr. Westergaard's wife, a retired kindergarten teacher, has also suggested destruction, by selling the cartoon to a wealthy Arab who "can then burn it in the central square in Mecca." Mr. Westergaard says he likes the idea of getting money from an oil sheik but would prefer the cartoon stay intact and in Denmark.

Mr. Westergaard says he never intended his drawing to rile Muslims, only to mock extremists who push a deformed reading of their faith. But while arguments rage over whether his cartoon is intolerably offensive or an emblem of free speech, there's no doubt of the prominence it has achieved. Though shunned by most major U.S. publications, it has been reprinted widely in Europe, plastered across the Internet and put on T-shirts...

Flemming Rose, culture editor of the Danish paper that first ran the cartoon, compares it to a famous photo of Che Guevara in a beret and to Andy Warhol's pop-art portrait of Marilyn Monroe. "It is a great cultural icon of the 21st century," he says.

Mr. Lerche, the auctioneer, says it's "pure guesswork" what Mr. Westergaard's drawing is worth. A less-famed Muhammad cartoon sold for around $2,900 in an Internet auction, but that was in late 2005, before the global uproar. The artist in that case donated the cash, which came from an anonymous buyer, to earthquake relief in Pakistan.

In an event last year at the Reagan Library in California, Mr. Rose, the Danish culture editor, saw the cartoons' market value. He autographed posters featuring his newspaper's original cartoon edition, which sold out in minutes for $1,000 apiece.

Money has played a role on the other side of the barricades, too. When Muslims started burning Danish flags and ransacking Danish property in early 2006, extremists joined in a bidding war to get Mr. Westergaard killed. The bounties they offered ranged from a new car to a million dollars.

The cartoonist continued going to work at his small newspaper office, piled with old papers and empty coffee cups. But last November, the danger became real. Denmark's security service uncovered a group it said had diagrams of Mr. Westergaard's house and apparently planned to slit his throat as he slept.

The service offered to send him and his wife on a Caribbean cruise. He declined. "I'm an old man with a stiff neck. I can't bow my head to anyone," he says. Police offered a guard dog. His wife didn't like the idea....