The great thing about Freedom, democracy and free speech ist that I can stand up in front of anybody and say “You’re talking crap!” But it should be left at that.

I remember a movie coming out in Germany called “Beruf Neonazi” (Neo-Nazi By Profession), which caused quite an outrage here, prompting protests and cries of “No tolerance for intolerance!”.

Although the point of the film was to let a fascist goombah ramble on about his cause and his party, convincing any sane person that he was several cards short of a full deck.

But this subtle irony was lost on the locals, who insisted that the film be banned or shown only in context with a “discussion round”.

Now the extreme Islamists are asking us to tolerate their intolerance again and provoking us with death threats against citizens excercising their right to free expression and religious affiliation.

If you want to live under Sharia, then live in an Islamic country. If you don’t want to be exposed to caricatures of the Prophet, then don’t read any western newspapers.

This is where we have to dig in our heels and just say “F*ck ‘em if they cannot understand satire and feed ‘em fish heads if they can’t take a joke!”.

It is a great tradition in modern, enlightened free speech that we use satire and irony to express opposite views. When bigots like the TV character Alf Garnett (Archie Bunker in America or Alfred Petzer in Germany) voice their bigoted views of foreigners, blacks or Asians, the point is to poke fun at the very folks who hold these views.

Yes, these drawings were a provocation, but nothing compared to the provocation of issuing a Fatwa against Salman Rushdie or with threatening the cartoonists with death.