Via Riding Sun, the Japan Times is reporting a veiled threat made against Japan by the Egyptian ambassador to Japan:

Attacks like the ones on the Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon last weekend could take place in Japan if the media here insult Muslims by reprinting cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, Egyptian Ambassador to Japan Hisham Badr warned Friday.

“This is not a question of freedom of expression… This is a question of blaspheme of religion,” Badr said in an interview with The Japan Times. “It touches a very raw nerve” with Muslims worldwide.

Badr praised both Tokyo for urging media not to reprint the cartoons and news organizations for complying.

…”Reprinting (the images) is a provocation,” the ambassador said. “It is as if they are saying ‘we don’t care about your feelings.’”

He added that even pictures of the caricatures that show them indirectly is unnecessary. The Japan Times printed a photograph in its Feb. 4 editions of a person holding a French newspaper that carried the cartoons.

Amazing that an ambassador is threatening Japan with violent protests over a cartoon. I doubt the media will publish the cartoons due to Japanese business interests in the Muslim world but still I find it arrogant that this guy is trying to push his country’s societal norms on to the Japanese. What he is going to tell the Japanese next, that all the women in Japan must wear burkas because the women showing their faces offends Islam? Where do you draw the line?

This story made me think if Islamic countries like Egypt have made any threats against Korea. I haven’t heard about any veiled threats and I have not seen the Korean media publish the cartoons either; probably because of the same business reasons as the Japanese.

However, how would Korea react if the sizable migrant Islamic workers in the country suddenly started protesting violently and burning cars? Would the riot police beat them down and arrest them though they would never do that to Korean people that protest. With the large ROK Army troop presence in Iraq, the Islamic radicals stirring up these global protests backed by Iran and Syria, would be eager to stir up trouble in Korea. I doubt it will happen though because the vast majority of migrant workers in Korea are to busy working and earning a honest living to make a better life for themselves and their families than to stir up trouble over some stupid cartoons.