Not-so-quiet riots
What Gordon the Gnome
really looks like.
The pope quotes a 14th century text and suddenly, before you can blink, fires break out all over the Middle East. And surprise surprise, everyone from Al Qaida to Iran is egging on the raging masses.
So is this how it's going to be from now on? Something is said about the Prophet and we have to just accept that hundreds of thousands of people rioting, breaking things and burning people in effigy is a reasonable response?
Well guess what: it's not a reasonable response. That's not how we do things in the 21st century. I don't care how much it offends you or your God, I don't care if it's cartoons about Muhammad or cartoons about the Holocaust—if you want to be viewed as a "people of peace," just write a complaint letter, organize a peaceful demonstration or attempt to form a representative government.
And only when that last option is impossible in your country, it may be time to grab your torches.
Still, one has to appreciate the irony of people exercising violence to protest the suggestion that they may have violent inclinations.
As for "this is the 21st century", they happen to have a different vision how the 21st century should look like and, if we won't be serious enough about stopping them, this is how the 21st century may indeed end up looking like. And possibly couple more centuries to follow, as well.