While I am glad SAIRA KHAN feels compelled to protest the barbaric treatment of Ms. Gibbons and the rape victim who is to be lashed, yes victim, in Saudi Arabia, one wonders why Ms. Khan isn't calling for protests against the persecution of Christians, Jews, women or gays in Muslim lands.
Where was Ms. Khan when the Christian convert was hounded out of Afghanistan? Where was she when the teenage gays were hung in Iran? Why does she not speak out against the Saudi school textbooks that preach hate against Jews and Christians? Why does she not demonstrate against the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands like Egypt or Saudi Arabia where Bibles are banned? Why has she not protested against the Muslim preachers of hate that openly preach hate in British mosques? Why has she not protested against the barbaric rape laws of many other Islamic countries, where a woman needs 4 male witnesses to allege rape? Why hasn't she protested against Muslim preachers who teach that it is ok to beat your wife?
Ms. Khan notes her distain for the Muhammad cartoons, her belief that Muhammad should never be depicted but that the Muslim world's reaction to them was way overboard. She fails to mention that these same cartoons, minus the ones fabricated by a Muslim preacher to stir up hate against the west, were first published in an Egyptian newspaper without any problem. She also seems ignorant of the fact that for centuries Muhammad was depicted in art - by Muslims! This notion, along with the covering up of women, is a recent invention by Muslims. In fact, the veil is not a religious symbol and is banned in some Muslim countries.
All of that makes this statment by Ms. Khan ridiculus.
"This is the perfect opportunity for us to show that Islam is not the faith of hatred and intolerance that many imagine it to be. "
No, Ms. Khan, this is a perfect opportunity for you and others like to you to deflect attention away from the root causes of these problems around the world - Islam.