What if the Duchess of Cambridge was the Prophet's wife?

Imagine the furore from the Muslim world if it had been the Prophet's wife who had been photographed topless whilst she bathed in private. No magazine would have dared publish the pictures and it is unlikely that the photographer would have escaped a death penalty. Not so for the Duchess of Cambridge who will have to suffer her fate at the hands of an opportunistic pervert and a magazine desperate for sales and a dishonest profit at the expense of an innocent lady's dignity.
The difference of course is that in the world of Islam, the faithful are co-erced into behaving by rule of fear rather than reason. Why are so many people on the streets of Egypt, Libya and Yemen over what appears to be a dire film about the Prophet? Why aren't they at work or with their families doing something useful? Why is it they take umbrage at the slightest mark of perceived disrespect for their religion? Is it a mark of the insecurity or lack of confidence that makes the Muslims so defensive and leads them to believe that the world is mocking them?
Or do they? Or is a fact that the only Muslims who really get upset are the Imams and they bully the people onto the streets. What is it they intend by this? What are they nervous about?
Islam is about 1300 years old and we might ask what it has done for the followers in all that time.

Against:
Once world leaders in mathematics and the sciences, the Muslim nations now deny anything that casts doubt on what is said in the Q'ran. As a consequence they are now backwards in the world of technology.

Education has suffered, particularly for women who for years have been denied an opportunity to proper learning. Until recently it was impossible for a woman to drive in Saudi Arabia.

Alienated half the world with the Arab sponsorship of international terrorism such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Stoning to death of defenceless women, buried up to their neck, is barbaric. End of; no excuses. None.


For:
Little crime. A better sense of Justice for victims although some punishments particularly for women are disproportionate. see above.

No Saturday night alcohol induced violence by yobs in the City centres.

The Middle East, the cradle of the religion sits on an ocean of oil. However it is not an exclusive gift from Allah because other regions, non Islamic, also have oil that is likely to last longer. Once the oil boom is over I can see the Arab countries retreating into the past unless they make some concessions to modernity.

Er...That's it.


It's no good people protesting that this is not fair when not even the power of prayer has been useful. There are 1 billion Muslims, each praying five times a day. That makes 1825 billion prayers a year or since the days of the Prophet, 2.3725 million, billion prayers. Yet despite this extraordinary level of  supplication, Allah failed to halt the tsunami in South East Asia, killing thousands of innocent women and children, failed to quell the unrest in the heartland of the religion where again it is the women and children who suffer most.
Allah didn't help the followers of Islam in the Yom Kippur or 6 Day war or defend Iran from Israeli attack. The followers of the Prophet have not even been told whether it is better to follow Sunni or Shi'ite practice. One is bound to ask what they and the other followers of the God of Abraham want, because to my mind none of them are being properly served.

I cannot help but think that rather than the rest of the world mocking Islam it is the Muslims, themselves, self conscious of the position their faith puts them in and bowing to the urging from the Imams, who are responsible for the very disrespect they rail against.