Arabist shill Linda S. Heard has a piece in Gulf News, in which she refuses to believe Newsweek’s retraction and threatens the West with more violence unless someone is turned over to the Islamic world and punished. For something that didn’t happen. Did Newsweek really err?

A war on terror cannot be fought with terror. [Putting a Koran in a toilet is now defined as “terror?” —ed.] If America wants respect and cooperation from the Muslim world then it must extend the same courtesies. [This courtesy and respect, of course, only goes one way. —ed.]

Insulting Islam and defacing the Quran will merely serve to inflame the fires of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism on streets from Casablanca to Kabul.

And rather than deny such incidents have occurred, the Bush administration would do well to investigate, severely punish the offenders and offer its sincere apologies to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

There was recently a televised debate in Qatar as to whether the “war on terror” was a euphemism for a war on Islam. An audience vote showed an almost down the middle split with the no’s having the slight edge.

I don’t think it is but if the bigoted and irreligious within the United States army’s ranks are allowed to get away with using the Quran as a tool for psychological torture, then the day will inevitably come when there will be a seismic shift in the perceptions of moderate Muslims.

It is up to the Bush administration to ensure that day never comes. For if it does, the prediction of Arab League chief Amr Mousa that the gates of hell will open may loom ever larger.

Politically, the Muslim world is currently divided but those who attack Islam and its holy book will inadvertently create a united force with which to be reckoned.