Why is there so much outrage in the middle east over insults to Islam?

[JoeyT]

41. It isn't Islam specifically,

they just don't have the numbers of fundamentalists to do it here. They're more spread out.

Come to Alabama and walk around say...Citronelle with a t-shirt that reads "Jesus was a Child Molester" and we'll use a stop-watch to see how long it takes them to kill you. Shit, they almost killed a bunch of British guys (Top Gear) for saying NASCAR was rubbish, so we might need something that measures time in smaller increments than a stopwatch. (Don't do that. I have no desire to see anyone die to prove a point.)

Hell, we can't even get an abortion clinic that was firebombed reopened because for all their claims of not supporting terrorists, the local fanatics are perfectly happy to use their works if it hurts someone they hate. It kind of puts the lie to "Most Christians don't support terrorists", doesn't it?

There's also the fact that every time any kid stands up in their school and announces they're not comfortable with a school led prayer they have to relocate because of death threats and violence. That happens even in blue states. It's not even mocking religion, it's simply saying "I don't think you should be able to force people to pray to your god" which invites death threats and violence. Jessica Alquist was the most recent one, and she got a massive amount of death and rape threats for speaking up. Threatening to rape a 16 year old girl into submission doesn't sound very peaceful to me.

During Crackergate when Meyers nailed a consecrated wafer to a Koran, he got far more death threats from Catholics than Muslims.

So no, the opium is pretty much the same. The targets and what's considered unacceptable are what differ.