Dear fellow sufferers

Am I missing something? When a Dutch paper prints a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed with a bomb for a head, politicians and commentators fall over each other quoting Voltaire and celebrating our wonderful commitment to unrestrained free speech - the right to offend, upset, attack.

Yet when large numbers of Muslims come out onto the streets protesting, the same commentators seem to have temporarily suspended their absolute belief in free speech - the protesters, it seems, are criminals who need locking up for offending our western values!

I was already grappling with the legal principle that means Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri can be banged up and/or deported for allegedly inciting violence, yet BNP Fuhrer Nick Griffin walks free from court for doing the same.

I'm a Philosophy graduate and I'm baffled. Can anyone suggest to me what the missing factor is? It can't be race or religion after all, I mean aren't we all so completely confident our western society and values are free from any prejudice?

Yours in hope of some form of coherent answer,

Mr Spoon