That's just plain offensive, Mr. Ashraf

Example 1

Example 2

"The Holocaust was a fantasy. Millions of Jewish men women and children didn't die in the gas chambers."

There is an interesting parallel being drawn in the Muslim community between the offence caused by depictions of Muhammad and that of Holocaust denial. Muslim poster, London Muslim, in an otherwise sensible post wrote yesterday:

 Ridiculing our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) is as heinous to Muslims as ridiculing or denying the Holicaust (sic) is offensive to Jews. It's time both are stopped.

 This is not an unusual viewpoint. The Guardian today reports the ire of young Muslims in the Middle East and quotes a speech made by the Pakistani prime minister no less, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, addressing a gathering of politicians and top clerics in Islamabad. 

While he called for peaceful protests, he also used language likely to inflame the many protests that have claimed the video is part of a plot involving Jewish, Israeli and US interests. "It is ironical that denial of holocaust is considered a crime but no consideration is paid to the feelings of Muslims," he said. "I hope the international community and Islamic world will be successful in preventing such things."

Call me a white Western imperialist  bigot if you wish, but I'm sorry - there is NO COMPARISON, Mr Ashraf. To say to a Jew that the murder of his family and millions of others by the most vile doctrine of ethnic cleansing ever to exist didn't happen is like drawing pictures of your Prophet, really is offensive.

The prohibition of depictions of Muhammad is not even in the Qur'an. Shia Muslims are quite relaxed about drawings and painting of the Prophet. It is only Sunnis who have been brought up to consider such things "heinous". The ruling, such as it is, actually comes from the hadith - the collection of sayings and actions of Muhammad that is a secondary source of rules for Muslims. The ahadith in question in fact prohibits all depictions of living things:

Narrated Aisha:The Prophet entered upon me while there was a curtain having pictures (of animals) in the house. His face got red with anger, and then he got hold of the curtain and tore it into pieces. The Prophet said, "Such people as paint these pictures will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection."—Sahih al-Bukhari, 

as well as more particularly religious personages:

When the Prophet saw pictures in the Ka'ba, he did not enter it till he ordered them to be erased. When he saw (the pictures of Abraham and Ishmael carrying the arrows ofdivination, he said, '"May Allah curse them (i.e. the Quraysh)! By Allah, neither Abraham nor Ishmael practiced divination by arrows.'—Sahih al-Bukhari, 

When the Prophet became ill, some of his wives talked about a church which they had seen in Ethiopia and it was called Mariya. Um Salma and Um Habiba had been to Ethiopia, and both of them narrated its (the Church's) beauty and the pictures it contained. The Prophet raised his head and said, "Those are the people who, whenever a pious man dies amongst them, make a place of worship at his grave and then they make those pictures in it. Those are the worst creatures in the Sight of Allah."—Sahih al-Bukhari

 The reason behind the continued prohibition is that pictures of Muhammad were thought to encourage idolatry.

We thus have the wholly ridiculous situation where millions of excitable Muslims don't know why they are so angry - for how can a nasty, cheap little film that depicts the Prophet as a sex pest in any way be seen to encourage worship of his likeness?

How can the silly little cartoon at the top possibly encourage someone to worship it instead of reading the Qur'an.

So grow up, LM and grow up Mr Prime Minister and grow up all you young easily led Muslims and for once QUESTION what on earth you are being asked to believe. Or more pertinently perhaps - stop pretending this is a religious question and admit that it is an excuse to bash the West.