December 7, 2008 | 4:44 pm

Another book critical of Islam inflames tensions

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Seems like there is a story every other week about Muslims who are really, really angry—sometimes violently angry—about a cartoon or film or book that is critical of Islam or the Prophet Muhammad. The latest installment, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, via the Holy Weblog, is Lars Hedegaard’s book Groft Sagt, or “Rough Talk”:

It is a collection of about 100 of his favorite newspaper columns from a Copenhagen daily. Many of the columns are critical of Islam. In addition, the book features 26 new illustrations from Kurt Westergaard, whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammed in the newspaper Jyllands Posten in 2005 sparked a wave of violent protests.

An Israeli security center is sounding the alarm about calls for a violent backlash after noticing a series of incendiary posts on jihadist web sites. According to an International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) release, someone identifying himself as Abu Salem posted comments about Hedegaard’s book on a website called Hanein, “a mouthpiece for Al-Qaeda and other jihad organizations”:

“Abu Salem requests that all who love the Prophet Muhammad help spread the news of the upcoming publication and notify religious leaders of what ‘these pigs’ are attempting to do. One forum visitor responded to the post, suggesting that Bin Laden attack Copenhagen, repeating the call: ‘Bin Laden, Copenhagen!’ several times. Another forum visitor wrote: ‘Our blood… our souls… our children… our money… all that we have… the entire world… anything so that a single hair of your distinguished head [i.e. Muhammad] is not harmed.’”