Muhammad Caricature Watch: Condolezza Rice – Muslim Outrage Could “Spin Out of Control”

n this photo provided by CBS, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appears on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ in Washington Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006.

AFP: Mohammed cartoon controvery could “spin out of control:” Rice

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern that Muslim outrage over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed could “spin out of control,” particularly if fueled by countries like Iran and Syria.

Speaking on ABC television, Rice stood by her assertion last week that Tehran and Damascus were using the furor over publication of the caricatures to inflame anti-West sentiment and incite violence for their own purposes.

“Certainly, if governments do not act responsibly, we could face a sense of outrage that spins out of control, and particularly if people continue to incite it, it could spin out of control,” she said.

The chief US diplomat brushed aside comments by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan that he had no proof of Iranian or Syrian involvement in the protests, which spread through the Muslim world and resulted in several deaths.

“I can say that the Syrians tightly control their society and the Iranians even more tightly,” she said. “It is well known that Iran and Syria bring protesters into the streets when they wish, to make a point.”

“I would like to have heard from the Iranian government … not a threat to start publishing a Holocaust cartoon, but rather to say that people should not resort to violence. That would have been a responsible thought,” she added.

But, Syria and Iran thrive on the encouraging of discord and the Muhammad caricture FLAP will bring people into the streets. The governments of both tightly politically controlled states, without a doubt, have supported, fostered and continued the protests – really over something that was an inanity.