[Drolefille]

I think that if Americans gave 2 shits about anything not involving the USA, we would have heard about this story. The Daily Show did a gag showing the covers of all the international Newsweeks, with the US one. On all but the US cover the story was "Losing Afghanistan?" On the US edition, the cover was "My Life in Pictures" Welcome to the attention span of the American public.

That said, I do not think the two actions (9/11 hijacking and this hijacking) are comparable. If anything, this the equivalent to taking a hostage, something that happened in Amish country, in Iraq and in several other places over the past weeks.

I think the major difference in why some people call for Muslims to "speak out" is because of the reasons for the violence. To clarify:

If a Muslim blows himself up for his twisted views of jihad and Allah's will, and is supported by other people using "Allah" as a justification, it makes it seem like the religion approves of this.

If a Christian attacks a school house full of children and does not do so "in God's name" then his religion is not being held accountable for his actions. If he did say "this is God's will" and his church condemn's him for it, again only he is accountable for his actions.

I say all this knowing that the vast majority of Muslims are no more violent than I am.

Also, take into consideration the number of Catholics who are called upon to defend/denounce the actions of priests, the pope, etc. and all Benedict did was quote a dead guy. (He had a good point, but he should have totally known better) It's not just Muslims who are being called to denounce those who harm their religion.