I've been Thinking a bit about the relatively recent brouhaha of the cartoons published which were considered defamatory to Islam. I'm not going to publish anything defamatory about Islam not out of Respect but simply out of Fear - I'm a flat out coward. And this got me thinking about a deeper aspect of the current problems regarding the more radical aspects of Islam.

People will do things for you that aren't in their interest out of fear of you or out of respect for you.

Forcing people to do things out of fear is a bad long term strategy I reckon.

I respect snakes, but I'm not afraid of them. When I (very infrequently) see the red-bellied black snake that lives somewhere in or about my backyard, I leave her completely alone and she goes about her business - usually by bidding a hasty exit. My wife however is terrified of snakes, and one day she will (foolishly) get enough courage up to try to kill a snake, and someone or something will get hurt.