IF BAPTISTS OR CATHOLICS were throwing this kind of a — violent –hissy fit I’d be giving them a lot of grief. And so would a lot of other people.

But in this case it’s Israeli Arab muslims. I’m still giving them grief: “Hey, guys, you’re theocratic assholes!” Let’s see if the people who would be savaging the critics of Robert Mapplethorpe or Larry Flynt join in. Excerpt:

Amal Kashua, a 38-year-old mother of eight, was set upon by a mob last week in Tira, a prosperous Arab community in central Israel. “Yussuf,” a Palestinian known only as Amir, was beaten too. They went to hospital under police guard, then into hiding.

Shamed by association, Kashua’s relatives disowned her. . . .

“The whole town is satisfied and dissatisfied at once,” said local man Fathi Sultan. “Satisfied at what happened, because we tried to protect our honor, but on the other hand dissatisfied because she (Kashua) didn’t die, nor her husband.”

The real problem, though, isn’t theocratic violence, but cultural insensitivity:

“This is a blow to the sensitivity of Muslims everywhere,” said Tira attorney Ihab Galgoly, who was representing two men arrested on suspicion of leading the assault on the couple.

“We are considering suing the producers for breach of the law guaranteeing human dignity and freedom.”

Why do Arabs have so little credibility? Maybe it’s trying to kill people for making porn, and then threatening to sue them for “insensitivity”? Jeez, this is beyond pathetic. It’s evidence of a deep-rooted cultural sickness in Arab society today — one that is ignored by many westerners who would have no trouble recognizing it for what it is if it appeared in, say, Mississippi.