Anne Applebaum comments on the pathetic response to this barbaric event by various leaders and groups. To wit:
The Archbishop of Canterbury and British Muslim students’ groups regretted the “disproportionate” punishment, thus implying that a somewhat gentler one might have been more acceptable … the National Organization of Women was not “taking a position” at this time. Elsewhere, some even criticized Ms. Gibbons for her insensitivity to Sudanese religion and culture.
It is now par for the course for the West to register, as Applebaum says, “anything resembling a common, united, reasonable reaction to these periodic spasms of fanatical outrage in the Islamic world, no matter what absurd forms they take.”