Serbs and Muslims; what they have in common

I think it is obvious the most casual observer what is the common thread between these 2 photos.  Angry mobs burning symbols of another nation to express their outrage at some actual or perceived slight.  The top photo is a mob on some Arab (or maybe south Asian) street burning the Danish flag yet again and the second is a Serbian mob that broke into the US Embassy in Belgrade and set it aflame.  

I posted earlier about the lose-lose situation that is the lingering Balkan conflict and the independence of Kosovo.  I described the sympathy that I had for the Serbian people saying that they are probably the lesser of two evils in a conflict with no good guys.  That sympathy has been greatly diminished in the intervening days as the general citizenry of Serbia has taken to the streets in a less than civil manner.  According to many Serb apologists this is, among other things, a conflict of civilizations - the Christian west against the Muslim east - and we have chosen wrong.  Today I came to the realization that the Serbs and the Muslim world share a strange cultural quirk....

The flap about yet another printing of Muhammad cartoons in Danish papers is a prime example of this quirk in the Muslim world.  Sharia law prohibits any representation of the Prophet Muhammad and when the Danish cartoonists did so in a highly uncomplimentary manner - suggesting a connection between the prophet and violence - Muslims responded with....violence.  How does this not vindicate and thus legitimize the cartoonist's premise?

Serbs have contended that Kosovo is traditional and rightful Serbian land.  They say that it should remain part of Serbia and that they are to be trusted with the fair and lawful administration and protection of their minority ethnic Albanian population.  When the international community, fairly or unfairly, decided to recognize Kosovo as an independent entity, how do the Serbs respond?  By violently attacking any representation of their breakaway republic.  When NATO, the US and much of the UN claim that Serbia is prone to violence toward minorities and they react by committing violence against minorities (not to mention international embassies in Belgrade), they have proven their critics right.

What we have here is not an East vs. West divide or a religious divide, rather it is a split between reasonable, civilized people and irrational rioters.  I still have grave doubts about the wisdom of supporting North Albania (as Kosovo will be henceforth known), but I have lost my patience with the supposedly victimized Serbian people.