Just over three years after the U.S. Invasion of Iraq, and the middle east is a horrific mess.  Say…weren’t the Iraqis supposed to welcome us with roses?  Wasn’t democracy supposed to spread like wildfire across the middle east?  We’ll be cleaning up after president codpiece’s excellent adventure for generations.  But that’s not to say all the news from the middle east is grim.  Sometimes it’s funny-grim.

Take the case of Danish imam Ahmed Akkari, of Lebanese birth, who single-handedly instigated months of raging anger in the Muslim world over twelve cartoons of the prophet Mohamed published in a Danish newspaper.  The twelve cartoons not being offensive enough, the good imam traveled throughout the Muslim world showing people pictures of things he claimed were images of the prophet produced by the Danes, that actually weren’t.  There was a picture of a man wearing a pig mask, that Akkari claimed was a Danish man mocking Mohamed.  It turned out to have been a newspaper photo taken at a pig calling contest.  Akkari claimed another photo showing a cartoon of Mohamed as a pedophile was also printed in Jyllands-Posten.  It wasn’t.  Lying through your teeth to incite mob violence is standard operating procedure for all religious zealots, regardless of the specifics of the faith.  For his trouble, Akkari got the Danish embassy in Lebanon burned down.

Well…Lebanon itself is burning now…and guess what Mr. Akkari is up to These days…

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark and Sweden were front-runners in the race to rescue foreigners fleeing the violence in Lebanon, nearly completing the evacuations of more than 10,000 citizens Friday while many other countries struggled to get their nationals out.

The Scandinavians credited new crisis response plans streamlined after bitter lessons learned during the tsunami disaster in 2004.

"It would be fair to say that what we’re able to do now is something we learned from the tsunami," said Lars Thuesen, coordinator of the Lebanon evacuations for the Danish Foreign Ministry.

By Friday morning, Sweden had already evacuated 6,400 citizens while Denmark had shipped out 5,000 nationals from Lebanon — more than any other countries. Both governments said only a few hundred of their citizens remained.

By contrast, the U.S. evacuation efforts were just entering high gear Friday…

…

The Danes got a test run in crisis management earlier this year when newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests against Danish embassies in Muslim countries.

One of the Danish Muslims who spearheaded the rallies against the prophet drawings, Lebanese-born Ahmad Akkari, was among those evacuated from Beirut on Thursday.

"My impression is that the transportation has been safe and that no one has been suffering," Akkari told Denmark’s TV2 channel as he boarded a Greek ferry chartered by Denmark.

How nice that no one is suffering Akkari.  No thanks to you and your kind.  And while you’re riding your boat to safety, say thank you to the nice Danes, who despite your inciting mob violence all over the world and getting their embassy burned to the ground, were willing to give a gutter crawling murderous lout like you a ride out of harm’s way. 

Say hello to the cartoonists whose lives you put in jeopardy when you get back to the safety of Denmark fella.