My first reaction to Muslim persecution of the wholesome Ronald McDonald was shock and awe.

"Next, They Came for the Plastic Clowns" opined David Bernstein, joined by clown defender Glenn Reynolds.

Can we get serious?

I mean, shouldn't we be asking why the crowd is so upset at the clown? I didn't know what to think, and I was reduced to the status of a pitiful crybaby, asking questions like "Why do they hate us?"

I figured that either all clowns are Un-Islamic, or else Ronald McDonald is un-Islamic, and un-Islamic Clowns are bad. Or both.

Clearly we need to understand. There must be an explanation. A bit more research convinced me that there were other things leading up to this.

Not long ago, there was this incident:

The link goes to stuff I don't understand, but which is obviously true. That's because people don't do these things without a reason!

Don't clowns bring the bad karma down on themselves by doing things like this?

As professor (and out of politeness I won't call him "perfesser") Juan Cole observes, Nazi tactics like the above (also known as "eliminationist rhetoric") are not funny.

No they're not! (Especially, I might add, when coupled with mutability of mobilizing passions.)

The real issue, of course, is not whether a clown is plastic or not. It's what it does. And (as Mark Steyn revealed recently), some of the things that plastic clowns do are indeed shocking to contemplate.

"Hier klicken"? Is that fascist code talk for "Achtung baby"?

While I'm all for freedom and everything, I hope things don't have to come to this:

MORE: Sean Kinsell has a thoughtful post on the cartoon irreverency in which he touches on Egg McMuffins eaten with "exaggerated relish."

That definitely sounds like a religious affront -- as well as an affront to the senses. (For starters, relish doesn't belong on Egg McMuffins!)

UPDATE (02/21/06): Via Maggies Farm, the mystery of who benefits the most from these attacks on Ronald McDonald appears to have been solved:

I don't know why I'm so slow to figure these things out....