I don't think you should confuse nastiness with youthful passion and ardour Eliza. It's not only the young who can be nasty - Peter K is an old boy isn't he? I remember shortly after the Danish Islamophobic cartoons came out in 2005 speaking to a Muslim who had helped organize the huge march against the invasion of Iraq in Dublin two years previously . A lot of people were saying at the time - especially leftists it must be said - that the Danish newspaper had a right to mock Muslims ,that the cartoons were an expression of free speech , how it was important to defend hard won democratic rights against the islamo-fascists etc etc . The Muslim shook his head and asked , but why do people want to mock us and insult us in the first place?